Brother in Arms
by SteamGeek01
Summary: After travelling to the UK for a hunt in Surrey for a change; Ticci Toby discovers a small child living under the stairs of Number 4 Privet Drive but there is more to this child than meets the eye. A CreepyPasta and Harry Potter crossover. Now has side-story for extra works that couldn't make it into the main story or reader based suggestions.
1. Chapter 1, A stroll in Surrey

Chapter 1, A stroll in Surrey.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

Author's note.

So here is chapter 1, the story is a basic one for these crossovers, Harry found by a CreepyPasta and taken to be raised with them. At this point, I'm still trying to figure out a name for this thing and what to call this chapter, but, I shouldn't ramble on too long at the start, save it for the end.

Oh, and a bit of info for this fic, kinda guess you need this.

In this, Harry is between 8 and 10, so a bit young, I do plan to do bits of his years in Hogwarts, but I won't go into too much detail about those, just for any things that may be different with Harry's new upbringing.

The only Ticci Toby themed CreepyPasta I've read, or rather listened to, is the one that Mr CreepyPasta read, so for this fic, he isn't going to have the gash in his face. I have no idea where that came from but if you know then feel free to message me about it. Also the one where Eyeless Jack loses his eyes, only heard of the one where he starts harvesting kidneys to eat when the shop has to recall them so I don't know how he lost them, but he is eyeless in this fic, you'll meet him and a few others later on, around chapter 3 I think.

Enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

Additional note. 16/12/2017.

Gone back over this chapter and fixed any typo's or grammatical errors that I could find.

Additional note. 13/07/2018.

Added the prologue to this chapter so that the chapter number and page number would be the same, my OCD was bugging out too much.

Additional note. 28/07/2018.

Yeah... I'd like to apologise for the little lie in the disclaimer... I got really lost in his Hogwarts years I'm sorry...

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Prologue

 _The old man sat behind his desk in the tall tower watching the flickering flames in the fireplace as he waited patiently, his Pheonix familiar trilling softly behind him, as he reflected on the events of years past._

 _He should have suspected this earlier in life. How the shining student of Tom Riddle would have turned out after his sixth year when the poor girl had turned up dead in the bathroom, with Tom claiming the culprit as the now groundskeeper Hagrid._

 _He steepled his long fingers as he thought of the countless deaths that had happened in recent years, how he had started to act in shadow to protect the wizarding world with his newly established Order._

 _Suddenly a number of small devices that lay across a desk to his left started ringing with a high pitch akin to that of a whistling kettle and the old man leapt from his chair to examine them, his blood running cold._

 _As he reached the desk one of the devices stopped spinning and another's lights had faded just before._

 _The first was part of a set of three with a name attached to the base of each that were monitoring whether the inhabitants at Godric's Hollow were alive or not, and the one reading James Potter was as still as the body that now lay on the floor of the house._

 _His eyes widening in dismay he moved to turn away from the desk when a second device stopped spinning. The one that was linked to Lily Potter._

 _Halted by this, he glanced to the third that bore the nameplate 'Harry Potter' and saw that it was still spinning as it had the past few weeks._

 _He was frozen in suspense and after five minutes of anxiety, he sent a messenger Patronus to Hagrid, asking him to conduct reconnaissance of the house._

 _He moved back to the sheaf of parchment on the desk and drew from it a letter that had been sent to him by the now late Mr Potter which gave him notice of how due to a last moment change in plan they had decided to switch from using Mr Black as their secret keeper to another trusted friend that would be less likely to be targeted, though they hadn't said the new secret keeper's name in case the letter was intercepted and that he was the only other to be told of this aside from Mr Black and their new secret keeper._

 _He thought of Sirius Black's actions over the past few years in the secret war that was held in shadows from the muggle populus, how he had shown efficiency in dispatching Death Eater after Death Eater in duels, regardless of whether they were to be captured or not. His mere presence to the Death Eater was becoming seen as an omen of death. Thinking of the connections his surname gave him he knew that when the war ended there would be many accusations of whether he was truly an agent of the light or a Death Eater spy deep in cover._

 _Moving to the fireplace he placed the parchment gently on top of the logs and watched as it shrivelled to ash. When the war was over Sirius would likely be placed in Azkaban for his actions, no matter how necessary they were, and of the fact that out of the four people who knew he hadn't been the secret keeper protecting the Potters only, two were still alive._

 _A tapping at the window told him that the messenger owl that Hagrid kept on his person had arrived with what Hagrid had observed at the residence._

 _Taking the letter he read it with mildly numb hands and blurred eyes as he read the confirmation of James and Lily's deaths. But he was shocked to read that Harry had been found in the wreckage, still alive and mostly unharmed save for a small cut on his forehead._

 _Sending Hagrid a second Patronus he told him to take Harry to his muggle relatives in Surrey._

 _He knew that Lily had placed a few secret wards around the house to protect her Sister and family during the war._

 _He thought of what best to do now. He needed Harry to be brought up safely from harm's way and out of the limelight for the most part. He knew that the Wizarding World would set Harry up as a thing of legend, from what he had read, due to him apparently surviving the killing curse and having rid the world of Voldemort._

 _Pulling a second piece of parchment from the pile on his desk he read the letter he had started to Petunia Dursley, Lily's sister, about what may have happened in the war._

 _Taking a quill from the desk he added and changed parts that explained what he had concluded from Hagrid's letter and his own suspicions._

 _Sealing it in an envelope he walked to the fireplace and threw in a small amount of a green powder that lay in a pot by the side and walked into the flames._

 _Deep inside a forest shrouded in mist, a tall figure tilted his head to the sky. It had been a long time since he had felt anything of this scale shift in the world, the ambient magic in the air seemingly vibrating around him as something changed in the world._

 _He knew that this meant something had happened in the 'Wizarding World' as they had dubbed it and that for a long time it would be too risky for members of his world to be left unsupervised for a while. It was now time to start gathering those that wished it to a safe haven he had set up once more, it would have to be expanded to fit more than just his own two Proxies, but that was no major feat as he had done it before._

 _Turning around, he stalked off deeper into the forest, in his mind he was already making plans on what he would need to do._

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It was a normal Sunday evening in Surrey, a few clouds dotted the sky, and the residents of Privet drive had all retreated indoors behind drawn blinds to settle for the night. The only person outside was walking down the road... and he was nowhere near normal. This person's name was Toby Rogers.

Toby walked along the darkening street, twitching slightly every so often.

The night was already on its way and soon the only light would be from the sparsely placed lamps standing on either side of the road.

He took in a deep breath and smelled the cool air that hung around the street.

He cast his thoughts back to before he had left, reminiscing on the day so far.

It hadn't been a fairly exciting day, by usual standards.

The only interesting thing to mark it was that it was the day of the month that he got to have an uncontracted day. They got them every so often so they could relax from having to kill only to keep their world secret and so they didn't go on killing sprees revealing their world themselves.

On this day they could either, kill a victim or a few of their choosing, or spend a few days terrorising them to keep the 'CreepyPasta' legends alive.

To some like Jeff, the day was therapeutic and he was able to have fun toying his victims around before finally killing them.

But today, today Toby got to choose who he would kill, and for some reason, he had decided to travel across the pond to the UK for it. He hadn't really known why...

"I dunno why Masky, I just feel like going there for a change,"

and he left a few days early to decide which unlucky house he would call upon.

And now, he was walking alongside the well kept suburban lawns for the fourth day in a row, towards a house near the end of the street.

*Flashback – 4 days ago*

Toby walked out of the treeline of a nearby forest, shaking his head slightly as using one of Slenderman's teleport points always left people feeling slightly disorientated.

You get used to it after a few times, but longer ones are always worse.

He looked out around the field that bordered the small forest. A nearby sign told him he was somewhere in Surrey on a very sunny day.

Smiling to himself, he pocketed his face mask, took off his jumper and tied it around his waist, before adjusting the translucent orange goggles that were pushed up on his forehead, picking up a rucksack and setting off.

Wandering around the street he passed many people bustling around, some giving him a second glance when they saw him tick and hear the pop that normally accompanied them but nobody bothered him about it and no one seemed fun to kill to him so he passed them by, not giving another thought.

After an hour or so he pulled back the sleeve of his shirt and looked at the battered watch on his wrist, noting the time he stepped into a nearby cafe to get a muffin or something to eat, before he had left the Mansion he had scrimped around his room and found enough to change into fifteen 'quid' as they called it here.

As he joined the end of the queue for those eating and going a mother and what looked like her two sons entered and took a table in the corner of the cafe.

Toby thought the trio looked rather odd, the woman was tall and thin, 'though nowhere near as such as Slendy' he thought and she had a rather horsey face, a row of perfectly straight and long teeth could be seen out of her mouth as she bent down smiling to ask the first child what he wanted.

Toby had to look away for a moment before he started giggling at the difference between her and the boy. Whereas she was tall and thin, the child was short, round and obtusely chubby.

After the child declared that he wanted what sounded like the most teeth rottening thing he had ever heard of he looked back at the woman as she turned to the last child, though the difference between him and the fat one was funny for another reason.

With the woman, he could at least see similarities between her and the fat one, their hair and ears looked similar, but that was all he could see of him due to his back being turned, with the other boy, he could see no such matching features between them.

Their hair were polar opposites, his spiky, jet black hair contrasted her soft, brushed strawberry blonde locke's and since he was turned slightly Toby could see his emerald green eyes and they were totally different to the woman's muddy hazel.

Also, there was something off about the boy, his clothes for one, they hung off him like they were on a drying rack and his glasses had multiple layers of tape on the bridge and one of the arms behind his ear and he was pale, nowhere near as pale as Jeff or himself, but definitely noticeable.

"Now you sit in the corner and be still and quiet, no _freakiness_ either, got that?" she said in a hushed voice, glaring at him.

She had talked quietly so no one in the cafe could hear but him, though Toby, with a few years of experience of being quiet on hunts, had helped him to hear things better than the average person, heard and stopped fidgeting with the cuff of his jumper and stood still, save for the occasional twitch.

The woman turned and joined the other queue for those sitting in, behind him and the chubby kid sat opposite the other at the table, smirking cruelly at him.

Meanwhile, Toby started to think this through carefully,

'The kid might not be in the clear here, maybe he likes to be weird and since their in public maybe 'horsemouth' wants him to keep it to a low, yeah maybe, though...'

Toby always had a bit of a sore spot for child abusers and drunkards because of his father, but whether or not the kid was being mistreated was sorted shortly before he bought his muffin when the chubby one called out suddenly,

"MUMM, he hit me!" he cried, ducking his head to cry, though Toby could tell that he wasn't really crying, just faking it and that the small boy hadn't hit him either.

"I-I-I-I d-didn't," the black haired boy stuttered out the words, and Toby noted that as well.

The mother, who was turning away with her coffee and what looked like condensed slab of chocolate and cream cake placed them back on the counter, excusing herself to the barista and walked over the to the table and took the small boy, who had stopped protesting as it was obvious it was falling on deaf ears, by the wrist and started to lead him out,

"He didn't hit him," Toby found himself saying, surprising himself as he turned to face the woman, who had stopped just before the door, the shop quiet.

"I don't believe that my Dudley would lie about anything, least alone, being hit," she said, with a forced smile and mildly cold voice, as she regarded the teen, seemingly looking down on him for the twitches she had seen since entering the shop.

"Really, I think having raised him and being his mother, I know when my child is lying. Especially in regards to this one," she tugged the arm holding the small boy, "Now, thank you for trying to be nice, you clearly must be a kind person," Toby tried to bit down on his tongue to stop the snort, though that did nothing and a snicker escaped his gritted teeth.

The saving grace there was his twitch,

At that moment a particularly violent one caused his neck to snap and an audible crack was heard in the quiet shop.

"Though, as it is, he is my responsibility, and I shall thank you to kindly keep out of other's business," she said, sneering slightly at him.

And with that, she left the shop pulling the small boy that was staring at Toby with mild shock.

She came back in shortly after, evidently forcing the child to sit outside and wait for her as Toby had finished paying for his muffin, as she passed him she gave him another cold look, before collecting her things and sitting down.

As Toby left the shop he knew that the woman was watching him,

'Her pencil neck being very helpful there...' he thought as he crossed the street and made sure he was well out of sight before doubling back, tearing a small chunk of his muffin out, making sure that there were a few pieces of blueberry in it when his phone buzzed.

He pulled it out and checking the message he saw it was from his gaming second, Ben,

#Remember to check for cameras, wafflebreath. I can't cover you all the time,#

He smirked at his message and continued walking.

As he approached the shop again he saw the boy sitting against the wall of the shop against the corner that leads into the shop.

Toby stopped before the signpost and leaned against it, nonchalantly, making sure that the woman wasn't looking before looking back to the kid.

He was small, he noted, smaller than he should be at that age,

'Wait, how old should he be? He looks around Ben and Sally's age, well... physical age, well... what _they_ look like, I mean Ben's a possessed computer sprite and Sally's a ghost so they don't really age, do they...' before he could stop his ramblings the horsey woman and the other kid came out of the cafe and took him away.

When Toby noticed that they were leaving he cut his train of thought short and began to follow, eating the bit he had torn off for the boy as it was clear he wouldn't be able to give it to him now, walking on the other side of the street so it was less likely they would notice him.

*Present day*

Toby came to a stop in the alley a few houses away from Number 4 Privet Drive, after three days of following the Dursleys, he found they were called, to learn their habits he had learned nearly all their names, the borderline obese child was apparently called Dudley, Toby was nearly spotted when he had audibly laughed and had to duck behind a few bushes near the local market to hide from the equally beef sized man, the boy's father Vernon and if Toby thought that Petunia, his wife and the boy's Aunt, was cruel to the child then Vernon was a 'Creep' like himself by comparison.

He would loudly fault the boy on many things, blaming things that could in no way fall onto the child constantly, spoiling his own son and treating the other like dirt, but that was just the tip of the axe.

The man would constantly keep the child in terror from his verbal threats and hit the child if he didn't work to his standards...

Which to him, he never did, and aside from using him to practice swatting away a fly the man would constantly starve the child.

Toby would have referred to him by his name, but not once had it been mentioned.

Not once in the entire time that he had been there was his real name said.

They would always call him 'Boy' or, in the case of his Uncle's favourite, 'Freak'. He had tried to go to the nearby school to try and get his name there, but the cameras made sure that he couldn't get closer than the other side of the street, where he would watch the small boy hiding from the small blimp of a child and his little gang he seemed to always be with to bully him constantly.

Something that had changed though was that the Uncle's equally rotund Sister Marge was visiting for the weekend.

She had arrived on a Friday evening, staying for the weekend and leaving on Monday morning, bringing with her a dog she had aptly named Ripper if the state of the Uncle's trousers on the first day were anything to go by.

She was more like Petunia in her way of treating the boy, making him accompany her and Dudley shopping for expensive treats and looking at the small child she dragged with them in a manner that suggested that she was daring the boy to complain.

He crouched down and undid the zip on the rucksack he brought with him and took out two axes; hooking them through a hoop on each leg; a key he had sneaked from the Uncle when he visited a local pub to drink and boast about a successful new contract for his company, which did something about drills, he wasn't really sure, and his facemask before zipping the bag back up.

He straightened up, pulling the facemask on and fixing his goggles before putting the rucksack back on and walking towards the house.

Pausing to send Masky a text, he had sent one earlier in the day to let him know the name of the family he would be visiting and the house number so that if it came up on the news they would know not to look into it if it seemed an unnatural death, to tell him that he was about to enter the house.

It was around half past nine, which meant that Dudley would have been put into bed, Petunia would be sitting in the living room probably gossiping to Marge and Vernon would be nursing a glass of brandy whilst the boy would be finishing any of the jobs that they had left before they put him in...

Actually, that was something he didn't know either, either the boy was forced to sleep on the couch, or it was in one of the rooms upstairs but he hadn't seen a light go on in any save for Dudley's room upstairs or his parent's, over the few days that would signify the boy slept there.

Crouching down he went around the back of the house, using bushes that he had once seen the boy cutting diligently when his Uncle came round and hit him in the legs with the broom he had to sweep the leaves afterwards because he hadn't finished, though he had started barely six minutes ago with only a small pair of shears. That had tested Toby's patience the most and he had almost gone over there and swung an axe into the man's moustached face there and then, but it was a busy evening though none of the neighbours commentated on the act they had seen.

The other thing that tried his patience to that extent was on the second night of the Sister's visit the dog had chased the boy up a tree in the garden and hadn't been called off until well past midnight. He thought that the boy might've gotten a glimpse of him then so he was more careful to avoid his gaze after that.

He had reached the garden gate and quietly slipped into the garden and looked through the windows of the glass conservatory.

Inside was pretty much as he had thought it to be, the adults were in the living room, reading a gossip magazine and nursing a rather large glass of brandy, and the boy was standing on a stool, scrubbing a large pan with a greasy rag covered in soap. Toby noted that he was missing his glasses and wondered what had happened to them.

He paused from his cleaning to wipe his forehead and his uncle barked at him.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING? Do you think that all this is going to clean itself, or do you expect your poor Aunt to do all this work by herself, you ungrateful FREAK? And also, what's this we hear about you lollygagging in class, think it's funny that teachers have to be there and think you can have a little daydream out the window do you?"

Toby watched the small child stutter out an apology, before turning back to the sink, but his Uncle had gotten up and grabbed the boy by his neck and dragged him to the floor,

"You've taken long enough to do this already, you can finish it in the morning before you can eat, or else you won't till Tuesday.

Now, I have to quickly run to the office, so if I hear that you've given your Aunt or my Sister _any_ grief you won't eat till Thursday!"

With that, he pulled the boy, who was trying to keep his balance from being pulled forcefully along, out into the hall where he, Toby tensed up for a moment, opened a small door to a cupboard and threw the child in.

Toby was slightly frozen in surprise as he watched the uncle pull a bolt across the door, locking it from the outside. He ducked back down under the windowsill and waited for the Uncle to leave the house, waiting for the telltale signs of a car leaving.

Oh, how he wished that the fat walrus of a man had to stay, he'd been looking forward to decorating the walls of the Aunt's 'lovely' wallpaper a new shade of red with his blood... if it was even blood at that point, and not liquid fat.

Moving back round to the front of the house, he checked the time again and saw that it was closing in on ten.

Which meant that a particularly loud show the Dursley's watched nightly would be on, under the noise of the shows live crowd Toby unlocked the front door and crept inside.

Closing the door and locking it behind him he broke off the key in the door so no one could get out that way. From the living room, he could hear Petunia mentioning to her Sister-in-law about the new, custom-made, knife set with their surname engraved in cursive on the blade and handle she had bought last week and arrived around lunch. As she gossiped about her day he moved silently towards the cupboard under the stairs, where he could hear muffled cries of pain.

He slid open the grate on the door and peered inside.

The boy was drawn in on himself and clutching his head. Toby realised that when his uncle had thrown him in he must have hit his head on the door, stair or something else in the small space, where a thin smear of blood could be seen under his hand.

It was at this point the child realised that he was being watched and started to shake,

"I'm s-s-sorry, I-I-I'll be quieter," he choked out between muffling his sobs.

When Toby unlocked the door he heard the child's breath speed up, obviously still thinking it was his family. But when Toby pulled the door open a fraction so he could better see the child he stopped breathing altogether for a few seconds as the locked eyes.

"W-w-who are you?" he asked, looking up at him.

Toby froze for a moment, he hadn't thought that the child would talk from the surprise of having a stranger break into his house.

"Hi... I'm Toby... what's your name?" he asked, eager to finally get the boy's name.

"Burden or Freak, that's what my Uncle calls me, but, the teachers call me Harry,"

"Well Harry, I'm going to need you to stay in here for a little bit longer, I'm not going to lock it or anything, but whatever you do, stay in here, no matter what you hear, you need to _stay in here_!"

Toby put emphasis on the last three words because even though he was a killer, even though Harry could probably guess what he was about to do, he didn't want him to see people being killed. There was something that sat wrong with Toby about letting little children see that sort of stuff.

Harry nodded and sat back from the door as Toby pushed it closed again.

He stood up, he was about to sneak into the living room when the door to the kitchen opened and the Aunt walked through. Toby moved over to the bottom of the stairs to hide as she walked into the toilet at the end of the hall from the sounds of scratching at a door upstairs he assumed that Ripper was closed in Marge's room.

Once Toby had heard her close the door he resumed his sneaking into the adjacent room.

The Uncle's sister was engrossed with the tv, muttering to herself about lazy no goods that wanted their 5 minutes of fame, so she didn't notice Toby creep behind her and draw his axes.

As the credits began to scroll down the screen she stretched out the remote and turned it off.

In the now blank screen, she saw the reflection of herself. At that point Toby had another loud twitch as his neck popped and the woman's pig-like eyes flicked up and she could see Toby standing behind him, axes raised, and even with his mask on, she could tell that he was smiling a sadistically wide smile.

Before she had time to act Toby brought the axes down on either side of her inflated neck and they became embedded within the rolls of fat.

Toby let go of the handles as he watched the woman grasp at her neck before her arms fell limply to her sides; her blood staining the couch with two streaks of crimson red. Toby turned to make sure that the blinds were still drawn and that no one could be peaking in and catch him in the act.

Whilst he was busy checking that nobody from the outside could see him he failed to notice Petunia standing just inside the kitchen, she had come back in time to see the masked intruder swing the axes into her now departed Sister-in-law's neck. Now she was slowly moving towards him, a knife was taken from the new set, and she was raising the blade to strike him down.

Toby turned back to the room as she brought the knife down at him.

Taken by surprise, he raised his arms to deflect the blow, but before she could drive the knife into him she seized up and the knife dropped to the floor. Her body following seconds later.

Protruding from her back, was the other five knives from the set.

Toby looked down at her body in surprise before looking up and seeing Harry standing in the frame between the hall and kitchen. He looked straight into the boy's eyes and his own widened in surprise.

Even through the goggles, he could see that Harry's eyes were a misted blood red with the pale green from his normal colour shining through between the swirling mist.

As his eyes began to return to normal he swayed and Toby leapt over the fallen body of the boy's aunt and caught him before he hit the floor.

He sat him upright behind the counter, facing away from the living room, and took a step back, still crouched, to observe the small figure in front of him. He didn't look like anything out of the ordinary, his messy black hair was matted slightly from the blood where he had hit his head, but other than that, Toby could see nothing that would have signified anything other than a small, abused child.

Contemplating what to do for a few moments he sat watching him before he heard heavy footsteps coming along the upstairs landing. In the aftermath of what he had seen Harry do, he had forgotten about his cousin.

Quickly, he stood up and went back into the living room. He tugged, it took him a couple of tries, he'd really got it stuck in there, one of the axes from Marge's neck and stood in the doorway.

When the rotund child came to the bottom of the stairs he walked into the foyer and staring down the child who had frozen at the sight of the shadowy figure and, if the smell meant anything, had wet himself.

Raising the axe and pointing it at the child he said the first thing that came to his mind,

"Go to SLEEP, little piggy!" he growled out and the now ashen-faced boy half ran, half waddled, up the stairs, his face one of pure frozen terror, and barricaded himself in the upstairs toilet.

Turning back into the kitchen Toby saw that Harry was slowly stirring awake. Moving over to him he pushed his goggles up onto his forehead and held him still as he woke up, squirming slightly as he gazed bleary-eyed up at him.

"Hey, hey, hey, shhhh... It's ok, I'm not gonna hurt you," Toby tried to reaffirm the child as he didn't want to end up on the receiving end of whatever he did to his Aunt.

"W-w-what happened?" he seemed to remember Toby and didn't look like he would move so Toby let go of the boy's shoulders.

"Don't worry about that right now," Toby quickly said, "What does matter is that it's time to go, you need me to grab anything? Like your glasses, where are they at?" Toby queried trying to keep his mind from the fact he had just killed his Aunt, a child freaking out would be no help in this situation.

"Uncle Vernon put them on the fireplace, he said I could have them back when I finished hoovering the living room tomorrow," he said, shivering slightly from the cold floor and drawing his knees to his chest.

"Well I'll go get them, then we can blow this joint and be on our way," Toby said, patting the kid on the unhurt side of his head and standing up.

"Like the big, bad wolf does?" Harry asked, peering up curiously at Toby as he moved around the counter to get Harry's glasses.

"Yeah. No. Well, sorta. I mean, we can't blow this house down, kinda hard to do that and it would be the brick house, and we can't blow it up either, though if I'd grabbed my other bag then we might've had enough C4 to turn this place to rubble... but that one's back at my place, so we're just gonna have to leave this place standing," Toby rambled as he came back around, spectacles in hand, "Right, got those, you need anything else, how about shoes, I'll get your shoes," Toby walked back round to the foyer and picked up the scruffy pair of trainers he had seen Harry wearing from when he had first seen him in the cafe.

Ducking his head in the cupboard he saw a small bundle of old, should have been thrown out ages ago, clothes and picked up the jacket that lay on top of them. Also lying around the place, aside from what would normally be stored in such a cupboard, were a ratted blanket or two that was formed to be a type of bed in a corner; a few scribbled drawings, though it was too dark to make out what these were; an empty reel of tape, 'probably from fixing his glasses' he thought, and what looked like a smudged, torn, and clumsily fixed photo of a man, woman and small child. It was too dark to make out who was who in the picture but Toby pocketed it, 'Maybe Harry would want to keep it,' he thought.

Looking around the small cupboard some more he couldn't see anything else that looked like it would be special to Harry, except for what looked like a small music box in the corner so he grabbed that too.

Moving back into the kitchen he stalled for a moment when he saw that Harry had moved around the counter and was staring at the body of his Aunt. He walked past Harry and removed the other axe from the body on the couch.

Moving back towards him Toby placed a hand on his shoulder and gently steered him towards the back door, where he could no longer see into the kitchen. Bending down to put the jacket on Harry's shoulders he could see that he was trying hard to keep his face neutral, but fear could be seen out of his eyes.

"Hey. Listen, it's ok, nothing bad is gonna happen to you. I know it was a bit scary in there, but you don't have to worry about them anymore, got it," Toby tried to keep him calm, if he started freaking out it would be a lot harder to get back to the Mansion with him in tow.

"I used my freakiness, they're going to kill me now," Harry said, quietly as he stared at the floor between Toby's feet.

This sentence confused Toby for a few reasons. Number one, his Aunt and Uncle's Sister had just been killed, so he couldn't be talking about them, maybe he was talking about his Uncle but then he would have been specific. Two, Harry was aware that he could do stuff like that, but why hadn't he done so before now. Three, he didn't seem to be afraid of him or overly concerned that his relatives were dead.

Toby filed away those last ones to be brought up later when they were out of the house but he was more confused about what he thought would kill him.

"What do you mean‚ 'They're going to kill me'?" he asked, putting the trainers on the ground for Harry to put on.

"The monsters in the shadows. I killed Aunt Petunia With my freakiness. Uncle Vernon said that if I kept using my freakiness they would give me to the monsters in the shadows and they would drag me to hell and cut me up into pieces with knives and axes," when he finished telling Toby this realisation started to dawn on his face as he looked between Toby and the axes he was putting back into the rucksack, and whatever blood was left in his face quickly drained out.

Toby, not missing this look, crouched back down to around Harry's height,

"Oh no, no, no, no," he quickly rattled off, "I ain't gonna hurt you. I promise. I'm a bit of a freak myself so it would be pretty rude for me to kill you. Wouldn't it?" he said, giving Harry a little poke under the shoulders where it apparently tickled, he had never felt the sensation himself but according to L.J it would.

And it did, Harry let out a little giggle and smiled slightly from the sensation.

'There we go' Toby thought to himself as he ruffled Harry's hair as he slipped on his shoes.

He realised that he'd have to make a call to tell the others about this as he took off his face mask, throwing that in the rucksack as well.

While Harry was crouching down to put the shoes on, Toby unlocked the door and mentioned to harry that he needed to make a quick call. Fishing his phone out he went through his contacts and found Masky's number. Dialling it up he waited as Harry finished putting on his jacket and waited patiently for Toby to make his call.

#"What is it, Toby? I'm busy,"# Masky answered, mildly annoyed.

#"Yeah, yeah I know, you and Hoodie are busy playing Hollywood with the camera guy but listen, something happened over here,"# Toby told him, glancing at Harry out the corner of his eye.

#"What did you do? If you've been spotted on a camera you know Ben will mess up the footage... Did you let someone get away after seeing what you look like because I can't come over there and clean up your mess,"# Masky sounded annoyed, he often did dealing with Toby.

#"No. Not that, well kinda but that doesn't matter right now, that was ok. Listen, how quickly can you get to the Mansion?"# Toby asked, trying to get to his point.

#"What did you do Ticci?"# Masky asked again, definitely annoyed now, he always called him by that name when he was.

#"I found someone. I think they might be one of us. No, I'm sure of it,"# Toby said before Masky could cut him off.

Silence rung for a few moments between the two before Masky spoke again.

#"Ok, Hoodie can manage a few minutes without me, what do you want me to do?"# he asked, sounding tired, but the fact he wasn't arguing further surprised Toby.

#"Tell E.J I'm going to need him to have a look at who I'm bringing back. Also, could you see if any of the spare rooms are clear for him and tell Slendy what I'm doing?"# Toby waited for his reply. Casting Harry a few glances every so often as he spoke.

#"Ok, but Toby, if this turns out to be nothing, you realise that Slendy will be majorly, don't you dare salute that, pissed off at you,"# he told Toby, who had his hand half raised to his head in a mock salute.

#"I'm sure about this Masky,"# Toby replied before hanging up and motioning for Harry to follow him.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked, moving to Toby's side, holding onto the empty loop where he usually kept one of the axes so Toby could guide him through the dark, as the two left the garden as Toby led him to the forest where he had first arrived in Surrey.

"We're going to where I live. It's a mansion in a forest, we call it The Mansion, I know, real original name huh, but it's also called 'The Ark' by a couple of my friends. I said that it was in a big forest, right? Well for a bit don't recommend wandering around the place by yourself, it's easy to get lost there and if my boss finds you before he's met you he..." Toby paused for a few moments to think of the right words,"... can get a bit scary," He finished hesitantly.

Harry's eyes widened a bit at this but he didn't say anything else, his face staying in the same neutrality as it had previously. He kept pace with Toby for the walk out of Privet drive and the surrounding streets for the most part, though Toby had given him a hand in getting over a waist-high stone wall that bordered the field he had first came through and then they continued through the field to the tree line.

Once they got to the edge of the forest Toby stopped the now droopy-eyed and tired Harry and sat him down on an old stump just inside the forest.

"Listen, you know how I said that my boss could be a bit scary earlier?" Toby asked. it would be better to give Harry a heads up now instead of later at the Mansion, surrounded by everyone else.

Harry nodded, drawing in on himself to guard against the cold air of the night.

"Well, there are a few others staying at the Mansion as well and they can be a bit..."

"Scary too?" Harry asked when Toby trailed off, thinking about the right words again.

"Yeah, but they also look a bit scary too. So, for a while, don't go wandering off by yourself, if you want to go somewhere you ask me or some of my friends, I'll point out who to ask ok. You can probably go from your room to the living room and dining room by yourself but don't go wandering. Got it? Not until you get used to being there,"

Toby wanted to make sure that nothing too bad would happen to the kid before he could explain a few things, L.J and Jeff would scare the kid to death if they saw him, E.J might try and grab a few organs unless Masky told him about what he had told him.

Masky and Hoodie would probably not be too bad as Masky would have told Hoodie about Toby bringing someone new to the Mansion. Ben wouldn't care as long as the kid didn't deliberately pick a fight with him and Sally only had to be told not to play any games with him that would kill him and she would be ok.

There were a couple of others away when he had left so he didn't know if they were back yet.

His main worry would be if Slendy disagreed with him and said that Harry was just a normal human, that he hadn't seen what he thought he had. If it did turn out that Harry was a normal human then Slendy would probably tear Harry in two and impale him up a tree somewhere for an hour or two.

But Toby was sure of this, there was something... abnormal about the boy, maybe on par with what he dealt with at the Mansion, and if there was the worst that could happen is that the kid was brought up at the Mansion.

Harry nodded to show that he understood what he had said and stood up to follow Toby as they walked just a bit deeper into the forest.

Toby stopped them in a small cluster of tree's and told Harry to wait there. He walked over to one of the trees and looked for something around the trunk.

'Where is it? Where is it?' he thought to himself as he searched for the symbol of 'The Operator'.

Finding the small circle and cross was very difficult for those who hadn't spent a lot of time at the Mansion, but the longer you were there, the easier it got when trying to find Slendy's teleport points. After a minute or so of looking, he found the small insignia and pressed his hand gently over it.

A thin fog started to roll through the forest and he walked back to where Harry was watching with curious interest. He motioned for Harry to come for him and he took Harry's hand and led him between two trees that had grown close together and seemed to have formed a type of tall archway with their branches.

Pulling Harry gently along he walked through the archway into the mist. He walked with hardly any trouble as the ground seemed to spin slightly underfoot. He kept a good hold on Harry as the small boy stumbled wildly, unable to keep his on footing he caught the small boy and hoisted him onto his back as he passed out from the spinning and carried him through the remainder of the fog, which was starting to thin out and clear.

Soon they had left the mist behind and Toby carried Harry for the rest of the way, his face was screwed up in the same way that a small child would have if they were spun around too fast and were trying not to throw up.

A short walk later and the two came to a clearing in which a large, white, building stood in the middle. Its board were ivy-strewn and very weathered, the paint scratched and peeling in many places. A patio stretched around the side of the house, with equally withered planks and ivy growing on the beams. The windows looked grey but the light shone through a few of them and a masked figure watched the approaching Proxy and child with interest as they came to the cobbled path that led to the door.

Shifting Harry slightly Toby opened the door and walked into the foyer, closing the door with his foot and letting the rucksack fall off his arm onto the ground next to the door.

Looking around Toby saw that there was no one loitering around, which meant that nobody had found out about Harry yet. That worked for him, gave him time to get his story about what had happened straight and easier to explain what happened.

Walking to the end of the short corridor he tried to think where E.J would be, on the kitchen snacking on a kidney, or in the living room waiting for him. He decided to try the living room first, then the kitchen.

Turning left through the empty frame he came to a halt as each seat was filled, and every seeable eye was trained on him, and Slenderman standing in the middle of the room.

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Author's Endnotes.

Well, I finally managed to write out the first chapter of this thing.

At this time, I'm still trying to figure out what to call this fic, I'm toying with ideas but I don't really like any I've come up with so far.

But anyway, I hope you enjoyed. I'll try and upload a chapter a week, maybe one every two since I have just started College, but I will have a note in the Author notes whether there will be a chapter next week or not.

Anyway, I do have a bit more disclaiming to do for the Creepypastas.

CreepyPasta's and their respective owner/claim holder.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanningK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

If any of these are wrong please PM me so that I can fix them.

Anyway, I got nothing else to say really. The next chapter should be up next weekend, I plan on making a few in bulk so that if I'm struggling with a chapter I can still upload to the schedule for a while.

Also, not even a day since I uploaded the Prologue and this fic already has 3 follows, 1 favourite and a review asking for more.

This was incredible, completely honest for a moment, I was terrified of uploading anything but the response was amazing.

A thank you to;

emilynewby7,

Gleming,

patriciahodnett,

The first 3 people who followed, I shall remember your names fondly whenever I start writing chapters in the future.

And an additional thank you to 'sukilala' who was the first to favourite this.

Also to the reviewer, I would put your name but it was a guest review, there will be more. I promise, chapter 2 is ready to roll next week and 3 is nearly done.

Till the next one.

SteamGeek01.


	2. Chapter 2, Harry's View

Chapter 2.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech / mental talking.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

Author's note.

Well, if you're reading this I'm not as bad at writing as I thought I was.

But anyway, here is the next chapter in this fic, it is mainly the same as the prior chapter, but this time from Harry's perspective. This allows me to set up what kind of character Harry will be and I am open to suggestions on what to do with him, as it is my first time writing a fic.

Also, I would like to apologise for any spelling or grammatical errors in this fic. My laptop for some reason deleted its stored version of the dictionary and I've had to add nearly every word back into it from previous word documents.

Thank you to 'DannyPhantomFanGirl1' who told me that the gash in Toby's face came from the car crash at the start of his story. Yeah, still not adding it in since I don't recall it being mentioned in the story but thank you anyway.

I also got around to looking up the original Eyeless Jack story with Jenny and the Chernobog worshippers so that is that answered.

Anyway,

Hope you enjoy.

SteamGeek01.

Additional note. 16/12/2017.

Gone back over this chapter and fixed any typo's or grammatical errors that I could find.

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Harry Potter was an unusual child for a number of reasons.

He was smaller for a child his age, rather skinny as well.

His skin was rather pale for a child and his unruly, jet black, hair shot every which way.

His glasses had unknown amounts of tape holding them together and he wore clothes many sizes too big.

He had also developed a slight stutter from ages spent not having to use his voice and being shunned by his relatives.

None of this was by his own doing though, rather the actions of his Aunt and Uncle, who had decided all of these were for his own good, as a punishment for being a freak and burden on their perfect, ordinary, lives.

And so, in their attempts to keep him from developing into an even bigger freak of nature, they tried to keep his spirit as downtrodden as possible, setting their own vicious child upon him. They tried to make him grateful for the minimal, primitive, care that they supplied for him. In their eyes, it was the most that he deserved.

They hated him, and he hated them. Harry wondered what had happened to him that he had to have been placed under their care. He didn't refer to them as his family unless he had to and he certainly didn't consider number four Privet Drive a home of any sort.

More a cage that he longed to be free from.

Another thing that set Harry apart from others was that he was finding that the world around him didn't care about him. So that was how he grew up, mutual hatred between family members, fear of those around him and the expectation that the world was nothing more than a place of misery for him and on stories that there were things lurking in the shadows that would punish him malevolently for his freakiness.

Sometimes he thought that he could hear them when he was alone and after whenever his Aunt and Uncle would berate him for his unnaturalness or leave him nursing injuries, and the voice always said the same things.

How he was worthless, how his soul would perish, though Harry didn't really see how that was a threat since the Dursleys tried to remove any sort of identity from him.

What he didn't know was that things were going to change in many ways.

It wasn't a special day in any sort of way.

School had finished and Harry Potter was being forced to keep pace with his Aunt Petunia and obese cousin Dudley as they walked, or thundered in Dudley's case, along the street to the shops.

Dudley had complained that he hadn't had enough sweets so his dotting Mother had taken them to get more once the school day had ended.

The first change came when Dudley cried about not having any cake and they went into a cafe halfway down the street.

When they entered the cafe, a rare thing for Harry to do as he was normally left outside, there was someone that Harry had never seen before standing in line. Newcomers and visitors were common but something about him stood out to Harry and he couldn't figure out quite why.

He was in his late teens, if he was to hazard a guess, and had messy brown hair, a fair bit longer than his own, that was on par with the mess that his own black hair presented. A greyish green jumper with striped sleeves was tied around his waist and a pair of orange goggles, that he guessed were his sunglasses, were pushed up far on his head, just sitting on top of the brown lockes.

His skin was duller than most others was, duller than Harry's own

The boy also seemed to twitch and tick slightly every so often, his hand or foot jerking slightly as he waited patiently in line.

Petunia had told him before that it was rude to stare so Harry dropped his gaze back to his feet and followed her inside.

When inside Petunia queried about what Dudley would want, and of course, he went for the most tooth rottening thing there was and she warned Harry about doing anything freaky whilst out in public before she turned to wait in the line of the second register.

When Dudley decided to get Harry in trouble, as he had evaded him during the break periods when Dudley would go 'Harry hunting' and try to beat him up but this break Harry had hidden from him and he couldn't find him, he pretended that Harry had hit him and wailed for his Mother.

Harry had tried to protest, but his stuttered attempts were ignored, as always, and Petunia had began to take him out of the cafe when,

"He didn't hit him," the strange boy said as Petunia was in the process of dragging him out.

Nobody had ever stood up for him before, except for once but that was a long time ago and he hadn't seen that person in years, but this person was a complete stranger to him.

"I don't believe that my Dudley would lie about anything, least alone, being hit," Petunia told the boy.

The boy looked at Petunia with what Harry could only say was polite scepticism.

"Really, I think having raised him and being his mother, I know when my child is lying. Especially in regards to this one." she tugged on Harry's arm, which was beginning to hurt slightly "Now, thank you for trying to be nice, you clearly must be a kind person,"

Harry could have sworn that he heard the boy give a snort of laughter when his neck cracked loudly, but no one else in the shop heard it.

"Though, as it be, he is my responsibility, and I shall thank you to kindly keep out of other's business." She sneered at the boy and dragged him out of the shop.

She sat him down on the corner of the shop and told him that she would deal with him later, and not to move.

As he sat down the strange boy came out of the shop and Harry watched him walk away, checking his phone and smirking.

Harry played with the fraying threads on his jeans as he waited for Petunia and Dudley when he heard a faint cracking.

Looking up he saw the strange boy leaning against a lamppost a little away from where he was sitting, tearing a piece of the muffin he had in hand, looking as if he was in deep, intellectual, thought.

Harry watched him contemplating for the remainder of the time he spent outside before he was taken away by Petunia.

Over the next couple of days, Harry vaguely became aware of somebody following him. He didn't say anything to his Petunia or Vernon, they didn't like him talking. He wasn't sure that somebody was, but he just had this feeling that he was being watched.

He thought that he glimpsed this mysterious figure out of the window during the last school day of the week, but when he tried to get a better look the teacher called him out on daydreaming and told him to focus on his work.

Knowing this he began to stay indoors more often than not, opting to stay in his cupboard to avoid any gazing eyes. This plan was ruined when his Uncle's sister came for the weekend.

She took delight in taking Dudley out to spoil him endlessly and dragging Harry along to rub it in his face.

So with that, Harry was dragged along on their evening shopping trip that Friday in which Marge made them visit many stores and by the end, Harry was squashed in the back seat from the overwhelming amount of gifts in the adjoining seats.

Throughout the shopping trip, Harry kept getting glimpses of the following figure. He thought that the person looked familiar, but he couldn't place him. With that Harry had developed the habit of looking over his shoulder every so often and Marge called him out on it, calling him a twitching runt.

It wasn't until Marge's second night that he finally got a better look at his stalker.

It had just turned evening and Harry was finishing taking the plates in from everyone. They had decided to eat outside, as to not waste the fine weather, and as Harry took the last of the drinks in he disturbed a sleeping Ripper and was promptly chased out of the house and up a flowering apple tree in the back corner of the garden.

The Dursley's took pleasure in laughing at Harry's expense and proceeded to go inside to enjoy some tea in quiet from Ripper's barks. As the hours passed Harry found himself still outside as the sun dipped below the horizon and Ripper wasn't letting up in his attempts to get at Harry.

As he tried to get into a more comfortable position he looked out over the garden fence and saw someone across the street, looking towards the house.

Focusing on the person in the street he couldn't see much, they were standing just behind the lamppost opposite the Dursley's house and the light made it hard to see clearly. As Harry moved, trying to get a better look at the person, they stepped forward under the light and he could see him clearer.

It was a teen with messy brown hair, pale skin. The jumper he was wearing looked like a mix and match of three separate ones. On his forehead sat a pair of orange goggles and seeing those Harry realised who he was.

It was the teenager in the cafe that had tried to stand up to Petunia when Dudley had pretended that he had hit him.

The teenager must have noticed that Harry was watching him because he tugged his hood forward a bit and walked off, out of sight.

Harry didn't see him after that until Sunday evening.

He had been busy cleaning up the things Petunia had had him use to cook with. It was a tough job, mainly because Vernon had taken his glasses so Harry would have extra incentive to hoover properly tomorrow when cleaning up the hairs that Ripper had left over the visit.

He had paused to wipe sweat from his brow when his Uncle had berated him before dragging him painfully from the kitchen and throwing into the cupboard. His head hitting one of the steps and he let out a gasp of pain as he was temporarily blinded by flashing lights popping in front of his eyes. He heard a car start and figured that was his Uncle leaving for whatever he had been called away for.

He sat up against the wall, cradling his head as he felt the blood flowing from a cut somewhere under his fringe, trying to keep his gasping sobs down so he didn't invoke the wrath of anyone else.

He heard the grate on the door slide open and he started to shake slightly.

"I'm s-s-sorry, I-I-I'll be quieter," he stuttered out, already tensing for whoever was going to hit him.

When the door opened he started shaking more and waited.

And waited.

He looked up and was face to face with the goggled teen that had been following him for the past few days.

There were a few tense moments in which Harry may have forgotten to breathe as he stared into the orange-tinted eyes.

"W-w-who are you?" he asked, vaguely aware of the fact that a total stranger was in his relative's house.

"Hi... I'm Toby... what's your name?" Harry could hear the slight eagerness in his voice.

Harry contemplated this for a moment. He honestly wasn't sure how to answer this, Petunia and Vernon always kept him hidden away whenever they had people over that didn't know about him, those that did know about him shared the views that he was nothing more than a burden on his 'well respected and notable' relatives.

"Burden or Freak, that's what my Uncle calls me, but, the teachers call me Harry," he chose to add the second part on seeing the boy's brow furrow.

"Well Harry, I'm going to need you to stay in here for a little bit longer, I'm not going to lock it or anything, but whatever you do, stay in here, no matter what you hear, you need to _stay in here_!"

The emphasis on the last few words struck him slightly as odd. Why was he being told to stay in the cupboard, the way he had said '...just a little bit longer...' meant that Harry would be leaving the cupboard.

Toby closed the door softly and Harry didn't hear the tell-tale sound of the bolt locking into place.

Harry sat there for a few more moments.

'He must be doing something that he doesn't want me to see' Harry mused, settling on that as the reason why Toby told him to stay.

Harry would have been contempt to sit there waiting for Toby's return but the pipes that were behind the wall of his cupboard shook slightly, as they did whenever someone flushed the downstairs toilet, and he sat up straighter.

Aunt Petunia had thought that being able to hear the sound of someone in the toilet was as bad as seeing it herself so she had paid some men to place soundproofing around the walls as to block out any such noise.

Toby wouldn't know that she was moving back to the living room and he would get caught.

He moved slowly out of the cupboard and quietly made his way to the arch joining the hall and living room.

Peering round and squinting, he saw the rotund form of Aunt Marge on the couch, unmoving with two handles protruding backwards from her neck and scarlet streaks on her sides.

Realising that she was dead Harry wasn't shocked to find that he didn't care, the way she had beaten him and spat filth about his Parents, but he was mildly confused about why he wanted to smile and start laughing.

In fact, he might've done. If he hadn't noticed Petunia slowly stalking up on Toby, who was checking for any watchers outside, with a large knife in her hand.

Harry watched as she made her way towards Toby.

" **You see. You were foolish to hope for freedom. All that awaits you is painful, slow, death,"** the high pitched voice taunted Harry as it had done countless times before.

'Shut up and leave me alone' Harry retorted as he usually did, the voice didn't really follow up most of the time, but this time, the voice egged him on.

" **Oh, and what are you going to do? I'm in your head, I'm a part of you. Whilst your dear Aunt kills your only chance of leaving this place, shouldn't you be angry at her?"**

Harry didn't reply to that for he didn't know how to. The voice was right. Aunt Petunia was nearly at Toby and Harry seemed to be watching the entire thing in slow motion.

" **She didn't _ever_ care for you, you know. What has she or her repulsive husband ever done for you? You know you can stop her," **The voice seemed to be growing more sympathetic to his plight now.

'What do I do?' Harry conceded and asked the voice.

" **Let me show you,"** Harry wondered at what the voice meant by that, but before he could ask his scar seemed to burn like it was white hot and his vision grew cloudy, though he could still see the scene in front of him.

As Toby turned around and saw Petunia Harry's head was forced to look at the knives on the counter, the new set that Petunia had been eager to receive.

" **Focus, think of the knives. Then, think of what you want to do to her,"** the voice had grown silky smooth.

'I want to stop her' Harry thought as the first few knives lifted themselves free and began spinning round.

" **Yes. Good, but keep going. That's not nearly enough,"** the voice was egging him on now, but Harry didn't care. He knew what the voice was urging him to do and he wanted to do it too.

'I want her gone. I want her out of my life. I don't care what happens to her,' more knives were raised into the air, ' after all she's done to me, after all they've done to me. They can dIE FOR ALL I CARE!' Harry proclaimed to the voice as he whipped his head round and sent the knives flying into Petunia's back.

" **Good. Good,"** the voice purred as Harry's vision started to cloud more and he felt himself slipping away from consciousness.

When Harry came to he found himself sitting upright.

He thought that he might be back in his cupboard, the floor was certainly cold enough to be. but there was too much light for that to be the case.

He tried to sit up, but a warm pair of hands held him gently down.

Opening his eyes, blurred by his lack of glasses, he saw Toby crouched down in front of him.

"Hey, hey, hey shhhh. It's ok, I'm not gonna hurt you," Toby said gently to him.

"W-w-what happened?" Harry asked, he could vaguely remember meeting Toby in his cupboard but not much of what happened after.

"Don't worry about that right now," Toby quickly said, "What does matter is that it's time to go, you need me to grab anything? Like your glasses, where are they at?" he ticked slightly every so often as he let go of Harry's shoulders.

"Uncle Vernon put them on the fireplace, he said I could have them back when I finished hoovering the living room tomorrow," Harry started to draw into himself, making the floor more comfortable and warming himself up a bit.

"Well I'll go get them, then we can blow this joint and be on our way," He had pulled his face mask down so that it hung around his neck and Harry saw that his smile was like one of those a child would have when telling a joke. He patted Harry on the side of his head where it didn't hurt as much, but it still twinged a bit.

"Like the big, bad wolf does?" Harry found himself asking without really thinking properly.

"Yeah. No. Well, sorta. I mean, we can't blow this house down, kinda hard to do that and it would be the brick house, and we can't blow it up either, though if I'd grabbed my other bag then we might've had enough C4 to turn this place to rubble... but that one's back at my place so we're just gonna have to leave this place standing," Toby kept talking as he came back around, though he sounded mildly disappointed that the couldn't blow up the Dursley's house. Giving him his glasses back he moved back around the counter, " Right, got those, you need anything else, how about shoes, I'll get your shoes,"

Harry wasn't really sure that Toby was talking to him anymore, more rambling to himself about what he was doing at that moment in time.

As Toby left to get the shoes Harry stood up and began to follow him through.

But he stopped as he saw the unmoving body of his Aunt upon the floor.

Harry stared at her corpse and he couldn't help but let his face split into a wide smile.

He was free. Aunt Petunia was dead, Marge too, and Toby was taking Harry out of this cage. He was happy, happier than he had been in a long time. He didn't care about where Toby was taking him, anywhere would be better than here.

He would have kept smiling but then he remembered everything that had happened.

Fear started to creep into his features.

Upon meeting Toby, Harry had been asked for only one thing from him and he hadn't done that. Toby had told him to stay in his cupboard and wait for him but he hadn't stayed there.

What if Toby didn't want to take him with him anymore, but then why would Toby still be getting Harry ready to leave, maybe he would abandon him somewhere and leave him for dead at the side of a road.

The other thing that Harry was worried about was the fact that he had used whatever made him a freak to kill Petunia. Harry thought about the stories that his Aunt and Uncle had warned him of. How there were monsters waiting in the shadows that would kill freaks like him if he kept being an unnatural scab.

When he heard Toby coming back he quickly tried to arrange his expression into a calm one, but he guessed that Toby saw through the facade as once he had guided Harry towards the back door he tried to calm him down.

He told Toby about the monsters his Aunt and Uncle had told him about. Pausing and trailing off slightly when he saw Toby putting his axes in the bag he had, as a recurring feature in the stories were being cut into pieces with axes, but Toby reassured him again that he wasn't going to hurt him. He then tried to cheer Harry up by calling himself a freak and tickling him, and Harry did have to admit that Toby did make him laugh when he poked him under the arm.

Once Harry was getting himself ready Toby excused himself for a moment and moved a little away from Harry, though still within sight to show that he wouldn't leave without him, as he made a call to somebody.

Harry tried not to listen to the call, Aunt Petunia told him it was rude to do so and he didn't want to be rude to Toby. But he couldn't help but get a bit panicky when Toby started talking about him, though his panic there didn't last very long when he included Harry as being '...one of us,' whatever that meant.

When Toby finished his call, he had raised his arm and lowered it looking disappointed for some reason in the middle of it, he motioned for Harry to follow him. As he moved to keep pace with Toby Harry held onto one of the loops on Toby's belt, that he assumed were for the axes when they were being used, to help him follow Toby out of the garden, also because he was still a bit worried about what else was in the dark.

"Where are we going?" he asked Toby as they entered the street outside and began walking away.

Toby explained a bit about where he lived. It sounded like a big place and he also warned Harry about his boss, Harry made sure that he kept closer to Toby after hearing about that and hoped that he wouldn't be left alone with his boss when they got there.

He walked alongside Toby for most of the way, he had needed a little help getting over a stone wall, despite the late hour and the fact that exhaustion seemed to be creeping over him.

Toby led him through a field that he had passed many times when being taken somewhere by his Uncle and towards a forest that he hadn't been in before.

Toby led him to just in the treeline and sat him down on an old tree stump as he explained a little bit more about the place he lived.

There were a few others staying there and they could be a bit scary too at times.

He also urged Harry not to wander by himself for a while, at least, until he got used to being there.

After that Toby led him a bit further inside the treeline before telling him to wait there whilst he looked for something, muttering to himself as he examined the trunk of a nearby tree.

After a few minutes, a fine mist started to roll into the small clearing and Toby straightened and motioned for Harry to come to him.

Harry followed him into the mist, Toby leading the small child by the hand.

He didn't get far inside before it started to feel like the world was spinning around him and sliding away from his feet.

Stumbling wildly Harry felt Toby pick him up and place him on his back, having moved the rucksack to the crook of his elbow.

Harry tried to keep his eyes open, but the way that the trees seemed to flicker and reappear repeatedly and the fact he still felt like he was being spun far too fast was too much and darkness crept in, clouding his vision, and he felt himself slump into Toby's back.

Author's Endnotes.

(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) ( X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)

Yes I know, this chapter is just a minor retelling of the first from Harry's perspective, that's just because I'm trying to figure out how to write Harry in this fic.

I also decided to use this to fill in a few plot holes that might have been caused.

Namely the fact that the wards placed around Harry and the Dursley's house would never have been activated in this fic since Harry doesn't consider that place home. So Dumbledore won't have received any notice of goings on at Privet Drive until either Mrs Figg tells him, or he finds out through other news.

Also, I plan to go in more detail of how this will happen later, but I do have a plan for how Harry will legally end up over the pond in America, and like I said I will go into more detail in a future chapter.

Chapter 4 is in the works as I type this and you possibly read so that's good.

CreepyPasta's and their respective owner/claim holder.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets

Till the next one.

SteamGeek01.


	3. Chapter 3, Meet the Creeps

Chapter 3, Meet the Creeps.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech / Mental Talking, but if Slendy is speaking in a chapter and

mental talking then the mental talking will be in italics.

#word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

Author's note.

Well, another week, another chapter.

I'd like to thank you for reading, but since i'm uploading the prologue today I have no idea if anyone is actually reading this thing.

And everything after this was written the day of upload.

I might have gotten the time difference wrong a bit but, hopefully, I wasn't off by much. I don't have much experience writing across time zones.

I also want to thank those who have followed, liked and reviewed, it gives me a warm feeling knowing people actually like what i'm making.

Anyway, in this chapter, the name says it all, time to let Harry meet some new friends.

Or die trying o.0

Enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

Additional note, 28/07/2018

Gone back over and fixed any grammatical errors I could find.

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Toby stood in the frame of the arch, surveying the room.

From what he could see, word had spread fast about his find.

On the left of the room, Ben had dragged himself out of his TV and was sitting cross legged, looking bored, with a small bowl of crisps.

On his right sat E.J, who was looking at the unconcious boy with an unreadable expression due to the fact that his mask was covering half his face.

Further on the right L.J was spinning a top on one of his claw like fingers and was looking at Toby as though he had told a particularly stale joke.

On the left of the middle couch, Toby could see the turned head of Masky who was looking between him and Slenderman, only his eyes visible.

Next to him, Sally was turned completely in her seat, though only the top of her head could be seen, blood sluggishly leaking from the barely visible dent in her head.

On her other side, Jeff was looking a little more irritated than his usual self, Slenderman had probably woke him up for this impromptu meeting.

On the final couch, the yellow eyes of the Puppeteer shone dimly, his usually neutral expression was shifted with raised eyebrows of curiosity.

Helen, the Bloody Painter, was sat in the last seat. Pausing for a moment to look at the newcomers, he shrugged and went back to his drawing pad.

Smile dog was sitting infront of the TV in the room, apparently sleeping but Toby could just make out an eye half open.

The slenderman stood in the middle. Not speaking or giving off the same amount of life that a marble statue showed, though it was clear that his head was tilted forward so that he would be looking at the figure on Toby's back.

Thinking carefully, Toby glanced around the room. Trying to think of the best course of action to take. With a plan in mind, he took in a deep breath and straightened up slightly.

Before slowly walking backwards out of the room.

" **Masky, Eyeless, take our guest to the room you prepared and return,"**

Slenderman broke the silence and Toby stopped moving backwards.

E.J walked over to the stairs as Masky walked over and took Harry from Toby's back into his arms, before following E.J up and out of sight.

Toby made to follow the two but Slender stopped him.

" **Explain,"**

A few moments of silence passed as Toby faced the faceless entity and tried his best to coherently explain the situation to the best he can.

"SoIwalkintothisstoretobuyamuffinand..."

" **Explain, slower,"**

"So I went into this store to buy a muffin and this horse looking woman and two kids came in, Harry and a fat one that was his cousin and they acted like total shits to him so I chose to visit them on my day so I followed them around to learn more and..."

" **Skip to why you think he's one of us,"**

Telling that Slenderman was getting annoyed Toby skipped to the part when he was inside the house.

"The uncle, also a total shit, had left for something at work so when I went in I killed his visiting sister, again a total shit, and was checking that no one could see in when the Aunt crept up on me. She had one of those meat knives that Jeff normally uses, you know, the big ones that he lugs around when he..."

" **TOBY!"**

"HarrymadeknivesstabhisAuntwithhismind..."

" **Again, slower." Slenderman interrupted him, who had begun massaging his temple with a couple of long, bony fingers.**

"Harry made knives stab his Aunt with his mind and his eyes were glowing like when Sally plays with her victims but they looked like they were clouded red,"

Toby finished, standing still, looking up at The faceless man who had still to show any signs of interest, but if the slight shift in posture had meant anything then he might have been somewhat intrigued.

"Cool," Ben said, finally looking interested.

"Well that's something you don't see every day," Eyeless Jack spoke from behind Toby as he jumped at E.J's sudden reappearance.

"No, it isn't. Well, this could be fun," L.J said, snatching the spinning top from his finger and grinning wildly, revealing his sharp, shark-like, teeth.

" **Nobody will be speaking to the boy until we are certain that he will be staying here,"**

Slenderman interrupted them before continuing.

" **I have a suspician of what he may be, but I shall have to see him myself to tell. In anycase none of you will be seeing him until I have done such a ... Where has Sally gone?"**

Slenderman broke away when he realised that their resident ghost had left their company and no one had noticed.

"Uh oh," Toby said, before turning on his heel and taking the stairs two at a time.

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Harry curled up tight instinctively under the blanket, he always did this when he was able to get warm in the nest of raggedy blankets that his Aunt and Uncle had supplied him with. Nestling his head into the soft pillow he tried to fall back into the peaceful dream he had had about the teen named Toby who had taken him away from them and even killed Aunt Marge.

'Wait, when was anything in here soft or comfortable...'

'When did I get a pillow?'

Harry sat upright and looked at the clean bed he now lay in.

He froze, trying to remember where he was and what he was doing here.

Memories flooded back to him as he remembered everything that had happened.

Being followed by Toby;

Toby finding him in his cupboard;

Toby killing Aunt Marge and himself killing Aunt Petunia when the voice talked to him;

Toby taking him to the forest nearby and...

He couldn't remember much after that so he assumed that he had passed out then and woken up just the now.

Harry looked around the room, he couldn't see much because someone had taken off his glasses.

Squinting at his sides he tried to see if there were any bedside cabinets that they may be resting on, but nothing on them looked like his glasses.

"Here." A soft voice said from somewhere on his right. His glasses were placed in his line of sight by a small hand belonging to, and if the voice was anything to go by, a young girl.

"T-t-thanks," Harry mumbled, putting the glasses on and turning to the unknown person.

She was around his height, with long brown hair that curled in waves slightly as it fell down her back. She was holding a brown bear close to her with her other arm and began hugging the bear with both arms once she had given Harry his glasses.

Harry looked up at the girl's face and saw that she had the same sort of shade of green eyes as him. This gave him a bit of happiness as he had never seen anyone else with them.

It must have shown on his face because the girl smiled a toothy grin and tilted her head slightly.

That was when Harry noticed the blood that had dried into her hair on the top of her head.

"Erm, y-y-you've g-got..." Harry trailed off, he wasn't sure how to best tell her.

"It's fine. You should see Jeff, he looks a lot freakier," She giggled as she sat cross-legged on the end of the bed, facing him.

"I'm Sally, what's your name?" she asked. Still smiling happily, which put Harry on edge, the last time Harry had seen anyone smile that way was when Dudley had gotten a BB gun. He had proceeded to shoot at Harry for the entire afternoon until he had run out of pellets.

"H-harry," He spoke timidly, shying away.

"Hi Harry, want to play?" She giggled again but stopped shortly after when Harry looked down and away from her.

"Whats wrong? Don't you want to play?" She asked, scootching forward a little on the bed closer to him.

"Freaks like m-me aren't allowed to p-play with others..." he mumbled softly, facing the covers and not looking at Sally.

"You don't look like a freak, Jeff and L.J look a lot weirder than you. Sooooo, why do you think you're a freak?" She cocked her head to the side and stared intently at Harry with a curious look of determination in her eyes that only a child her age could pull off.

Harry made the mistake of looking at her and found that he couldn't look away. Sighing slightly he shifted around a bit more so that he was facing her.

"S-sometimes things happen a-around me, and when they do my Aunt and Uncle w-would lock me in the cupboard under the stairs for being an unnatural freak," He had half mumbled the second half but Sally had obviously heard him and was sitting still with an angry look in her eyes.

"Sally?" Harry poked her in the shoulder.

"Hmm, what?" Sally snapped herself out of her anger and focused back on Harry.

"You zoned out for a minute," Harry said, mildly happier now that his stutter had receded a bit.

"Oh, so..." Sally tried to remember the conversation, "...when you say you can do things, what do you mean?" She asked.

"Well, there was this one thing I did when they were having lunch outside. I was picking at the flowers and when I picked this one up I did something and my Aunt and Uncle freaked out. Aunt Petunia went as white as sheet, she looked like a ghost and..."

"Ghosts aren't really white, they look normal like. Like me, I'm a ghost and I don't look like a sheet," Sally interrupted, holding her arms up out wide as if declaring something to a crowd.

"Ok." Harry said slowly before continuing, "...Uncle Vernon was so angry that I did it that he locked me in my cupboard and didn't give me anything until next week," Harry finished.

"What did you do?" Sally asked again, resting her head ontop of the teddy bear she looked curiously at Harry

"Well..." Harry began but was cut off again.

"Can you show me?" She asked, looking hopefully up at Harry.

"Well... I guess, but I'd need a flower," he turned to look at the cabinet next to the bed to see if there was any there. Finding none he turned back to where Sally was sat, but she had gone and her bear was sitting there by itself.

Harry looked round the room to see where she had gone.

"Here," Sally said, suddenly at his side with an orange lily in her hand.

Jumping at her sudden reappearance Harry looked at her in shock.

"H-h-how d-d-did you do that?" He asked. Wishing that his stutter would go away again.

"I told you silly, I'm a ghost," She giggled more and placed the lily in Harry's hands, before skipping back to where she had sat before and started watching him eagerly.

Harry looked at her then back to the flower in his hand. Staring intently at it, it's petals began to open and close like a many lipped clam.

Sally's jaw dropped open in surprise.

Harry smiled slightly, not taking his eyes off the flower for a moment, and he began making it spin on his palm. Looking up at Sally his smile widened slightly. Where as his Aunt and Uncle had acted like he was an abomination of nature, Sally looked like she might explode in excitement.

It was then that he noticed that blood was slowly running down her face from a small groove on her head.

Gasping, the flower stopped spinning and he motioned at Sally about her head.

"S-S-Sally, y-you're head," he said, fumbling over the words slightly.

"Oh!" She tried to look at the trickling blood, "I told you, it's fine. See?"

She screwed up her face slightly and it seemed to disappear, leaving her skin unmarred.

"Whoa," It was Harry's turn to gape in surprise, "You mean you really are a ghost?" He looked mildly awestruck at the little girl.

"Yep," she simply said, giving a nod and another wide smile.

Before either of them could say a thing Toby burst into the room, out of breath and, tripping over his feet in his hurry.

Picking himself off the floor he looked over at the two on the bed, trying to catch his breath.

"You..." Pant, "You oh..." Pant, "Ok?" he asked between gasps.

Harry nodded whilst Sally bounced up and down on the bed.

"Harry's a magician! Harry's a magician!" she chanted happily on the bed, smiling wildly.

Before Toby could get another word in Masky strolled into the room.

"Slendy wants to see you and Harry in the dining room." He said, his monotomous voice was oddly calming Harry found.

"Right, right," Toby said, having caught his breath.

He motioned for Harry to come over to him.

Sliding off the bed he said he waved bye to sally and moved over to Toby, who led him out into the hall by his hand.

He heard Masky telling Sally that 'Slendy' just wanted to see the two of them so he assumed that she had tried to follow them out.

Toby kept a hold of Harry's hand as the two walked down the corridor to the stairs that lead down to the living room, wary of anyone who would be trying to jump them before they got too Slendy.

The living room was empy by the time they got down, though Toby thought that he could see Ben peering at them from behind the static of the TV.

Leading Harry passed the empty room into the hallway, he continued towards the kitchen and turned right through a pair of double doors.

A long dining table sat in the middle of the room with chairs in equal spaces along either side. The lights on the side of the room were turned off. The only light coming in the room was that from the open door and three hanging lamps that ran the length of the table. As they walked through the doors behind them shut, leaving only the dim lights overhead to illuminate the room.

Sitting at the end, hidden partly in darkness and opposite the newcomers was a man in a plain black suit with red tie. He was a tall figure. Tall enough so that his facial features, or lack there of as Toby knew, were obscured by the light but Harry could see his long, bone white hands loosely clasped infront of him.

The Slenderman looked down the table at the newcomers

" **Sit down,"** Harry wasn't sure that he had heard the man speak, it was more like the words were said as if next to him, not from a discernible direction.

None the less, Harry did as he was asked and took the nearest seat. Toby sat down in the seat next to him, looking between Harry and The Slenderman.

" **What is your name, little one?"** Harry still didn't understand how the figure could speak that way.

"H-harry sir. Harry Potter," He spoke, trying to keep his voice calm. Even though he hadn't been told who this was, he had a feeling that this was Toby's boss.

Toby tried to sit still, his tick didn't help this and he was prone to fidgeting.

'This is ok. This is good. He's only making sure I got the name right. A few other questions here and there to make sure that Harry's not a norm' and we should be ok,'

" **Do you know who I am?"** Slenderman asked, and Toby relaxed a bit more.

'All he has to do is keep a level head. Well both of us really, I kinda messed up my explanation a bit didn't I, but that's ok. Slendy's just making sure that Harry understands everything,' Toby relaxed a bit in his seat, it didn't look like Slendy was getting hostile. This wasn't going too bad.

"J-jack Skellingt-ton?" Harry answered and Toby sat rigid in his seat.

'Don't laugh, don't laugh. DO NOT LAUGH!' he thought desperately as he started to shake slightly. His lips curling against the wishes of his straight face.

It was at this point he thought he heard Slendy let out an audible sigh, which did not help his situation one bit as snickers started to escape through ground teeth.

" **Just laugh already Toby,"** The mildly irritated, partly amused tone of voice... Or whatever it was that Slendy communicated with.

"No, no, It's. It's outta my system. I'm good," he said, chuckling slightly.

" **As you probably gathered, no, my name is not Jack Skellington. I go by a few names; 'The Slenderman', being the one most assign to me but many here have shortened it to 'Slendy'. I am also referred to as 'The Operator', though that one is used less than the first. Any of these will do when referring to me,"**

"Oh, ok. Sorry," Harry said timidly.

Slenderman waved a long bony hand at this; as if he were casting aside his apology.

" **Regardless of what you may call me, there are a few things I must clear up regarding you,"** He steepled his long fingers.

" **Do you know what you are?"** He asked.

"W-what do you mean?" Harry asked tentatively in reply.

Slenderman looked down at the boy in mild surprise, he had expected the child to have some sort of idea about his birthright. Considering the light that the Wizarding world held the boy in.

" **You belong to a sub-race of humanity known as 'The Magicals', you can probably guess why they have been dubbed that way. This race has identified themselves as 'Witches' and 'Wizards' as due to their ability which allows them to call upon an ancient force that they have dubbed as 'Magic',"**

Slenderman paused to look at Harry, but Harry's gaze had fallen onto the seat opposite him and he was shaking mildly.

"Wait, magics real?" Toby broke the silence, looking at Slendy in mild disbelief. He knew that his boss was unlikely to lie, most often than not he would opt to say the truth as bluntly as it came and avoid the hassle.

" **Yes, Toby, magic as you would know it is real. But that is not the point here. As Harry was born from that world we are left with a unique situation. There have never been one of us from their world before,"**

Slenderman paused again, this time to let Harry ask or interject with any objections he may have.

"But, I can't be... I mean, well..." He trailed off, thinking about what he had shown Sally, the times when he had found himself away from Dudley and his gang when he was being chased... and what The Slenderman said started to make sense to him, it would explain a lot, but... then why was he abandoned with the Dursleys.

Harry could hear a faint, high pitched laugh.

The small child's gaze had not left the chair.

In the corners of his eyes, Slenderman could see a mild watering. Though he could tell it was not from sadness, nor pain, but from anger.

Anger at those who had left him with his relatives in the first place.

Slenderman would have been lying if he said he wasn't curious about what might happen.

" **This world, as I mentioned, has existed for quite some time. A few years back I began looking a bit deeper into their world. I had left it be for some time, however, something, around seven years ago something happened that piqued my interest that prompted me to look into your world further than I had before.**

 **There was a war going on, apparently, however, none of this was ever revealed to the mass public and this war was the event that caused me to keep a closer eye on their rebuilding of their world and community. They've been doing quite well for themselves actually, sorted everything out, been idly going on fairly successfully for a few years now,"**

Slenderman paused for another time. He could tell that Harry was about to speak.

Unknown to the other two in the room, the voice had started to talk to Harry again, murmuring to him about those that had left him there.

" ** _You see, even a world of people like you don't want you... You matter so... little to them that they don't even send someone to you to tell_ you _about what you are..."_**

"You mean there is a whole world out there. A whole world of people like me and they just left me there... left me there to rot?"

In his voice anger could be heard underlying each word.

Toby leant back in his seat. The sides of Harry's eyes were turning bloodshot and remembering what had happened last time he saw that he wasn't too keen to be within hitting range.

The chair that sat opposite Harry suddenly flew into the air and slamed against the wall of the room, breaking apart in the process. Shards of broken wood littered the floor and some larger pieces were embedded in the wall and hanging from the lamps that adjourned the sides.

Toby slowly reached out and laid a hand on Harry's shoulder. The small child turned to look at him and he could clearly see the boy's eyes.

The red gleam was turning his pupil's snake-like, a dark slit amongst the red mist that blurred the iris. The boy looked vastly different like that, the wide eyed boy was gone and a being of hatred was sitting in his place.

His hair was starting to rise slightly; like a balloon had been passed over him.

Harry must have recognised him, though, as the red slowly receded and his eyes returned to their normal green.

Harry looked between Toby and the now destroyed chair.

Before he could stutter out an apology Slenderman cut him off.

" **Accidental magic, as it is dubbed, is common in distressing times. Think that this counts as such a time,"** he said before continuing. " **However, this has brought a new situation to my attention and acts as helpful segway into the next topic of discussion,"**

He straightened in his chair.

" **There seems to be a soul shard residing in you.**

 **For how long it has been there or its nature of being there I do not know. However, I do know that it is a parasitic entity created from acts of darkness. An abomination in both this and the magical world,"**

Harry looked at the Slenderman in resigned fear.

"They were right then. My relatives. I am a freak of nature,"

Toby tightened his grip on Harry's shoulder.

"No, didn't you hear what he said? The soul shard thingy is the thing that's wrong here, not you... Right?" he asked turning to Slendy, though the worry in his voice was discernable.

" **Correct, and this is where that segway comes in,"** Slenderman answered.

" **We are apart from the rest of humanity. They exist in their belief that the supernatural exists only in folklore and myths. As you have probably gathered, this is wrong.**

 **Due to their ignorance humanity would have died out centuries ago if it were not for us. We exist primarily to act as a guard against malevolent creatures and beings. The same for items that could release such forces.**

 **However, do not make the mistake that many are keen to do. Our nature is that of killers,"**

Harry sat frozen slightly in his seat.

" **A fair few of those residing here started as killers. Jeff, the Jacks, Helen. Even Toby here, though I gathered that you already knew that,"**

Harry nodded slightly, he had seen Toby kill Aunt Marge after all.

" **This brings me onto one of the final topics,"** he leaned forward slightly so that the bottom his face just caught the edge of the light.

" **I am going to ask you a series of questions about what happened when Toby came to your home. I would like you to answer these questions in one word if possible,"**

Harry nodded to show that he understood.

" **Very well then. When did you first see Toby?"**

"Store,"

" **What was your first impression of him?"**

"Weird,"

" **Did you ever get another look at him before tonight?"**

"Once,"

" **Tonight, when Toby came to your home, did he say anything to you?"**

"Yes,"

" **What did he say?"**

"Stay,"

" **Did you?"**

"No,"

This was the only answer that he looked mildly worried about.

" **What did you see him do?"**

"Kill A..."

" **One word Harry."**

Harry nodded again.

" **What did you see him do?"**

"Kill,"

" **Who?"**

"Aunt,"

" **How did that make you feel?"**

"..."

" **How did it make you feel?"** Slenderman prompted.

"Happy,"

" **What did you want to do?"**

"Laugh,"

" **Why?"**

"Free,"

Slenderman leaned back in his seat.

" **Do you remember what I said about the inhabitants of this place?"**

"Yes,"

" **Do you remember what I said that we do?"**

"Yes," he nodded as he spoke.

" **Then you realise that it is our mission to do what we do to maintain the balance of this world, acting as a necessary evil against a greater evil. The soul shard that resides within you must be removed before you are allowed to stay,"**

Toby let out a breath that he hadn't realised he had been holding in as Slendy spoke and he turned to Harry, who looked equally relieved.

Slenderman stood up and walked to a pair of doors behind him.

" **Toby, take Harry to the Infirmary and wait for me, I shall be just a moment,"**

As Toby led Harry to the doors they had come through Slenderman opened the other and Jeff, Ben, Laughing Jack and The Puppeteer fell in.

" **Tell E.J that we shall require him in the Infirmary momentarily,"** he said to the small pile up on the floor.

"Let's just let him deal with that," Toby told Harry as he opened the door.

Sally, Masky, Hoodie and E.J were stood waiting on the other side.

"I heard, come on," the one wearing the blue mask with what looked like congealing ink running out the eye sockets called out to the tall figure and then to the pair before walking off down the hall.

"Well, you heard the demon, let's go,"

Toby steered Harry past the others and led him down the hall after Jack. Sally fell in line next to Harry, skipping every few steps. The white masked man walked a few steps behind them, muttering softly to the yellow hooded person keeping pace who gave no indication that he was listening other than a nod of his head every so often.

Toby took Harry down past the kitchen and through the living room, and through a door on the otherside that led down a corridor further into the mansion.

Eyeless Jack was standing outside a door halfway down the hall, waiting for them.

He pushed the door open with his foot and walked in before the group had reached him and walked over to the table that he kept the painkillers and looked out a few boxes.

"Sit him there," he said, still facing the workbench and pointing to a bed between them.

Harry sat on the edge and looked between Toby and the masked figure that was now looking in the drawers and pulling out more things and a few syringes.

When Harry looked back to Toby and the others Slenderman had appeared in the doorway without anyone noticing, standing outside so tht Harry couldn't see anything above halfway up his tie.

" **Could you four please wait outside whilst Jack and I remove the soul shard?"**

As they walked out of the room Toby looked back at Harry and nodded at him, to show that it would be ok. Or at least he hoped it would be.

Harry looked at the teens retreating back before looking back at the person who was filling one of the syringes with something he couldn't see. A door closing told him that Slenderman had entered the room so he turned to look and froze again.

He hadn't seen his face during the time he had spent with him and Harry could now see that even if he had it wouldn't have mattered.

Where his face should have been was a blank canvas as pale as the empty white skin that his hands had.

The figure bent down so that his face was near level with his own.

" **Are you ready?"**

Before Harry could reply the masked person in the room gave a sound of confirmation and Harry felt a slight jabbing in his arm, as for the second time in recent memory the room went black and he passed out.

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Author notes.

Aaah, cliff hangers, aren't they lovely.

So yeah, chapter 3 done, I uploaded chapter 1 yesterday and again, the response was awesome.

I'm really enjoying writing this and I hope you are too.

Well, you're reading this so I guess you do.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I look forward to posting another soon.

Peace out.

SteamGeek01.

CreepyPasta's mentioned and their owners, to my knowledge.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanningK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – ok, this one I have no bloody clue about, I can't find anything to tell me who started it so I can't put an owner thing in like I did the others.

For future uploads, I'm just gonna post this on all of them, even if some weren't mentioned.


	4. Chapter 4, At the Mansion

Chapter 4, At The Mansion.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any Creepypastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

Author's note.

Chapter 4, here we go, just finished chapter 3 and decided to get a head start in case I fall behind with uploads since I've got 2 and 3 finished here.

I won't go into much detail for this chapter for the now, but I will say that I plan to introduce a few things of my own to this universe and explain how Harry is going to stay at the Mansion from a legal point. Sorta.

Also, there are a few perspective shifts through this chapter so if it gets a bit confusing mention it and I'll try to make things better in future updates.

Again, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy. The response to the other chapters I've uploaded has been amazing and hearing back from you helps keep me going with this.

SteamGeek01.

Additional note, 28/07/2018.

I've gone back over this chapter and fixed any grammatical errors that I could find.

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Slenderman straightened as Harry fell backwards onto the bed; Jack carefully removed the needle and tossed it into a metal bin next to the desk before turning to face the tall figure.

"This kid apparently killed his Aunt by throwing knives with his mind, did he?" The cannibal sighed and tugged his mask into a more comfortable place on his face, "I don't buy it. I mean, you can do stuff, fair enough, but a _kid,_ Toby's lost it; If he even still has it..."

 **"It is hard to believe, yes, however, Toby is correct that this child did kill his Aunt and you could say that he did use his mind to do it,"**

"Really, well, weirder has happened," he muttered, "So what do you need me here for, kids out cold for a while?"

 **"Could you look out the restraints and secure Harry please?"**

Slenderman stood in the middle of the room, facing the now sleeping figure as Jack fastened restraints against Harry's arms and legs before he was dismissed.

"You know that those won't be that good if he has telekinesis, right?" Jack mentioned as he approached the door.

 **"I know, it's a good thing that it's not telekinetic abilities but rather magic,"**

"Yeah... wait, what?" Jack turned back around as Slenderman shut the door and locked it behind him.

Jack stood facing the door in disbelief.

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Toby paced the corridor as Sally, Hoodie and Masky leant against the wall.

"Harry'll be ok, he's a magician," Sally chimed in as Toby passed them once more.

Toby hummed to show that he had heard her but gave no other sounds save for his sneakers on the carpet.

"Yeah... wait, what?"

Jack had just come out of the room and the door had been promptly shut behind him.

The four looked at Jack before he turned and cornered Toby who was at the end of the hall.

"What did he mean by, 'magic'?" he asked, stalking up on him.

Toby took in a breath and faced him, when being cornered by an eyeless demon it tended to be a bit off-putting.

"Apparently Harry is a wizard," he said simply.

Silence hung between them as they took in what Toby had said.

"I told you, Harry's a magician. You should see what he can do with a flower," Sally said, gently brushing the hair of her teddy with her hand.

Masky and Hoodie looked down at the small ghost between them then back to Toby.

"What?" Hoodie asked, him speaking was a rarity on its own.

"Apparently Harry is a wizard and there is an entire community for them as well,"

Toby told the four what had been said in the dining room. When he got to the point when Harry had thrown the chair across the room everyone's jaw, save for Sally who looked curiously puzzled, dropped.

Toby continued on with his story until they were caught up and at the end, they all looked... well he couldn't tell because they had their masks on but he assumed they had varying looks of surprise.

Before any of them could say anything else the floor and walls shook as a flash of red lit up the edges of the door before fading away as suddenly as it had appeared.

Before the light had faded Toby had pushed past Jack and Masky and was running to the door.

Slenderman straightened as he finished his task.

On the floor sat a bell-shaped glass container that held the origin of the fading red light.

He gingerly picked up the small glass dome on the floor and placed it carefully down on the workbench before moving to open the door.

As he opened the door Toby flew past, he had tried to grasp the door handle to stop himself but since the door had been opened he had lost his handhold and skidded past.

Slenderman stooped down and exited the room before looking at the small crowd amassed outside the room.

Toby straightened up and turned to face the tall figure,

"So, how did it go?" he asked, trying to seem nonchalant as if he hadn't just sped past the door as the others came closer.

Slenderman turned to face the others, leaving Toby's question in the air for a moment.

 **"Prepare a space for a new addition in the attic, the item is rather small but make sure there is enough space not to affect anything else,"** he said facing Hoodie, who nodded and walked away.

 **"Harry should be fine,"** He said, answering Toby's question, **"... He should still be sleeping, but you may go in. Do not touch the container on the desk,"**

Slenderman stepped out of the way to allow Toby and Sally to sidle into the room with Jack following shortly after but placed a hand on Masky's shoulder to halt him as he made to follow.

 **"I sent Jeff and Laughing Jack out with Smile to get food, make sure that when they return they know not to harm our newest arrival,"**

With that, he disappeared and left Masky alone in the corridor.

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Jeff kicked a can as he walked down the road, L.J following shortly behind holding Smile's leash.

Slendy had caught them trying to listen in and said he'd deal with them once he had dealt with other matters at hand, he had no idea what he had done with Ben and the Puppeteer as they had been sent off before they could find out.

The walk into town didn't last long. They had put on glamour's to hide what they really look like, a bonus of being a 'Creep', before they had left the forest so they didn't have to worry too much about people freaking out.

"I get why he wouldn't want your pale ass around the house, but why lump me with you and send us to get a pizza of all things. At least give us an assignment or something worthwhile," Jeff grumbled as he picked up a stone and threw it into the trees.

Laughing Jack exchanged a glance with Smile before turning back to the grumbling teen, who was in the process of throwing more stones into trees.

"Kinda proving his point there, unless those trees are threatening to reveal our world to humanity," the clown smirked and ducked as a stone went flying over his head.

"Oh, shut up!" said Jeff, but he didn't continue his ranting.

After a few more moments Jack broke the silence.

"So, aside from what we've heard from Toby, and what we were able to hear before Slendy busted us, what do you think?" He said, pausing as Smile sniffed around some bushes before relieving himself.

"What do you mean? Kid's done something weird and Toby's brought him in, Slendy's not ripped him apart so what do I care? As long as the brat doesn't fuck things up around the place, why should I care?" The rhetoric he ended on signalled that he wasn't in the mood for talking; he rarely was to be fair.

The walk into town didn't take much longer after that, a few glances were given their way but they looked nothing more than a moody teen and his friend walking a bored-looking dog so not another thought was spared on them.

Once they passed through the town and started walking down the road toward the forest Jack stopped suddenly.

"Weren't we supposed to do something," he asked Jeff.

"Yeah, get pizza for dinner, why?" he replied.

"Do you have the pizza?"

"No, why would you think I... we forgot the pizza," Jeff facepalmed, before growling and walking back to town with Jack sighing and following suit.

"You want me to go in, or do you want to?" Jack asked when they reached the pizza shop.

"I got this," Jeff replied pushing through the door.

Jack waited outside with Smile as Jeff went in for the food.

The owner and staff of the place were on good terms with a number of the 'Creeps', though they knew nothing of what they really were, and didn't mind Smile coming in if it was after hours.

However, since there was still a few hours of light and a few tardy patrons being served he couldn't take Smile inside.

Jeff walked up to the counter where someone was crouched down, sorting something on the shelf below.

"Hi, welcome to Runic Pizza Parlour, how may I... oh, hey Jeff. What's up?" Owen asked.

Runic was fairly new by most standards, only been up for around 5 years. The owner Richard, 'Raz' to those close to him, had started it up with a few friends when they moved in since there wasn't much in the way of quick food so it was a safe venue.

"Sup 'Omega'?" Jeff replied, using the nickname that Owen was used to, "Just on a food run, no one feels like cooking,"

"No prob, usual I take it?" he said, writing down the order that was often placed.

"Yeah, and an extra cheese. Got a new guy round, might stay, might not though," Jeff added on, not knowing what else to say about the arrival.

"Cool, 'Raz' is out the now but Trish and Gavin are working in the back if you want to say hi?" 'Owen asked, gesturing over shoulder towards the kitchen.

"Naah, me and L.J gotta get back," he said, not wanting to take longer than they needed to.

"Sure, I'll say you said hi," Owen said, before moving through a pair of double doors towards the kitchen.

Jeff milled around and nodded at a few other patrons eating in when they looked his way.

"Right here you are," A new voice said as the doors opened, the corner of Gavin's purple jacket could be seen as he got ready for a quick batch for those who ordered delivery.

"Thanks, Trish," Jeff said, moving back to the counter.

"No prob, also the pups arrived. Came in yesterday," She said, handing over the boxes once Jeff handed over the notes.

"Really, cool," He replied, not knowing what else to say.

"Yeah, 'Elu' and '90's',"She said.

"Oh, cool. Well, we got to be off, see ya," and Jeff left, struggling to wave a bit with the boxes of pizza in his arms.

"Smooth. Totally normal. You so got that," Jack smirked at Jeff squeezing through the door.

"Oh, shut up!" Jeff snapped as they began walking back to the mansion.

"Seriously, you have no idea how funny you look," Jack laughed at Jeff trying to work the pizza boxes into a manageable position.

"Oh shut up you Pennywise knock off, it takes effort to do this," he growled at his snickering companion.

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"I spy with my little eye something beginning with..." Sally said, drawing out the last syllable as she looked around the room.

While waiting for Harry to wake up she had started the game with Toby and Masky, Jack opting to not play on account of not being able to see properly had begun cleaning the room after he had taken the restraints off Harry.

"...'G'!" Sally ended.

"Glasses," Toby and Masky said in unison.

It had been Sally's word for the last three turns.

Sally laughed as Toby let out a soft chuckle as Masky and Jack sighed.

As Toby took his turn Masky spared another glance at the glass container on the desk.

The container was shaped almost like a thick glass bell, with no visible seam. Inside the container was almost like the inside of a plasma ball, if he had to give a comparison, thin spindles of vivid red connected to a pulsating sphere that almost looked like a shrunken eyeball made of pure blood.

Masky would have shivered at the sight of the thing but he was used to that sort of thing.

Looking back at Toby Masky found himself wondering about how the hell he had found someone that Slenderman would accept into the mansion. Now that he could, Masky found himself looking at the unconscious figure.

He looked... odd. It was the only word that could fit him. His skin looked like it was a mixture of spending too much time in the sun and then staying indoors in total darkness for prolonged periods of time.

He was small in stature but looked like he could hold his own if he knew how to fight. Even his hair seemed to be on a course to match Toby's own in how wild it grew.

Then there was the scar on his forehead.

Even from there, Masky could tell it was about as old as the boy himself. But the fact that it looked as though it was a few days old, though when Masky had first seen the child the scar had been as dull as a scar that old should have been, had him looking back to the thing next to him on the desk.

"Door," Sally said and Toby shook his head.

"Nope, that begins with 'D', the letters 'M',"

"No, there is someone at the door," Sally hopped off the chair and opened it just as Hoodie had raised a hand to knock.

"Come in," she said in a sing-song voice and skipped back to her chair by Harry's bed.

"Yeah?" Masky asked his partner in crime.

As the norm Hoodie didn't say anything, rather walked over and carefully picked up the container with a gloved hand and left the room.

"I'd better make sure nothing happens," Masky said to Jack as he followed Hoodie out the door.

Jack nodded as he went back to tidying the workbench.

"Was it 'Mask'?" Sally asked.

"Yep, your turn," Toby said.

"Ok, I spy with my little eye..."

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Harry was asleep again and going through nearly the same thing he had done when he first woke up with a moment of wondering why his bed was soft, before he remembered where he was.

Though, for the time being, Harry was rather content with just lying there in the warmth.

Until he heard voices from either side of him.

Slowly opening his eyes, he found he couldn't see much as someone had taken his glasses off again and the overhead light made opening his eyes harder.

"Ok, I spy with my little eye something beginning with 'G'!"

"Glasses," two voices rang out.

Harry could recognise Toby and Sally's voices but there was another he couldn't place but sounded vaguely familiar, it was sort of gravelly but had hidden softer tones.

"You've chosen 'Glasses' for the past 4 turns Sal, it's not exactly hard to work it out. Besides, why don't you draw for a bit, that game is starting to get on my nerves,"

Harry moved a bit, trying to sit up.

His movement didn't go unnoticed by Toby who helped him upright.

"Morning, welcome back to the land of the living. Is it Morning, Jack, what time is it?" A blurred Toby turned to look over his shoulder at another blob in the room.

"Like 9 or something... why did you ask me? You realise I can't see the clock properly right?" the voice Harry had trouble placing earlier replied.

"Oh yeah," Toby said.

"It's half 8," Sally chimed in.

"Thanks, Sally," said Toby as he handed Harry his glasses.

"Thanks," Harry mumbled

Before he could ask or say anything else Jack had walked over and placed a hand on Harry's forehead and shoved a small torch and box into Toby's hands.

"Hold that," he said.

"Erm..." Harry started.

"Shhhhh," Jack cut across, taking the torch back from Toby and shone it in his eyes.

"E.J is our resident doctor. Just let him check stuff," Toby told him.

"Ok, what are...?" Harry tried again.

"Shush," Jack said. "I'm concentrating,"

Harry waited as Jack took one of his wrists and nodded his head as if counting.

"Ok, he should be ok," Jack said, swapping the torch for the box and keeping Harry's wrist in his grasp, "Look at Toby a moment,"

Harry looked over to Toby, wondering why, when something pricked into the under of his arm.

Jack had taken a small sample of his blood.

"Ok, done here," he said, tossing a plaster and a butter candy at him, taking the torch from Toby and walking back to the workbench.

Harry put the plaster on and pocketed the candy for later.

"So, what happened?" he asked, turning to Toby for answers.

"Well, after Slendy sent us out we just sort of milled around outside. Jack came out not long after and I filled everyone in on what he said in the dining room. We came back in after a red light shone from in here and Slendy opened the door," Toby said.

"So... the soul shard... is gone?" he said, slowly, hopefully.

"Should be, Slendy's got it locked up in this glass jar thing and Hoodie came to take it not too long ago," Toby said.

Harry didn't say anything to that but smiled softly at finally being free from it.

"Oh, by the way, I'd recommend staying there for a bit. The anaesthetic will have made you a bit light-headed," Jack called over.

"Yeah, a bit..." Harry said, "Toby, does your boss not have a face or is the stuff messing with my head still?"

"Oh he's faceless alright; completely blank," Toby said.

"Ok, anything else I should know about people?" Harry asked.

"I'm pretty much blind and don't have eyes," Jack called over.

"Really?" Harry asked.

"Yep," Jack said. With that he spun round in his chair and pulled his mask back onto the top of his head, flattening his dark brown hair and revealing the holes filled with a congealed, tar like substance that was running down his face.

Jack smiled when Harry recoiled slightly. It was a fairly shocking sight if he was being honest.

"Ok. Wait, if you can't see, how were you able to check my eyes earlier?" Harry asked, mildly confused.

"It's kinda hard to describe, it's mainly like I'm colour blind, but I also can't see definitive features. I can see edges and anything that stands out, but it takes effort to see things properly.

I have to concentrate to do that and it gives me a headache if I do it too often," Jack rattled off, pulling the mask back down enough so that his eyes were covered but his mouth could still be seen.

"Also, Jeff has a permanent smile and no eyelids so there's that.

Don't get on his bad side either, just try to avoid him if he seems moody unless you have to talk to him or get him for something.

Don't take _any_ candy from L.J for a while.

I'll introduce you to Ben in a moment and if you see a statue that looks like him in your dreams mention it to me; he likes to freak a few people out with that." Toby started counting off.

"Hoodie doesn't talk much so don't take it personal if he doesn't talk to you.

Helen likes to draw and paint in peace but if you have a question he'll answer it for you, just don't pester him relentlessly.

Smile can be a bit creepy but he shouldn't harm you unless you give him reason to.

The Puppeteer is pretty creepy as well, but since you've lasted here this long he shouldn't bother you too much. He's pretty mellow."

Toby leant back in his chair.

"That's pretty much it; aside from Slendy. He checks in on things every so often. He'll probably give you a better rundown on how things work around here later,"

"What about the other guy in the white mask?" Harry asked.

"Oh, Masky, yeah he's fine. Pretty much the same as Helen, don't bother him too much but he's ok to ask stuff,"

"Ok, so don't be annoying; steer clear of Jeff when he's grumpy; don't take L.J's candy; don't bother Helen too much when she's painting…" Harry began to recap.

"He. When _He's_ painting, Helen's a dude," Jack cut across him.

"O-ok, when he's painting," Harry started again slowly, "Tell you if Ben is in my dreams as a statue; Hoodie doesn't like to talk much; Smile is ok as long as I don't provoke him and the same for the Puppeteer; Masky and Slendy are fine and Jack doesn't have eyes," Harry finished. "Did I miss anything?"

"Not really, but avoid the attic. It's where we keep the dangerous stuff that Slendy mentioned earlier… oh, and E.J is a cannibal," Toby said.

"Ok… who's E.J again?" Harry looked at him, mildly alarmed about how the fact that someone ate people could easily slip Toby's mind, but he was getting the idea that Toby was like this a lot.

"That would be me." Jack called over, spinning in his chair and raising a hand, "Don't worry, since you're staying here it means you're permanently of the menu. Until something needs to be removed, in that case, I call dibs on whatever it is,"

Harry didn't know how to properly respond to this so he nodded.

"Yeah, there's two Jack's here so we call Laughing Jack 'L.J' and Eyeless Jack 'E.J', makes sense?" Toby said.

"Yeah, got it," Harry said.

The four of them sat in silence for a while before Sally broke the silence.

"Sooo, Harry, why don't you show them the flower thing?" Sally asked innocently enough, but Jack and Toby had been round her long enough to know she had been holding in that question for a bit.

"Oh, sure. Do you have the…" Harry started but Sally had disappeared before he could finish.

"…and Sally's a ghost," Harry added to the list of things about the inhabitants of the mansion.

"Yep." Jack said, rolling over to the bed. "So what is this flower thing, I think Sally might've mentioned it earlier but she didn't say much about it?"

"It's just this thing that my Aunt and Uncle didn't really like. Apparently, it's my magic doing it but they always told me it was my freakishness," Harry told him, he didn't see any point in lying about anything.

To his surprise, Jack started to laugh.

"You. A freak? They really must have had no idea about what really lurks out there. Though considering it's our job to make sure people don't know about it..." He trailed off and shrugged.

At that point, Sally appeared with the flower from before and gave it to Harry who settled it into the palm of his hand before repeating what he had shown Sally earlier, the leaves opening and closing whilst it spun round the palm of his hand.

Jack was looking on with his jaw hanging open slightly and his head tilted to the side.

Toby however had already seen what Harry was capable of but watched the small show with the same manner of mild awe that he felt wouldn't leave for a while. If Harry would be going to a school to learn to do more of that then he had a feeling Sally would be at Harry's side like a…

'What are those things called again, sticks to the side of ships... Buh... Buh... Bah... Barnacle? Barnacle! Sticking to Harry's side like a barnacle to a ship,'

"You ok Toby?" Jack asked, apparently his search for the word barnacle had shown on his face and he had started to stare at the ceiling, lost in thoughts.

"Yeah, I was just thinking about something," He replied.

"That's a danger all on its own," A young voice called from the doorway.

None of them had noticed that Ben had come in sometime during Harry's demonstration.

Harry's first impression of him was that he spent a fair bit of time indoors on a computer. There were small grey areas under his eyes and he seemed to fidget with his fingers, unlike Toby's tics Harry could tell that there was a pattern to it, even if he didn't know the pattern.

He was wearing a lime green shirt and a pair of pale brown trousers that hung loosely off him. He didn't look older than twelve and the way he spoke had this odd ring to it. Almost as if he was speaking through a filter of some kind, not overly noticeable but there none the less.

"Oh shut up. Harry, this is Ben. Ben, Harry," Toby huffed.

"Hi. Anyway, Slendy's had me prepping the stuff to get Harry over here for the last while; he's waiting in the living room to tell you the plan," Ben said, looking at the flower which had slowed down and stopped since he had made his presence known. He had to admit, it was pretty interesting to see.

"Better not keep him waiting, you good to go?" He asked Harry as he stretched his legs before standing up.

"Yeah," He said, getting out of bed and walking round to Toby's side, holding the edge of the bed in case he felt dizzy like E.J had said.

"Right, lead on Ben," Toby said, putting a hand on Harry's shoulders, thinking the same as Harry, ready to catch him if he fell.

"Surely you know where the living room is, besides, I wanna get to know my new housemate," Ben replied, smirking at Toby.

Toby didn't say anything at that and walked, keeping a hand on Harry's shoulder, out of the room, Ben trailing behind to keep pace with Harry.

"So kiddo, what sort of games do you play?" Ben asked, somehow he made the friendly question seem judgemental.

Harry seemed wary when he answered the few playground games he had joined in with whenever they had gym class in school. His answers caused the boy to laugh a bit.

"A joker, huh? Nah, not those sort of games, what sort of _video_ games do you play?" he said, smirking at Harry.

"Oh. I never played any. I wasn't allowed to," Harry said.

Ben stopped in his tracks, a look of shock on his face.

When he tried to catch up to them they had already entered the living room and The Slenderman was sitting in an armchair waiting for them, a small pile of papers beside him.

" **Thank you, Ben. Would you kindly return to what I asked you to do beforehand?"** Slenderman dismissed him, waving a hand bony hand towards the TV.

"Yeah, ok, got it," Ben said in a mildly strangled voice.

Harry watched in surprise as Ben walked over to the TV before casually climbing into it, the static rippling where he entered before returning back to normal.

"You wanted to see us?" Toby asked Slendy and brought Harry's attention back to him.

" **Yes. Now that the issue of the soul shard has been resolved, the issue of Harry staying here until further notice must be addressed as well,"** Slenderman said, a nod to Harry as he spoke.

"Right, yeah, ok. So, what we gonna do about it? I mean, we haven't had to worry too much about that stuff before so..." Toby drew out, clearly thinking of what to say. "What do we do?"

" **Well, for starters, Harry isn't one of us,"** Slenderman stated, **"The soul shard seems to have been the main factor that led to his Aunt's death, it enhanced the control of Harry's inner magic to move the knives and urged him to do it.**

 **Until Harry starts to kill of his own accord or gains a folklore legend if his own. He could also be turned via sacrifice by a cult, however, I feel that you two may oppose that idea, as would Eyeless Jack now that I think about it,"**

"I'll explain a bit about E.J later," Toby murmered to Harry when he looked at him and Harry nodded, showing that would have been what he would've asked him about.

" **As Harry is not yet a 'CreepyPasta', he shall become a Proxy under my watch until he does become one of us,"**

Slenderman straightened in his chair.

" **Until he has killed, he shall have to continue his life as normal as he would have done. This means in a few years he shall attend a school for Magic. I have set about means to allow Harry to stay here from a mostly legal point of view; I feel that there will be a few in the magical community who will not take kindly to Harry disappearing.**

 **I did not mention this earlier as there was the pressing issue of the soul shard but that world holds Harry in a certain light as the fact that their war ended with an attack on his house where the leader of the terrorist group died after killing his parents yet somehow was unable to kill him,"**

Harry felt his jaw drop slightly.

The Dursley's had told him his parents had died in a car crash, his father was a drunk and his mother a whore. Though since they were lying about a lot of his life he should have guessed that those were lies as well. He quickly realised that he should have been paying attention to Slenderman before focusing back to him.

Thankfully, Slenderman seemed to have stopped talking to allow Harry to process this for a bit. Toby gave his shoulder a quick squeeze of reassurance before turning to Slenderman as well.

" **From a legal standpoint, Harry will have been moved here as part of a witness protection programme of sorts. I have contacted 'The Officer' to help here, as well as have Ben and The Puppeteer help move things along smoothly.**

 **The story that shall be released is that findings from the site will be linked to a few other murders that have occurred over the year and that Harry was able to get away, upon making his way to a station and giving a statement Harry will have been fast tracked to a safe place in America. The Puppeteer is handling the false memories and story whilst Ben is making papers to certify this,"**

Slenderman looked, or rather tilted his head in a way that suggested he was, at Harry.

" **The Officer is one of a few rarities in the world where there is someone who is apart of our world, yet not one of us.**

 **Long ago, they existed as an aid to us, they spread our legend, helped us get things or people we needed and could be seen as a bridging point between our worlds.**

 **The rank or title of these 'Orbiters' if you will occurs every so generation; The Officer is someone in a position of law that can help in certain situations, like this. There are a few others that you may meet in the future, 'The Bard', 'The Playwright', and 'The StoryTeller'. They aid us in our fight to keep darker forces at bay; I shall go into greater detail later once the matter at hand here has been dealt with,"**

Harry nodded to show he understood, Slenderman had said a lot and this seemed like it would be important to know in the future. Whilst taking this is and making sure would remember it, Harry found himself staring at a small tear on the fourth wall in the room.

"Ok, so it sounds like you've gotten Harry coming here sorted out." Toby said, drawing Harry's attention away from the wall. "So what's going to be done about him staying here?"

" **Aah, yes. Since he is not of legal age he will need a legal guardian,"** Slenderman spoke, raising a long finger towards the ceiling.

"Ok, makes sense. So who's it going to be, you?" Toby asked, shrugging.

" **No. I do not exist in the world the same way that you or most of the others do, so therefore I cannot,"** he lowered the finger in Toby's direction. **"You are,"**

Toby blinked. Aside from the occasional tic, he didn't move, though his eyes did slowly get wider.

Harry had the feeling that if the Slenderman could smile he would be. The overall impression he had gotten from Toby was that he was a motor mouth and couldn't sit still for long. He would have been mildly shocked about it if he wasn't shocked by what The Slenderman had said himself.

" **Harry Potter, meet your new guardian and, since he is far too young to be your father, brother Toby Rogers, better known to the world as Ticci Toby,"** Slenderman clasped his hands together and leant back as he watched Toby's reaction.

Toby, who hadn't moved an inch, started to come back to his senses.

"Y-you mean. You mean I'm his. His guardian. I'm his Brother?" A smile started to grow on his face. He turned to look at Harry who had a similar smile playing at his lips.

"Oh god. Well, this'll be interesting,"

Masky and Hoodie had walked in from the stairs not long after Slenderman had started explaining about 'Orbiters' and hung back until they were called.

"And chaotic," he added as an afterthought as Hoodie nodded.

"I'm going to be Harry's older brother?" Toby started to laugh a bit. "I mean, think about it. Slendy said you have to have this somewhat normal life before you go from 'Proxy' to 'Creep' so that means we can have some real, proper, fun till then," Toby started to pace a small circle around himself as he spoke and Harry could swear he heard Masky and Hoodie let out small laughs at him.

"We could go to the cinema to see something, or maybe go camping for a bit. You know, brother stuff. Cause I'm betting those asshats never did anything with you so you've got a lot of catching up to do.

You said you hadn't played a video game before, right, well I'm fairly sure I can get Ben to help catch you up on stuff and show you a few favourites around here, he's the go-to for game stuff, or we could go to a concert," Toby spun to face Harry, his smile wider than Harry would have thought possible.

"I mean just wait till I tell Lyra about this, she'll..." Toby stopped suddenly.

The smile dropped from his face.

Slenderman straightened in his chair and Harry could see that out the corner of his eye Masky and Hoodie had gone from relaxed leaning on the wall, to standing upright.

Toby slowly backed into the sofa behind him, all traces of his energetic self had seemingly melted away.

Harry stood looking at Toby.

If he had been surprised before, this shocked him more that finding that he was a wizard. In the short time he had known him Harry would never have though he would have ever seen him like this. He was barely able to realise that someone had placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Everyone here has a past about them," the owner of the hand said as Harry turned to face him. Masky.

"When Toby first got here, he would have nightmares every so often, always waking up and calling for Lyra. It was the only times he didn't seem like an untameable puppy," he said.

"Slendy and Toby, plus maybe a couple of the others here, are the only ones who know what happened before he came here,"

Harry looked back to Toby; his eyes were focused on a space between him and Masky.

He swallowed with effort before speaking.

"Wh..." he cleared his throat, "When I was seventeen me and my sister Lyra went to see this movie. I can't remember what it was about but I'm fairly sure it was a comedy.

We... we were on the way back, she was driving, and something burst the tyre and the car flipped and rolled off the road,"

Harry felt his blood go cold before burning in anger. If Toby left the story there he would have understood about what happened. He felt anger at the Dursleys for having lied about how his parents had died when there were people who had to go through that actual pain.

"She... she died in the crash and I lived but..." Toby's eyes were watering slightly at this point. "... since I can't feel the pain I didn't pass out from it... after waking a little after the crash. I couldn't move," he looked up at Harry, "I was stuck facing her till the firemen arrived,"

Harry didn't know what to do.

This person had pretty much given him the best gift of his life, the chance of a new family, and now he looked as broken as Harry had felt some days.

Toby let his eyes drop to the floor again and closed them to get rid of the watering.

'Thank fuck Jeff's not here. He'd probably take the piss out of me for days,' he thought.

He moved to wipe his eyes but found his arms pinned to his side and a small head resting against his shoulder.

Opening his eyes he could just see the back of Harry's head as the small boy hugged him.

Toby looked at him in shock, before moving his arms and hugging him back.

"I bet she'd have been a better Aunt than Petunia ever was," Harry said softly.

Toby let out a soft chuckle. "Yeah, well... she would have been your sister, not your Aunt, but... yeah... you would have liked her, and she would have liked you,"

Harry withdrew himself from Toby and sat next to him.

Toby looked at Harry before back to Slenderman.

"So, what do we need to do?" Toby asked, his smile starting to crawl back on his face.

" **Ben is finalizing the details on the papers and should have them ready soon. As part of the cover of witness protection, Harry will have a new name. He shall be taking your surname, though I feel the choice of his new name falls with him,"**

Slenderman turned back to Harry who was mildly surprised that something that important was being left to him. He looked at Toby before looking ahead in contemplation.

"How about Tim?" Masky suggested, sitting across from them on one of the other couches with Hoodie.

Harry didn't have time to decline the offer before Toby threw a pillow across at him.

Harry looked at Toby before realising. "That's his name isn't it?"

Toby nodded.

Harry thought carefully, thinking about any names that he could use;

And a memory came to him.

It was a couple of years ago.

Harry was wandering around a park as the Dursleys had told him to get out of their sights whilst they had guests round and not come back till later in the evening.

He was sitting idly on one of the swings when someone else had come over and sat next to him.

"Hi," he was well tanned and had long, wavy brown hair.

He had offered Harry the chance to play with him, but when he had said that he just wanted to sit on the swings the boy had sat with him.

After a while, the boy had asked if he had ever been to places outside of the UK. When he had said no the boy had started talking about all the places he had seen.

Waterfalls in Brazil.

Fireworks in Paris.

He even showed him a few pictures from where he had gone.

The view from the leaning tower of Pisa.

Niagara Falls in the summer, the plumes of mist caught the sunlight perfectly for the picture and a rainbow arced over his grinning face and out of the edges.

Harry ended up talking with him for a while, though he hadn't said anything about his personal life, he was forbidden to do so.

He talked to Harry about lots of things, a few more places and pictures of where he had gone, stuff he had done and gotten there and where he was going next.

Before either of them had realised an hour or two had passed and the boy had to go.

"I've got to go, it was nice talking with you. What was your name again?" he had asked.

"Harry," was the meek reply.

"Well hi Harry, I'm Isaac. Isaac Goldsmith. Bye Harry," he said, smiling happily.

As he turned to go he stopped and turned back to Harry.

"Here, I was going to give it to someone else, but they had already bought one, you can have it," he said as he fished something out of his pocket.

Harry had tried to say he couldn't, but Isaac had insisted and gave Harry a small music box.

"Here, it plays a bit of 'Carol of the Bells'. It's not exactly Christmas yet, but it's a nice song anyway," he said, giving Harry the box after arguing for a few moments with him before leaving, waving over his shoulder as he left with who must have been his parents and little sister.

Harry had taken great care to sneak the box back inside, hiding it in his shoe until he could hide it behind a few things in his room.

He would miss that music box, but he supposed that leaving it at the Dursley's couldn't be the worst thing. He could remember the only time he had a friend, even if for a little while, by listening to that song whenever he could. And...

"Isaac," he said, turning to The Slenderman.

" **Is that your choice?"** he asked.

Harry nodded, "Yes sir,"

" **Very well then."** He said standing up, **"Welcome to Mansion, Isaac Rogers."**

He extended a hand towards Harry, who took it cautiously.

To his surprise, it wasn't icy cold as he thought it would be. He barely had time to think about how wrong he had been when the hand flared to the cold grasp he had expected for a moment before fading.

" **I have marked you as a Proxy, it will leave no physical mark but those of us who are able to see auras will know you are part of our world, and therefore off limits,"** he explained.

"Don't worry, that's a good thing. It means that no matter how much anyone here scares you, they can only do just that, you'll be fine," Toby said, looking more like his usual self, "And then I get to beat them up!"

"Yeah, wait till he sees E.J's eating habits though," Masky said, scratching under his mask.

"He's the cannibal, right?" Harry asked Toby.

"Oh, you told him... well what about..." Masky started.

"And not to take L.J's candy for a while, still, check with me if he does," he said, mentioning the last part to Harry specifically.

"Ok, fair point, but I was talking about..." Masky tried again.

"Ben showing up in my dreams as a statue?" Harry asked.

Masky huffed and slumped into the couch.

At that point the TV flashed a few times, getting everyone's attention.

#Don't slouch. It's bad for your spine# appeared on the screen.

Masky threw his arms up in mild defeat, but sat up none the less.

" **Aah, Ben, how did it go?"** Slenderman asked.

#The files have been sorted. Puppeteer hasn't had any trouble to my knowledge and Matt is waiting and ready to roll#

" **Good, send the required files here, would you kindly, then wait until you are needed,"** Slenderman told him.

#Will do# came the reply.

Slenderman nodded at the tv.

"You know Masky," Toby said, "If you really wanted to scare Harry, you could just take off your mask?"

Masky threw the pillow back at him.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Aaaand, SCENE.

Well, there is Chapter 4 done and dusted, it is fairly early in the morning so I ain't gonna prattle on for too long here.

I hope you enjoy, I've finally started to get round to introducing my own elements into the world, the 'Orbiters' I've dubbed them.

If you want a challenge. Would anyone like to Hazard a guess at who the other Orbiters mentioned are?

If you get it right then I'll put it in the author note for chapter 5.

so, anything else I need to say about this chapter...

Oh right, Runic Pizza. I have no idea if it's an actual pizza place but it's based off a gaming server I frequent and the names mentioned at that part are closely linked to the player names

and Gavin isn't the purple guy from fnaf, the player I based him off has a purple jacket as part of his skin. Just in case anyone thought so.

So Harry's having a name change, that's gonna be fun. What did you think of the story I made to go with it?

Who else is looking forward to Harry meeting Jeff, that's gonna be fun.

And for _that_ part in the story, I felt I had done a fairly large bunch of expositing for you so it was hard to resist.

Yeah, I may have been a bit cruel in having Toby remember Lyra like that, but I thought that the way I've done Toby so far... it's what he would have done.

And the guff about Harry getting to the US of A has been started on.

Next chapter I gonna be a 'what's happening for the most part, what'll happen when the Wizarding world finds out' and Harry on a plane.

Also, let's play spot the Bio-shock references.

Anyway, what time is it?

10 past 5 in the morning, damn it, I need to sleep more.

Also, I realised that I didn't put 'The Puppeteer' or 'Bloody Painter' in the CreepyPasta claim bit, oops. Fixing that with this chapter. I don't think anyone will have thought I actually wrote them but I'd better fix it anyway.

Also, I took it down briefly to fix a thing or two that I hadn't noticed that bugged me. Nothing big, but I messed up by writing what was in my head when thinking how this chapter would work, not what they would actually say or think.

Right, I'll have this up on Friday for you to enjoy.

Till the next one.

SteamGeek01.

CreepyPasta's mentioned and their owners, to my knowledge.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanningK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – still no idea, sorry.

The Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Extra note, my laptop for some reason deleted the auto-correct dictionary so I've had to type this and check words I'm not sure about, so if there is an increase in typo's that's why. I've just spent 16 mins adding each word I typed back into the autocorrect, my hands are killing me.


	5. Chapter 5, Around the World in

Chapter 5, Around the World in... like, 10 hours?

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words.

~Word~ - Written words.

Disclaimer;

Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any creepypastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I do not own any brands or other miscellaneous mentions.

Author's note.

And here we go again, chapter 5, lets a go.

I finished chapter 4 this morning and somehow got to sleep after that.

Right, I have no idea what to put here this time.

Also, someone finally drew attention to the fact that my method of using a long line of '*'s to seperate things, i.e. Scene changes, doesn't show up when reading on the site, only the original word documents, so I'm fixing that from now on.

Right, let's see what I'm doing this chapter.

'Sees the note saying; having time differences between USA and UK.'

…

Bugger.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm not that good with thinking laterally with Maths.

Also, I have a few more reviews that I can answer, that I can do easily.

Ender the multiverse Detective;

Thank you, it's good to see that I can still hold people's attention.

Twister60;

Glad you like it, hope you like the future chapters.

ElChaChaCha;

There aren't that many HP/CP stories are there. Shame, the possibilities it provides are very interesting.

Ms. Pug;

Yes, it most certainly will be. I do plan to change a few more things in regards to HP canon character wise. I've also got a plan for if anyone tries occlumency on Harry that will be added either this chapter or the next.

Kurokitsune666;

Glad you like it, hope you enjoy this chapter.

Renamonreborn;

Thanks, Toby's my favourite as well.

And in regards to Dumbles, just wait. I had soo much fun writing those parts.

Thank you all for over 1,500 views and 40+ follows. It means a lot to know that people enjoy this and helps to keep me going.

Also, did anyone see where Sally went off too?

Have fun.

SteamGeek01.

Additional Note, 29/07/2018.

I have gone back over this chapter and fixed any grammatical errors that I could find.

 **X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X**

Toby caught the pillow as he grinned over at Masky.

"How did you not see that one coming, come on?" he said.

Masky just huffed at Toby and stretched out his legs.

"So, what do we do now?" He asked Slenderman.

 **"Well, tomorrow Harry... or would you prefer Isaac now?"** Slenderman asked him.

Harry thought for a moment, "C-could I be Isaac w-when I'm not here, b-but still be Harry if I'm here or just w-with you g-guys?" He asked.

"Don't see why not, most people in the world would refer to us by our killer names, 'Masky', 'Hoodie', 'Ticci Toby'," Toby said, pointing to each of them in turn. As if to accentuate his point about his nickname his hand and neck ticked.

 **"Very well, for referring to you outside of the Mansion we shall use Isaac, and when you are here with us, Harry,"** Slenderman spoke.

 **"Now as I was saying. Tomorrow Harry shall go through the final part of coming here as part of the cover I have created for him with Ben and The Puppeteer. He will travel back to the UK again where Matt, The Officer..."** he added with a turn of his head to Harry, who had slumped at the thought of having to travel like he had done to get here again, **"...shall be waiting to act as an escort for him back to America. Ben should have the digital files completed, I have the papers that you two shall have to sign,"** he gestured at the pages next to him.

 **"This also gives you time to set his room and get anything that he will need,"**

Before Toby could ask about anything, a door opened somewhere and someone could be heard speaking.

"... well, you better let the poor guy out, WA-HAH, WA-HAH, WA-HAH!"

"I swear to 'Creator' Jeff if you weren't carrying the food I would drop kick you through the wall," another voice growled out and Toby placed a hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Jeff and L.J," He said.

Harry had wondered who they were since Toby had mentioned them earlier and was both curious and mildly worried about meeting them.

As the door closed a pattering of feet could be heard as well as a fairly large dog with a black coat came round the corner and into the room.

Harry watched the dog walk past everyone and settle into a bed that was set up in the corner of the room next to the TV.

As it settled down Harry could see the underside of its chest. Whereas most dogs would have white fur, this one had bright red instead. It also looked rather grumpy for a dog and Harry was reminded of a husky he had once seen being walked when he had been sent outside.

The dog had apparently settled down before looking at the occupants of the room as when it saw Harry it stood back up and walked over.

"Harry, meet Smile," Toby said.

Harry was about to ask why he was called that when Smile smiled at him, revealing rows of human-like teeth that gave the dog a slightly maniacal look.

"Oh, that's why," he said simply.

Smile started to sniff at Harry's legs and Harry slowly reached out with a shaking hand to pat him.

He was slightly nervous since the only real time he had ever spent with a dog was with Ripper, but when he began stroking the top of his head Smile raised his head into the touch, apparently pleased at getting attention.

It was at that point that L.J and Jeff walked in.

Harry thought that L.J must have been the taller of the two.

The name Laughing Jack seemed to fit the monochrome clown better.  
He wore some sort of black feather padding on his shoulders and had baggy, pinstripe, trousers held up by a pair of braces.  
His nose was a long pointed cone with swirled a swirled black and white stripe running its length.  
His arms were long and suited his lanky physique and had hands that match, though they looked more like gloved claws than fingers.  
His long, black, hair seemed something akin to the mane of a lion.

The other must have been Jeff then.  
The scars on his cheeks that gave him a deformed, painted, smile gave it away.  
His hoodie had a few spatters of what must have been blood marring the white expanse around the base and edge of the sleeves.  
His hair was darker than Harry's own, though it was much longer at the back and far wilder. The front of it looked as if it had been hacked at so he could see without having to tie it back.

L.J was glaring daggers at Jeff, who looked superiorly smug about something.

"Pizza's in the kitchen, so go get if you wan..." Jeff trailed off when he noticed Harry sitting on the couch, hand frozen on Smile's head.

L.J looked to where Jeff's gaze was drawn and stopped glaring to take in the sight of the small child before them.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" L.J said, grinning to reveal rows of pointed, shark-like, teeth.

 **"Laughing Jack, Jeff. Meet Harry Potter. Though outside of the Mansion and when not in the sole presence of other Creeps, Isaac Rogers,"** Slenderman informed them.

L.J stalled for a moment, looking at Harry before looking to Toby.

"Wait a moment. Rogers. Toby, since when, have you had a brother?" L.J asked him, though Slenderman answered his question.

 **"Unofficially, as of about five minutes ago. Officially, whenever they sign this,"** He said, holding up one of the sheets of paper.

"Well, in that case." L.J said, "Welcome to the Mansion!" He said, throwing his arms to the side and hitting Jeff in the face. When Jeff tried to move round to glare at him confetti flew out of L.J's sleeves like party poppers, catching him in the face again.

As Jeff clawed at the streamers in his hair L.J moved forward, closer to Harry.

"Laughing Jack," He said, introducing himself and offering Harry a gold and red wrapped piece of candy held between two long fingers.

"H-hello and n-no thanks," Harry said, politely declining the offered candy and continued stroking Smile's head when the dog pawed at his leg to get his attention.

L.J chuckled slightly, "Already warned him about me have you?" he asked, looking at Toby, "You'd almost think I'm some sort of homicidal killer clown?"

Harry was almost impressed with how L.J managed to say that with a completely straight face, but something told him he had practiced this routine for when it would happen.

L.J smiled again. This time more warmly but it still held an air of danger around it somewhat and offered Harry an emerald wrapped candy with silver edges this time.

A glance at Toby, who nodded, told him that it was ok to take this one.

L.J was apparently happy with his introduction so he excused himself to tell the others that the food was here. Jeff threw the streamers he had dragged from his hair at the clowns retreating back before stalking upstairs.

 **"Hoodie, Masky, could the two of you prepare the dining room for dinner?"** Slenderman asked them as he handed the few pages of paper over to Toby before walking over to the TV and rapping the screen with his knuckles.

#Yeah, yeah. Give me a moment. Just making sure that Harry gets a window seat# appeared on the screen.

Slenderman turned to face the occupants of the room, Masky and Hoodie paused at the arch.

 **"I will be renewing the wards around my Forest to accommodate Harry for when he returns. Once he has settled for the night Toby, I shall need you to give Ben details about what you did at the Dursley's in regards to killing the Aunt so that he may draft a transcript to give more credibility to this being a normal police matter.**

 **Once the transcript is finished, send it to The Puppeteer so he may plant more false memories as well,"** he spoke to the TV

 **"Good night,"** he told them before disappearing.

When Slenderman disappeared Harry's ears were filled with a large amount of static, it felt like someone was holding his head far too tightly and it felt like something had gotten lodged in his throat and he started coughing uncontrollably.

He was vaguely aware of someone saying his name but he was coughing too loud to hear anything and the static made his head hurt.

He found himself curling in on himself in pain when someone pulled his arms from his head and forced him to open his eyes.

Toby was crouched in front of him with Masky leaning over his shoulder over his shoulder. He was holding a couple of white things in his hand and was telling Harry to take them.

After a couple of tries, Harry managed to get the pills down his throat and the static and cough gradually faded until he was breathing normally.

"Slendy's teleporting can be a bit problematic if you aren't used to it. These will help for a while but you're gonna have to learn how to deal with it without them. The headaches won't be as bad as the first time but probably keep a bottle of water handy for the cough," Masky said, putting the cap on an orange bottle and pocketed it.

He clapped Harry on the shoulder before leaving him with Toby and Smile, who had curled up on the floor looking up at him.

"What happened?" E.J asked, having just come into the room.

"Attack of the 'Slendy-virus," Toby told him.

E.J nodded to show he understood.

"Well, congrats on not passing out," he told Harry.

"Masky gave him a couple of pills and told him to keep water on him till he's used to it," Toby said, sitting back on the couch next to Harry.

"Yeah, I'd have said the same. Don't worry, the second time isn't nearly as bad as the first," Jack said before walking through to the kitchen.

"Want to sit for a little before going through?" Toby asked him.

Harry nodded in reply, his throat still hurt from the coughing fit.

"I was the same when I came here. Masky helped me get through it, but I think he regrets it a bit," Toby said, looking at the pieces of paper Slendy had given him.

"W-why?" Harry asked, his voice sounded tender but it could've been a lot worse.

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, I can be a little bit annoying sometimes," Toby said, his head cocked to the side and a smile that said all too well that he enjoyed annoying the others sometimes.

Harry laughed a bit, he still sounded sore but it was a definite improvement.

Toby stretched his arms up and turned to face Harry properly.

"You ready to go through now?" he asked.

"Yeah," Harry said.

He was eager to do this because The Mansion, in the short time he had been there, had felt more like a home than Privet Drive had ever been. There was a tingling in the air but Harry put that down as excitement.

"Well, let's sort these papers out first, then we'll go through," Toby said.

After scrounging around a moment or two Toby came back with a pen and helped Harry fill out the areas on the paper he had too, before taking the pen and filling out the other parts himself.

"Well then, that's that sorted," Toby said, shifting in his seat and holding out his hand, "Nice to meet you, Isaac Rogers, I'm Toby," He said. His smile was wide from ear to ear, and Harry matched it eagerly.

"Hi Toby, I'm Isaac. Your new little brother," Harry said, grinning just as wide.

A slight breeze rippled through the room but they both disregarded it.

Harry nodded and the two of them stood up from the couch and began making their way through, Smile following at their heels.

The pizza boxes had been set out along the table and the chair Harry had destroyed had been replaced and cleared up for the most part, though a few splinters of wood that stuck out from the wall. Masky and Hoodie were already there and about to sit down. Hoodie nodded at the pair as Toby directed Harry to a seat and took the one next to it.

A few seconds later Ben and the Jacks walked in, giving a small wave to Harry as they passed and claimed a few chairs of their own.

The doors at the other end opened and a boy wearing a plain pair of jeans, the sleeves of his shirt were rolled up. He had light blue eyes and long black hair that hung down in graceful strands that covered the top of his eyes.  
Harry assumed must have been Helen, confirmed by Toby, walked in. He had a pad of paper tucked underarm and a few pencils sticking out his shirt pocket.

When he glanced over at Harry he nodded as a way of greeting before flipping open the pad of paper and the room was filled with the gentle scratches of his pencil.

Not long after him, Jeff sat down at the other end of the table. Glaring daggers at L.J who was sat at the other end of the table, opposite Toby.

"So Harry..." Harry jumped as Sally started speaking to him, he was sure that the chair she now occupied had been empty a second ago, "...what did Slendy want?" she asked.

"Oh. Hi Sally, erm, just to get some stuff sorted so I could stay here," he said

Sally cheered a bit and gave Harry a hug nearly knocking the two of them to the floor, she would have if Toby hadn't put out an arm and held him upright.

Giggling, Sally released him and started putting Pizza on their plates.

Dinner here was... odd.

Nobody here had any of the mannerisms that the Dursley's had enforced at the table and everyone, save one person who had stopped glaring in favor of eating, enjoyed the other's company.

The chatter seemed more friendly as well. The irony wasn't lost on him there.

Masky was chatting, or rather doing all the talking, to Hoodie about a job they had been on. Hoodie nodded or made other small movements to signify his input.

Helen was eating a slice of pizza between drawing, careful not to get any grease on the paper.

Ben was talking to E.J about a recent job.

Harry noticed that E.J had brought a small bag of something to the table with him. He was going to ask what it was when he took out a bloody, bean-shaped piece of meat and took a bite out of it.

Harry looked away and had a drink upon remembering that E.J was a cannibal.

L.J was pulling a large, loopy, red straw out of one of his sleeves and Harry watched as it stretched the length of the table and, with careful maneuvering from L.J, landed in Jeff's glass of fizzy juice.

Smirking mischievously to himself he popped the other end in his mouth and turned to face Harry.

"So, Harry, Toby gave us an annoyingly short version of what happened over the pond. Care to help build the story?" he asked, slowly pulling the drink from Jeff's glass into his mouth.

"Yeah, Toby said that he killed your Aunt, then he said you killed your Aunt. Care to elaborate?" Ben said, cutting into the conversation.

"T-Toby killed Aunt Marge. S-she was my Uncle's sister. I killed Aunt Petunia. She was my Mum's sister," Harry said.

"You need to listen better Ben," L.J said, "So, Slendy's never had a problem which involved setting up false identities before, so what gives?"

Before Harry or Toby could answer Jeff finally noticed the long, spindly, straw and started yelling at the clown before taking a knife from his pocket and cutting the straw apart.

"Hehehe, ooh, it's so fun to annoy him. Anyway, you were saying Harry?" L.J said.

"W-well, apparently for now I'm a P-proxy," he said slowly, to which L.J nodded and waved his hand in a way that said, fair enough. "...and I've got to go to this school for magic in a few years..."

"Oh, you mean Hogwarts?" L.J asked nonchalantly as he took a bite of pizza.

He looked up and everyone was looking at him.

"What?" he said, slowly chewing the pizza.

"Slendy didn't say the name, but how do you know about it?" Toby asked.

"You seem to forget who most of my kills are," L.J deadpanned, "...I've had a few run-ins with Magicals over the years,"

"Wait, 'Magic School', 'Hog-whatchamacallits', the fuck is everyone talking about?" Jeff shouted from the other end of the table.

Masky took charge of getting Jeff caught up as Ben changed the topic.

"So 'Specs', " Harry frowned at the almost friendly nickname, "...going back to out little conversation earlier," he cleared his throat, "The hell do you mean you've never played a video game before?" he spoke in a sort of shouted whisper, the distortion in his voice was a little clearer after being in the TV.

"I was never allowed to. My Aunt and Uncle never let me play any sort of games. The times that they went out and I wasn't locked in my room I would watch TV or read a book," Harry said, running a finger over the table surface in what felt like an idle manner.

As he had spoken none of them had noticed that one piece of pizza crust that Toby had been eating had been ground way more than necessary before swallowing.

"Well, at least that's something," Ben said, returning to his pizza.

"You're Uncle's really fat isn't he?" Sally said absentmindedly, eating a slice of pizza.

"Yeah... how did you know..." Harry said slowly.

"Toby mentioned it," Sally said innocently.

"Did I?" Toby looked confused.

"Probably, you ramble on details sometimes. Plus I missed the whole which Aunt is which thing, so I dunno," Ben mumbled as he ate another slice.

A tugging at Harry's leg had him looking down.

Smile was sitting on the floor looking up between Harry and the slice of pizza in his hand with wide eyes. Harry asked Toby if he could give Smile a couple of bits of the pepperoni from the slice and was about to give them to Smile when;

"DON'T GIVE HIM THE PIZZA!" Jeff yelled down the table. "He's a fat piece of shit that needs to lose weight after raiding the fridge last night,"

"Oh, that's where the chicken went," E.J said as he took a few bits of kidney and topped a bit of pizza with them.

"O-ok," Harry called back to Jeff as he turned back to his plate, before secretly sliding the pepperoni slices to the ground for Smile to eat. Harry looked carefully around at the others to see if any had noticed. Toby and L.J had smiles on their faces that suggested they knew, confirmed a moment later by L.J winking at Harry as if to say 'well done'.

The rest of dinner passed by as Harry guessed it would normally do though Harry didn't speak much, just a few comments when asked his opinion and tracing idle patterns of a crossed out circle in the grease on his plate for some reason. He didn't understand why this was amusing L.J and Ben so much but they and Toby said it was nothing so he dropped it and kept tracing.

At around half 10 Toby chided Harry out saying he'd better get some sleep before tomorrow.

In the talks at dinner, Harry had forgotten that he would be going back to the UK tomorrow as part of The Slenderman's plan to get Harry over here. Harry called goodnight to the occupants before he and Toby were joined by Helen, who said he should probably get to sleep as well since Slendy had a job for him tomorrow.

Harry almost fell back into his old routine at the Dursley's as he walked to the door on the wall next to the stairs before Toby dragged, literally dragged, him away from the door and up the stairs.

"Nope. Nope, nopity no. You are getting your own room, your own bed, and own everything!" He said as he pulled Harry up the stairs.

Helen stood at the bottom of said stairs, looking at the door and the retreating back of Toby in confusion before remembering how annoyed Toby had looked at Harry's mention of being locked in his room and wondered what exactly had Harry gone through at his old home.

Shrugging because it really wasn't any of his business he walked calmly upstairs.

Toby finally let Harry walk for himself as they reached the room that had been set up for Harry.

Harry pushed the door open and walked in.

It was an odd feeling, having a whole room to himself as he walked in and trailed a hand on the large bed in the middle of the room.

Aside from the bed, a large wardrobe stood in the corner between the door and the bed, and across from the door, a desk and chair sat underneath a few shelves.

There was a dresser either side of the bed and a few things had been placed on top of the one between the bed and wardrobe.

On top of the dresser was the music box and picture he had kept in his cupboard, hidden from the Dursley's.

Harry picked up the music box and turned the handle slowly.

The notes sounded more welcoming here. The notes themselves had been mildly haunting and fit with the Mansion and those that lived there.

He put the music box down and picked up the picture. As far as the Dursley's had known the picture had still been in the box tucked far back in the attic.

Harry had found it when he had been forced to get the decorations for Christmas down one year and had kept it, at the time, for the sole purpose of knowing that at one point his parents had been happy and decent.

Harry turned to look at Toby who was standing awkwardly behind him at the corner of the bed.

"I thought that you might've wanted to keep them since they were the only things there that..." he was cut off by Harry hugging him tightly around the waist.

Toby smiled and returned the gesture.

It would have been a nice moment if his tic hadn't caused him to accidentally hit Harry in the head.

"S-sorry," Toby said, trying to check he hadn't hurt Harry, but stopped when Harry started laughing.

Toby joined in for a moment before telling Harry that he needed to sleep and that he would wake him up when it was time to go.

He told Harry to wait a moment and quickly went to his room next door and picked up a pyjama shirt and a pair of drawstring shorts for Harry to wear since he didn't have any of his own. Yet, he added as a mental note.

He felt like he was forgetting something.

He jogged back to Harry's room and gave the clothes to him before leaving the room again to give Harry time to change.

Coming back into the room he had to stifle a laugh or two at the sight of him.

"I'll definitely need to get you your own clothes," he snickered.

The shirt looked comical on him as it fell halfway to his knees and the string on the shorts had been drawn mostly out to tie it around his waist.

Harry himself was smiling at the sight of him.

Toby mentally slapped himself, it wouldn't have done any good to actually do it, as he remembered what he had forgotten.

"Teeth," he said, taking Harry's arm and showing him where the bathroom for that floor was.

"Hold on," he said as he quickly ran back to his room and grabbed one of the spare brushes and toothpaste he kept, in case L.J tried anything, before grabbing his own and running back to Harry.

Toby knew that he'd probably done a rush job on it but he needed to get Harry to bed.

"Right, I'm gonna sleep too once I help Ben with the transcript thingy. I'm just next door if you need me though, just knock on the wall to get me," he said, demonstrating how to hit the wall between their rooms when they got back.

Harry nodded as he climbed onto the bed.

"Oh, one last thing," Toby said, walking back in through the door and over to the window. "Lock the door after me, Jeff and L.J have a habit of trying to scare newcomers," he told Harry as he locked the window for him.

"O-ok. N-night Toby," Harry said, clicking the lock into place when Toby closed the door.

Since the door was closed Harry couldn't see Toby wait till the door was locked before saying night back and walking back downstairs.

 **X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X**

Surrey.

Vernon Dursley was furious.

He had been called into work at this late hour to be called before an executive meeting that had been held.

The topic of this meeting it had been revealed was that due to an increase in reports of a department within Grunnings being increasingly hostile in their dealings with other business' that was quickly losing them their corporate connections.

The problem had been traced to Dursley's department and was found that Vernon was being increasingly pushy and offensive in his tactics to force deals upon others. The members of the meeting had decided to give Mr Dursley his leave from the company due to those reasons.

So that was how a now unemployed Vernon Dursley was driving home furious at what had happened. In his mind, everything fell to blame on one thing. Or, rather, boy.

"That little freak did this. That's it. He did something abnormal and got me fired as a laugh!" he cackled cruelly. "Oh, we'll see who's laughing when I whip his hide raw again now won't we?"

And that is how he arrived home.

After forcing his way through the broken lock on his door, another thing that little freak had undoubtedly done, and upon seeing the closet door opened and the scent of urine heavy in the air he slammed the door closed and thundered into the living room.

"BOY!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, "WHAT DID YOU D..."

His voice was caught in his throat.

On the couch sat his deceased sister, her neck gouged and her blood had streamed down the couch into a large puddle in which his shoes were just treading in.

Following the trail of blood across he found his dead wife used as a makeshift knife rack, eyes wide in horrified surprise.

He stumbled backwards out of the room, barely holding in his vomit and he could have sworn that he heard a soft voice laughing somewhere.

Knocking his son who had come running down the stairs out of the way as he bolted out the door. Dudley's wails and pounding footsteps followed him as he ran across the street.

 **X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X**

Hogwarts.

Albus Dumbledore was sitting merrily in the great hall of Hogwarts chuckling lightly at the story of what had happened yesterday with Professor Sprouts fifth years and an overactive Venomous Tentacula that had accidentally had one of their coffee's spilt into its bowl.

The flurry of owls heralded the arrival of the morning news and he reached for his own copy of the Tuesday issue of the Daily Prophet.

As he picked up his goblet for a drink, he shook the paper and heard the goblet drop to the table as he read the front covers Headline.

 _HARRY POTTER._  
 _HOUSE OF HORRORS._

 _By Rita Skeeter._

 _Everyone in the wizarding world knows the tale of the 'Boy who Lived'._  
 _But a shocking discovery has been made about the hero's_  
 _home life._

 _A shocking double murder occurred in Little Whinging had muggle investigative_  
 _forces in shock last weekend as they discovered the mutilated remains._

 _However, if this crime was a shocker then what came next was chilling._

 _Upon investigating the scene where one Petunia Durdlay and her_  
 _sister-in-law, Marge Durdlay, were found in various degrees_  
 _of fatal assault, investigators found evidence of a young_ _child being kept in minimalistic conditions with appalling and almost slave-like conditions._

 _A make-shift room in a closet under the stairs acted as the living space_  
 _of a small child of around 8 years of age._

 _That child, according to discussions with_ neighbours _, is Harry James Potter._

 _The hero of the wizarding world has been held in such appalling_  
 _standards for so long, whilst his muggle cousin had been treated as royalty_  
 _with his every whim being catered to._

 _How has this gone on for so long?_

 _Why was he left there?_

 _Questions are now being raised within the Auror department as to the location_  
 _of Harry who, as of now, is still missing, and whether the crime was headed by_  
 _Death Eaters still at large after 'You-Know-Whos' downfall._

 _The Uncle of the boy who lived has also been taken into questioning_  
 _about the poor child's living standards._

The article was wrapped around a picture of number 4 Privet Drive as a team of forensic investigators could be seen examining the interior.

Dumbledore felt his heart seize for a moment before he walked quickly around the table and hurried past the rows of students now reading the same article.

He could hear the footsteps of Professor McGonagall behind him and cringed somewhat at the thought of the tantrum that would be thrown at him in regards to the Dursley's attitude towards Harry.

He sped his pace as he began running at a brisk pace to his office.

He had to act fast to ensure that Harry was kept under his radar.

 **X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X**

Heathrow Airport.

Harry looked out the tall windows as he was steered towards the terminal for the plane that would take him back to America.

Matt Bright, The Officer, held a steady hand on his shoulder. It was a comforting and helpful gesture as Harry was still a little disorientated from 'Slendy Travel' as Masky had put it.

Masky and Hoodie had seen Harry over to the UK to where they were meeting Matt Bright.

Matt Bright had been working on / off with The Slenderman for a long time. He had considered it an honour to be able to help the world in more ways than most, it had been a life goal for as long as he could remember.

Though he hadn't considered childminding to be one of the things he would be asked.

He did up the buttons on the beige jacket he wore and looked at the small child propped up on Hoodie's back.

"That the kid?" he said to Masky when they approached him out of the treeline.

"Yep, that's him," Masky nodded.

"He's supposed to be Toby's little brother?" he looked back to Harry, who Hoodie had placed on the ground.

Harry promptly sneezed and due to being light headed nearly fell face first into the ground, but he managed to put a foot forward before Hoodie caught him and self-righted himself...

...too much and nearly fell onto his back. Hoodie caught him that time.

"Never mind. It's a mini him. Right, well, better get going," he said as he checked his watch, "... see you guys on the other side."

Masky nodded and gave Matt the passport that had been made for Harry and a backpack that Toby and Ben had put together to try and keep Harry entertained throughout the flight.

Matt led Harry over to the car he had parked, helped Harry in, and waved bye to Masky and Hoodie who watched the car pull away before turning back into the forest and left back for The Mansion.

Matt looked at the child in the back of the car who was fiddling with a stray thread on his shirt.

Ben had given Harry a few things to wear on the trip since Toby's smallest clothes could have acted as a makeshift blanket on Harry. So now Harry was decked out in a grass green hoodie that was halfway zipped up, revealing the long sleeved, pale blue shirt underneath. Ben had also given him a pair of baggy cargo trousers held up by a blue fabric belt.

He looked like any other kid and Matt felt a slight pang about the life that he now had, though considering the alternative that the kid could have gone down... this was the better path.

After driving to the airport and getting the two of them settled in their seats Matt messaged Masky to say they were onboard just fine.

Harry looked out of the window at the people bustling around to get things ready for take off. It was interesting to watch, like a dance but with a lot more pressure to get things right.

He looked around the inside of the plane at the other passengers boarding.

It was odd, but he was already missing Toby.

In the short time of knowing him, he had gotten used to hearing the small click whenever he twitched. Or how he could ramble on and end up on totally unrelated topics.

Harry looked back around the plane and suddenly felt pretty small.

He knew that he could trust Mr Bright, Slenderman pretty much vouched for him last night, but he was still a total stranger.

He had taken comfort earlier in Masky and Hoodie bringing him over after hugging Toby goodbye since he had to stay at The Mansion to take care of a few things but he had said that he would be at the airport to pick Harry up with Masky and Hoodie.

But right now, he was alone.

Matt took off his coat, storing it in the overhead and revealing the plain shirt and half-buttoned waistcoat he wore before he excused himself to the toilet before takeoff and Harry had a better view around the cabin.

A few more passengers came in, including someone in a dusty black jacket and grey hoodie with matching beanie leading someone in a pale navy blue jacket with a notepad tucked carefully under arm up the aisle to a pair of seats in the middle. Their hands loosely linked at their fingertips.

Harry started slightly when he realised that the person in the blue jacket was Helen.

Helen and his companion stowed their bags overhead and sat down. Helen looked over at Harry and winked. The other mirrored the action, but Harry could have sworn that his eyes shone gold for a brief moment, before tucking some long strands of black hair behind his ear. He could have sworn he had seen him before but he couldn't place where.

Harry cheered up slightly at knowing that there was at least one person on the plane who wasn't a total stranger and faced the attendant who was now going through the safety instructions.

Matt came back shortly before the pilot started his talk, thanking the passengers for choosing to fly with them on this lovely Monday morning and keeping him and the crew employed before he announced that the flight to J.F.K Airport would be taxiing to the runway shortly and that the flight would be around 10 hours, so he recommended getting comfortable and advised passengers that if at any time they begin to feel a bit stuffy not to open a window.

Harry had smiled a bit at the jokes but followed the advice and after making the hood into a makeshift pillow started to try and catch a few more moments of sleep.

Though this was delayed as he looked out the window of the airplane and watched in awe as the ground sped by faster and faster until the plane lurched so much that he could feel it in his stomach and he watched the ground slowly, but surely, start to shrink away as the plane gathered more and more height.

He rather liked flying, he found, as the plane balanced off.

 **X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X**

Hogwarts.

Dumbledore burst into his office, McGonagall not far behind.

He hurried over to the table that held the monitoring devices and looked upon the spinning one that signified whether Harry was alive or not.

He sighed in relief for a moment. The device had never stopped spinning, not once, in the years it had been active. It had slowed slightly, jerked on its pedestal a few times, but Dumbledore had ignored those. As long as it had kept spinning he would have considered himself contempt.

However, with Harry missing things had changed.

He needed to keep an eye on him ever since the prophecy had been made and Voldemort had marked Harry.

He checked the device that monitored the blood wards on the house and found that they hadn't been fully active for around three to four years and that sometime in the recent days they had faded away completely.

He waved aside McGonagall's attempts to speak as he gathered various vials from around the office and a secret vial he kept hidden inside one of the many books of his study.

This book had been charmed to look like an old, outdated and unappealing charms textbook, but really it was an old muggle phone directory that housed a secret vial of Harry's blood.

With the contents of these jars, combined with the blood he had secretly returned to take those years ago, he would be able to locate Harry if he was anywhere within the UK. It wasn't strictly light magic, rather considered dark by most due to the involvement of someone's blood. But he considered it necessary and so, he proceeded.

He conjured a cauldron and quickly began combining the various items whilst murmuring under his breath multiple incantations before adding the vial of Harry's blood slowly into the mix.

The resulting silver vapour slowly formed into some semblance of the UK before sizzling away and the items of the cauldron flamed up and burnt away till there was nothing but the thin smell of metallic iron lingering in the air.

This meant that Harry Potter was no longer within the country and so the potion couldn't locate him or track where he went.

Albus sat down behind the desk and looked up at Minerva, she had slowly been getting more and more agitated at being ignored and he braced himself for what would follow.

Students that day would have thought someone had opened a howler in one of the rooms that day and many students, both young and old, learned quite a few new swear words.

 **X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X**

The Plane. 9 ½ hours till touchdown.

Harry had managed to fall asleep around half an hour into the flight and was standing in a field of grass that reached halfway up to his knees.

He looked around the field and saw a lone oak tree with long branches that looked climbable so he decided that he might as well try to climb them.

As he walked to the tree he heard a rustling somewhere behind him, but when he turned to look there had been nothing there.

Turning right around in a circle to look a bit better he still found nothing on the horizon, but when he turned back to the tree he came face to face with some sort of statue.

Harry yelped in surprise and fell to the ground, thankfully it was a rather soft landing.

Harry looked up at the statue and took in its apperal.

It wore a green tunic, almost to exactly the same shade of green as the hoodie that Ben had loaned him.

'Wait. Didn't Toby say something about Ben and statues?'

"Ben?" Harry asked and laughter seemed to ring from the statue.

"Sup Specs, who told you," Ben asked, standing on the statue's plinth in its place a few seconds after Harry asked.

"Toby. He told me about that along with not to take L.J's candy," Harry said.

"Probably one of the only smart things he's ever done," Ben smirked and offered Harry a hand up.

"So what is this place?" Harry asked as the two of them walked towards the tree.

"I dunno," Ben shrugged, "I'm only trespassing, it's your dream,"

"Oh," Harry said and looked around.

"So, Matt messaged a bit back saying that you got on ok, anything else happen? OH! Did you see Helen or 'Teer'? They're supposed to be on the flight with you?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah, Helen's sitting in the row across from me with somebody. Black coat, grey hoodie, long black hair," Harry listed what he could remember about him.

"Yep, that'll be Puppeteer alright. Be in awe, he doesn't go outside in disguise often since he can blend into shadows. Though it's probably lost the appeal on Helen though," he snickered whilst Harry just looked confused.

"Never mind. So Specs, try any of the games I packed for you yet?" He asked, crossing his arms behind his head and closing his eyes.

Harry shook his head, "No, not yet. Thought I'd try and get some more sleep."

Ben stopped as the two of them reached the shade of the tree line.

"Ok. Ok, whilst I would normally agree with you that sleep is awesome. Seriously, you need to learn about games, and how to play them, so I'm gonna wake you up now, go play them," Ben said as he stretched his arms out.

"Really, you can do that?" Harry asked.

"Eeeyup," Ben said, popping the 'P' as he spoke.

"How can you do that? Harry asked him, mildly curious about it.

"Well, you see..."

Harry woke up and banged his head against the window.

Grumbling at Ben, since he was sure he had done that on purpose, he grabbed the game console that Ben had packed and one of the games he had packed with it and turned it on.

An hour later Harry was fully addicted to Mario Kart and decided to try another of the games Ben had packed.

About halfway through the flight, the console ran out of power so Harry opened the other bit of the bag to see what Toby had packed for him. Inside were a few books, a small pad of paper, a bunch of pencils and a note.

Harry unfurled the note and read it.

~Hey Harry.

Since you've got a long flight ahead of you I asked Ben to help me put this together to keep you amused.  
Try not to break his games, he gets a bit touchy...~

There were a few scribbles as if the pen had been taken from him.

~No I don't. I just don't want to go through having to buy them again.~

Ben _had_ taken the pen from him.

~So anyway, I got him to put in a few games but the thing might run out of battery at some point so I decided to see what was lying around that you might enjoy.~

~I also packed a few things in case you get hungry.~

~Toby.~

Under that was what looked like 'The best big bro ever' but it had been scribbled over with things being changed till the end result was unreadable.

Harry smiled as he looked at Toby's handwriting. There were a few places where the letters just went askew as his hand had ticked.

Under the books and paper was a Tupperware box with what looked like four waffles crammed into it, a blob of butter and syrup had been spread across them.

He pulled the bag into his lap and took out one of the books and begun reading. He'd have a waffle later when he got a napkin.

 **X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X**

The Mansion. 9 1/2 hours till Harry arrives.

Toby sat in the chair as he drummed his fingers on the table, staring at the piece of paper before him.

He took a bite of the waffle he had toasted and picked up the pen and held the nib to the sheet.

'Ok. Right, let's do this!'

~To get.~  
~New clothes, day wear, nightwear, winter, summer.~  
~Games, maybe wait till he gets back for that. Or ask Ben.~  
~Books.~  
~Sneakers.~

"Whatcha working on?" Ben asked as he entered the room.

"Huh? Oh, hi Ben. Just the list of things to get for Harry before he gets back," Toby told him.

He had woken Harry fairly early in the morning so he could get the flight that Ben had booked.

He himself had stayed behind so he could sort out the things he would need to get Harry, but was starting to draw blanks on what he thought Harry would enjoy.

Ben looked at the list Toby had made.

"Clothes definitely," he said, remembering how Harry had looked when Toby had brought him in. Those clothes had hung off him more than Toby's own PJ's had.

"Harry's doing fine, by the way. Just woke him up so he could play a game or two we packed for him," Ben told him as he stretched his arms out behind his head, who knew crawling in and out of TV's could give you such a crick in the neck.

'Slendy said he needed to grow up normal so normal kid stuff. Normal kid stuff.' he thought, massaging his forehead with the pen.

~Home school books?~ he added, unsure at what Harry knew already.

"Homeschool books? Really, Toby?" Ben asked, reading the list. "Games I agree. His own clothes, _yes_ , but you're planning to homeschool the kid? You?" Ben said.

"What's wrong with me teaching Harry school stuff?" Toby asked defensively.

"You'd get him started on one topic, talk about it and end up on how the moon landing was supposed to be faked by Kubrick but his perfectionism caused them to film on location," E.J said, walking into the room to see what was going on, "Besides, leave the school stuff to me. I'll get him caught up on what he should know,"

Many in the Mansion forgot that E.J had once been a college student and had gotten the farthest, save for maybe Masky and Hoodie, education wise.

"Thanks, man," Toby said, tearing a piece of the waffle off, dipping it in syrup and eating it.

"What else have you got on the list?" E.J asked.

Toby told him the other items on the list and E.J nodded as he murmured his agreements.

"Probably a few toys as well. Couldn't go amiss," he added his own thought to the mix.

"Yeah," Toby said as he added it to the list.

"Right well. This should be enough to get him settled in, I could always take him shopping himself to see what else he might want," Toby reasoned.

With that, he crammed the last of the waffle into his mouth, drank the rest of the small bowl of accompanying syrup and left the room.  
"Where ya going?" a soft voice called from the stairs as Toby pulled on a pair of sneakers.

"Shopping to get stuff for Harry Sally," Toby told the small ghost.

"Oh. Can I come?" she asked, bouncing her way over to him.

"Sure, I kinda need an expert on what little kids like anyway, just tell E.J or somebody that you're tagging along," Toby said as she hurried into the dining room to let E.J know where she was going.

 **X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X**

The Plane. 3 ¼ hours till touchdown.

Harry wiped his fingers on the napkin that the kind lady had brought him and placed the napkin in the box and the box back into the bag.

He pulled out the pad of paper and the pencils before looking around at what to draw.

"Well since _I_ don't have to drive when we get back, I'm going have something to drink," someone said across the row from him.

Harry found himself inexplicably drawn to the voice.

It was soft but had a harsher tone to it. Almost like a singer's voice. Following the soft chuckles that matched he found that the voice belonged to the person sitting next to Helen. Puppeteer, Ben had called him.

He was now nudging Helen playfully with a shoulder as Helen wiped a few stray eraser remains off the page he was working on.

Looking back at the pad of paper and out the window, Harry watched the far-off sea as the plane passed through soft wisps of cloud.

Taking one of the pencils he began to draw the window and what he could see.

He didn't hear the soft click of the camera as he focused on the view from the window.

 **X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X**

A shopping center. 6 hours till Harry arrives.

Toby looked at the bags at his feet and back to the list in hand, Sally was standing next to him watching the fish in the pond that stood as the centrepiece of the shopping mall.

'Clothes, check. Nightwear, check. Shoes, check.' he thought as he mentally ticked off the items on the list, he had forgotten to take the pen with him.

"Got him a few books and games, thank you, Ben," he muttered to himself. Ben had popped into Harry's game not too long ago and almost gotten hit by a red shell.

"Come on Sally." He called to her as he picked up the bags and walked into one of the many kid-themed stores around the place.

Toby would have gladly come in here anyway, but right now he needed to focus.

"Ok Sals, this is your territory, where do we go?" he asked the spirit as he picked up a basket.

Sally walked straight through the store and over to the shelves that held a wide variety of things that even Toby thought looked fun.

Toby grabbed a few things that looked like fun, a couple of puzzle boxes, a book of optical illusions, a tub of magnetic slime.

He chuckled when Sally picked out a box of magic tricks for him.

Next, he thought she would have done this sooner, she took him to the soft toy area.

"We're here for Harry, Sally," he told her, looking around for another area that might have had stuff Harry might like.

"I know, you said that already," Sally told him.

She walked around the toy baskets and picked out two animals.

"He'll like these," she said determinedly.

Toby looked at the creme wolf and black dog she had picked out.

He tried to think of a reason to say no, but then again, Sally was the resident expert on little kids stuff.

"Ok, pop them in," he said.

Sally nodded before skipping over to another area of the stall, Toby in tow.

 **X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X**

Ministry of Magic.

A lone guard sat at his desk as he sighed and looked around the Atrium.

It had been a fairly chaotic morning since the disappearance of Harry Potter had been announced. The ministry had been trying to keep it secret but somehow Rita Skeeter had found out and published the story.

A tall man with slicked back black hair approached the desk holding a small folder of paper in his hand.

"Good morning, welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please present your wand and name for identification," he told the man.

 **"I would if I could, but I do not own a wand. Do not worry, I am not some Muggle that has wandered in off the street. I am here on important business and have some information that your Ministry may be interested in,"**

The guard looked up at the man.

He was dressed in a pristine and pressed suit, his deep voice gave him a commanding presence alone and his height, well over six foot, possibly greater than seven foot, made him all the more intimidating.

"Yes, sir, then your name and business here," he said, feeling the urge to do his best to not hinder the man and presenting the man with the clipboard and quill.

 **"Thalmann. Samuel Thalmann, and I have information about Harry Potter,"** he said, showing the guard a picture from the folder he held in his slender fingers.

Albus Dumbledore was growing more and more agitated.

An emergency meeting of the Wizengamot had been called for by Minister Fudge and they were being so... incredibly... idiotic.

They had sent Aurors to investigate the Dursley house and found only the wards that Albus had mentioned and no other signs of magical activity, save from the normal level expected around children experiencing accidental magic in strong concentrations around the stair cupboard. Giving credibility to Skeeter's published story of child abuse.

Furthermore, they had sent undercover Aurors to a local police station to check their files. However the files had been digitized and upon trying to cast 'Alohomora' on the computers to unlock them and read their contents, the computers had fallen apart at the seams and the Aurors had removed the memory of their visit from those who had seen them and called the excursion a lost cause due to muggle inadequacy.

Dumbledore was rubbing his head in frustration when someone interrupted Fudge's third speech on the importance of finding the boy.

"Y-yes. What is it?" he snapped at the interrupter.

"Sorry to interrupt sir, but there's a Mister Thalmann here who has information about Harry Potter sir." He said.

Ripples of quiet murmurings amongst the other members quickly broke out.

"Send him in at once!" Fudge said, jubilation showing on his face.

The man opened the door and stood back to let the waiting man enter.

The shift in the room was apparent from the first step he took.

The Slenderman smirked to himself as he strode into the centre of the room and looked at the faces of the expecting members of the Wizengamot.

 **"Good morning,"** he said, drawing his words out, his deep voice echoed around the hall slightly.

"Yes, yes. Good morning Mr Talman, yes. Now, we were told you had information regarding Mr Potter?" Fudge asked eagerly.

 **"Thalmann,"** he said, drawing out each syllable. It would have been a lie if he said he wasn't enjoying himself. **"... and yes I do,"**

Dumbledore found himself in a rather irritating predicament.

On one hand, he wanted to yell at the man to hurry up and give him the damn information, he was talking infuriatingly slow, but on the other, he had to present a calm demeanour in this time of unrest.

Also, there was something about this man that his very presence seemed to demand more respect than anyone could give.

His tall stature made it so that if he wanted to look at any of them he merely had to mildly tilt his head. His hollowed face added striking emphasis on his cheekbones and his slicked back hair gave his facial features more contrast to the rest of him.

The man looked like a skeleton with thin layers of skin added on to give a hint of colour to his pale complexion. Add in the fact that he looked bored, mildly irritated and dangerous all at once gave Albus more incentive to hold his tongue.

The man puffed out his incredibly hollow cheeks as he listened to Fudge inquire once again about the information he held on to.

 **"Yes. I do have information about Mr Potter's situation,"** he said as he interrupted Fudge's ramble. He cleared his throat before speaking again.

 **'This should prove amusing,'** he mused to himself.

 **"As many of you know, a brutal double murder occurred last Sunday in Surrey at the Home of Mr Potter. Mr Potter himself was unharmed in the attack but was taken by the attacking assailant for unknown reasons.  
Mr Potter was able to escape from his kidnapper and made his way to a nearby station to give a statement,"**

He took out a paper copy of the transcript that Toby and Ben had made and handed it to Minister Fudge.

The transcript had been worked by Toby and Ben to be as close to what Harry would have seen, but the description had been changed so much that nobody who wasn't there or told would never connect Toby to the incident. They had also added in a few things about what Toby had seen about Harry's living standards to give the police more to go off of during the trial against Mr Dursley.

Apparently from what Ben had told him, The Puppeteer had decided to add in his own parts of Harry curling tightly into himself and having a few moments break whilst he calmed down when altering the memories of others so that when Ben altered the footage of the camera's inside the station to create false videos, a specialty of Ben's that came in useful whenever any of them had to go somewhere public, they had taken care to create the best image of a child fearing for his life that they could.

 **"The assailant that young Mr Potter described has been linked to multiple other crimes around the country and a few overseas in nearby Europe so the police decided to fast-track Mr Potter inside of the Witness Protection Programme for his own safety,"**

Slenderman looked around the faces of the many witches and wizards as they took in the information and read the transcript. Many were looking pale and sickly at the mentions of physical abuse and verbal threats issued by his Uncle, the ones on the paper were a few Toby had heard when stalking the Dursleys.

"Thank you for this information Mr Thalmann," Slenderman turned to face Albus Dumbledore. "...it shall help greatly in locating and helping Harry," the old man smiled at Slenderman as he passed back the transcript. His eyes twinkling in soft gratitude as he smiled warmly.

It made him sick.

 **"Perhaps I should have mentioned this earlier but in accordance with the law, for the most part, Mr Potter no longer exists. You will not be able to locate him,"**

Oh, there was the chaotic cacophony of confusion, mild anger and shock he had looked forward to seeing.

He held up a hand to ask politely for silence and when the hall was quietened down a small 'Hem hem' was issued for attention and Slenderman's gaze was drawn to a squat witch in the ... front... row.

 **'Oh for the sake of the Creator, not even Sally is that obsessed with the colour pink,'**

"Now, correct me if I'm wrong. But it almost seemed like you were saying that you were withholding information pertaining to the case at hand?" the squat witch simpered.

 **"Withholding information. Possibly. Implying that Mr Potter is better off where he is now yes, definitely,"** Slenderman said.

More chaos, wonderful.

"ORDER! Order, order!" Fudge called, "Mr Talman on..."

 **"Thalmann,"**

"Thalmann, on what grounds could you possibly believe that Potter is better off elsewhere and that we are unsuitable to meet his needs?" Fudge asked, red in the face, and in what would have been a condescending tone if his voice did not waver throughout speaking.

 **"Well, for starters, in my home no one under my care is undergoing abuse,"** Slenderman deadpanned and Fudge looked as if he had been slapped, as did other members.

 **"I also take great pride in assuring the _safety_ of my residents,"** Slenderman continued when Fudge looked like he was going to speak.

 **"Also, a side note, how is the hunt for the remaining Death Eaters who evaded capture via bribery and deception going?"**

Many members of the wizengamot, Fudge included, looked as if they had been force-fed a mix of lemons and chilli that Laughing Jack used in his candy.

"T-tha- that as it may be, Harry Potter is still a citizen of the United Kingdom," Fudge spoke, his voice gaining strength though it added an element of hysteria to it, "...so any information pertaining to his whereabouts and life becomes a matter of the Wizengamot to decide so..."

 **"That would be the case Minister,"** Slenderman cut across him, **"... if Mr Potter was still a citizen of the UK,"**

A collective gasp rang across many members of the Wizengamot.

' **Oh. If only there were camera's here. I would have had Ben record the whole thing.'**

"Mr Thalmann," the squat witch spoke again but was cut off by Slenderman as he had done Fudge.

 **"As Mr Potter had been placed under the protective custody of the Witness Protection Programme he was moved across seas and given a new identity to aid in his protection.**

 **So, therefore, I ask all of you.**

 **Would Mr Potter be safer where he is, with a new identity and home far away from the terrorist cell you know as 'Death Eaters' who served under..."** Slenderman smirked inwardly for he knew the reaction he was about to elicit, **"... Voldemort?"**

Multiple people gasped, some squeaked, some turned an awkward shade of puce and some slipped out of their seat, **"...or would he be better off being idolised by a Ministry that places too much faith in speculation about events that they do not fully understand and was quite contempt to leave him in that abominative state?"**

None of the people here would have known he was also referring to the soul shard, but his message had gotten across effectively regardless of that.

"These are extremely important claimes Mr Thalmann," Dumbledore spoke, "...hopefully you will supply documents to verify them."

Dumbledore had been thinking hard since Slenderman had started talking.

He had to know where Harry was. He needed to be able to steer Harry into battling Voldemort for the better of the wizarding world.

If he could get those papers then he would be able to find where he was, maybe set it about so that Harry would forget about all that had happened.

 **"Of course, Mr Dumbledore. I have them here,"** he patted the folder underarm.

"Aah, good. Then will you perhaps permit us to see these documents? To verify that there are no problems with them and that they are legal and just," he asked, pouring on the concerned grandfather charm.

 **"I would... however there would have to be conditions.**

 **I understand that there is a department in this Ministry that specializes in handling sensitive information so I shall permit someone from aforementioned department to see the documents and verify them,"**

Dumbledore smiled warmly, it still sickened him but Slenderman was glad he had taken a break before he finished speaking just to wipe the smug smile off the face of the old fool.

 **"After whoever you call has taken a vow of silence to not reveal the information present to anyone in the interest of protecting Mr Potter in his new life,"**

There were cries of shock from the Wizengamot and many seemed to deem such a demand an outrage.

They were silenced, however, by one voice.

"The demands set by Mister Thalmann are reasonable and logical," Madam Bones spoke over them all, being Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement had perks sometimes.

"Madam Bones!" Fudge spluttered.

"As long as the documents are verified we don't need to know the details. Mr Thalmann has argued his reasons for not sharing the information. The fact that he is here, willing to share said information once Mr Potter's safety has been confirmed shows how serious he is taking this matter," she said before turning to Slenderman.

"I shall send for an 'Unspeakable' at once," and with a wave of her wand, a messenger Patronus shot through the air and out the door.

Members of the Wizengamot muttered amongst themselves at Slenderman's demands.

Dumbledore, however, was deep in thought.

'If he does not specify information relating to the boy's new location then the Unspeakable will be able to tell me,' he mused. It was a nasty little loophole, but one that had been used many a time to talk freely about things.

Not too long later an Unspeakable entered

the room and bowed to the Wizengamot. However, he first bowed to Slenderman upon seeing him turn to face him, wishing him a pleasant morning.

 **'Even your own workers think I'm better than you,'** he thought in a moment of smug superiority brought about by how irritating he found most of them.

Madam Bones made her way down from the stand to be the officiator of the oath.

The Unspeakable took Slenderman's hand hesitantly; as if afraid it would be the touch of the death.

 **"Do you swear to keep any information relating to Harry Potter in regards to his new life, and his new identity, and new home in secrecy?"**

'Bugger,' Dumbledore thought, 'Well, I could inquire about anyone else on the documents,'

"I will," the Unspeakable said as a tongue of flame wrapped around their wrists.

 **"Do you swear to keep any information relating to other people's mentioned in secrecy?"**

Dumbledore wanted to hit his head against the desk.

"I will," The second tongue of flame wrapped around their wrists.

 **"Do you swear to not divulge any sort of information, details or other items of significance that may reveal anything about Harry Potter's new life?"**

"I swear," the final tongue of flame wrapped around their wrists and they let go of each other's hand.

 **"Here you go. Examine away,"** Slenderman handed over the folder and let the man examine the contents.

The members of the Wizengamot waited with baited breath for the Unspeakable to announce falsified records or forced agreement.

After a few moments, the Unspeakable removed what looked like the document that declared Harry as Toby's brother. Well, legal guardian but the unofficial title that it had been dubbed was still true.

The Unspeakable muttered a few incantations over the paper and set his wand down for a moment. Since there were still other papers to check Fudge took this as the cue to jump in.

"What is it? Forced agreement? Fraud?" he asked eagerly.

The Unspeakable sniffed and wiped an eye, "He was so happy when he signed this," he said, a warm smile on his face.

Fudge visibly deflated and sat back down.

The Unspeakable examined the rest of the documents thoroughly, not once showing any signs of finding any sort of wrongdoing.

After a few more moments the Unspeakable placed the papers back in the provided folder.

"Everything in legal order and willingly consented," he announced to the Wizengamot and gave the folder back to Slenderman.

"That is all. Thank you for your service," Madam Bones dismissed him.

"Of course Ma'am," he said bowing to her, then Slenderman before leaving the room.

 **"Well, if that is all I shall take my leave,"** Slenderman said, taking a sip of tea and placing the cup back on the saucer.

"Yes, Mister Thalmann... though where did you get the tea?" Madam Bones inquired.

Slenderman simply pulled out a thermos and ziplock bag from his pocket with his free hand.

"Aah. Yes, you may go. Thank you for resolving the situation regarding Mr Potter," she gave a small bow and dismissed the meeting of the Wizengamot.

Slenderman drained the rest of his tea back into the thermos and began leaving the room when a voice called to him.

"Mr Thalmann. Has there been any changes made in regards to Harry's placement at Hogwarts?" Dumbledore asked, standing up and leaning forward over the bannister slightly.

Slenderman took great pleasure in taking the time to lock the cup inside the bag before answering the man.

 **"Any changes regarding his admission into Hogwarts would have to have been changed on your end, Mr. Dumbledore. If he wishes to go then we shall see about further arrangements when he comes of age. If he does not wish to go to your establishment then I shall see about other educational options closer to home."**

 **"The charm you use to send out the acceptance letter's will still find him despite the name change,"** he said, raising his eyebrows slightly which made his resemblance to a skull more prominent.

With that he left the chamber, leaving a chill in his wake that nobody else would be able to recreate.

 **X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X**

The Plane, like... 30 odd seconds or something till touchdown.

Harry braced himself for the landing as the wheels bumped on the tarmac and he lurched forward slightly as the brakes came on.

He found himself smiling giddily at the sensation and soon Mr Bright was helping him off the plane.

As he walked along the connector to the airport he found himself in a sort of sandwich with Helen in front of him and Mr Bright and Teer, he had decided to use the nickname that Ben had used, behind them.

The four of them walked out through the terminals and into the massive foyer of the airport.

Toby looked around the waiting area for any sign of them.

"Quit jiggling Toby, you're shaking the bench," Masky told him.

"Sorry, Tim," Masky grumbled at the use of his real name. He, like Hoodie, preferred to go by the names they had been given back when they were Proxies however they were in public so real names it was. It still felt weird not having his mask on and he scratched absentmindedly at his sideburns to distract himself.

He glanced round at Hoodie, who had hidden himself behind a newspaper and was reading up on some sports results from the past week.

Toby sighed and started drumming out a beat, slapping his legs.

"Toby I swear to Creator, I will slap you!" Masky glared at him.

"We both know that wouldn't help or stop me," Toby replied.

"Yeah, but it would help me. Masky told him.

Toby sighed and stuffed his hands in his pockets and went back to scanning the crowds.

'Woman, man, man, child, man, woman, woman, child, old man, Helen, Puppeteer, man, man, child, child, chi... wait Helen?'

Toby did a double take back to Helen and examined the group behind him.

Helen was leading the small group with The Puppeteer at the back, his height had made him easier to see than the others. Matt trudged on, looking mildly haggard from being up for so long, and he had a hand on the shoulder of a fourth in their group. Harry.

'Well, Isaac right now, we're in public,' he thought as he got up from the seat and began walking over to them.

Harry started walking faster as well, moving out of Matt's grip and past Helen.

Toby quickened his pace and started moving at a brisk jog toward them.

Harry started running to him and the two met in the middle of the foyer with Toby picking Harry up in a hug and spinning him.

"So, how was your first flight?" Toby asked the laughing child.

"A-AWESOME! Flying's s-so fun!" he told Toby between bursts of giggles.

"I know, it is awesome," he agreed, high fiving Harry.

The two of them were interrupted by Matt who cleared his throat to get the pair's attention so he could give Toby Harry's bag and passport back.

"Take care kiddo." He told Harry as he walked through the doors out of the airport, the coat flapping in the wind as he lit a cigarette and walked off.

Masky and Hoodie walked over to Toby and Harry as Helen and Teer did.

"Well, this was fun, but Helen and I are gonna hang around for a bit before heading back," Teer said as Helen nodded. Before he let himself be led away by Teer he gave Hoodie a silver camera and nodded at him.

Though for some reason he was blushing and Harry could not work out why for the life of him.

"Yeah, we'd better get going as well," Masky said as Hoodie folded his newspaper underarm.

Harry thought it was a bit odd to see their actual faces since he hadn't seen them before when he had been at the Mansion.

Masky obviously looked awkward by the way that he kept scratching his sideburns so Harry agreed.

Toby took Harry's hand and lead him out, asking him about whether he liked the waffles he had packed and what he thought of the game selection that Ben had picked for him.

Harry talked animatedly all the way to the car that they had loaned and got it;, still stuttering but a whole lot less, Toby noted, than he had been during his time... there.

Harry felt like he was way too excited to sit still in the car as he sat down in the back next to Toby.

"So, what did you think about the games, Ben..." Toby stopped as Harry fell against him, sleeping soundly.

Toby chuckled softly as he draped an arm over him and fell asleep not too long after.

Hoodie turned to face the two of them as Masky pulled out of the airport parking lot.

He raised the camera and snapped a couple of pictures of the sleeping two.

He reclined back in his seat as Masky muttered a few expletives under his breath at other drivers.

 **X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X**

And we're done.

This may be the longest chapter I've written yet.

Regardless, another chapter has finished.

I had considered posting this on Tuesday (Halloween) but I decided against it so that I wouldn't mess up the schedule I've got going on.

I really hope you enjoy this chapter, I had so much fun writing the Slenderman scene.

If you want a visual representation of what I made Slenderman's glamour to look like then I suggest that you look up Death from Supernatural, but if he was physically capable of looking down at Sam. Julian Richings is badass as Death, perfect casting.

So yeah, I have nothing else to say really apart from sorry for any typo's. My spell check is still messed up. I tried running this through an online spell check programme, but I don't think I'm gonna do that again and try and fix my own spell check.

Another thing I'm not too sure about is if I was able to do American and English language differences properly so sorry if that got confusing.

OH, also, I got my first pet today.

He's a bearded dragon and I've called him Toby.

He's so cute.

Till the next one.  
Steamgeek01.

CreepyPasta's mentioned and their owners, to my knowledge.  
Ticci Toby – Kastoway.  
Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.  
Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.  
Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.  
Jeff the Killer – BanningK.  
Ben Drowned – Jadusable.  
Sally – Kiki H.  
Slenderman – Victor Surge.  
Smile dog – still no idea, sorry.  
The Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.  
Bloody Painter – Delucat.


	6. Chapter 6, Another day at the Mansion

Chapter 6, Another day in the Mansion.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on the screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPasta's mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games or shows mentioned in this fic.

Author's note.

Another day, another chapter.

I'm really enjoying writing this and I've noticed that my notes are getting repetitive so I'm gonna keep the notes to either replying to reviews or to let you know of anything that I think you'll need to know, i.e. If I'm gonna miss an upload day and why.

Also, I looked up some grammar guides to make sure that I wasn't making any little mistakes and it turns out that I was.

Apparently, I'm not supposed to capitalise after a spoken sentence, i.e. "What are you doing here?" He asked. - should be written as – "What are you doing here?" he asked.

So I'll be fixing that from now on and I might fix it with the other chapters if I can do it without taking the chapters down.

Oh, and till I come up with a name for this chapter, the file will be called, '...Because it's filler, filler time...' though I might keep it that.

Also, I went back over the original word documents I have for the story and I will admit, I did cringe at a few of the early mistakes I had made when writing. The "...ets..." from the prologue being a prime example as well as a few other things like messing up 'You're' and 'your', not to mention entire words sometimes, so I plan on taking more care when checking these things before I upload them.

Right, review reply's;

Guest and Lovemasterharem;

Sorry to disappoint you two, but no. I will not be pairing Harry and Sally.

TheMarphasChappers;

Glad you like it. I did have that exact idea in my head regarding L.J and the name Isaac so I'm glad someone knows why L.J stalled.

I might have the chair end up in the Black's possessions, that does seem like something that they would like, it would fit rather well with the elf heads.

I do have a few things planned for the Hogwarts years already and for some reason, I don't think Harry would be allowed to keep the basilisk.

'Starts snickering'

'Falls out seat laughing'.

Smile and Fluffy, 'falls down laughing again'. Oh, I'm almost tempted to put that in somewhere, or at least a reference to the idea. Jeff would probably have an aneurism.

Fez8745;

Glad you're liking the story, If you'd like my recommendations for CreepyPasta's to read then I suggest the copyright list for CreepyPasta owners I have at the end of the chapters.

Twister;

Nice to see your name again. Glad you like the chapter.

Kurokitsune666;

Nice to see your name again too. Glad you like it, I can't wait till I have more chapters to upload and I do have a few ideas on what'll happen in the 'WW' when Harry has to attend Hogwarts.

Ender the multiverse Detective;

Another frequent reviewer, maybe I should start a club and get badges. Thanks, glad you like it.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

Steamgeek01.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)** **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)** **(X) (X) (X) (X)**

Wednesday.

Light poured in through the window and Harry screwed his eyes to block out the offending rays.

It had been a couple of days since he had first came to the Mansion and he was not looking forward to this one.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)** **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)** **(X) (X) (X) (X)**

Tuesday.

Harry woke up feeling excited to be finally spending a whole day at the Mansion, he had fallen asleep for the most of Monday and had woken rather early, the clock Toby had got him read it was just about half five in the morning.

Harry had tried to go back to sleep but the excess he had gotten the day before, and the excitement of being there, kept him up. He was also rather thirsty.

After a few attempts, he threw off the covers and put on the clothes Toby had bought for him. The other bags of things Toby had bought sat in the corner of the room, he hadn't looked in them yet.

He was about to unlock the door and go downstairs when he remembered what Toby had said about wandering by himself. He was only going downstairs to the kitchen to get a drink so it shouldn't be that bad.

Unlocking the door and closing it quietly behind him he made his way to the stairs that lay a little away and walked down.

It was rather odd being the only person awake. The building seemed more ominous and Harry was starting to regret his decision, but he was almost at the kitchen so it would be pointless to go back now.

Harry also regretted not putting socks on as he stood on the cold floor tiles.

He looked around at the many cupboards and tried to think what one the cups may be in.

Ruling out the ones on the floor, he pulled out one of the stools from under the worktop and moved it next to the sink before climbing up.

"Morning," a voice called from behind him.

Harry nearly fell from the stool, but practice from his Uncle suddenly shouting at him to 'hurry up' or other things kept him from falling.

Harry turned around to see Helen standing in the doorway, notepad still underarm.

The blue coat he had worn on the plane was gone and the pale blue shirt he had worn underneath was ruffled and untucked slightly, the top three buttons undone with another in the wrong hole. The sleeves were pushed up exposing his skinny, pale forearms.

"Morning," Harry replied.

"You're up early," Helen said moving into the kitchen, his voice never leaving the dull, monotonous, tone he always spoke in and for some reason he was walking oddly.

"Slept too much yesterday," Harry said, moving into a comfier position on the stool.

"Wish I could say the same," Helen muttered as he opened a cupboard next to Harry and took out two glasses.

"Why?" Harry asked.

To his surprise, a slight blush rose to Helen's cheeks and he mumbled that it was nothing.

He filled the glasses, gave one to Harry and motioned for him to follow him.

Helen walked to the front door and picked up the bag Harry had taken with him on the plane before moving to the living room and sitting with him.

Helen opened the bag and rummaged around inside.

"What are you looking for?" Harry asked him.

"This," he replied, pulling out the notepad Toby had packed.

"Oh. Did Toby..." he asked hesitantly.

"He asked, I also loaned you a few pencils. I'm just curious," Helen said, flipping the book open to the drawing of the plane window.

Harry sat there sipping his drink as Helen studied the picture.

"You've got steady hands," he said, not looking up from the page.

"Thanks?" Harry said, he wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not.

Helen closed the book and handed it to Harry along with the bag.

"Not too bad, but you're still pretty young, so lots of space to improve," Helen said.

Harry nodded, "Are you good at drawing?" he asked.

Helen didn't say anything. Rather, he picked his own and flipped to a page and showed Harry.

It was Harry on the plane. One of his legs mid-swing as he played the games console Ben had loaned him.

The picture wasn't completed. Lots of the background surrounding picture Harry were lines devoid of detail, but everything looked like it fit. No random smudges. No marks that suggested an erased mistake.

"I doubt that I would be called 'The Bloody Painter' if I wasn't," he said picking up his glass, a faint rise in his voice, that might have been smugness, could just be heard.

He flicked through a few of the other pages, a few were landscapes that Harry didn't recognise, some were close-ups of random things and there were a couple that seemed impossible to draw. Those ones were of things, or people, in motion at the time of drawing.

"How do you..." Harry asked, gesturing at an older picture of a lit sparkler.

"Oh, those ones. I cheat," Helen said before taking a high-end digital camera out of his trouser pocket for a moment before replacing it.

Helen folded the book closed and drank the rest of his water.

He tucked his notepad back underarm empty glass and told Harry that it probably wouldn't be that bad an idea to go back to bed for a bit, till everyone was up.

It would also reduce the chance that Harry bumped into Jeff. Jeff liked freaking people out and probably wouldn't pass up the chance to terrorise the newbie. L.J either for that matter.

Harry put the notepad back in the bag and walked back upstairs.

He came to his door and was about to push the ajar door open when he hesitated.

'Didn't I close it after me?' Harry looked up at the crack in the door and saw the rim of a plastic bucket perched between the frame and door.

'Why would someone place a bucket above a doo... ohh,' realisation dawned on him as he remembered how Laughing Jack had seemed a bit fond of practical jokes.

Putting the glass and bag down out of the way, he flattened himself against the wall and carefully pushed the door open.

The bucket fell down and a small puddle of water wet the floor at his feet.

"Oh come on," someone spoke from inside the room. A rather irritated someone.

Harry edged his head round the frame and looked in.

Laughing Jack was perched on the edge of his bed, his head in one hand as he looked moodily over at Harry. The feather padding absent from his shoulders

"Morning L.J," Harry said as he walked over the puddle.

"Morning to you too," he mumbled as he stood up and tossed a towel over Harry's shoulders onto the puddle of water on the floor.

Harry bent down and picked up the bucket, giving it to L.J as the clown slumped out of the room.

"Take this as the warning shot, by the way," L.J said as he reached the door, turning back to fix Harry with an overly mischevious grin.

"Noted," Harry nodded at the clowns retreating back as he stooped down to pick up the wet towel.

Harry closed the door once L.J had left and locked it again.

'Err on the side of caution,' he thought as he put the bag down on the floor.

A brightly coloured object fell out of one of the pockets and rolled till it hit his foot.

Harry bent down and picked up the wrapped candy L.J had given him the day before before he pocketed it and took the books out from the bag.

He spent a while longer sat on the bed reading a couple more of the books from the bag until he could hear other noise of life coming from elsewhere in the Mansion.

Marking the page with the note Toby wrote he got back up and walked over to the wall between his and Toby's room.

He raised a hand and knocked on a part of the wall twice. A few moments later a repeat of his knock told him that Toby was up too.

Smiling to himself he unlocked the door and walked over to Toby's room.

After knocking on the door to let Toby know he was there, and hearing Toby's muffled voice saying he could come in, Harry opened the door and walked in.

If Harry had taken a moment to think about what state Toby's room would have been then he would have thought it to be quite messy with random things strewn around the place.

He would have been half right.

There were a few random clothes strewn around the room, and somehow a sock on the ceiling light.

A few books, DVD's and game cases acted as a sparse minefield for part of the room near the TV stand opposite the bed.

His hoodie, goggles, and facemask were hung on the back of the door.

The axes he used were propped up on a table in the corner.

Toby himself was sat on the bed, facing away from him, and pulling on a clean shirt he had picked up off the floor.

"Morning, how'd you sleep. Took me a bit because of being in a new bed, but you were out like a light yesterday, nearly walked into the door a few times," Toby said as he climbed over the bed towards Harry.

"Fine, woke up early and went for a drink. Had a chat with Helen," Harry said as he and Toby walked out the room.

"Oh. Did anything happen?" Toby asked, a faint tone of concern lining his voice.

Harry shrugged, "Not really. L.J did try and get me with a bucket of water above the door though," he told Toby as they passed Harry's room.

"Did he, what happened?" Toby asked, spying the remains of the now mostly dry puddle.

"The door wasn't closed properly, and since you told me to close it after me, I didn't open it right away. Saw the bucket and opened the door from the wall," Harry explained as he went inside and grabbed the now empty glass.

"Huh, and he left you alone after that, normally he doesn't stop till he's gotten at least one prank that worked," Toby said as the two began walking down the stairs.

"He called that one the warning shot since it didn't work," Harry said.

"Yeah, he probably would," Toby muttered as they entered the kitchen, "Waffles for breakfast?" he asked Harry.

Harry, who had never had anything more than toasted out of date bread for breakfast before, nodded eagerly as he placed the cup in the sink and pulled the stool over.

Toby picked Harry up and sat him on the stool before pulling a box of toaster waffles out a cupboard and pulled the toaster out of the corner of the worktop.

"Hi Harry," Sally said appearing between the pair, Harry jumped slightly at her sudden appearance whilst Toby barely flinched.

"Hi Sally," Harry said as he reached for a bit of kitchen roll to dry the glass.

"Morning Sally, cereal?" Toby asked, pulling out a box.

Sally nodded and pulled out another stool to sit on and placed her teddy bear on the counter.

As Toby placed a bowl of cereal and a milk carton in front of her before looking out some plates for the waffles.

"So Harry, seen the stuff we got for you yesterday?" Sally asked as she poured milk onto her cereal.

"I saw the bags, but I haven't looked yet," Harry told her.

"Oh, well after breakfast then," she said as she pushed the spoon into the bowl.

Not long after that Toby placed a plate of waffles covered in syrup in front of Harry as well as a fork and knife before pulling out the third stool and sitting down to eat his own.

He had also set down a bottle of water next to Harry's plate, confusing Harry for a moment until he remembered the advice Masky had given him about dealing with 'Slendy-Virus' as Toby had called in and stuck the bottle in a pocket for later.

Harry tried one of the waffles and it didn't take long for him to clear his plate of the small pile Toby had given him, using the last bit to wipe up the remaining syrup.

"Don't tell me you're trying to get him addicted to waffles too," E.J grumbled as he walked into the kitchen. His mask tied through a loop on his trousers.

"There is nothing wrong with having waffles for breakfast Jack," Toby said, waving his fork at the eyeless cannibal.

"What did I say about waffles?" L.J asked leaning round the door frame, completely horizontal.

"Not you L.J, E.J," Toby said, stabbing another piece of waffle.

"Oh, well what did the inferior Jack say?" L.J said as he walked into the kitchen.

"Sod off Jack," E.J said as he ducked down to look into the freezer.

"Apparently after letting Harry have waffles for brea..," Toby started.

"You're trying to get him addicted to waffles aren't you?" L.J cut across him.

Toby hit his head on the counter.

"I'm not trying to get him addicted to waffles," he cried, still facedown.

"Too late," Harry said, turning and putting his plate and cutlery in the sink.

Toby let out a dejected sigh of defeat as E.J and L.J snickered.

"Nothing wrong with an addiction to sweet stuff," L.J said tossing Harry another wrapped candy.

Harry didn't eat this one, rather, he swapped it with the one in his pocket when L.J wasn't looking.

"There is if it makes up fifty percent of your diet," E.J said, straightening up with a small bag in hand. It didn't take a genius to work out what was in the bag.

"Waffles aren't half of my diet," he said, flicking off a piece of cereal that had stuck itself to his head.

"Yeah they are," said the distorted voice of Ben as he passed the kitchen.

Toby rolled his eyes as he placed his plate in the sink.

Harry laughed a bit as he unwrapped the candy and popped it in his mouth.

"So, how was the plane ride?" L.J asked Harry as he claimed Toby's seat.

"The flight was awesome. Mr Bright didn't talk much but when I asked him about if he's going to be doing anything after the plane landed he did say that he might check in on his brother, apparently, he's a doctor somewhere. The games Ben let me borrow were fun, but I didn't play them all since the power died. The books were fun to read as well," Harry answered, his voice muffled slightly because of the sweet.

"Good, good. Anything else happen?" L.J had the same sort of grin he had yesterday when he was annoying Jeff, though it was gradually changing to one of minor surprise.

"Not really. Apart from Ben waking me up to play the games but other than that, not much," Harry continued.

"Wow, you must really like spicy food," said L.J as he gave a dejected sigh.

"No, not really," said Harry as he pulled out the sweet L.J had given him moments ago from his pocket.

L.J's face went through quite a few emotions at that point. Starting with mild surprise before going to annoyance, shifting to a moody pout till he started laughing.

"Oh, ho ho. I'm gonna have fun with this. It's been a while since anyone has been this much of a challenge," he said smiling at Harry before offering him his hand as a token of good luck which Harry shook, though Harry had cupped his hand before taking L.J's

"A shiny silver band on dark black fingers is pretty noticeable," he told him, pointing at the ring that held the joy buzzer to L.J's finger as he removed his hand.

L.J started laughing as he removed the aforementioned buzzer.

"You do not disappoint and I am ready to call it quits there," said L.J as he stood up, "Finally, someone to teach the tomfoolery tricks of the trade to," he said giving Harry a mock salute and backing out of the room.

"Well, I think it's safe to say you've gotten yourself in L.J's good books," said E.J through half a mouthful of kidney as he leaned against the fridge.

"Yeah, that's for sure," Toby said as he dried off his and Harry's plate, "... just be careful. L.J can get a bit carried away sometimes when it comes to pranks. Didn't he once set like, twelve odd chickens hopped up on something around the place?" he asked, turning to E.J.

"Roosters, but yes. He also tied a bunch of numbers to their necks, skipping over a few numbers so we thought there still four running around the place," E.J added on.

Not long after that Sally had finished and was trying to drag Harry up the stairs to his room.

Toby led the way into the room, just in case L.J had another trick set up, and Sally dragged Harry over to the small cluster of bags.

He had already gone through the one that held clothes with Toby, since he needed pyjamas, so that bag was emptied onto the end of the bed whilst Sally grabbed another one.

Another bag had appeared and after a quick inspection by Toby, he told them it was spare TV and games console that Ben had lying around.

"Her idea, not mine," Toby said as Harry pulled out the box of magic tricks, though he didn't think Harry could hear him from laughing.

The three of them sorted through the bags together and soon the bed was covered with Harry's new clothes and toys.

Sally had to go not long after she had given Harry the bag containing the stuffed wolf and dog, but he promised that they would have names when she came back from 'making new friends'.

She waved bye to the two before grabbing Charlie, her teddy, and disappearing.

As Toby helped Harry put away the clothes and toys it didn't take long before the barren room looked more like that of a child's.

"Right then, all that's left is to name those two, according to Sally," Toby said as he folded the last shirt away and pointed to the stuffed toys on the bed.

"Yeah," Harry said slowly as he put the books away on a shelf above the desk before looking at the pair.

"Any ideas?" Toby asked as he shut the drawer.

Harry stared at them as he thought.

Something felt familiar about the pair, but he couldn't imagine why.

"Moony..." he said slowly, "... and Padfoot," Harry said, pointing to the wolf and dog in turn.

"Moony and Padfoot," Toby parroted, "Suits them," he said.

The two of them finished putting everything away and were about to go back downstairs when someone knocked at the door and let themselves in.

"Slendy's told me to get Harry caught up on the stuff he didn't have a chance to go over since he's dealing with a final thing about Harry staying here the now," Masky said as he had a look around the newly decorated room, "Not bad, needs a bit of color though,"

"Yeah, I'm thinking blue curtains," said Toby as he tossed Harry a pair of sneakers.

If Masky was going to be telling Harry everything then that would mean a trip to the attic, and that place is cold.

"Come on," he said to Harry when he had the sneakers on and then fell into step behind Harry as they followed Masky out the room, sticking his hands in his pockets as he walked.

The attic, apart from being pretty cold, was where Slendy stored anything that they brought back that was too dangerous to be left in the world.

Over the years, probably centuries, quite a collection had been amassed.

Masky led the way to the spiral staircase at the end of the corridor that let up to what looked like a heavy door that was made of a wood so dark that it looked like condensed shadows.

Harry wondered how they were going to get in when Masky pressed his palm against where the door handle should have been and heard what sounded like a series of heavy bolts within the door unlocking before it slowly swung open.

"Don't touch anything," Masky told him, Harry nodded and stuck his hands in his pockets.

Masky led him to a small section that was fairly sparse and turned to face Harry.

"Slendy went over this stuff with you a bit, but he wasn't able to give you the whole picture," he said, crouching down to Harry's eye level.

"You can probably tell that pretty bad stuff went down before everyone came here," Masky started slowly, he was explaining this to an eight year old after all, he had to keep it simple and understandable, "... and sometimes, more often than not, these bad events unlock things. It's kinda like, the bigger the event or the more often it happens during the lead up to the event, then the more chance someone can completely lose themselves to it,"

He paused to see if Harry understood.

"Some people go too far and lose themselves completely," Harry summed up, earning a nod from Masky.

"Yeah. Now some people, like me; Toby; Hoodie; Helen, get stuck in the middle. We had that experience but didn't let it take us over completely. Some, like Jeff and E.J, had the experience and it took a stronger hold on them. They weren't completely lost, well Jeff nearly was, but are able to control themselves still,"

Masky paused again.

"Some people had it worse than others and the worse the thing, the more likely they are to lose themselves," Harry said slowly, almost guessing.

"Yep. Then there's people like Puppeteer and Laughing Jack, well they're not really people they're pretty much full demons. But they didn't go far enough but are still pretty dark. You don't have to worry though, nobody here is going to be completely lost. It's like a one time deal, you either get fully lost or stuck somewhere in the middle,"

When he paused this time Harry took a bit longer to answer.

"Some can get more lost than others..." he spoke slower than he had the second time, "... and when you snap there's a chance of being completely lost?" the last part had sounded more like a question so Masky took it as one.

"Yeah. Do you remember how I said that sometimes the bad events unlock things?" when Harry nodded he continued, "Well, it's like when people become possessed by a demon in movies and shows. They want to do bad things over and over again. Well, sometimes, it's not common but still happens a lot, they do get possessed. When people get possessed like I said, they want to bad things over and over again, but the problem is that since they're possessed, most people won't be able to take them down since not everyone can fight a demon.

That's where we come in," Masky said, gesturing at himself and Toby with a hand, "...were able to fight demons better, and since we've snapped," he said, borrowing Harry's way of putting it to help him understand better, "...we can see what they really look like. I don't exactly know how Slendy does it, but he's able to tell when someone goes that far and normally sends one or two of us to deal with it,"

"You mean kill them," Harry said when Masky paused.

"Yeah... if they went around killing non-stop then things would get really bad. People would learn about our world and things would get out of control,"

Masky paused this time to see if Harry would be able to understand what he was trying to say.

"If they went around killing non-stop then more people could lose themselves too," he said.

Masky nodded, "exactly," he was rather pleased that Harry had gotten that fairly quickly.

"Now," he said, standing up and gesturing around him at the many items that were kept there,"... what's also possible, is that things go through a sort of possession as well. The things that possess them can't leave the thing they got stuck in once they're in it but can influence things around them so that a person could be lost, or they're items that aren't possessed but could also cause a whole load of problems if left out there,"

Masky pointed at an innocent looking 8'ball on a pedestal a few meters away.

"When people use that thing it twists their question into nightmarish outcomes," he said, before pointing to a long, black stick held in a glass case.

A name tag was attached to the display and, from where he was, Harry could just make out the name 'Jacob Emory'.

"Helen got in trouble for trying to use that once. Whatever you draw with that comes to life on the paper. A traveler found it and would put on shows for the town he stayed in. Things got out of hand however when he accidentally forgot the paint he used to cover the drawings he had drawn after a show and when he was asked to draw himself the stick got added as well. The picture him had his own stick and it drew a door and let a whole load of the drawings out into the real world, Slendy had pretty much all of us on cleanup for about a week." Masky grumbled at the end, causing Harry to laugh a bit.

"So. To sum up. Some people lose themselves completely to darkness and it's our job to stop them, and sometimes dangerous things pop up and we need to go get those as well," Masky said, looking around for another thing he could use to demonstrate his point about dangerous items. He was about to start talking about a book bound in human flesh that sat a little aways, but when he turned to face Harry he found that Harry was looking at a newly added pedestal in the middle of a clearing not far off to his right.

A pedestal holding a floating red orb inside a bell-shaped glass container.

'Oh fuck' Masky's inner monologue supplied and he turned to face Toby.

Thankfully he had noticed what was drawing Harry's attention and had placed a hand on Harry's shoulder in case Harry started to drift over.

"Is... is that..." Harry asked in a quiet voice.

Masky nodded solemnly, "Yeah. That's the soul shard Slendy pulled from you,"

"I can hear it," Harry said softly.

Masky and Toby shared a quick glance at each other.

"Come on, let's get outta here," Toby muttered to Harry and tried to pull Harry closer to him.

"Why didn't he destroy it?" Harry sounded upset that the thing was still there.

" **Because it is one shard of a person's soul, and I doubt that it is the only shard out there,"** before Masky had a chance to say anything Slendy spoke from behind the trio, making them all jump. He must have crept in without 'Slender-walking' as a few had dubbed it. Slendy was a master of stealth when he wanted to be.

" **If I was certain that it was the only shard then I wouldn't have hesitated to destroy it. However, if it was the only one then it would have had greater power than it wielded inside you. Since it was a relatively weak shard, and each shard is half of the soul residing in a person, it stands to reason that there are more,"** Slendy said as he walked slowly towards them.

As he reached them he gave Masky a folder he had been carrying underarm and asked him to file that away safely.

Masky nodded to Toby and Harry before walking away and out the door.

" **I trust it that Masky was able to explain a bit more than I was able to about what it is we do here?"** he asked Harry, leaning forward over them.

"When people snap they can either lose themselves completely or get stuck somewhere in between," Harry began summarising what he had been told, "...when people lose themselves completely it's like they become filled with evil and become demons. You kill them so they don't cause too much chaos and cause more people to snap. You also go after things that can cause chaos as well," Harry finished, looking up at Slenderman to see if he had gotten anything wrong.

" **In a quick summary yes. That is the general, don't salute,"** he said to Toby who had half raised his arm again like he had at the Dursley's, **"...idea of what we do, though the analogy of all demons being evil will have to be changed. Not all demons are malevolent beings of chaos, take Laughing Jack for example. He is a demon but rather exists as a force of neutral disorder, targeting those who would eventually turn into beings of malevolent chaos."**

Harry nodded to show he understood.

" **Masky may have mentioned this but the reason I didn't tell you myself was that I had one last thing to take care of regarding you staying here,"** Slenderman said, apparently content with how Harry understood the situation regarding the inhabitants of the Mansion.

 **"When I left this morning there were two problems that existed,"** Slenderman said, straightening up.

" **One of those problems was that the magical community's 'Ministry of Magic' would have kept searching for Harry until they found him and took him back to their world. That would have been rather bothersome in future events so I interrupted a meeting being held by their version of a government to nullify their interest of you for the most part. They have abandoned the search for you since I provided the evidence made by Ben, The Puppeteer and Toby that you are in a safe and suitable environment whilst being hidden from the killer of both of your Aunts."**

Harry started shaking as a smile graced his face whilst Toby just burst out into snickers and giggles.

"So what glamour did you use?" Toby asked Slendy, as his giggling subsided.

" **Thalmann,"** Slenderman told him.

Toby burst out into full-blown, unhampered laughs.

Harry, however, stood there mildly confused but started laughing as Toby fell to his knees, clutching his chest from laughing too hard.

"I.. I'll," he let out another wheeze of laughter, "...I'll expl... explain later," he struggled to get out through laughing.

" **Glamours are what we use to hide our true selves when in public to avoid suspicion or panic,"** Slenderman said, his features slowly morphing.

His height went down somewhat, though he would still tower over most. Facial features and hair seemed to shimmer into existence around his head after a few seconds Harry was faced with someone he was certain could pass for the grim reaper incarnated.

Slenderman turned his head and looked down at Harry with his skeletal features and Harry now understood what was so funny about Slenderman confronting the Ministry of Magic. Harry had the feeling that he would rather have been locked in his cupboard until he died than have to face off against Slenderman, despite how he looked.

" **Before you ask Toby, no. They did not have any camera's there since an abundance of magic in the air can cause problems with technology,"** Slenderman said as Toby slowly got up, his twitches more active after the laughing episode.

Toby let out a sigh of annoyance when he stood upright.

"Well, I can imagine it. So, what's this final problem then?" he asked, dusting himself off.

" **The fact that when I was in Britain I took the liberty of checking Harry's old residence on Privet Drive. I found a number of wards relating to protection via familial blood, now, as Petunia Dursley has been killed the wards have been rendered inert. However, there is still a way that Harry could be returned there,"**

There was silence for a brief moment before Harry quietly said, "Dudley,", his eyes dropping to the floor as he spoke.

"What. The human blimp that pissed himself at the sight of me, what can that bloated whale do?" Toby asked, mildly dumbfounded because from what he had seen of the boy, he would have struggled to make toast.

He's my cousin, were blood through Petunia," Harry said, the idea that he could be ripped from his new home took all emotion from his voice.

" **Precisely, however. I do have a plan,"** Slenderman interrupted their moping.

 **'Honestly, do they think I wouldn't bring it up if I didn't have something to fix this,'** if he had eyes he might have rolled them there and then.

" **In the near future, a trial will be held against Vernon Dursley for multiple accounts of child abuse over the years. It is my firm belief that the one who had Harry placed there will try and tip the scales in favor of Mr Dursley being cleared of the charges.**

 **I will prevent any charms or other influencing spells being used on the jury, however, we must assume that said person will have changed evidence to make Mr Dursleys defense stronger.**

 **There is one 'ace up the sleeve', I believe they will not be able to mount an easy defense against and will tip the scales forever in our favor."** Slenderman told them, Harry still seemed afraid of the idea that he could be taken away, but Toby seemed to be hanging onto his every word.

Now if only he could put that same effort into his work.

"Great, what is it?" Toby asked him.

" **Harry himself. Or, rather, a testimony from Harry about what happened to him in that house,"** Toby replaced his arm on Harry's shoulder again as Harry had paled at the idea of having to dredge up those memories.

" **I understand it may be difficult, but if someone is planning on tampering with the trial then the chance of your Uncle being cleared rise significantly,"** Toby thought that Slendy could have said it a little less bluntly, but that wasn't how Slendy did stuff. Unless he was deliberately toying with someone.

"I'll do it," Harry said. His voice still rather quiet, but there was an edge that hadn't been there before.

Whilst Slendy had explained a little more, Harry had been thinking.

He didn't want to go back to them. Not now or ever.

'Toby, Masky, Sally and everyone else goes off and fight actual monsters to keep the world safe. And I'm scared of telling the truth to get someone who deserves it locked up?' he was mentally frustrated with himself.

His new Brother did way more than this and if he was expected to one day be one of them then he couldn't back down from this.

"What do I have to do?" he asked Slenderman.

" **Nothing for today. Tomorrow, Eyeless Jack will catalog any injuries you had prior to coming here and shall include them within a report that shall contain your testimony. I have Ben going through digital files of other child abuse cases to find out the most common questions asked during investigations and he shall compile a list to be asked to you."** Slenderman told them as he ushered them out of the room.

" **For now, relax. Spend some time getting to know your new home."** He said, closing the door behind them.

With that he teleported away, sending Harry into another coughing fit as Toby helped him open the bottle and gulp down some water.

"Yeah, I hated having that. Pretty much destroyed my voice for a week since I couldn't feel how much it hurt and my throat was pretty much raw by the end," Toby told him, trying to cheer him up.

"It sucks," was all he got in reply as they descended from the landing back down to the corridor.

"Wait," Harry said, "How does..." he started, looking at the stairs they had just came down and the end of the corridor where they now stood.

He hadn't seen the outside of the Mansion much, save from a quick glance behind him when he left for the plane, but he could tell that they couldn't have gotten into the attic.

The stairs they had just used made it so that someone facing the door to the attic would have been facing the wall at the end of the corridor, the stairs didn't curve back on itself so when they walked up they should have been faced with an empty wall, maybe a window like the one he was looking out of, instead of the door.

"Drove Helen crazy when he first got here apparently. The Mansion is a construct that Slendy made. Since the attic houses some pretty bad juju he made it so that you can't get in easy, if anyone who didn't have permission went up there and tried to get through the door they would have just met with the drop to the ground outside," Toby tried to explain.

Harry looked like it still confused him, but he had gotten the general gist and left it alone at that.

As they walked back to Harry's room Toby was in full ramble.

"So what do you wanna do? We got the day to sort stuff out before tomorrow so you wanna try out a few more of the games that Ben recommended for ya?" Toby fired off, pushing the ajar door to Harry's room open before Harry could stop him.

Another bucket perched above the door fell down, and this time Toby got the brunt of the water it held.

"Damn it, Toby," L.J fumed as he threw the towel at Toby as he left the room.

Toby took the towel wrapped around his head and dried himself off as he went to get a new shirt.

Harry had liked the idea of playing some more of the video games that Ben had loaned.

Taking out the console left there for him he began to set it up. He had had practice setting everything that Dudley had gotten for his birthday's up for him, though he had never been allowed to play anything.

After the TV was set up Harry began untangling the web of cables that were supposed to connect it to the console.

Toby came back in, wet shirt replaced, though his hair was still damp in a place or two and helped with the final part.

"And that should just about do it," Toby said as he plugged in the final cord and rubbed his hands together, "... right, power it up,"

Harry flicked the plug on the wall and the TV and console hummed into life.

Before large amounts of static covered the screen and a high pitched, warbling tone echoed from the speakers.

Harry shared a confused glance with Toby before the screen started flashing a mix of red and green.

As suddenly it had started the image on the screen changed to that of a large temple with a hooded figure sat upon a throne with alters of fire decorating the walls and path up to it.

#"Behold. The master of all that is..."#

A highly distorted deep voice began speaking.

Though that was as far as it got before Toby pressed the refresh button and the temple disappeared leaving Ben suspended in midair for a moment before he, with an undignified yelp, fell down past what the screen could show.

"Overdramatic entrances and general annoyance," Toby filled in, saluting as he spoke, "Ben Drowned, the living game glitch,"

#Fuck you Tick-Talk. Do you know how long I've wanted to do that one# appeared on screen in pale golden letters.

"Ever since you found that map level," Toby said as a sort of shadow of the static it had earlier shown glazed over the screen and Ben crawled out. Harry had to do a quick double take as Ben pulled himself out the screen as Ben's eyes were pitch black with deep red irises, they changed to a mild blue as he straightened up.

His outfit also changed during his climb out as well. When he was on the screen he looked more like the statue Harry had seen in his dream on the plane, but as he left the screen it changed to a pale green hoodie over a grey shirt.

"Yeah, now I gotta wait who knows how long to do it," Ben said as he dusted himself off, "... took you long enough to get it set up,"

"Oh shut up. So, what one you wanna start with?" Toby asked Harry as he passed over the small pile of games.

Harry shifted through them and withdrew the first game he had played.

"Mario Kart. Well, could've guessed that one," Ben said as he sat on the edge of the bed.

"Right, put it in and let's get playing," Toby said as he sat cross-legged on the floor and placed a controller at Harry's side before picking up his own.

Harry loaded the game and picked up the controller and offered Ben the third, which he declined.

"Naah, using those things cramps my style," he said as he stuck his arms into the screen and pulled himself through.

#"Much better,"# Ben's voice echoed slightly through the speaker as the text reappeared.

"No cheating Ben, give him a chance before you mess with the game," Toby said to the now Ben occupied screen.

#"Hadn't planned to, gotta start him off easy since now don't I,"# Ben replied, stretching out his arms, the picture around him distorted slightly with each movement.

When the title screen loaded Ben fast forwarded the game to the point where they selected characters.

"You must be a player's worst nightmare," Harry said as he set his icon on random.

#"Hehe. Indeed I am, though I also consider myself their guardian angel,"#

"Why?" Harry asked, curious about the conflicting statements.

#"Instant nerf on any moronic hacker and video of their misdeeds straight to the game developers,"#

"Yep, one time the two of us were online and got stuck in this lobby with a guy using 'God Mode'. Ben crashed his system, got his account removed and fried part of the dude's setup," Toby told him.

They would have kept on talking about past encounters but the screen loaded and soon the three of them were dodging and weaving their way around the bot players.

Playing with Toby and Ben was interesting, to say the least.

Toby's twitches gave the game an extra level as he would sometimes veer off into the other's suddenly or send wild green shells flying.

Ben could be seen pretty much surfing on top of his cart and depending on the item he had, he would add his own flair to throwing them. Like when he sent out a shell he would hit them off with a golf club.

Or when he got a star he would for some reason change what he was wearing into a purple dress, complete with pearls, with weird blobby hair. One of the eyes also went red but Harry figured that this was a reference to something that he would ask Ben about later.

Harry himself didn't do too bad considering that he hadn't been playing any games at all for long, so he considered fourth a win.

Ben came first, to no surprise.

The three of them continued to play for quite a bit.

Harry had asked about how the question search that Slendy mentioned Ben was supposed to be on was going but Ben waved it aside.

#"I'm a literal ghost in the machine. Do you know how fast stuff goes on in here? If you could see the code being read as each line gets run, loops back on itself or repeats you'd get a seizure. I got the questions covered, for now though have a bolt of lightning on yo ass,"#

Toby swore at the screen, he had been in the air over a long jump at the time.

Time seemed to get the better of them, though it hadn't felt that long.

They only became aware of how long they had been playing when L.J let himself back in.

"Well the eyeless wonder didn't close the door to the fridge properly and Smile got in again so we're gonna head out for... ooh, Mario Kart. Anyone beat Ben yet?" he asked, sitting on the bed.

"Almost," Toby said as he drew level with Ben, Harry not far behind.

#"Bring it on Tick-Talk,"# Ben called out as they approached the finish line.

"Ben get back here,"

#"See ya,"# Ben shouted as he turbo'd away thanks to the mushroom he had just gotten.

"NO," Toby shouted back.

"Bye guys," Harry said as his character and cart turned into a bullet as he sped in front of the shouting pair. Knocking Ben off the track.

#"NO NO NO NO NO"# Ben cried out as Harry, Toby and three other npc's passed him.

Toby and L.J cheered as Toby lifted a laughing Harry onto his shoulder in victory and L.J let a volley of streamers lose from within his sleeves.

This brought Masky into the room as well.

"Did you set off another bomb L.J because you know that after what happened last time that; what's going on?" he asked as he surveyed L.J with multiple streams of ticker tape trailing to the floor from his arms, Toby with Harry hoisted into the air and Ben lying across the map selection screen as he sulked.

#"That was BULLSHIT!"# Ben said as he started crawling out of the screen.

"Bullet Bill bullshit to be exact," Toby laughed.

"I... don't really care what happened," Masky said with a slight shake of his head, "L.J tell you that were heading out for lunch?"

"Yeah," Toby said as he set Harry back down, "... so where we gonna go?"

"Runic," L.J told him as he winded the streamers back into his sleeves, turning his thumbs as if they were cranks, "...where else do we go?"

"Fair point," Toby said as he dusted down his legs.

Ben had calmed down a bit and was talking to Harry about him trying out other games as they walked down the stairs to where E.J, Jeff and Smile were waiting with their glamours on already.

E.J hadn't changed much. His skin had changed the most, going from the dull grey to a soft tan, but his hair looked a shade or two lighter. He was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses and had what looked like a collapsible cane in his hand.

Jeff, by comparison to his normal self, was near unrecognisable. The dark rings around his eyes were gone; his skin had a healthy glow to it, no longer chalk white; his eyes were blue and looked softer, his cheeks unmarred by the Chelsea smile carved into them.

Smile's glamour was the closest to how he normally looked. His red fur had changed to white and if he were to open his mouth then Harry suspected that he would have normal teeth for a dog. He was also wearing a harness with reflective stripes.

Hoodie had simply taken off the balaclava that covered his face and was leaning against the door since, like Masky, he didn't need a glamour though he had kept the hood up and Harry could only see the base of his face.

With E.J holding the leash, Harry assumed that Smile was supposed to be pretending to be his guide dog. This turned out to be the case when Toby told him as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

Harry followed closely to Toby as they walked through the forest that surrounded the Mansion but he didn't experience the sensation that came with every other time he had traveled through there so he assumed that they weren't going far.

And they weren't it turns out, as after a few minutes they came to a dusty road and L.J led them towards the town.

Harry enjoyed the walk there and kept up a lively conversation with Ben and Toby about other games since Ben wanted to get harry caught up on everything he had missed while at the Dursley's.

Toby and Ben were in the middle of an argument between about what shooter games had the most realistic melee kills that Masky ended early when they reached the pizza place.

It was a nice place, Harry thought.

They could bring Smile inside under the guise of a guide dog so he sat at the end of the table being lazily patted by E.J, who was smiling serenely at having Jeff read out the menu, when they were all seated.

The staff were also nice to them, apparently, the Creeps were regular customers at the place and on good terms with them.

Owen, or Omega as some preferred to call him, came out from behind the register to greet them and take their order.

"Another visit this soon, you lot getting bored of cooking?" he asked, raising a hand in greeting to the group.

"More like keep forgetting to close the fridge door," Masky replied, returning the wave.

"Well it keeps us in business so keep forgetting," he joked as they sat down. That was when he noticed Harry sliding into the booth after Toby and Ben.

"Take it that's the new housemate Trish mentioned?" he asked Jeff.

"Yeah, that's him," was all he got in reply.

"Huh, thought he would've been older," he said, offering his hand to Harry, "...Owen, though most call me 'Omega," he introduced himself.

Harry shook his hand, "H... hi, I'm Isaac," he told him. he had almost told him Harry but had caught himself before he messed up.

"So Isaac, Jeff pretty much said nothing about you when he popped in on Sunday, how'd you get to hanging around with this bunch?" he asked him.

"Isaac came to stay with us since I'm his older brother," Toby supplied, smiling and clapping a hand on Harry's shoulder.

"No way, how come you didn't mention him before?" Owen enquired further, though any answer was cut off by Jeff.

"Don't you have orders to take?" he said, though it sounded more like a soft growl. He may have gotten along well with them, but that didn't mean he liked idle small chat.

"You mean from the guys who have always ordered two meat feasts, a cheese and two bottles of coke since we opened. Huh, I couldn't possibly guess what you want this time," Owen said, rolling his eyes and walking off with a smile on his face.

Soon small conversations were strung back up, as Ben and Toby's argument about games went into what open world games they would get Harry to try when they got back.

L.J managed to get Jeff talking about taking down opponents bigger than them when the TV in the room changed to show a wrestling match from a few days ago.

E.J, Masky and Hoodie fell into what must have been an old topic, discussing something about 'Maple Harvest's' and what was going on with somebody called 'Alex', but Harry wasn't listening properly so he might have misheard something.

Harry himself didn't join in much with the conversations, again, apart from answering the questions asked of him by Ben and Toby. He had also managed to get dragged into Jeff and L.J's when L.J said that a smaller person would be able to move quicker when L.J used him as an example in the argument. Jeff then used Harry to show that it would be a moot point being quicker unless you were getting the hell out of there since Harry didn't know how to fight properly.

Their arguments were quickly interrupted by a small ball of fur yipping loudly as it ran around the tables when a door next to the kitchen doors opened.

"No, Elu, come back here," someone cried out from where the small dog had run from.

A few moments later Owen came out from the room and, after a few more moments of chasing Elu, had picked up the overexcited puppy.

Elu tried to climb up Owen's shirt to start licking at his face when he noticed Smile looking over at him and then propelled himself off Owen's chest and skidded over the floor as he tried to run towards Smile.

Harry ducked his head under the table to see what was going on.

Elu was running around Smile's feet, jumping up onto him a few times and yapping eagerly while Smile had a paw raised and was leaning back, looking down at the puppy like it had sprouted three heads.

As he straightened back up another small puppy came out of the room, as Owen hadn't closed the door behind him, and started barking softly at Elu.

Who proceeded to stop what he was doing and quickly ran back into the room, followed by the second puppy moments later.

Owen stared dumbfounded at the retreating pair before throwing his arms in the air and crying, "Sod it. Runic's under new management, all hail 90's, overlord pupper of the pizza,"

Harry joined in with the others as they laughed, or in Jeff's case a small snort of amusement, as Owen carefully slide back into the room housing the pups.

Gavin, another worker there, came out with their order not long after as he left to take a few lunchtime deliveries out.

The rest of lunch passed without incident, Harry was introduced to a few other members of the staff who worked there. Harry thought that they were all rather nice, Owen was rather pleased when Trish came back as she seemed o be the only one other than 90's who could get Elu to calm down. Though no one would be able to get 90's to stay out of the chair that Raz (the owner Richard) had in his office for more than a few minutes at a time.

"Hey Toby, Tim, you two got a moment?" Owen asked as the group began making their way out, having finished their meal.

Toby spared a quick glance at Masky, before saying to Harry, though he called him Isaac, that they'd catch up in a few moments.

"What is it," Toby asked, watching Ben start up a conversation with Harry about what else he would have to catch up on.

Owen motioned for them to follow him and, with careful maneuvering, led them into the room housing the pups where Trish was refilling their water bowl.

"Figured that you'd want a bit of privacy for this," he said as he shut the door, keeping Elu from getting out with his foot.

"For what?" Toby asked as he tensed up slightly, a quick glance told him Masky was doing the same.

"Listen. You might've not said a lot about where you guys come from, or much about yourselves for that matter, but there are a few things we do know though," Owen said.

Toby and Masky braced themselves.

If anyone figured out who they really were the protocol was to either convince them that they're wrong, if they can or kill them and relocate.

"What he means," Trish said, moving to stand by Owen and looking at Toby, "... is that in all the time here

you've never mentioned anything about having a brother, or any other family members apart from a Mum and Aunt on the other side of the country and a sister once in passing, so what's the deal with Isaac?" she asked.

Toby and Masky relaxed a little but they were still tense.

Toby gave Masky a quick glance, hoping he knew that it meant to stall for him for a moment.

"It's a bit complicated," Masky said, getting the message.

Toby inwardly thanked him for giving him the time to come up with an answer.

"I don't know the whole story though, Toby knows it better than I do,"

'That wasn't stalling you jackass, that was a pause for breath,' Toby though as he tried to come up with a story.

"Dad was an asshole," he started slowly, getting the most of the time he could, "... and he used to take a fair few business trips," he told them, his Dad had used to take business trips before he had started hitting the bottle but they didn't need to know that he hadn't ever left the country for any of them.

"And apparently on a few of those trips _stuff_ happened," he had an idea in his head.

From the way he had said 'stuff' Trish and Owen shared a look, getting the implication.

"...and said stuff led to Isaac. Pass a few year or two and apparently, something happened with his family so he had to go stay with his Aunt and Uncle. Shitbags to the highest calibre, took about a few years for someone to notice something, went through family records and found who the father was, and since he's not exactly available they got in touch with me," Toby said, he wished that he had had more time to come up with a better story but that would have to do. He could always flesh out the details with Harry later so he knew what to say.

Owen and Trish both had odd looks on their faces.

Toby turned to Masky, trying to tell whether they had bought it or not. A small nod from him told him that they had.

"Wow, poor kid," Owen mumbled under his breath and Trish made a soft hum of agreement.

"You won't mention any of this to anyone, won't you?" anyone who had ever met Masky knew about the inane ability he had to be able to make questions sound like commands.

Trish and Owen nodded, before Trish started mumbling about not keeping them, and the two of them made sure that both of the pups were held back to let them out.

Masky let out a sigh of relief as they walked back down the road to the Mansion.

"Nicely handled," Masky said as the two of them walked back.

"Aww Masky-moo, I knew you really liked me," Toby said in an overly ecstatic tone as he tried to hug Masky.

Though he was blocked by Masky grabbing his face and holding him at arm's length.

"Try and hug me Rogers and I will break your leg and let you limp back on your own," Masky told him in a deadly voice.

"Noted," Toby mumbled through Masky's hand.

Masky released Toby at that and the two of them made their way to the Mansion.

Toby had planned to head up to Harry's room to look for him but that was rendered moot since he was sitting on the couch with L.J and Ben who had taken it upon them to show Harry a few shows he had missed at the Dursleys and Smile was curled up on his bed.

Hoodie was just about to leave, a few bags in hand showed that he was heading out to replace the food lost to Smile.

E.J had probably gone to either his room or the infirmary and Jeff would have gone back to his room too.

He had no idea where Helen and The Puppeteer were and since Sally wasn't around he assumed she was still out 'playing'.

"So are all ghosts stopped by salt?" Harry asked after the credits of the first episode of the show Ben had put on came on screen.

"Nah, I tried. Didn't work. Plus Slendy got a bit annoyed about the fact that there was so much salt around the place it looked like Christmas came early," L.J told him, setting a bowl of popcorn on the table.

Harry felt intoxicated by the smell, but something told him to hold off on taking any yet.

"Still don't know why they fill hula hoops with salt so they can't be blown away, and it would make the protection portable," Ben grumbled, reaching for a hand of popcorn.

"GYAAAAAH!" he screamed as he withdrew his hand, plus a mousetrap.

"Oh come off it, I put padding on it," L.J said and Harry had a feeling that the mousetrap had been for him, not Ben.

"Oh really?" Ben asked, taking the trap off and shoving it in L.J's face.

As it passed in front of him Harry noticed the distinct lack of padding on the bar.

"Oh, wrong one," L.J said in a mock-innocent tone.

Harry laughed a bit and took some of the popcorn, figuring it was safe now.

Toby laughed slightly and leaned across Ben to take some of the popcorn as the second episode started.

By the time dinner had rolled around Ben and L.J had gotten Harry a fair bit into Supernatural, though they had finished season one and Harry wanted to know what happened after the final acts of the last episode, they were already thinking about what else to show him.

"Doc' Who, that's a given, kid's British," Ben said to L.J as they sat down.

"Of course, naturally. Warehouse?" L.J asked Ben, taking his own seat.

Toby and Harry left the two of them to it to help Helen and Puppeteer take stuff through from the kitchen, the two of them had came down sometime during the unplanned marathon and watched it with them.

Harry had been a bit shocked at seeing The Puppeteer without his glamour.

His hair was the same black as it had been on the plane, but his skin looked like a smoother version of the grey leather lining that had been on the seats of Uncle Vernon's old company car.

A few darker lines of skin marked their way down his face and Harry found that it hadn't been a trick of the light on the plane when he thought that his eyes had flashed gold. There was literally a dull golden glow shining out of his eyes and mouth.

Harry carried through plates of finely cut salad stuff, wondering how Puppeteer had managed to cut them all within seconds of taking them out, and Toby followed with a few bottles of juice.

It seemed that whenever dinner was concerned, unless they were ordering from Runic, it was just a choose what you want to eat and eat it. There was no real structure to the way food was brought out, save for a bowl of raw organs placed at E.J's seat.

Sally had come back not long after everyone sat down but was told to go wash up by Masky, since not all the blood on her was just her own, before she joined them.

Harry was, again, rather enjoying dinner and looking forward to what else they were going to do.

Or, he was until E.J mentioned that he had finished going over the questions that Ben had looked out for Harry's testimony and that he had everything ready for tomorrow.

This brought back the feelings Harry had felt earlier, though they were blocked out more since the first time they had risen.

After that Harry was a little more subdued, though he was definitely more comfortable than he had been yesterday.

Jeff had started laughing, it sounded about as pleasant as his smile looked comforting, when he heard about the losing streak L.J was stuck on against pranking Harry.

This caused L.J to subtly ask Helen if there were any onions left in the fridge and Harry had a feeling that Jeff wasn't going to have the best of mornings tomorrow.

Harry had tried to help with taking stuff through but Toby had pointed out how late it was getting, and he should probably be rested for tomorrow, so they settled for Harry taking his, and the plates of those on either side of him through then heading upstairs.

Harry had found it a little difficult to fall asleep that night, though when he had it didn't last long.

Laughing Jack seemed to have decided to have one last attempt at Harry before the day was done and snuck into his room, an alarm clock and plate of whipped cream in hand.

Chances were that that one would have worked, but The Puppeteer had heard about Harry's winning streak with avoiding L.J's pranks and decided to get back at the monochrome clown for the time he had replaced his entire wardrobe with various costumes based off Gerry Anderson shows.

As L.J set the alarm clock carefully next to Harry's sleeping head Puppeteer appeared silently inside the room and carefully threaded a few strings along L.J's arms.

Harry had started to stir when he heard a ticking that hadn't been there before and opened his eyes to the blurry sight of a small clock sitting a few inches from his head.

"30. 29. 28..." someone was counting out.

It took Harry a few moments of groggy thinking to place L.J's name to the voice.

Before he could say anything L.J gave a yelp of surprise as the plate of cream was forced into his own face as he was pulled back from his crouching position on the bed onto the floor.

"Come on Jackie, leave the newbie alone," The puppeteer crooned softly to him, "...it's late and I heard that Jeff wanted to clear out the smell of the rotten sardines you stuffed under his bed earlier so why don't you replace it with some lovely 'Eau de raw onion',"

Harry watched as The Puppeteer dragged L.J out of the room, only turning at the door to say goodnight and with a small flash in his eyes was gone, the door shut and locked behind him.

Harry sat there for a few moments, staring at the door they had left through as he tried to work out what had happened.

He was snapped out of his sleepy musings when the alarm clock L.J had left went off and startled Harry so much he fell off the bed.

"Harry. You ok?" Toby called through the wall.

"Yeah, just an alarm clock L.J planted," he called back, turning off the infernal device.

"I COUNT THAT AS A WIN," came L.J's voice, shouting from somewhere down the hall.

Harry snorted at L.J's declaration, set the clock on the bedside table and crawled back into the bed.

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Wednesday.

Harry pulled on a clean set of clothes and walked downstairs. A dull weight settling in his gut.

Ben and E.J were already up, as were a few others. They were sitting on the couch with Toby, waiting for Harry.

"Here," E.J said, giving Harry a glass of orange juice, "...you just wanna get this over and done with or get breakfast first?"

Harry was still a little surprised about being asked what he wanted to do, but he said he would rather get it over and done with, so he drank the juice and followed E.J to the med room, Ben and Toby right behind him.

Another part of Harry's testimony would be some of the more physical remainders of his time at the Dursley's so E.J, aside from asking Harry the questions for the recording, would be cataloging them.

Having Toby in the room with him made Harry feel better about opening up about the reminders of that house and his time there. It was still rather uncomfortable when he had to take off the shirt so E.J could picture the marks left behind by a particularly heavy belt buckle.

Once E.J had gotten the last pictures, a small burn on the side of Harry's left hand from when his Uncle had decided that negative reinforcement would better serve Harry when he was learning to cook, he took the list of questions that Ben had printed off and ushered them out of the room so they could record Harry's statement.

Ben assured Harry he had gone through pretty much all of the successful cases of child abuse and gotten the questions out that would tear at the hearts of any jury.

Toby held Harry by the shoulders and told him that he would be wight outside and that he wasn't going anywhere.

E.J had made a sound close to that of a cat coughing up a hairball and shoved Toby out the room.

"You ready?" E.J asked him.

"Let's just get this shit over with," Harry replied.

"Language," E.J reprimanded, "... you're still only eight," he said at the look Harry was giving him.

"Yeah, I'm good," Harry said, "...let's get this over with,"

"Right then," E.J said, turning on the camera he had mounted earlier and focusing on Harry, before giving the date, the time and the false name Ben had supplied him with.

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Author notes.

And were done, I know, this one is a little later than normal.

It did take me a bit longer to write this one, and I have changed the name of this chapter you may have noticed if you read the top author note.

Next weeks should be up on time, it's mainly going to be the filler chapter this one originally was with bits and ideas of what I wanted to show with Harry at the Mansion before he gets his Hogwarts letter.

OVER 2000 VIEWS.

Seriously, I know at this point I may as well be a broken record, but thank you all for the support you've shown just by reading this. It does mean a lot and I hope you will like where I go with this fic.

I had tried to do a little more in the way of world building this time, see the references to a few other Creepypasta stories I've read and tried to connect a few things into this world.

Also, I openly admit this, I may have gotten a little carried away with references to stuff this time. I'll try to put a dampener on it in the future.

Anyway, I'm running out of stuff to say so thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next chapter.

SteamGeek01.

CreepyPasta's mentioned and their owners, to my knowledge.  
Ticci Toby – Kastoway.  
Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.  
Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.  
Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.  
Jeff the Killer – BanningK.  
Ben Drowned – Jadusable.  
Sally – Kiki H.  
Slenderman – Victor Surge.  
Smile dog – still no idea, sorry.  
The Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.  
Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Referenced CreepyPasta's

The art of Jacob Emory – Peterdivine.

Eight Ball – Deadlights911.

Other references.

The evil dead.

The Gaming Terroriser.

Shows Mentioned.

Take your pick for Gerry Anderson shows, I prefer Thunderbirds.

Supernatural.

Doctor Who.

Warehouse 13.


	7. Chapter 7, The Mandatory Filler Chapter

Chapter 7, The Mandatory Filler Chapter.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks

if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$Word$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any creepypastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games or shows mentioned in this fic.

Author's note.

Here we go, the next chapter.

This one is mainly gonna act as the time skip for the next two to three years to when Harry gets his letter. The first part of this is just gonna be tying up the end of the last chapter, I'm gonna have it skip to after E.J and Harry finish since I don't really know how to do court cases.

Thankfully I don't have any experience with those.

Most of this chapter is going to be spaced out over the years till Harry gets his letter, little things that I want to put in. Kinda like One-shots.

And something else.

A while back, around the first three or so chapters, I went on Omegle in my Ticci Toby costume and met someone who was interested in the fic, so I gave them the link and we stayed in contact afterwards through the messaging system Hangouts.

Aside from talking about other things, they've been my main go-to when I have a question about CreepyPasta stuff I didn't know. They were the one who told me where the mouth gash Toby had come from and a few other things.

So, the main point of this, they are now my Beta. This means that in the future there should be a whole lot less spelling errors, i.e. "... he would be wight outside..." from the last chapter.

It might also mean that the chapters might be a little late if I hit a block when writing them, but I promise that I will upload them as soon as I am able and if the way that this chapter is going is any indication, then I might be able to have one or two in the bank to upload as I work.

So from now on, after this chapter, DannyPhantomFanGirl1 shall be the Beta for this story, say hi DP;

 _DP;..._

They're not replying so I can't say anything here, sorry.

Review reply's;

Guest – Abbo;

Thanks.

Twister60;

Thanks, and were nearly at the Hogwarts chapters.

Glad you like how I'm doing the characters, that was one of the main concerns I had writing this.

TheMarphasChappers;

Yeah, even the power of the 'Deus ex Machina' would have struggled to help Harry smuggle the Basilisk out.

I have thought of how they'll find out about the armchair and I do have a few ideas, but all of that is a few chapters away.

Harry pranking the creeps. While I do think a potion that rule 63'd the Creeps would be funny... Yeah, not gonna go there...

In regards to Smile and Fluffy, the more I read about it the more I want to add it in somewhere. I know it's odd, but Smile having his own little hellhound posse just fascinates me.

Kurokitsune666;

Glad you like it, hope you like the next.

ElChaChaCha;

Glad you like it, I can't wait for the Hogwarts years either. The main reason I'm skipping to it this chapter.

Ookami Kasumi;

Thanks, think that's the first time that I've been told I impressed anyone with my story.

I'm glad that you like how I've written this and I hope that I can continue to keep your attention.

Twilight Dance of Chaos;

I wasn't aware that I referenced 'Phantasm', what is that, hold on.

*googles Phantasm.

Well, I'll say it sounds interesting, to say the least, might watch it later.

But no, the idea of Thalmann didn't come from that, apparently, in Slender lore, he's apparently rather prominent in Germany so I looked up German surnames that have connections to 'Tall Man' and that popped up so I went with it.

So it seems I did it again.

Storytime with SteamGeek, gather around my children.

A friend that is in my College classes pointed out what the name Isaac has in connection to the Bible, meaning the passage "The Binding of Isaac", and was a bit impressed with that.

Nope.

You see. Before I got Toby, see Author notes from a couple of chapters ago, I had originally planned on getting a Corn Snake, but my Mum threw that idea out so I decided to go with another pet that I'd wanted for quite a while, a Bearded Dragon, and so I used the name Isaac for Harry's new name in this story.

I seem to be accidentally clever in my names, don't I?

Rover Lubra;

I had a feeling no one would mind about the Smile Dog creator thing, really couldn't find anything.

UNLIMITED FAN WORKS;

You really like caps lock, don't you?

And in response to your demand, no, you shall have to wait till next week for the next chapter, though when you posted that it could be this chapter you were waiting for...

So in either way, I'm gonna be an asshole and make people wait a week before uploading new chapters. MWAHAHA.

Right, that's all the new reviews since the last chapter went up, time for the story.

Also, I thought that a little timescale thing would be helpful to understand a few things.

Toby killed the Dursleys around the start of February.

So when he meets Harry in this story he's still eight.

For the year though, I haven't really thought that one through properly.

Since, for the most part, the Creepyastas take place long after the canon Harry Potter storyline I've decided that the timeline has been brought forward by HP standards, but brought back a little by CP standards. I don't think I'm going to choose a definite year for the story to take place in but I might in the future.

I'd pictured in my head that when Toby rescued Harry it was at the start of February, like the first week of the month.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter.

Also, let me check a thing.

1⨂1

A circle with a cross should be between the '1's.

SteamGeek01.

Additional note, 31/07/2018.

I have gone back over and corrected any spelling errors that I found.

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Toby paced outside the corridor, the familiarity of the scene wasn't lost on him.

'He's ok. He's gonna be fine. It's just E.J asking a few questions so that he never has to go to that fucking hell hole ever again,' he thought, rubbing his neck from where the twitches had started to stiffen it, '... and if whoever the ass who left him there tries it again I'm gonna make him _wish_ he had met Jeff or L.J,'

"You keep walking and there'll be a trench in the floor Tick-Talk," Ben said, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Huh, oh. Just thinking," Toby told him.

"Oh god, that never ends well," he said, crossing his arms behind his head and stretching with a yawn, "So what ya thinking about?"

"Someone left him there, Ben. Meaning that someone cared enough about what _happened_ to put him there but didn't care about what happened to _him_ ," Toby said as he walked past Ben again, "... so I mean what the hell happened there? If I ever find out whoever that moron was I'm bringing E.J everything I can get off them... or just bring 'em here so E.J can harvest them himself, remember the last time I tried to do it. Tied to get him a kidney, brought back the dude's pancreas," he said, stopping next to Ben and joining him leaning against the wall.

"E.J was _soo_ condescending, I thought he was gonna turn British to do it properly," the living glitch said as he started laughing, "...well, at least you managed to actually get an organ this time, good for you," Ben quoted part of what E.J had said when Toby had given the eyeless cannibal the organ.

Even Toby joined in with him, though the two were careful to keep it down so that they didn't envoke E.J's wrath. It was fairly known around the Mansion that he could be a perfectionist at times, taking his time when carving out a victim so that he didn't damage anything he took to eat.

Ben started shoving Toby back through to the living room, he could tell that Toby was going to go on one of his near endless spiels soon so it would be better through there where there would be less of a chance to disturb E.J or Harry.

He managed to get Toby to listen to him through the point that Harry would be needing breakfast once he was done. If there was one way to get Toby to listen, it was to mention waffles at least once. Need something from done, casually carry them past him talking about the job.

Pretty much the same went for Masky, though with cheesecake.

Ben had planned to escape Toby's rant with giving him the task of making Harry waffles, but the twitching killer dragged him with him as he started talking.

Ben let out a sigh as he embraced his fate for that morning.

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A little while later.

Harry leant back in the chair he sat upon as E.J ended the recording and placed down the pad of paper with the questions that Ben had printed off before rubbing the areas around where his eyes should have been.

'I deserve a kidney from the worlds heaviest drinker for this,' he groaned slightly from the strain of having to focus for that long a time.

"D-do you need a d-drink?" Harry asked him hesitantly.

"Yep, but probably a very different kind of drink than you were thinking of," he told Harry as he stood up, cracking his neck and gesturing at the door to show that they were done.

Harry walked back through to the living room, E.J close behind after he closed the door, to find Toby.

Harry really didn't know what he was supposed to be doing so he figured that finding Toby would be a safe place to start. It didn't take long.

"I'm not trying to get him addicted waffles," came the cry from the kitchen.

As Harry and E.J made their way another cry came from the floor above that stopped them both.

"JACK I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!" came an enraged shout from upstairs.

E.J froze for a moment before shouting back up, "WHICH JACK?"

They didn't have long to wait for an answer as L.J came rolling down the stairs before getting up and running from a very pissed off Jeff who leapt down with, if the smell was anything to go by, strands of raw onion coating and sticking out from his hair and draped across his shoulders.

Harry was pulled back by E.J as L.J came barrelling past them, Jeff not far behind with a large knife gripped in each hand.

As they watched the two run down the hall and, if the sound of a door being thrown open meant anything, outside Toby and Ben leant out from the kitchen. Ben had a colander on his head as a makeshift helmet.

"Coast clear?" he asked the two.

"Seems L.J decided to help Jeff get an early start today," E.J said as he walked past Toby and Ben to get into the kitchen before he started rummaging in one of the higher up cupboards.

As Harry followed him into the kitchen, Toby put a hand on his shoulder and crouched down to look at him.

"You okay?" he asked.

Harry nodded his head, "J-just want to p-put the whole thing b-behind me," he told him.

"Well in that case," Toby said, ruffling Harry's hair and walking back into the kitchen, "... hurry up and eat your waffles before they get cold, and we'll also have a toast to sticking it to abusive bastard ass-hats," he said, passing Harry a waffle and taking one of his own and knocking them together the way grown-ups did with their drinks to celebrate.

"Toby, just admit it," Ben said as they walked in, "... you're trying to get him addicted to waffles,"

Toby just grumbled at him as Harry climbed up into the seat where a pile of waffles were waiting, a small bowl of syrup at the side which Harry poured all over them.

"So Specs," Ben said, sitting down next to him, "... any idea when you're gonna get let out?" he asked him.

Harry turned to face him, "Hrmmf," he said through swallowing a mouthful of waffles.

"You know, getting out and about, killin' and spillin'," Ben said, "... makin' a name for yourself other than Specs,"

"Oh," Harry said simply, "... I-I don't know"

"When Slendy says he's ready," Masky said, walking in and grabbing a glass from the cupboard.

"He's essentially starting out the way me, Hoodie and Toby started out but since he hasn't got the same experience as us, we gotta train him up a bit before he can get out," he said as he pushed his mask up to drink.

"What happened with Jeff and L.J?" he asked E.J.

"Well, I'm guessing something to do with onions," E.J told Masky as he stretched out a kink in his neck, "...which means one or both of them are gonna keep me busy for a bit," and with that he left, heading towards the med room where he expected either Jeff to turn up to get his eyes cleared out or E.J for help getting the knifes removed from where ever Jeff ended up sticking them.

"Ok then," Masky said as E.J left before turning to Harry, "... I'm pretty sure that you don't exactly have a lot of experience fighting and since hardly anyone goes down without a fight, it would be fairly stupid to let you out as you are now," he said, draining the rest of the glass and placing it by the sink.

"Until you can fend for yourself well enough you aren't going to be getting any... assignments, for lack of a better word," he said with a wave of his hand.

"Hitlist," Jeff said as he trudged into the room, "... targets, jobs, victims, to name a few," he said as he grabbed the glass Masky had set down, filled it with water and poured it over his eyes.

'No eyelids' Toby mimed, pulling his own when Harry turned to him; confusion written on his face.

"If you need to train the kid to fight, stick him in a room with me for an hour or six, that'll get him ready," Jeff said, pressing the areas around his eyes with a paper towel.

"Yeah, cos there's no way that that won't end badly," Toby said, taking a bite of his own waffle.

"C'mon Rogers, am I really that bad?" Jeff said with a smirk... or as much of a smirk as he could manage.

"Yes," came the reply from Toby, Masky, Ben and L.J, who had walked in with two handle's sticking out the lower of his back.

"Do that again and I'll skin you," Jeff growled at L.J as he pulled out the knives and placed them on the counter.

"Now where have I heard that before?" L.J mused to himself.

"Jeff said it after you put pink hair dye in the shampoo," Ben said.

"Oh yeah, and the time I changed the wallpaper in his room to pictures of my face," L.J added on.

"And the last time you threw raw onion all over him..." Ben said.

"And the time I replaced all his clothes with Linge..." L.J started.

"Point made, I need to skin him more often, got it," Jeff glared at the pair before he picked up the knives and stalked out the room.

"Such a delicate butterfly," L.J sighed as Jeff left the room, "...so..."

A knife came flying back into the room and impaled itself in the wall just above L.J's head, taking a few strands of hair with it.

"As I was saying," he said, sucking in a breath, "... so what's this about Harry getting a kill already, thought Slendy would have wanted to train him up a bit before sending him out,"

"He isn't," Masky said.

"Really, then what was all that about then?" L.J asked, grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl in the corner and taking a bite out of it.

"I was saying that he won't be getting any assignments until he can fend for himself, even then I doubt that for a while he'll be paired with one or two of us," Masky told him as he rummaged through the fridge.

"Oh, so who's gonna teach him?" L.J asked, swallowing another bite of the apple, "I could give him a few lessons in gutting if you need," he offered, cutting off a slice of apple with a finger and munching on it.

"... Maybe when he's older and if he's interested," Masky said, grabbing a spoon from the drawer and digging into the tub of cheesecake he had taken.

"True, not everyone has the stomach for it, take that one kid from about, ooh, three years ago? Skinny little shit, pretty much nothing there at all, no fun what so ever," L.J reminisced.

"Yeah, It'll probably be sparring with me or Toby, Hoodie'll probably teach him a few stealth things," Masky said.

"Makes sense, shouldn't you be telling him that though?" L.J pointed out.

"Oh. Yeah, fair point, so... where'd they go?" Masky said, looking around the kitchen that only the two of them currently occupied.

"Oh, they left when you were getting the cheesecake," L.J told him.

Harry, Ben and Toby had left to go see which other games Harry was any good at.

And that was how Harry's life at the Mansion went for the most part.

It was a fairly common sight to see Harry running through courses that Toby had been put up to teach him free running or in one of the makeshift gyms they had started teaching him how to fight.

Or in a clearing of the forest where Hoodie was sitting reading a book whilst Harry tried to sneak up on him.

Harry had gotten a surprise when the first time Hoodie heard him on his first attempt and used an airhorn he had tucked inside his hoodie pocket.

On the quieter days, things were a bit different.

On quieter days he could be found sitting in the living room watching a plethora of shows that Ben, L.J, Toby and the others would recommend for him.

Or he could also be found playing with Sally or learning how to draw and paint with Helen, though the blood-based paints Helen sometimes used still grossed him out a little.

Sally joined them in drawing a few times, though most of the ones she drew were for putting up around Slendy's forest to replace other ones she had made. It had something to do with a game that was played but she hadn't elaborated much more than that.

Or outside with Toby, and anyone else interested at the time, as he taught Harry how to make smores and other campsite treats... or just sitting watching the flames because Toby got bored and wanted to burn something.

Harry had to agree with Toby about how relaxing watching the flames was, though those sessions were less frequent as Harry didn't like having to shower every night to get rid of the smell of smoke that clung to everything and was irritatingly hard to get rid of.

Another place he could be found on a regular basis was in either his or Ben's room playing some of the many games Ben insisted that he teach him how to play.

That wouldn't have been too bad, except for the fact that Ben was using his ability to enter people's dreams to give Harry extra practice with them.

After the third time that Harry felt like he hadn't slept, despite doing so, because of Ben he decided to try something. Ben may be able to hijack and trespass in his dreams, but Harry himself was still able to control a fair few things in the dream. So that was how Harry decided to get Ben to show him a few horror games,

"W-well, it's n-not like I'm l-living in a Mansion filled with k-killers that b-basically have their own horror genre... oh wait," Harry said, stuttering over how tired he felt, "...I am and they d-do,"

It had taken about a week for one of them to tell Harry that a big part of their lives was the fact that they were all pretty much living legends and their stories online for all to read.

"So why didn't Masky and Hoodie know about your story?" he had asked Toby when he first found out.

"Just because they're up on the web doesn't mean you have to read them or listen to them. Masky and Hoodie didn't see why they would need to know it so they never looked me up. They knew the main bit, Slendy monitoring me till I killed my old man to see if I would completely lose myself when I snapped, but they didn't see why they should know more so they never looked it up."

"None of us here mind you looking up our stories, if you were interested, they're up on the web so it's not like any of us could stop you if you were curious," Toby told him, "... 'Cept maybe Ben, but he doesn't mind that stuff either,"

"So, w-wait... if you're supposed to keep a low profile, then why are your stories out there in the first place?" had been his second question.

"Gives us a cover in case were seen," Toby replied, "... 'thanks, been working on this costume for weeks' or 'I know, took ages to get the make-up right for this'."

"It's a lot easier if we have a reason to be in our outfits when we go out. Plus, back a whole long time ago, a method that was used since when people snapped they always lost themselves completely was stories to deter people from committing the acts in the first place."

"Those stories have apparently been long gone since they were only told through speaking to each other, but the method of using stories to cover us got updated through the years. Now people think were myths and you can't press charges against a myth," Toby told him.

"So how d-did they get the st-stories if you aren't supposed to be known?" Harry asked as it was the only thing that bugged him slightly.

"Well, the original way that Slendy dealt with it was he found another Orbiter that could help him make the story for Masky and Hoodie. He had planned to get more of us in the story but then he met 'Teer and, shortly after, Ben. They made it easier to get the stories out there by planting the story ideas in their heads. 'Teer could stick the story right in someone's head and Ben can get in people's dreams,"

All this had come in handy convincing Ben to show him a few horror games and the following night when Ben tried to give Harry another dream lesson, all he met was a jump scare from one of the games he had shown Harry and was flung from the dream.

Ben had been particularly grumpy with him the following morning, but soon got over it when he realised that he could use that himself to terrorise his own victims.

And that was how his life went.

He was still amused by the fact that a group of killers, demons, ghosts, a demonic dog, a cannibal and a faceless entity that had existed for who knows how long could live together in peace.

"Enough with THE FUCKING ONIONS!"

... relative peace.

But, then again, when you live with some of the most infamous killers on the planet, when could life ever get boring.

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 _See end Author note 1.A._

Harry was bored out of his mind.

It had been about a month since he had started his new life as Isaac Rogers and today, pretty much everyone was out of the Mansion.

He didn't really know what to do with himself, they had left pretty much the night before, and the only person still in the Mansion didn't socialise so he decided to head downstairs and watch TV for a while.

However, Jeff was waiting there already. A malevolent glint in his unblinking eyes and something strung across his back.

"Alright kid, if you're gonna stay here, then you might as well help me practice a thing or two," he said, walking up to Harry slowly, "... it's been a while since I've practised with anyone,"

~Scene change~

Toby took a running leap and jumped from the roof, rolling as he landed on its neighbour.

The demon he and E.J were chasing turned and hissed at them, it's jaw splitting into three parts with rows of crisscrossing teeth that looked like fishing hooks made of bone.

"You know, I really fucking hate cultists," Jack growled.

"Yeah. Still, nice to stretch the legs every so often," Toby said as he removed his hatchets from their clasps.

"Let's just hurry up and kill this thing," the cannibal said, taking out a knife that curved it's way down the side of his arm and taking up a fighting stance. He may prefer using scalpels and other medical tools on his human prey, but against something he wasn't harvesting from, something bigger was called for, "... we still got to get rid of its friends and the shitwads that summoned them,"

The cultist group, while it was pretty rare for it to happen, had somehow found a summoning ritual that worked and had sacrificed a few of its members to give bodies for the demons that had come through.

Now they were being let loose around the town so that they could begin whatever doomsday the morons believed that they had started. Jack didn't care whatever fucking deity they worshipped, kill people for your brain dead cult and you were instantly on his dinner menu.

The aforementioned demon that had been summoned leapt at the two.

A mistake since before it had even landed E.J had sliced a huge gash in its side from it's front leg to the creature's back and Toby had swung a hatchet into its head and the other into its neck.

As the demon started dying from blood loss, choking on its own blood and having a good portion of its neck broken apart, E.J got out a container of gasoline and emptied the container all over the thing.

"Got the matches?" he asked Toby.

"He said to the pyromaniac," Toby joked as he lit a box of them and dropped it onto the demon.

It let out a guttural cry as its body was engulfed in flame and as the demon was killed the body slowly shifted back into its human form.

"Well, you said you wanted barbecue for dinner," Toby said.

E.J glared at Toby as he placed the now empty container back into the space in his backpack and strapped the blade back on the strap on his trouser leg.

"Let's just hurry up and deal with the rest of them, besides, I thought you would want to get back quick, considering that Harry's been left alone with Jeff," E.J said,

"Heheh... wait, what?" Toby said, pausing with a hatchet half strapped to his leg.

E.J then told him about how since he, himself, Helen, Masky and Hoodie were working on stopping the cultists, The Puppeteer, L.J and Sally were off on their own assignments it was only Jeff and Harry in the Mansion. Smile was there but he was overlooked most of the time since he was, you know, a dog, and Ben would be busy making sure that no footage of them or the demon went uncorrupted.

Toby stared at him, frozen for a few moments, before quickly putting the hatchets away and telling E.J to hurry up.

In total honesty, he was a bit worried for Harry as well.

~Scene Change~

"Now then," Jeff said, his fingers trailing over the stands, "... which one should we try first?" he asked to himself.

Harry was sat behind him, sitting in a chair with two pieces of equipment humming as the electricity surged through them at his sides.

"I know," he decided, picking up the one that sat at the end of the row, "... we'll start with this," he said, turning back to face Harry.

~Scene Change~

Toby jumped over a fallen cultist as he threw a hatchet at the chanting man standing behind the altar at the end of the room.

He swore to himself as another member leapt in front of the hatchet and fell to the ground.

As the man finished he looked up at the fighting killers.

Helen was darting around an already summoned demon, slicing at its sides with a knife, severing its tendons with practised precision.

Masky and Hoodie were taking on a pair of cultists each, holding their own better than anyone would have ever suspected.

E.J was carving apart another demon, two he had already killed lay behind him.

Toby had noticed that the 'so-called Leader' of the cult had begun creating more demons from sacrificed members that they had killed already and made a beeline towards him.

"You cannot stop our power. Our Lord of the Fallen Light shall reward us as we transcen..." he was cut off as a thin knife thrown by E.J impaled itself in the man's throat.

The man's eyes bulged out of their sockets as he clutched at his throat, the blood gushing out and running down his robe was barely noticeable due to its dark colour, as he collapsed.

"Nice one," Toby muttered to E.J as he retrieved his hatchet from the fallen member's corpse and braced himself for the next few demons

Masky, Hoodie and Helen joined the two as around half a dozen new demons started morphing in front of them.

"I think it goes without saying," Masky said through gritted teeth, "... but fucking cultists,"

"Amen to that," E.J said as he darted forward and sliced a deep cut from the neck to the stomach of a new demon.

Toby gave a battle cry as he leapt over a fallen bench and swung both hatchets into the eyes of another.

~Scene Change~

"Well then, let's take a break. I ain't-a slave driver," Jeff said as he lay down on the couch and picked up a can of soda.

Harry rubbed at the raw parts of his hands, trying to sooth them, "No, you only kept me at this for like, three hours without break," he said at the perpetually grinning killer.

"Exactly, highly generous of me," he said as he set the can back down, "... You've got the basics of that one down, all that's left is to refine it till you could do it with your eyes closed,"

Harry groaned as Jeff stood back up and picked up the pick he had set down.

"Now, once again, watch the master at work," he said as he raised the pick and brought it down.

Harry winced as the resulting sound shook its way through him.

~Scene Change~

Toby watched as the flames grew higher, consuming the rotten works of the abandoned church as it and the bodies inside burned.

"Fucking... Demons," Masky breathed as he wiped a few stray specs of blood off his mask, "... no offence," he said to E.J.

"Fuck 'em all, none taken," he told him in reply, clapping a hand on his back.

They had spent most of the day tracking down wherever the cult was operating and had planned to get there to stop whatever bullshit that had gotten Slender so worked up went down, however, they arrived too late and the cult had summoned a few demons into the bodies of the sacrificed members had been possessed and transformed.

The cult leader had spotted them then and the other members split, being told to meet in the church when they had gotten out of there and the killers had split up to deal with the demons, E.J, Toby and Helen tracking down the two that had headed into the town and Masky and Hoodie went after the cult leader to find where they were going.

As the sound of sirens started to draw near the five of them started running, a groan or two at having to move so suddenly, towards the treeline and into the woods.

It took around half an hour to get back to the Slender port point and get back to the Mansion.

Toby, in all the hysteria, had forgotten why he had been in a bit of a rush to get the job done and get back to the Mansion.

'Home sweet Ark. Really should ask Masky why he and Hoodie call the place that. Anyway, time to kick back, relax and ask Isaac how his day went. Being stuck in the place with Jeff couldn't have been fun either... FUCK!' his inner monologue screamed and he picked up the pace he walked at.

"What's got you in a hurry?" Masky asked him. He knew Toby couldn't feel the same pain from exertion that he could but he still knew when he was too tired to continue.

"Harry... Jeff... Mansion..." was all he got in reply.

Realisation dawned on them one after another and, they too, sped up.

Toby was the first to reach the Mansion and threw open the door.

"Harry?" he called out.

When he didn't receive a response he made his way through to the living room.

Harry was standing a few feet away, and a few more after him was Jeff.

The strap of a bass guitar strung over his shoulder.

"Sup Ticcs', how were the cultists?" he asked.

"They say hi," Toby said, mildly dumbfounded, "... so what did we miss?" he asked as the others came round the corner.

"Just teaching the kid a few things, might as well make him somewhat tolerable to be round," Jeff said, "... plus you lot have been forgetting to get him caught up on good music, so I had to fix that a bit,"

Toby looked at Harry, and somehow he looked equally exhausted.

Lessons with Jeff could do that to people.

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Another thing you could find Harry doing, fairly often, was cooking.

It had been the only chore of that he had to do at the Dursley's that he somewhat enjoyed.

Nobody in the Mansion could complain; most of the time when they had to cook would either set out a bunch of things and let people chose what they wanted, maybe a few burgers were put out as well if they could be bothered with them, or place an order to Runic or another takeout place somewhere else and use the Slender port system to get it.

Harry, however, found cooking kinda therapeutic.

Ok, he couldn't do anything fancy or complicated, but he knew how to make stir-fry and other dinner things really well.

Sally, in particular, could be found trying to get Harry to make little cakes from chocolate and whatever cereal they had on hand or cookies with her, she wasn't allowed to cook things by herself. The first time they had made them.

Harry had been confused about where a good portion of the cakes had gone until E.J told him about how Sally had a fairly sweet tooth when it came to cake and sweets.

Harry kept a closer eye on things the next time they cooked together.

"So Specs," L.J said, using the nickname Ben had given him, "... how come you didn't tell us you could cook?" he had asked him after Harry had helped Toby with his turn to cook dinner.

Harry simply shrugged.

"Been doing it for so long that it didn't seem that important," he said, rubbing at the side of his hand from where he had once burnt dinner and had had his hand pressed on the cooker as punishment.

Jack seemed a little distracted for the rest of dinner, though Harry wouldn't find out until the next day.

"C'mere," Jack said to him, motioning for him to follow him.

Harry put down the padlock and set of lock picks, Masky had shown him how to pick them and all that was left was to practice until it became second nature, with the others and followed Jack out of the living room.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Well, since Masky, Toby and Hoodie are teaching you a few tricks of the trade, Ben and even Jeff as well, I thought that I might as well teach you a thing or two as well," Jack told him.

"Oh, ok-k then, w-where are we going?" Harry asked him when he was led up the stairs.

"Ok, story time. You know how Slender's forest is basically its own world with the forest connecting to wherever we need to go?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, M-Masky went over it a b-bit a couple of days ago," Harry said.

"Well, you remember how he said that there were a few others out there?"

"Yeah," Harry said, he had a feeling that he knew where this was going.

Jack opened the door to his own room in the Mansion and stood aside to let Harry in, "I wouldn't touch anything, not everything is ready to be played with yet," he said, giving Harry a wild grin.

The room was the same monochrome colours that Jack wore, the wallpaper was vertically stacked black and white stripes. The walls of the room were filled with shelves and made the room feel like some kind of demented toy shop.

Jack stepped in behind him and closed the door. He turned to face, cracked his neck, and opened the door again, pushing it outward instead of pulling it towards him.

"Welcome to the Carnival of The Laughing Jack in a Box," he declared, turning to Harry, leaning down and gesturing out the door the same way that a circus master would when announcing the next act.

Harry walked slowly out the door and took in the sight.

The door he had walked through was standing on its own on a gravel path that lead to what could only be described as the sort of amusement park that you would see in children's books. Though the main colours were black and white, there were also a few buildings that had a deep red in their palette that gave the entire place the same sort of demented and twisted feel that Jack's room had had.

Jack gave Harry a poke in the back as he prompted Harry forward.

The crunch of the gravel underfoot seemed to echo through him slightly as he walked towards the carnival.

Despite the way that the buildings looked distorted and loomed over them as they walked past, Harry felt oddly comfortable here.

That feeling soon disappeared as when they entered Harry came face to face with crowds of disfigured, amputated and desecrated children that all froze and turned faced him.

Harry froze and Jack nearly walked right into him.

"What's up... oh yeah," he said, looking over Harry and at the crowds of his ex-playmates.

"Sup guys. This is Harry, though he also goes by Isaac, he's Slendy's latest Proxy and future Creep," Jack called out to the crowd, stepping round Harry, "...just showing him around,"

As he finished the crowd's mood instantly changed and they all went back to what they were doing before. Joyous noises filled the air and everyone here seemed happy, a stark difference to the deadly looks he had gotten a few moments ago.

"Don't mind them, now that they know who you are they won't give you any trouble," Jack said as he looked back at Harry, "...come on," he gestured forward with a hand and Harry hurried forward to match his pace.

"So t-this is your circus... it's n-nice, very you," Harry said, looking around at the zombie children playing at the stalls, climbing on rides and running around between the various attractions.

Jack merely gave him a shark-like grin and led the way to a building that looked like it was one of those mad science workshops.

Jack pushed aside the curtain and Harry found himself in exactly what he expected, a sort of workroom set up combined with a kitchen.

"Welcome to my personal candy lab, well one of them anyway," Jack said as he dropped the curtain and walked round to the large table in the middle of the room and pulled out a chair, indicating to him to sit.

Harry followed him around and sat in the chair as Jack looked through a book.

Harry caught a glimpse of the cover as he opened it.

A picture of Jack holding a meat hammer donned the front under the title, 'The Clown Chef Cookbook'.

Jack muttered to himself as he flicked through the pages.

"Too acidic... too poisonous... too sticky... too spicy... aha, here we go," Jack said, tapping at a recipe on the book.

"L-Lucille gumdrops," Harry read, leaning over to read the page.

"Yep, something nice and easy then we'll make some other things that I'm running low on. We'll make a double batch for this, I doubt Toby would be pleased if I poisoned you," Jack said.

"Yeah, w-wait... what?" Harry asked, doing a double take.

Jack waved it away and began pulling out the things they would need, "Relax, we'll make the safe ones orange and the fun ones yellow," he said, placing a bag of gelatin mix, sugar and a measuring jug on the table and a few bottles of food colouring.

"Why don't you get started on splitting up the mix and I'll go get 'essence of Lucille'," Jack said as he produced an oversized chef hat and placed it on Harry's head, "...you'll grow into it," he told him as it slipped down past his eyes.

Harry moved the chair over so he could read the book better.

Harry had split the gelatin Jack had looked out for the batches and when he turned back to see where Jack had gone a cage holding a dull grey snake with an inky black mouth was sitting on the desk, lazily swallowing a large white mouse.

"Harry, Lucille. Lucille Harry," Jack introduced them.

Harry really had no idea what to say, other than a meek hello.

The snake turned its flat head towards Harry.

$"Wonderful, another hatchling in the jester's circus. At least this one smells better,"$ an accented voice hissed from the snake, it's forked tongue asting the air. It had a rather male voice for the name Lucille.

$"Oh hi, I didn't realise that you can speak. I'm Harry,"$ Harry said to the snake, ignoring Jack's amused look. It was probably something he did often. Besides, after everything he had seen so far, a talking snake wasn't that odd in comparison.

$"You... you can understand me,"$ the snake raised it's head slightly from resting on its coiling body, "$... so then, the jester managed to bag himself a wizard did he,"$ it let out what must have been a raspy laugh, $"... my name is Kalakuta, not Lucille,"$.

"Harry, the fuck are you doing?" Jack asked he didn't look amused anymore.

"T-talking to K-K-Kalakuta," Harry said, couldn't he hear the conversation?

"Kalakuta?" he said, looking back and forth between Harry and the snake in the cage, "... wait, you can... hold on," he said, taking Kalakuta over to the side of the room and whispering to him.

"Ok," Jack said as he brought Kalakuta back over to Harry, "... ask him what I said," he told Harry.

$"I do not believe the jester knows all that you can do,"$ another raspy laugh, $"... he said 'Purple pantsuits make perfect dresses for Jeff',"$ Kalakuta hissed.

"P-purple p-pantsuits make p-perfect d-dresses for Jeff," Harry repeated.

Jack looked at Harry dumbfounded.

"Holy fuck," Jack said, looking at Harry, "... boiling over, boiling over," he said, taking the pot of water off the heat, "... careful, this stuff is hot you know,"

Now it was Harry's turn to be dumbfounded, "W-wait, so the sn-snake can't talk?" he asked Jack.

"No, Lucille..."; $"Kalakuta,"$; "K-Kalakuta,"

Jack gave a half glare at the two of them.

"... Kalakuta doesn't speak English, but it would seem that you speak snake," Jack said, stirring the sugar mix, "... honestly, I can't remember much about it, but it's something from your magic world I'm fairly sure,"

"Oh," to be honest, with everything that had happened he had forgotten about that part of his life. Though to be fair, he hadn't known about it that long, "... so what's the next step?"

"Well, I'll keep stirring this, take it … Kalakuta will be ok to let you get the venom from h... him?" Jack fumbled over the change in Kalakuta's identity a bit and started grumbling about needing to change the name of the recipe and reprint the book as he gave Harry a glass jar.

$"The jester may be irksome, but he feeds me and is rather a good host,"$ Kalakuta hissed, slithering over to where the cage door opened as Harry carefully unhooked the latch and opened the door.

Kalakuta gently slid his head out and opened his mouth revealing a pair of glistening fangs that Harry held the jar to, his hands shaking slightly.

Kalakuta placed his fangs inside the jar and a yellow liquid poured down the sides.

Once the venom reached the line marked on the jar by Jack Kalakuta retracted his fangs and devoured another mouse that Jack tossed in.

Jack mixed the venom with something that wouldn't dissolve the gelatin, rather help absorb it, and they set that tray aside, the yellow treats glistening innocently despite their deadly nature.

The other batch was quicker to make and the amber treats were placed to the side to cool as well.

Jack flicked through the book to another favourite of his, 'Blister Bon Bons'. When Harry asked about them Jack explained how they cause open blisters in the stomach lining. Harry made a mental note to ask Toby about how to tell whether the candy L.J presented him with was safe or not.

All in all, it wasn't the worst way to pass some time. When the 'Mambo Gumdrops' as they were renamed, Jack just combining 'Mamba', Kalakuta's breed, and 'Mango' the flavour of the gelatin, were ready they rolled them in a sour sugar coating and they tried one of their treats each.

Harry was a little worried when Jack knocked back one of the venomous treats, but he was assured that it would do nothing to him.

As they walked back to the door that would take them back to the Mansion Jack fished something out of his seemingly endless pockets.

In the few weeks he had been there, Harry had seen him pull out;

Twelve different sets of playing cards;

The bucket he had tried to prank Harry with, already filled with water, when the time came to put out a smore fire;

A flagpole, with the flag of Australia attached;

A baseball bat;

An eight-foot-long curly straw;

A whole, living chicken;

Masky's mask, which Masky had been looking for the entire day;

A tree branch;

A bag of raw onion labeled ~For Jeff~;

And a small lemon;

There was a whole lot more than that. This time, however, he pulled out a small sheaf of paper that looked like a pamphlet.

"After putting nearly everyone who was staying at the Mansion at the time out of commission with a few treats, Slendy made me make this," Jack said, handing it over, "... Ben insisted on doing the cover art,"

On the front was a cartoon picture of L.J, his hands raised in the same sort of way that a small child would do when they were trying to bluff their way out of something, under the caption, 'The Laughing Jack Sweetie Guide!' written in yellow with green edging against the blue backdrop.

"I'm allowed to ignore the guide sometimes, but only every so often, and I don't use the really bad ones around the Mansion anymore. Just the ones that annoy rather than harm," the monochrome clown explained.

"I was planning on asking Toby on how to tell which sweets were safe, thanks," Harry said.

The two walked back out of the carnival.

As Harry waved back at the few playmates that were around to see them go, Jack nudged his shoulder with his arm.

"So apparently Ben was getting a bit smug when you couldn't beat him at the fighting game yesterday... wanna help me take him down a notch?" he asked holding up the blue bucket, Harry could see that there was already something inside it.

"Oh, erm, I dunno..." Harry trailed off.

"Relax, I've been meaning to pull one off on him for a bit, He'll get over it. Plus you owe me one," Jack said.

"W-what?" Harry asked hesitantly.

"Ever since you pulled that jumpscare stunt with Ben he's seen it fit to act as my personal alarm clock. I might not scare easy, but it doesn't mean it's not annoying," Jack grumbled.

"Oh, yeah... water above the door?" Harry asked.

"An oldie but a goodie," Jack said as he nodded sagely, "... but no, honey. Not allowed to get Ben wet. Plus, I did say that I was gonna teach you the tricks of the trade in tomfoolery, didn't I? Perfect place to start, easy and small," he said, putting the bucket of honey back in his pocket.

Harry smiled as the two of them walked through the door and back into the Mansion.

When L.J brought up Harry's ability to talk to snakes later that day it had taken all of Slendy's restraint to stop him from knocking Jeff out cold when he tried to bring in a few snakes that he had 'borrowed' from a reptile shop that weren't exactly pleased about being taken from their homes.

He was thankful that E.J had started keeping a few anti-venoms around ever since L.J started adding snake venom to a few of his treats.

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 _See end Author Note 1B._

E.J stood over the stove, flipping the pancreas that sizzled in the oils of the pan in front of him.

It was his turn to cook that night and, since he hadn't for a while, he decided to cook up a few steaks and burgers for the others and a randomly selected organ for himself.

Ben was standing behind him, chopping a few things they had had in the cupboards to have with their dinner.

"Anything needing taken through?" Harry asked as he came in.

I had been a few months since Harry had first arrived at the Mansion and the change in him was definitely an improvement.

Since he was able to get out more than he had at the Dursleys he had started to develop a bit of a runner's build, though he was still pretty skinny, and he had grown a bit more than he probably would have done if he had still been there.

His stutter was all but in the past except for the few times when he got spooked or thought that he had messed up and would apologise.

He still had the British accent, though it would shift at times to mimic something close to Toby's when he mumbled or at the few times he got snarky.

E.J smirked under the mask. Toby's accent wasn't the only thing that Harry was picking up from him.

~Flashback~

"PSST. E.J, c'mere," Jeff hissed at him.

Mildly confused, E.J move over to the doorway that Jeff was lurking at, "What?".

"Watch," Jeff said in a hushed voice, pointing at Harry.

E.J looked around the doorway with Jeff.

Toby and Harry were sitting on the couch, watching one of the many shows Ben was determined to get Harry caught up on.

"What am I..."

"SHHH!" Jeff wheeshed at him.

Getting mildly grumpy now, E.J turned back to Toby and Harry. Just in time to see Toby's hand tic as he reached for the drink in front of him.

E.J was about to ask what again when something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He didn't know if he imagined it so he watched for a few more moments.

He had just begun to think he had imagined what he saw when Toby's foot twitched slightly.

And Harry's own copied the action slightly.

E.J realised that his mouth was hanging open slightly and closed it, watching the pair.

'"No way," he said

"I know," said Jeff.

"What we looking at?" L.J asked, joining the two.

"SHHH!" Jeff and E.J wheeshed at him.

E.J directed L.J's attention to the pair on the couch.

"No way," L.J said.

After a minute of watching them, Toby's neck had twitched and Harry rolled his own like he was getting rid of a crink.

"I know," said Jeff and E.J.

Sally had come bounding down the stairs not long after and caused the trio to split.

~End Flashback~

"In a moment, Ben's just got that last bit to do," E.J told him.

"Alright, I'll take the juice through then," Harry said as he left, taking the bottles with him.

E.J took the sizzling pancreas off the heat and carefully transferred it to a plate, hoping that he had managed to get it so that the middle was still a raw pink so that it looked medium rare.

"Mind which ones mine Ben," he told the living glitch as he took a few already finished plates through.

"I know, I know," Ben mumbled back, reaching behind him and picking up a plate to add some of the salad he had been chopping.

Harry came through not long after that and helped Ben take the last of the plates through.

E.J took the plate from Ben and cut into the slab of meat on the plate.

'Damn it,' he thought. He hadn't managed to cook the organ to medium rare, rather well done instead, 'Oh well,' he sighed internally and popped the piece of meat in his mouth and chewed.

And chewed.

'Oh shit,' he thought. This was not a pancreas, it was an ordinary piece of steak.

He began looking up and down the table, scanning the plates, trying to find the missing organ.

A medium rare looking piece of meat was visible halfway down, on the opposite side of him. On Harry's plate.

E.J watched as he lifted the fork that held a cut of the meat lift into the air.

"Harry!" he called out.

Harry thankfully stopped and lowered the fork back towards the plate slightly.

Before swallowing the piece that was already in his mouth.

"Yeah E.J?" he asked.

'Oh fuck,' he thought. A couple of the others were looking at him curiously as well.

"I, erm. I think you got the wrong plate," E.J said slowly.

"Oh. Then who's..." he trailed off, understanding what had happened. The fork falling the rest of the way.

"O-oh... I'm j-just... j-just gonna..." he mumbled as he slowly got up from the table. The shift in his accent would have warranted a small chuckle if it weren't for the current situation.

Everyone's eyes followed him as he walked out of the dining room.

"Yeah, that's... that's my bad. That's my fault," Ben said meekly, raising his hand.

"Ok then," L.J said as he pulled on a dealer's cap, "... it's been four and a half months since Harry came here," he pulled out a small leatherbound notebook and flipped it open.

"Ok. Ben, you're out automatically since it's on you that he got the wrong plate;" Ben nodded, a faint blush on his cheeks, "...Toby, Masky and I are out since we had it happening after the fifth month," he continued, running a long finger down the page.

It had become a small game they started playing since E.J had arrived, placing bets on the next person to accidentally get food meant for E.J. They also placed a time bet on any new arrivals at the Mansion.

There were a few other bets made in regards to Harry, but all of them doubted those would be found out until much later.

"Jeff, 'Teer, E.J himself and Sals... Sally! Stop putting your name in this! You're too young... are out since they had it happening sooner," L.J said, crossing their names off with a finger, "... so it's down to Helen and Hoodie, the deciding factor being..." he lowered his voice as he spoke.

A retching, followed by a sound of something hitting the water, could be heard outside the hall from near where the downstairs toilet was.

"Hoodie wins," L.J said, "... ten bucks from the lot of us,"

Hoodie, who had his balaclava pulled halfway up his face so he could eat, smirked at his victory.

"I'm gonna go check on him," Toby said, throwing a couple of fives on the table in front of Hoodie as he passed.

Hoodie pocketed his winnings as he picked his fork back up and dug into his meal as E.J walked around and swapped the plates so that he had the pancreas, and Harry had the steak.

" **I thought I put a stop on the betting pools after Jeff had to rob a store to pay the debt he racked up?"** Slendy said, Slender-walking into the room.

Toby walked back down the corridor after Harry.

When he reached the door to the bathroom he wasn't surprised to find it locked.

He rapped on the door and pressed his ear against the wood.

"Isaa... Harry," he asked tentatively through the door.

Over the past couple of days Toby had kept his word on showing Harry the pleasure's of life, that the Dursley's kept from him, and since there had been a small streak in movies that seemed to interest the two of them he had taken Harry over to California for the day.

Though that turned into an impromptu overnighter for the next day when they found a music concert hosted by a band that Jeff had managed to get Harry hooked on and Ben was able to get them, plus a few others from the Mansion who had been interested.

That day had been a fair few firsts for Harry;

First time at a cinema,

First time at a music concert,

First time in a motel,

Second time at a fast food place though it was the first time he had gotten a brain freeze. He had learned to drink milkshakes slower next time,

First time shopping where he could get himself something.

Since they were out of the Mansion for a while Toby had gotten used to calling Harry Isaac instead.

He heard the latch of the lock click and he gently pushed the door open.

Harry was perched at the side of the toilet bowl, his face a milky ashen, a small sliver of vomit trailed down his chin.

"H-hey," he said, stretching out the word till it became a groan and he threw up again.

Toby walked into the small room, unsure of what he was supposed to do.

Thinking back to the times he had been sick, he tried to remember what Lyra had done for him.

As Harry let out another stream of vomit Toby gently started to rub circles on his back.

Slowly, Harry's breathing levelled out form the gasping gulps they had been a few moments ago.

"Wait here a moment, I'm gonna sort something," he told Harry, giving his shoulder a squeeze as he stood up.

The hand closest to him moved like it was gonna grab onto him, but another wave of vomit had him grasping the toilet bowl to steady himself.

"I'll be quick," Toby added on as he half jogged to the kitchen.

'Ok, ok. What would Lyra do?' he thought, pushing aside the small pang as he focused on helping Harry.

'Throat... Sore throat... Drink,' he remembered how Lyra had always made sure that he drank when he threw up since he couldn't feel the pain of throwing up he didn't know how bad his throat would be after the stomach acid and bile forced it's way up.

'Ok, what's next,' he thought after he filled a glass for Harry.

He knew bedrest after being sick was important so he would focus on that after he took the drink to Harry.

Harry was indeed thankful for the drink, but Toby had to tell him to take small sips, like Lyra had done for him, instead of gulping it all down at once.

After he had given Harry the drink he went back to the kitchen, found one of the spare basins they kept and grabbed a towel before going up to Harry's room and setting them at the pillows for when Harry came up.

When he got back down he checked on Harry and kept him by the toilet for a few more moments before helping him up the stairs to his room.

He let Harry have his privacy to change by turning his back before he helped him into bed.

He tucked him in, tilting his head so it faced the basin, before he stood to leave.

This time, Harry's hand latched onto him and held tight.

Toby stalled for a moment before he realised.

This was the first time Harry had ever been in such a vulnerable position and have _someone_ who cared.

Smiling, he pulled over a chair and sat next to him till his breathing slowed and the mild grimace on his face softened, signifying that he was asleep.

Making sure that if he threw up it would land on the towel or in the basin, Toby slowly got up and quietly left the room.

It took a day for Harry to feel better, though he had managed to keep the toast that Toby brought up down so he hadn't thrown up again.

"Morning," Toby greeted when he came up to check on him, despite it being nearly lunch.

"H-hey, Toby..." Harry smiled weakly, he was still feeling a bit sick but he was bounds better than he had been the previous day.

"Well you seem chipper, how ya feelin'?" he asked, sitting on the end of his bed.

"B-better, better..." Harry answered him. There was something off about his voice that worried him slightly.

"Something wrong?" he asked tilting his head, though a twitch caused him to hit his shoulder as he did.

"Huh, oh... I-it's nothing, just..." Harry said, looking away, "... I was thinking about s-something,"

" About what? Can't be worse than some of the stuff we deal with," Toby tried joking.

"It's about... t-that stuff," Harry said quietly.

"Oh," Toby said, 'I fucked up,'

"What is it? Listen, any problem, _any. Y_ ou can tell me, alright," Toby said, putting his hand on Harry's shoulder.

"It's just... I-I'm worried," he said, just as quiet as before, "... w-what if... what if one d-day I snap... and I go t-too far,"

Harry's voice had gradually grown even quieter as he spoke and his worry turned Toby's insides to ice.

In all honesty, Toby sometimes forgot just how young Harry was. He was still only eight after all.

Though not for long, his birthday was coming up soon in around a month. He was growing up in a house of killers but this moment brought back the fact that Harry was still a kid.

They sat there is silence for a few moments, both of them unsure what to say.

Toby opened his mouth a few times. Words ready, but none seemed right.

"I... I... I worried about that for a bit too," Toby said softly, "... but do you know what I know?"

Harry looked up, his eyes watering slightly.

"I know that if you can handle eight years with something that even Slendy thinks is an abomination, then you can handle something small like a snap," Toby continued.

The look on Harry's changed a bit, though he still looked like he was still worried.

"Listen, I'm not gonna pretend that I know a whole lot about this stuff, but I do know that you are made of stronger stuff than you're giving yourself credit for,"

"When the time comes, if it ever does, you won't lose yourself. I promise you that I won't let you. If you want, I'll ask Masky about this later and I'll see if he knows anything to help," Masky had been one of Slendy's proxies for so long now it was possible that he knew some stuff.

Harry nodded. He did look better, but there was still a few shadows of doubt that Toby knew would be there for a bit longer.

"I'll go get you some breakfast," he said, patting Harry's knee as he rose.

"Wait... t-there was... s-something else," Harry said, a small blush creeping on his face.

"Yeah?" Toby asked, sitting back down.

"Well, l-last night I was having t-trouble sleeping and I t-thought about somethings..." Harry said, turning away again, "... ever since S-Slendy t-told me more about how I'm a w-wizard, h-how they see me as this icon all b-because I didn't die on the night my parents did..." Harry let out a sigh and leant back on the bed.

A couple of weeks ago Slendy had brought Harry a book from the magical world.

He had highlighted a few sections of the book that had to do with 'Voldemort' and the war they had fought with him.

One section had been dedicated to the night of his downfall. The night Harry's parents had died.

"I d-don't want that. Their society praises me as 'T-The One W-Who Lives' or something like that r-rubbish. They put t-that much importance on that one night and t-they cared enough to... to just leave me there," Harry looked over to the window, taking peace from the calm summer scene that lay outside.

"B-but then y-you came, and y-you didn't have to, b-but you took me here. You took me in," Harry looked at him, "... you had n-no obligation to help me, y-you were there for your own sake, and y-yet y-you chose to save me..." Harry let out a mirthless snort of laughter, "... s-someone who had no connections t-to me, no reason to, c-cared more than an-n entire s-sodding s-society,"

"If t-that's the way their w-world wants to treat me then I d-don't want to be H-Harry Potter,"

Toby was confused for a moment.

'Ohh'

"If it... it's alright, with you, I'd m-much rather j-just be Isaac Rogers?" he said, looking hopefully up at Toby.

"Why the hell, would you ever think it wouldn't be?" he said smiling as he pulled Harry... no... Isaac into a hug.

Feeling Isaac return the gesture, they held each other for a few more moments before Toby withdrew himself to go get Isaac breakfast.

'Well lunch, closer to twelve now,' he thought as he left the room. Thankfully waffles were perfect for any time of day.

"How's Harry doing?" L.J asked as Toby came down the stairs.

"Isaac," he corrected him, "... is doing fine, just gonna get him a bit of grub,"

"Oh, ditched the name Harry has he?" L.J followed up.

"Yep, that book Slendy brought back shed a bit of light on a few things," Toby said as he walked to the kitchen.

Checking that Toby was out of sight, L.J did a quick sweeping check of the room, before pulling out the gambler cap and notepad.

"Ok. Jeff, Teer and E.J had odds for the name change happening before month five, but Masky and Helen had odds for it happening between month four and five," he said, tapping his knee with a finger as Ben, Hoodie and Jeff crowded around him.

" **What did I say about the betting?"**

The resultant shrieks were one of the things that Jeff, L.J and Ben would deny for the rest of time.

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 _See end Author Notes 1.C_

The newest habitant of the Mansion walked down the hall.

Isaac Rogers, formerly Harry Potter, was feeling pretty tired.

Toby had upped the ante with the parkour lessons, taking him to a proper area to practice rather than the series of obstacles he normally set up behind the Mansion.

Isaac had enjoyed the trip but right now he wanted t get upstairs, shower, and rest or a while before dinner.

There wasn't many of them there so it was probably gonna be another call to Runic or a stir fry if he could be bothered, it was his turn to cook after all.

To his knowledge, it was only going to be him, Toby, Masky, Hoodie, Helen, maybe The Puppeteer and Sally.

Everyone else was either away on 'work' or on their day of relaxation.

As Harry walked into the living room he was about to call a greeting to Masky, who was sitting there, but stopped when it turned out there was someone else in the room.

A man in a mud green jacket with matching baseball cap was walking up behind Masky, a camera dangling from his hip. What looked like a heavy flashlight was gripped in his hand.

The man raised the hand with the flashlight and before Harry could call out a warning he made to swing it at Masky.

"Budge over couch hog," he grumbled at Masky as he rapped the back of his head with the flashlight.

"Fuck off, Troy," Masky snapped back, moving over all the same.

The man named Troy smirked and helped himself to the bowl of crisps on the table.

Harry watched frozen for a moment.

"So how's everyone been? Last time I saw you, you mentioned something about Toby bringing in someone new, how'd that go?" he asked through a small mouthful of crisps, "... he stick around or was Toby wrong?"

"He's still around, Toby took him to a parkour park to practice a bit to get him out the house for a bit till later," Masky told him, taking a small handful of crisps for himself.

Wondering what Masky was talking about Isaac cleared his throat, getting their attention.

Masky and Troy both jumped a little, turning in their seat.

"Hi," Isaac said, drawing the vowel out.

"Oh, hey Isaac, how was the parkour?" Masky asked.

"Fine, erm, who's..." Isaac said slowly, pointing at Troy.

"Oh, yeah. Isaac, this is Troy. Troy, Isaac," Masky introduced them, "... you remember the Orbiters?"

"Yeah," Isaac said, he had a feeling he knew where this was going.

"Well, you remember how Slendy gave a small list of them your first night here. Troy is 'The Playwright'," Troy waved a hand at Masky's intro of him.

"Hello," Troy said, turning to face Isaac, "... I thought you said his name was Harry?" he asked Masky.

"Stuff changed," was all he got in reply, "... where's Toby?"

"We were leaving and he saw an ice cream truck," Isaac said.

There really was no need for further explanation.

"So Isaac, how you finding life at The Ark?" Troy asked him as he sat down.

"Huh, oh. Better than where I was before," Isaac said, forgetting that some referred to the Mansion as 'The Ark'. He hadn't asked why though.

Troy gave a sad smile, "Yeah, Masky told me a bit about that," he did look genuinely sad about it, rather than the sort of pity sad that had come from those at Runic for the first few weeks.

"So hows Toby been, still addicted to waffles?" Troy asked, his mood warming up as he took more crisps.

"Yeah, he might have got me hooked on them as well," Isaac said, untying the laces on his shoes to help ease his aching feet.

"Of course he did," Troy said, laughing slightly.

Not long after that Toby came in.

He and Troy greeted each other, banging the backs of their wrists together in greeting before Toby headed to the kitchen for his turn to cook.

Later, after the fire Toby had accidentally made trying to cook up some chicken, everyone was sitting outside on the back patio eating the many bacon rolls that Isaac had helped make.

L.J had come back as they were cooking. He was holding a few bags and passed a couple to Masky. When asked about the bags L.J brushed it off about being a few things for E.J, pulling out a dripping organ before wrapping it in another bag and placing it in the freezer.

He offered to carry the last of the things out, though for some reason he still took a little longer than expected.

Isaac was sat on the bottom of the step, Toby a few above him, watching the sky shift from a soft blue as shades of red and orange coloured the sky.

Toby stood back up after a bit, saying he was going to get something, taking The Puppeteer and Masky with him to help him. Troy smirked knowingly and Sally was also bouncing excitedly, though she normally did that for anything.

Isaac didn't think much of it, shrugging as he took another bite.

"Happy Birthda...what, no I thought we were going on..."

"No, it was on..."

"I thought it was after..."

Toby, Masky and Teer's voices overlapped as they tried to walk back through the door. Toby was carrying something but from where he was sat Isaac couldn't make out what it was.

Sally and L.J, however, continued on with the song, singing in unison.

Everyone had turned to face them, varying smirks and smiles on their faces, though Isaac was the only one who looked confused.

They then turned to face Isaac, who got even more confused until Sally and L.J's song ended.

"Ok, well, we messed that up," Toby said, walking forward to Isaac.

"Erm, T-Toby, what..." Isaac trailed off as Toby crouched down next to him.

The thing Toby had been holding was a round chocolate cake with a crossed out ellipsis in white icing on top. Nine lit candles whose flames wavered slightly in the mild evening breeze adorned the cake.

"Well, go on, make a wish," Toby said, holding the cake out in front of him.

Isaac looked up at him, and back at the cake.

Aware of the smile creeping onto his face.

After one of Toby's twitches jostled the cake a bit, he blew the candles out.

Sally cheered and L.J let out some more of those streamers that he was so fond of.

He could hear the click of Helen's camera and a few chuckles from the others.

"Right then, let's get back inside before the cake gets cut, it's getting cold," Masky said, zipping up his jacket a little.

When they got inside Isaac found that since they had gone outside for dinner, the living room had been draped in streamers from the light in the middle of the room to each door, a few banners were held up by golden string connected to the hand of the puppeteer and the table held a small pile of wrapped gifts.

"Since I'm betting that those cows," Toby was making it his mission to insult the Dursleys every possible way he could think of, "...never celebrated your birthday, I thought you were a little overdue," he said, putting the cake in front of the presents.

"These... these are all for me?" Isaac asked softly, walking over to the table.

"Eeyup," L.J said, bounding over, "... the guys that couldn't be here asked me to hold onto them for you and say 'Happy Birthday'. Though Jeff worded it, 'Get lost you god-damn clown, I'm busy', you get the general gist,"

"That we do," Toby said as he and Isaac saluted, another habit he had picked up from Toby, "... now the real question is... which one first?" he said, gesturing to the pile.

"Why don't you decide and I'll cut the cake," The Puppeteer offered, winding a string around a finger and walking over.

Isaac looked over the small pile.

He had never had anyone celebrate his birthday before.

Smiling to himself, he figured that the best way to start would be with whatever was closest.

Grabbing the closest box, he thanked The Puppeteer for putting the first slice next to him, he froze for a moment, before tearing off the paper with vigour.

By the time the last present had been unwrapped, the table now held;

A game bundle, he recognised a few titles but there was more that he didn't, from Ben,

A guide book to pranks, and a few starter kits, from L.J,

A guitar pick and book of quick to learn songs, he didn't want to know about the small splatter of blood on the pick, from Jeff,

A set of colouring pencils and a couple of books on drawing from Helen

A collection of shows that were apparently popular, and made in, in the UK from The Puppeteer, he recommended the Gerry Anderson one on top to start with,

A book of myths and legends in Scotland from Sally,

A book on self defense and a few fighting styles from Hoodie,

A few new shirts and jumpers from E.J, he didn't draw attention to it but the note said there was a hidden gift from Jeff in one of the shirts (it turned out to be a throwing knife set),

A pair of books on stealth and tracking from Masky,

A DVD set of something called 'Marble Hornet's' from Troy,

Funnily enough, the last gift was Toby's. It was a rather lumpy parcel.

Opening the wrapping paper, Isaac was presented with a dark blue hoodie. As he held it up the sleeves fell away, revealing the two-tone grey stripes that made the sleeves.

"It's a size or two too big, but I thought that that would be better, you still got a bit more growing to do," Toby said, sitting on the arm of the chair.

"Well, try it on," L.J said, letting a spinning top travel along the palm of his hand.

Isaac pulled the jumper on and stood up.

It was fairly baggy on him, the tips of his fingers didn't even make their way out of the collar on the sleeves, the base of the jumper fell to just below the hips and the hood pretty much swallowed his head, but it was comfy.

It wasn't baggy like all of Dudley's hand-me-downs had been, despite the larger size it still felt comfortable.

"Okay, maybe more than a couple of sizes too big," Toby amended, scratching the back of his head absent mindedly.

"Oh I don't know," L.J said as Isaac put the hood down, "... I think it suits him,"

"Yeah, now he really fits in," Teer said, propping up the arm that held the banners up on Helen's shoulder.

Masky, Troy and Helen made noises of agreement.

Hoodie held up a thumb.

Toby took the rest of the cake through and wrapped it for later, making sure it was out of reach of a certain young ghost.

As he did that Ben crawled out of the TV, and he had to go cut him a slice.

After laughing for a moment at the sight of Isaac in the jumper, he helped get one of the new multiplayer games set up. The resulting mini tournament made the perfect end to the day, though Troy had to duck out halfway through despite being one of the better players of the game.

He did say that he would try and pop in more often, especially since at some point in the future they would have to put some form of Isaac's story out there.

All in all, as the day wound to an end, Isaac couldn't have dreamt of a better first birthday.

In all of his years at the Dursley's, they hadn't once celebrated it. The most he had gotten once was a half-chewed erasor.

As he got ready to settle for the night, his gifts moved to the corner of his room, a knock on the door heralded Toby.

"What's up?" he asked, stifling a yawn.

"You remember when Slendy said that he had to update a few wards around The Mansion when you got here?" Toby asked.

"Yeah, think so, why?" Isaac said, thinking back to the first night.

"Well, I asked him about it about a week ago, he said that the wards he added and changed were to stop any tracking spells or what-not that could be placed on you... or any of us to be honest," Toby said, sticking his hand in a trouser pocket.

Isaac paled slightly at the thought of anyone of that world finding where he was. If they found him then they would probably find out about everyone else.

"The wards Slendy put up prevent anyone tracking you to here, and gets rid of any on you whenever you enter the forest, but he did say that the things could be put on you outside of here and work until you came back," Toby said, bouncing on his heels a bit, "... so, I got thinking and he suggested this,"

He pulled out another small package.

"One last present," he said, tossing it to Isaac.

Isaac opened the package.

Inside was some sort of necklace. The cord was plain enough, just a black piece of twisted fabric with a silver clasp, the main point was obviously the pendant attached.

It was the same crossed out ellipsis as on his cake, and that he had been idly tracing for the first month he had been there. It had taken them that long to explain that it was the symbol of 'The Operator', another name for Slender.

"Ben found a maker that got that sorted out in a day, then I gave it to Slendy and he turned it into a wearable ward," Toby said, sitting on the bed, "... the longer you're here, then the more of Slendy's background mojo you absorb. It doesn't harm you, but it does make things a little helpful in some ways. Like finding the Slender-port points, or some of those lovely things in the attic," Toby said, losing himself slightly in the monologue.

Isaac fastened the symbol around his neck, letting it fall onto his chest.

"Anyway. Slendy says that that'll prevent any tracking guff from that place being able to work on you as long as you wear it," he concluded.

Isaac looked down at the cross, before leaning over to Toby and resting against him.

"Thank you," he mumbled, feeling pretty tired.

Toby smiled at the weary form of his little brother, "No problem, it's my job to look out for you now," he said.

A soft snoring gently drifted up.

"Isaac?" he said, turning to look at him.

He had fallen asleep leaning against his arm.

Trying not to jostle him much, he carefully laid him under the duvet and pulled the sheets up so that they covered him.

Ruffling his hair and patting his shoulder, he let him sleep easy.

It really was the perfect end to the day.

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 _See end Author Notes 1.D_

Vernon Dursley fumed silently in his cell.

In his mind, he deserved an immediate pardon, a large sum of money as part of an apology and a large house somewhere as compensation.

He paced the small interior, still angry.

A few days before the trail one of... _their lot_ , had made a visit.

He shuddered at the sight of the _abnormal_ man. His ancient suit, long beard and the cold grandfather feel that he had given off.

Whatever his opinion of the man had been before had worsened when he had said that he would aid in clearing the charges, if Mr Dursley permitted _the boy_ to return to them.

He had agreed, if only for his and his son's sake.

And so, when he had entered the room, he had a superiorly smug look on his face.

A smug look that he maintained for most of the first two minutes until a sudden ringing in his ears caused him to flinch, and by the looks of it a few others, echoed through the room.

The smug smile had returned when the charges were read out, his lawyer pleading 'Not Guilty' to the lot. His Lawyer had been an oily individual, not caring the case as long as he got his money.

In Vernon's mind, a fine man who understood how life worked.

As the Prosecutor called Mr Dursley to the stand and went through the various pieces of evidence against him, Vernon maintained the air of smugness around him. It seemed to irritate a few members of the Jury but he didn't care, that old man would take care of it.

After the Defense proceeded to reason against each piece of evidence, doing shoddily in a few areas in Vernon's opinion, the Prosecutor revealed their final piece of evidence.

At the mention of this Vernon's blood started to run cold.

The evidence was a video interview with Harry Potter, the Lawyer for the Prosecution declared. And at that, the lights dimmed and the video was projected for the whole room to see and hear.

By the time the lights came on, many members of the Jury were shooting glares at Vernon Dursley, but the Prosecutor wasn't done.

He had proceeded to take out a folder with pictures taken of Mr Potter. Pictures that showed the various lasting scars and abuse caused on his body at the hands of Mr Dursley, as well as a Doctor's report by attending physician 'Dr Elias Jack'.

At that point, the members of the Jury looked downright pissed.

Unsurprisingly, he had been found guilty of all charges and given the maximum sentence available.

Now, outfitted in the orange jumpsuit he had been given, Vernon Dursley fumed in his cell. Muttering to himself about the bloody freaks ruining his life.

He sat on the bed, trying to calm his nerves before he slept.

A faint giggling sounded from the shadowed corner.

"Who... who's there?" his voice wavered slightly, the laugh sounded familiar but he couldn't place where.

From the shadows, a small grubby girl walked forward. Her pink dress muddy, torn at the fringes, and nothing on her equally dirty feet. Her filthy hair clung to her shoulders and face.

The small girl looked up at him with unnaturally bright green eyes.

"W... who are..." he spluttered.

"I'm Sally," the little girl said, laughing again.

The laugh sent icicles piercing into his spine.

She looked right into his small piggy eyes. Her own seemed to glow in the dark.

A stream of blood started running down her face, crisscrossing as it ran down and stained her gown.

"Play with me," she said. The simple, childish, words froze him where he was.

As she took a step or two toward him, leaving no disturbance behind her, he snapped out of his state and called for a guard.

The little girl had faded out, almost like the way a TV showed a static after image when you turned it off.

The guard found a hysterical Vernon Dursley alone in his cell.

Muttering to himself about 'bloody tweakers' he had been forced to call in back up to escort the large prisoner to the infirmary, where the overnighter staff administered a sedative to calm him.

As Vernon Dursley drifted away from consciousness he looked up at the overhead window.

In his drugged mind he imagined someone in a dark blue mask with black blood running down the eyeholes staring down at him.

He woke later in the night, the ward was empty and he was restrained to the bed.

Mumbling to himself about 'god damn freaks' he turned his head to the side to try and sleep again.

Coming face to face with the masked figure.

Before he could scream the figure had clapped a hand onto his mouth.

"Shhh," it said, "... now be quiet," it held a scalpel to Vernon's face, dragging the flat side down the side of his head.

The black blood-like substance seemed to ooze out of the eyeholes with an increased vigour.

"I'm hungry, and struggling just makes it hurt more,"

Before he had time to process what was going on a sharp pain erupted from his side as the scalpel was forced into his side and cut along with practised precision.

He tried to scream out in pain, but he found that he couldn't. Something was silencing him.

The masked figure chuckled, "You know, sometimes this stuff comes in real handy," it said, holding a recently used syringe that looked like it had remnants of the substance oozing out of his eyes.

"Now... SIT STILL!" it growled in a demonic voice as he forced the gash open and started carving something out.

By the time any staff found Mr Dursley he had come out of his restraints and was clutching various knives from the equipment cupboard.

By the time he had been sedated again, negotiations were in progress to get him transferred to a mental institute.

Now Vernon Dursley sat in a padded sponge cell, the orange jumpsuit changed for a white straight jacket.

The first day there he had been determined to show he wasn't crazy, but when he had his interview with a psychologist who had come in he had seen the polished wooden handle of the woman's makeup brush and started up on a rant about how she was a god damn freak, trying to keep him here to shut him up.

This had all been taken the wrong way and the fact that the woman was a visiting foreign psychologist giving lectures at Universities around the country and had stopped by as a favour to a friend hadn't helped at all.

After an interview with another psychologist, he had said about how she had been one of those witches.

After being asked to elaborate Vernon Dursley told the man more about what he knew about the magical world, from his wife's freaky sister, the freak of a child and the man who had said that he would clear him of the abuse charges.

Now Vernon Dursley sat in his padded, maximum security, cell fuming and muttering about the wizarding world.

He did make an interesting case to study at lectures about a man who believed in a secret society of witches and wizards and how he thought that 'Merlin' would clear him.

Little did they know that across in America, the Demon Eyeless Jack was laughing. A cooler by his side.

He opened the box and looked at the kidney and pancreas he had taken from the man.

Maybe he'll cook one of them tonight, it was his turn to cook with Ben anyway.

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And were done.

Yikes, another late finish.

So yeah, when this goes up, it's like half an hour after I finish it.

Things are picking up a little at college so there is a chance that a few chapters in the future will be a little late. I will try my best to keep to the weekly schedule I've got, but just in case I can't. I apologise in advance.

So yeah, a few things this chapter, I hope you liked the name.

Anyway, what's this thing at... 16,000+ words. Wow, this might be the longest chapter I've written so far.

As always, I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you like the chapters in the future.

1.A

All I had for this was Harry is taught guitar by Jeff,.. and I made a cult...

Yeah, my mind scares me sometimes. I hoped you like the suspense build I did for it.

1.B

Hehehe. I'm an ass.

And a name change. It felt right to do, since coming to the Mansion his life has been better in so many ways, I thought that he would feel the name Harry Potter was too much of a reminder about his time at the Dursleys and how the wizarding world abandoned him.

1.C

Yep, Marble Hornet's is canon in this story, but I bet you weren't expecting it to be in that way. How did you think of my way of writing Troy.

With everything that Toby was doing with Isaac, it seemed right that he would give him a B-Day party.

In my head, unless specified otherwise they wouldn't celebrate the birthdays of Creepypastas. I get the feeling that Jeff couldn't care about his own, but would join in any way. He gets a cake out of it so how bad could it be.

Also, his gifts. Anyone want to hazard a guess at what show The Puppeteer recommended first.

1.D

Take that Vernon you prick.

I wasn't overly happy with the way I left the trial as a cliff note so I decided to add in that small part.

And now I'm an even bigger asshole in regards to 1.B.

'sucks in breath through teeth'

Yeah... I don't think that E.J will tell Isaac where the pancreas came from.

And something for next week, time for a letter.

Anyway, till the next one,

StemaGeek01.

CreepyPasta's mentioned and their owners, to my knowledge.  
Ticci Toby – Kastoway.  
Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.  
Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.  
Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.  
Jeff the Killer – BanningK.  
Ben Drowned – Jadusable.  
Sally – Kiki H.  
Slenderman – Victor Surge.  
Smile dog – still no idea, sorry.  
The Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.  
Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Guest Cameo – Troy Wagner.


	8. Chapter 8, Creeping around Diagon Alley

Chapter 8, Creeping around Diagon Alley,

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word"** **–** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on screen. ~Word~ - Written words.

$Word$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPasta's mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the end notes. I also have no ownership of any brands, games or shows mentioned in this fic.

Author's note.

Another day, another chapter.

And this time, it's time for the letter.

And of course, my usual ramble about the response to the latest chapter from you all.

69 followers, 56 favourites and over 3000 views. I know I'm pretty much repeating myself here, but it is incredible to know how many people actually like what I'm putting out. It helps me to keep going and I want to say thank you. It really does mean a lot. The fact that the view count keeps ticking up shows that people keep coming back which just fuels my fire even more.

Reviews.

Kurokitsune666;

And with that, you've tied with Twister for most reviews and made the club I mentioned in chapter 6. No badges for it yet but I'm fairly sure they'd be The Operator symbols anyway.

Hoping that you meant 'loved' because if you lived that chapter I'd be worried for you. I can't wait till a few of the creeps meet them as well. I do plan on following the books for how story goes, at least for a bit, so the next few chapters will most likely be the Harry Potter story with added bits.

DarkRavie;

Well, if you had held off posting the review a bit longer you wouldn't have been mentioned in this one.

Glad you like it, you chose a good point to start following since the chapters come out Fridays

Also, one last bit of news. My spellcheck is working again, though it still doesn't have a complete dictionary and there's probably a bunch of words that I've misspelled when adding them back into it and I have no idea how I managed to get it to work again... but progress.

So an extra thank you to my Beta, DannyPhantomFanGirl1, who should have helped in checking for typo's.

Hello readers! My name is DannyPhantomFanGirl1. I am super excited to be

SteamGeek01's Beta reader and getting to help him make this the best fanfic that it can be. I love the Harry Potter and Creepypasta fandoms and am delighted to see a crossover of the two. I hope you all love this chapter.

Anyway. Enjoy the chapter.

SteamGeek01.

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The man walked slowly through the forest.

His eyes travelling over the twisting roots and overhead branches as he walked deeper into the misted woods. He looked curiously at the carcass of a dead owl as he passed.

Its burnt body had started to act as the home to a number of insects and one of it's eyes had been plucked clean off by some scavenging animal.

A snapping sound had him freeze and look around the trees.

He calmed his breathing, not making a sound as he looked around, searching for the origin of the noise.

Carefully he reached into his pocket, his fingers clasping onto the cool metal of the gun.

Spinning round he aimed at the figure crouching on one of the lower branches of a nearby tree and pulled the trigger as the figure did the same.

With a paired sound of dull thuds the fired pellets hit each of the man and the figure in their chest.

"Damn it," Isaac grumbled as he dropped down from the tree.

Hoodie shrugged and held a hand out to collect the airsoft gun.

He had decided to give him a little more of a challenge, instead of using an air horn to motivate Isaac to not be heard in his stealth he had upgraded to an airsoft pistol.

Isaac was only allowed to fire if he was noticed or within three metres, Hoodie had no such limits.

It helped to teach him when to draw attention to himself and added a few more layers of clothing since, you know, airsoft pellets hurt to get hit by.

He had kept Isaac out there for the most of the morning so he decided to call it there for the day.

Isaac fell into step with him as they walked back.

It had been little over three years since he had came to the Mansion, and the change in him was evident to anyone who had seen him at the Dursley's.

He no longer looked like the downtrodden slave forced into the small cupboard under the stairs, now he looked like any other child for that age. He didn't jump at or flinch away from loud noises out of fear, and there was constantly a small smile on his lips.

He still hadn't outgrown the hoodie Toby had given him, though it didn't swallow his frame anymore and just looked a little oversized but comfy. His hair had also grown out a bit more and Toby had shown him how to cut it so that it was in a more manageable state, then he had to go get Masky to come help him fix it when he had messed up.

His glasses had also been replaced.

After the tape holding them together had fallen apart BEN had set up an appointment for him to get his glasses replaced and his prescription checked.

Turns out that it was pretty outdated and when he got his new glasses he had enjoyed looking out a new frame for them. They were a bit more squared out but had the same colour of black frame holding the lenses

As they trudged up the gravel path to the Mansion, Masky was standing outside, a lit cigarette between his lips.

Exhaling as the two came near, he threw the butt on the ground before grinding it underfoot.

"So how'd it go?" he asked as they drew nearer.

Hoodie held up three fingers, to show how many times Isaac had managed to get him, and waved his hand in a way that showed fifteen for himself.

"Could be worse," was all Masky said as he turned and joined them walking in.

From the sounds of things, Jeff was upstairs tuning one of his guitars, BEN and a couple others were in the living room and someone was clattering in the kitchen.

Kicking his trainers to the side he walked into the living room to see what was going on.

BEN, Toby, L.J. and Sally were sitting round a table with a board game. L.J. was wearing a deerstalker.

"Ok, I got it," BEN said, "... Jeff, in the cinema, with the candlestick,"

L.J. passes him the small pouch with the results.

They were playing a game of Clue. Though at some point L.J. had swapped the cards out so, that instead of the generic characters, it was a few of the other CreepyPastas.

He watched as BEN opened the envelope and cycled through the cards before putting them back in.

"Nope," he said, placing his cards on the table.

"The Great Glitch-tective strike out?" Isaac said, walking in and sitting on one of the couches

"Hey Isaac," they chorused.

"Yes I did," BEN huffed before pointing at L.J, "You swapped the cards, didn't you?" he fixed him with an accusatory glare.

"Not every things that goes wrong with games is my fault," L.J. said in mock insult, "... just the things that annoy everyone and make the game more interesting."

He passed BEN the actual envelope.

Ben pretty much tore it open and read the cards inside.

"HA! Read it and weep!" he said, throwing them onto the board.

Isaac helped Sally pack away the board, as Ben left to go fix some footage that showed Helen stalking a future victim. And L.J. went to go play with his new 'Best Friend,' who he had given his music box to a couple of days before.

"So how'd the training with Hoodie go?" Toby asked him, passing him a can of coke.

"Not bad, managed to get him three times this time. He still got me fifteen though," he mumble the last part into the can.

Toby snorted through a smirk.

"Even getting three on him is good. Dude's the fastest shooter here, remember," he said, reminding Isaac of the time Hoodie had set up cans to practice on. Hitting them all even with L.J. and Jeff trying to distract them.

"Yeah, it's just, I've been here for nearly three years now. I thought that I would've gotten better at this stuff than I am," Isaac said, sipping his drink.

"Still got a lot of growing to do. Give it time kid," Masky said, walking in with a bottle of beer and his mask pushed onto the top of his head. Hoodie not far behind.

He was right, he had to admit. Though it was still something that bothered him.

He knew that someday he would be like them, not any day soon he knew that, but he still felt like he could be doing more to be ready for it.

As he went to take another drink a buzzing filled his ears and he gritted his teeth through Slendy's appearance.

"Morning," he and Toby grumbled.

Slendy didn't reply to any of them. Instead he walked over to the window, looking out over the treetops, before unlocking and opening it.

"Erm, what's going on?" Masky asked, setting his beer down.

 **"It** **would** **appear,** **that** **we** **are** **about** **to** **get** **some** **mail,"** Slendy said, moving into the corner of the room.

Everyone shared confused glances, assuming that Hoodie had the same expression, with each other.

Normally whenever they needed mail they had it sent to the post office in town and go there to get it. It was kinda hard to get deliveries to a Mansion in the forest that doesn't exist within the same world and is only accessible through special portals in forests.

Getting up, Masky looked out the window Slendy had opened.

Above the treeline something was heading towards them, gliding over the trees.

Masky took a step back, clenching his fists ready to fight.

"The hell is it?" he asked Slendy.

 **"Mail,** **for** **Isaac** **if** **I** **am** **correct,"** he said.

Masky took a few more steps back to clear the path for whatever the thing was.

As it flew closer everyone stood to look out the window at it.

As it swooped down, level to the window, they could see the thing clearly.

It was... an owl...

It landed, skidding a little, on the coffee table in the room.

It ruffled its tawny feathers in a sort of dignified way, holding out it's leg towards Isaac.

 **(X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)**

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office.

Three years.

Three whole god damned years it had taken till this day but it had arrived.

He sat watching the quill on the table.

This quill was special for it was imbued with old, powerful, magic that made the recipient of the letters it penned unable to avoid it's letter.

He had tried to send letters to the boy before, though none had ever made a successful journey and some hadn't even returned.

He watched as it danced across the parchment, writing out each line in an irritatingly low speed.

Upon completion of the envelope he snatched it off the desk with vigour.

This was what he had been waiting for.

He flipped the envelope round and read the address.

 _~Mr_ _H_ _Potter_ _/_ _Mr_ _I_ _Rogers~_

 _~Room_ _6~_

 _~The_ _Ark~_

 _~The_ _Forest~_

 _~America~_

...

Dumbledore placed the letter on the desk and walked over to the table under the window that held a number of, as of late, inactive tracking devices.

Calmly, he placed his hands on the edges of the table.

Before flipping it over in anger, ignoring the startled squawks of Fawkes the phoenix.

What was he supposed to do with that information?

If he had gotten a state, or a town, then he could have put contacts there to see if they could find him, or if anyone had seen him there.

But no.

He had gotten the _very_ _precise_ address of Ark in a Forest in America.

Hearing a knock at the door he sighed and waved his wand, the table moved back to it's place and the many items back on its surface.

He moved behind the desk, sitting down and pretending to go over a few letters that he had been sent this morning.

To his irk, the letter he picked up turned out to be from Fudge asking for advice in a matter of Goblin negotiation.

He looked up as Minerva McGonagall entered the office.

"Have the envelopes been addressed Albus?" she asked.

"Oh, yes of course, here you go," he said, renewing the grandfather image he put on. With another flick of his wand the envelopes were piled into a neat stack and a twisted gold and red ribbon tied them together.

He smiled serenely as she left, before returning to his fuming at his plans being, once again, derailed.

He mentally kicked himself for forgetting to place a tracking spell on the envelope in his rage. He couldn't ask for it back now to do so, and Minerva was far too clever to not notice if she had had her memory altered.

If there was at least one comfort, it was that he at least knew the boy's new surname.

Before he remembered how common the surname Rogers was and dragged his nails along the desk in frustration.

 **(X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)**

Isaac looked at the outstretched leg and the letter tied to it.

Moving slowly, he approached the owl.

Toby fidgeted at his side, he looked ready to either pull him away or boot the owl across the room.

He picked up the string attaching the letter to the leg and, with fumbling fingers, untied the knot.

As soon as it was released from its burden it bristled it's feathers again and took off, landing on the TV unit.

Isaac looked between the letter and Toby.

"Mr.. Mr. H. Potter," his throat had clenched slightly at reading his old name, "... slash Mr. I. Rogers, Room 6, The Ark, The Forest, America," he read out the address.

Slendy let out what sounded like a huff of amusement.

 **"The** **letter** **of** **acceptance** **from** **Hogwarts,"** he said, **"...** **there** **should** **be** **no** **harm** **in** **opening** **it,** **the** **wards** **will** **have** **removed** **anything** **dangerous** **that** **was** **added** **to** **it's contents,"**

Toby, Masky and Hoodie moved round to read over his shoulder as he opened the envelope.

 _~HOGWARTS_ _SCHOOL_ _OF_

 _WITCHCRAFT_ _AND_ _WIZARDRY~_

 _~Headmaster:_ _Albus_ _Dumbledore~_

 _~(Order_ _of_ _Merlin,_ _First_ _Class,_ _Grand_ _Sorc.,Chf._ _Warlock,_ _Supreme_ _Mugwump,_ _International_ _Confed._ _Of_ _Wizards)~_

 _~Dear_ _Mr._ _Potter_ _/_ _Rogers,~_

 _~We_ _are_ _pleased_ _to_ _inform_ _you_ _that_ _you_ _have_ _a_ _place_ _at_ _Hogwarts_ _School_ _of_ _Witchcraft_ _and Wizardry._ _Please_ _find_ _enclosed_ _a_ _list_ _of_ _all_ _necessary_ _books_ _and_ _equipment.~_

 _~Also,_ _any_ _electrical_ _based_ _muggle_ _(non-wizard_ _or_ _witch's)_ _technology_ _is_ _rendered_ _unusable_ _in_ _or_ _around_ _Hogwarts,_ _so_ _we_ _discourage_ _students_

 _bringing_ _any_ _'mobile_ _telephones'_ _or_ _such_ _items_ _with_ _them.~_

 _~The_ _faculty_ _is_ _not_ _liable_ _for_ _any_ _damages_ _to_ _said_ _items_ _if_ _they_ _are_ _brought.~_

 _~Term_ _begins_ _on_ _1_ _September._ _We_ _await_ _your_ _owl_ _by_ _no_ _later_ _than_ _31_ _July.~_

 _~Yours_ _sincerely,~_

 _~Minerva_ _McGonagall~_

 _~Deputy_ _Headmistress~_

Isaac looked up at Slendy.

"What do they mean by 'we await your owl'?" he asked.

 **"They** **are** **asking** **for** **your** **reply** **as** **to** **whether** **you** **will** **accept** **your** **placement** **at** **the school.** **The** **choice** **is** **yours,** **but** **if** **you** **accept** **then** **I** **recommend** **asking** **for** **some** **assistance** **in** **finding** **your** **way** **to** **their** **shopping** **district** **to** **gather** **your** **supplies,"** he said, placing a pen, a sheet of paper and an envelope on the table with a tentacle.

The first time he had seen Slendy do that it had freaked him out quite a bit, and it still did a little.

The tentacles looked like they were made of some sort of condensed smoke or solid shadow and it was a fairly disconcerting sight to see this towering figure standing stock still suddenly sprout tentacles.

It was mildly amusing however, to see said tentacles pick up Toby by the ankle when he had tried to show Isaac a few explosive remedies that he and L.J. had whipped up in their free time.

Slendy wouldn't have objected to the demonstration, if they had gone somewhere other than a few metres from the backdoor to do so.

Isaac looked at the letter on the table.

He had thought about what he would do when the time came for him to go to that school.

He looked up at Toby.

He wouldn't have lied, if he had been asked if he was scared or worried he would have said that he was.

Toby didn't say anything, rather, he put his hand on Isaac's shoulder. Affirming that whatever choice he made, he would still be there.

It had been a recurring nightmare of his that he would wake up and be back in the cupboard under the stairs for the first week or so that he had been there.

He hadn't told Toby about it, but there was something in the way he had acted the first couple of weeks that suggested that he knew anyway.

Picking up the pen, he wrote out his reply.

 _~Dear_ _Headmistress_ _McGonagall,~_

 _~Thank_ _you_ _for_ _your_ _letter.~_

 _~I_ _would_ _like_ _to_ _confirm_ _my_ _attendance_ _to_ _Hogwarts,_ _but_ _I_ _was_ _wondering_ _if_ _there_ _would_ _be_ _anyway_ _to_ _get_ _some_ _help_ _purchasing_ _my_ _equipment_ _as_ _I_ _am_ _unsure_ _about_ _how_ _to_ _do_ _so?~_

 _~Hope_ _you_ _are_ _well,~_

 _~Isaac_ _Rogers.~_

He placed the pen down and folded the paper into the envelope.

As soon as he had written 'Minerva McGonagall' on the front of the envelope the owl had flown back over, and taken the letter in it's mouth and flew back out the window.

"Okay. Well, that happened," Toby said, brushing a few bits of dirt that the owl had left on the table onto the floor.

"So what happens now?" Masky asked Slendy.

 **"Now,** **we** **await** **their** **reply.** **If** **they** **cannot** **spare** **anyone** **then** **I** **shall** **accompany** **you** **to** **their** **shopping** **district,"** Slendy said to Isaac, who nodded in response, **"I** **must** **go** **and alter** **some** **wards** **to** **allow** **their** **form** **of** **mail** **to** **be** **delivered,"** and with that he left, leaving another wave of static and ringing in his wake.

Isaac shook his head like a wet dog to try and clear the ringing away.

"You ok?" Toby asked. For some reason, he didn't think it was about the ringing.

"It's really happening," Isaac said, sitting down, "... I'm going back there,"

Toby placed a hand on Isaac's shoulder, "If you mean that you've got a place at a school where you're gonna learn to be motherfucking sorcerer and come back here, then hell yeah," he said, giving his shoulder a shake and squeeze.

Isaac allowed a small smile to grace his face at this.

He knew that it was a little silly to be afraid of going there, but he had reason to.

That school was a part of the society that abandoned him and he wanted little to do with them because of it.

On the other hand, this was where his parents had grown up. It was a minor guilt that he had that he didn't know much about them apart from what they looked like, the picture he had, and that they had been killed in a battle around a year after he was born.

He did feel better when Hoodie turned the TV on, thankful for the distraction, and joined in with them as they flicked through the channels.

He was a little more subdued at dinner, when the talk turned to his acceptance into the school.

He had given them the letter, Helen offering to read it out to save time, and talk soon turned into what the hell a school of magic would teach.

He also looked at the equipment and book list for the first time, passing that to Helen to read after he had finished.

"Making potions is a given," L.J. said, examining the equipment list, "... so is

Transfiguration and History, according to this,"

"Yeah, and learning to fight with magic," Jeff added, snatching the list and looking at it, "... also, the fucks up with getting a cat, toad or owl?" he asked, reading the list again.

"That and apparently you can get flying brooms," Teer said, pulling Jeff's hand with the letter towards him with some string to read, "... not you though, says that first years ain't allowed them,"

"Do ya mind?" Jeff growled and Teer removed the string pulling on his arm.

"Sounds like a fun place to be," E.J added, he had been pretty quiet through the whole thing.

Everyone understood why he was pretty guarded at the whole thing.

"I wonder what kind of magical animals there are," Sally said, appearing aside Jeff and L.J as she took the list, "Do you think that there's unicorns?" her eyes widened at the idea of meeting one.

"Or dragons," BEN said, a few others nodded at that one.

"I honestly have no idea," Isaac said as Sally gave him back the list, "... though the letter was brought by an owl so maybe that's what owls are for,"

"Owl mail," Jeff said, "... that just sounds more problematic than helpful,"

"Yeah," L.J. and Masky agreed.

Hoodie shrugged.

At that point Slender teleported in, causing a few who were unprepared for it to wince.

 **"Another** **letter** **arrived** **for** **you,"** he said, dropping it on the table in front of him along with another piece of paper and a pen to write another response.

"Well," Jeff said as he opened it.

"It's the reply to my confirmation," Isaac told them, "... 'Dear Mr Potter, thank you for confirming your place. Unfortunately most staff members are too preoccupied to escort you, but the Groundskeeper Hagrid has business in Diagon Alley and would be happy to assist you.

He shall be there on the 31st of July, if this date is ill situated for you then he has said that he is available for re-scheduling. If you can make it, he shall meet you at Charing Cross Road in London, England at 8am on the aforementioned date.

He shall be fairly easy to notice and will be holding a pink umbrella in the air to help you find him.

Also attached is your ticket to the Hogwarts Express. The train leaves from Kings Cross Station on September 1 st, at 11 o'clock. To enter the platform, Platform 9 ¾, walk directly through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10.

Glad you are well,

Dept. Headmistress McGonagall,'" he read aloud.

"31 st , that's about a week from now," Toby said, "... we can make it but we would have to be up pretty early to get there. Plus it's on your birthday, you wanna go then or ask to rearrange?"

Isaac thought for a moment, "What time would we have to get up at for it?" he asked.

"Tsss," Masky sucked air through his teeth as he thought, "Around 2:30 in the morning, depending on how close Slendy's Forest can get us,"

"Can we go then?" Isaac asked Toby.

"Like I said, it's up to you. If you wanna go then, then we're gonna go then," he said.

"Me and Hoodie'll chum the two of you, make sure that nothing happens," Masky said, taking a slice of the pizza they had ordered in that everyone seemed to have forgotten about.

Isaac nodded and went back to reading the list, wondering how he was gonna pay for it all.

Normally for money they would take what they could find on their assignments from their 'targets' or, for more costly things, BEN would find the accounts of money launderers and withdraw some from them.

He quickly penned out a reply, saying that he and a couple of his... caretakers, he put, would be able to meet 'Hagrid' there. He also put in a bit about his concern with money.

He kept the letter out so he could copy her last name again. As he put the letter back in it's envelope he noticed a second letter.

Toby leaned closer to him as he pulled out the second letter. He would have asked what it was but his mouth was full of nearly forgotten pizza.

Isaac read over the letter before showing it to him.

 _~Also_ _enclosed_ _in_ _this_ _letter_ _is_ _the_ _key_ _to_ _the_

 _Potter_ _family_ _vaults,_ _Hagrid_ _will_ _take_ _you_ _to_ _be_ _shown_ _how_ _to_ _access_ _it.~_

 _~Sincerely,~_

 _~M._ _McGonagall.~_

Tilting the envelope over, a small key fell into his palm.

"Well, that'll help," Toby said quietly, so that no one would over hear.

Isaac nodded, before he added to the letter saying that he had found the key.

Slenderman reached over and took the now sealed envelope, frightening Isaac and Toby a bit as they had forgotten that he was there.

 **(X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)**

Minerva McGonagall looked at the letter in her hand, a small smile gracing her lips.

She hadn't even met him yet but he already reminded her of James when he was at that age.

The memory of the time he hadn't been paying attention to the passage he was supposed to be reading and asked about what something meant, only for Remus to point out the paragraph that they were supposed to be reading had the answer.

She smiled fondly at the memory of those boys and went back to preparing lesson plans.

 **(X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)** **(** **X)**

Isaac stared around the cavern.

"Hello?" he called out, trying to see anything in the dimly lit area.

"Morning Specs," BEN said, materialising not too far away from him.

"Huh, oh. Hi BEN," Isaac said, turning to face him, "So I take it this is another dream huh, what is it?"

"Hmm. Oh, nothing much, just wanted to check on how you were doing. You're going over to London today aren't you?" BEN said, kicking a few loose stones on the ground.

Isaac let out a sigh.

"Honestly, I'm a little scared," he admitted, "... I've been away from the UK for like three years and now I'm going back there, right back into the society that ditched me," he sat down on a large rock nearby.

"When I first got here Slendy mentioned that there would be a few that would be looking for me and even though he said that he had dealt with them, I just..." he trailed off.

BEN winced slightly, "Well now I just feel like an asshole," he said, rubbing the back of his head.

"What, why?" Isaac asked.

At that point a snarling behind him made him turn around, just as this large beast charged at him.

Isaac woke up and sat bolt upright.

"Oof," someone said. Someone he had sat up and hit in the head with his own.

Squinting through the dark he looked at the slightly doubled over form of Toby as he held his nose.

"Durn beh litton," he said, his voice muffled by his hands.

Reaching over to the lamp next to his bed he pulled on his glasses.

"Ok, am I bleeding?" he asked him, taking his hands down.

"N-no, s-sorry," Isaac said, rubbing his forehead where he had hit his brother.

"It's fine, if I'm not bleeding then no harm's done. Even if I was, there would still have been none done anyway," Toby's attempt at humour didn't really cheer him up, but it calmed him down a little.

Toby went to go check his nose himself as Isaac got dressed.

"You ready to go?" he asked, sniffing as he walked back in.

"Yeah, just let me grab my hoodie," Isaac replied, clipping on the last strap of his braces.

L.J. had recommended them when he had mentioned that belts were uncomfortable and Isaac had to agree that braces were comfier to wear, easier to put on too.

Pulling on the hoodie, he checked that the envelope from Mrs. McGonagall that held the key was in his pocket before he walked over to Toby.

"Take it that BEN decided to help you get up?" he asked.

Isaac mutely nodded.

Toby sighed and held Isaac by the shoulders before kneeling down to look him in the face.

"Listen, if it's about the headbutt, then I'm fine. If it's about anything else then you realise that you've got me, Masky _and_ Hoodie with you to make sure that nothing happens to you," he said, looking Isaac right in the eyes, "... and if by some god damn miracle that any idiot who thinks they can take you away from here gets past them two, you can bet that they'll wish that Hoods and Masky took them down when they meet me.

And if anyone _ever_ tries to take you away from here... I can think of a few guys and one little ghost-girl that'll be more than happy to teach them a few things,"

Isaac smiled and let Toby pull him into a tight hug.

Too tight a hug.

"T-Toby... l... lungs," he gasped out.

"Oh, sorry," Toby said, laughing a bit as he let go of Isaac.

He slung an arm protectively over his shoulders as the two of them walked down the stairs, matching smiles on their faces.

Hoodie and Masky, or Brian and Tim as he had to call them now since they were going into public, were waiting downstairs. Both of them were dressed as they normally would but without the apparel that normally adorned their faces.

"Ready to go?" Masky asked them as they got closer. He and Hoodie both had rucksacks on and Hoodie was holding a couple more for him and Toby.

"Yep, let's go," Toby said, taking the rucksack from Hoodie and pulling it on. Isaac doing the same.

"Off to London we go chaps," Toby said in a mock English accent, "... Buttery crumpets and scones for the birthday boy at tea and what-not,"

"It's too early in the morning for this Toby, shut up," Masky growled as he took out a cigarette and lit it as they walked out.

"Not in the good 'ol UK my chap," Toby said, puffing out his chest and still talking in that accent until Hoodie slapped him on the back of his head.

"Ok, fine," Toby grumbled and fell back to keep pace with Isaac.

Isaac held onto Toby's arm as the forest floor started to slip away as it did whenever they travelled anywhere.

He had gotten a lot better at tolerating the effects but, as Toby said, the further the distance travelled the worse the effect was.

He fought back the dizziness that seemed determined to trip him up and kept walking through the forest, stumbling a couple of times but not falling completely over.

Shouts and the sounds of engines filled the air, and before he had noticed they were walking out of an alley into a mildly busy street.

Isaac looked around the busy London street in mild fascination.

"C'mere," Toby said to him, taking a hold of his hand to make sure that they didn't get split up.

"Charing Cross is this way," Mas.. Tim said as he led the four of them down the road.

After the street got a little more filled with people rushing this way and that way, Toby lifted Isaac onto his shoulders.

It did gather a few glances from people, but no one thought any more than two brothers walking down the road.

Isaac, from his perch on Toby's shoulders, looked round the streets as they walked along. Tim leading the way and Brian following shortly behind. He was looking up at Isaac every so often, ready to catch him incase Toby's twitches caused him to drop him.

Isaac was enjoying the sights of the London streets. It was mostly the same, but oddly different than in America.

As they arrived at Charing Cross they found themselves pretty much there at the time they were supposed to meet this Hagrid.

"Err guys, do you think that Hagrid could be this really big guy with a massive beard?" Isaac asked them.

"What?" Toby said, trying to look up at him.

Isaac pointed ahead to where a large man was standing, holding a pink umbrella in the air like Mrs. McGonagall said they would be.

"Wait here," Tim said, picking his way through the crowd.

Isaac was let down from Toby's shoulders as they leant against the wall, waiting for Tim.

Brian tapped the two of them on the shoulder and pointed to where Tim was walking towards them, the massive man just behind him.

"Guys, Rubeus Hagrid," he introduced them.

"Lo," he said, waving a hand and nearly hitting a nearby vendor, "... Professor

McGonagall's asked me to show yeh around Diagon Alley,"

There was a slight pause, no one not really knowing to say.

"So I'm Toby," he said, it would probably help to get introductions out the way, "... that's Tim, that's Brian, and this is Isaac, my little bro," he slung an arm back over Isaac's shoulders as the large man nodded at them all.

When he got to Isaac his eyes flicked up to his forehead, where the lightning bolt scar was hidden. He chuckled lightly to himself.

"An' here's Harry!" he said.

Isaac, in response, backed a little behind Toby who had tightened his grip a bit.

"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," he said, Isaac looked into the man's dark beetle eyes, he was glad to see that they looked happy, maybe little sad, "Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes,"

He didn't know what to make of the man. He seemed nice, but he had had experience with people seeming nice until they were in a less public area.

"Anyway – Harry..." "Ok, listen," Tim cut the man off, surprising him a bit, "If you know who Isaac _was_ , then you know why he had the name change,"

Tim was talking in that tone of voice that seemed to be able to freeze a man's insides.

"So if you know about that, then you'll understand why we don't use the name 'Harry', anymore," he fixed the man with a slight glare.

"Oh... yes, right o'," Hagrid shuffled on his feet slightly, "... should've realised, sorry,"

"Ok, yes. People make mistakes, it's supposed to be a fun day out today, right?" Toby butted in, he seemed to be the only person there who remembered why they were there.

"Oh, yes. I'm supposed to take you lot to Diagon Alley, aren't I," Hagrid said, finding his voice again, "This... this way," he said, as he led them down the road.

The four of them followed behind him, moving a little faster than they had earlier to keep up with Hagrid's strides. He stopped them a little bit of a way before a junction.

"Now, I don' suppose that you'll be able to see it, but we're goin' in there," he said to Tim, who was the closest, as he pointed towards a shabby little pub not too far away.

"'The Leaky Cauldron'," Tim read off the sign that hung above the door.

"Oh. Yeh can see it," Hagrid said, sounding surprised.

Isaac didn't understand what was so surprising. Aside from the fact that the pub looked a little grubby, he didn't see anything special about it. But then he noticed how people's eyes seemed to glance over it as if they couldn't see it.

"Well, bes' not jus' stand around doin' nothin', let's go in," Hagrid said, "Yeh might wan' teh flatten yer fringe a bit, jus' in case," he said to Isaac, pausing a little before opening the door.

The small pub looked like it had from the outside, a little cramped, dingy and dark. Not evil dark, just not lit up very well.

There were a few patrons in the bar, a pair of old ladies in a corner, a few gentlemen at the bar and an old hunchbacked, barman serving drinks.

Everyone there seemed to know Hagrid and waved at him as he entered. Though their gazes were soon glancing between the small party he had led in.

"Ah Hagrid, the usual I presume," the barman said, reaching behind him for a glass.

"Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," Hagrid said, waving a hand to deny the offered drink.

As Isaac stepped into the pub every eye fell on him.

"Good Lord," the barman said, peering at Isaac, "... is this, can it be..?"

The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent.

"Bless my soul," he whispered, "Harry Potter... what an honour," he said, moving round from the bar.

As the man hurried round to greet Isaac he suddenly found himself face to face with Tim, who had moved to stand right in the man's path.

"Morning," Tim said.

The man looked a little shocked at Tim's sudden appearance, he had probably forgotten that he existed.

"Excuse me," the man tried to move Tim out the way, craning past him to try and look at Isaac.

Isaac, at this point, had been blocked from view completely by Toby. He couldn't see his face, and a moment later he was kinda happy he couldn't as the barman took one look at him and started to back up.

"Hi, I'm Toby," he said in icy tone that Isaac hadn't heard before, "My little brother Isaac got a letter saying that he had gotten into Hogwarts and were just here to pick his stuff up for school,"

"Oh, aah. My... my bad," he said, moving back behind the bar.

The other patrons quickly looked away and went back to their own conversations as he did so. Save for one, a pale young man who had been by himself in a corner.

"Professor Quirrell!" said Hagrid, "H.. Isaac, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts," he told him.

Quirrell nodded at the group, one of his eyes was twitching almost as much as Toby did when he was excited.

"Nice to meet you Professor," Tim said, offering his hand.

Quirrell looked at it as if he was terrified of him. He might've had reason to though considering what had happened.

"Y-y-you t-too," he stammered.

"So, if you don't mind, what do you teach?" Toby asked, his voice warming up from what it had been a few moments ago.

"D-Defence Against the D-D-Dark Arts," muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it.

"You'll be getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself," he looked terrified at the prospect.

"Bes' get on – lots ter buy, come on," Hagrid said, he had been standing awkwardly at the side the whole ordeal. He had been rather thankful that Quirrell had come over so that he could do something.

He led them through the pub, they didn't give the patrons a second glance despite them doing so, and Hagrid led them out to the courtyard behind the pub.

Hagrid let out a small sigh, "Tha's my bad. My bad," he said, as if apologising to them.

Tim shared a couple of confused glances with his companions, "Why did they all know Isaac by sight, and why did they seem so eager for it to be him?" he asked.

Toby and Isaac shared a quick glance. They might or might not have forgotten to tell the others a little bit more about what the Wizarding World thought of him.

"Now migh' not be the time or place to tell yeh lot tha'," Hagrid said, shuffling on his feet again.

"If we're going to be hounded just by walking down the street, then I'd say now's the perfect time to tell us," Tim said.

It was at times like this that you could tell why he was one of Slendy's Proxies.

Hagrid quelled under his gaze.

By the time Hagrid had finished everyone was looking at Isaac with a wide variety of expressions.

Tim was looking at him as he had done the first night at the Mansion, polite yet determined curiosity. The way that one would look at a puzzle, which at this point he pretty much was.

Toby's was a little harder to read, the small smile he gave him when his back was turned to Hagrid told him that he was pretty much claiming them both their bragging rights for then they got back to the Mansion.

Hoodie looked bored. Like usual, though this time he had an eyebrow raised to show interest. It was enough to make him remember Jeff grumbling at how Hoodie was banned from playing poker with them since he would always wipe the table with them.

The sound of a foghorn filled the air which turned out to be Hagrid clearing his nose on a spotted handkerchief.

"Sorry," he said, "... but it's sad – knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find,"

Isaac looked up at the giant man. He didn't know why, but he trusted him. Something inside of him was telling him that you couldn't fake this kind of sadness.

He slowly walked over to the giant man and patted him on the elbow, it was the highest part of him that he could reach.

"I did mean what I said before, yeh do look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes. An' if you turn out any part o' the way they did, then yeh'll have done 'em proud," Hagrid said, looking down at Isaac, clapping him on the shoulder and nearly knocking him to the ground.

"Ok, Isaac didn't die in an attack that killed his birth parents and they hero worship him for it," Tim summed up and let out a sigh, "Is there a smoking ban in this place?" he asked

Hagrid.

At Hagrid's answer of no, he took out a cigarette, and lit one, taking a deep breathe in.

He then rummaged in his backpack and withdrew a dark blue, almost black, baseball cap. "Stick this on, if we keep getting mobbed we'll get nothing done," he said bluntly.

"Right, well. I'll jus' open the door," Hagrid said, walking over to the brick wall.

The four of them watched as Hagrid tapped a few of the bricks around an indent in the wall. As he stood back the bricks started to pull away into themselves and they watched in amazement as they opened up to reveal a mildly busy street behind the wall, save for Hoodie who simply raised an eyebrow again.

"Welcome," Hagrid said, "... to Diagon Alley," he was smiling at their amazement as they stepped through the newly formed archway, a quick glance over their shoulders when they were all through revealed the archway shrinking back into a solid brick wall.

"Firs' stop, Gringotts," Hagrid announced, they figured that that was the bank where Isaac's parents had stored their money, "... safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe – 'cept maybe Hogwarts. Yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," he told them

Hagrid led the way down the cobbled street, easily clearing a path due to his size.

Isaac and Toby both had wide grins on their faces as they looked around the many shops that lined the street.

The group did gather a few glances from wandering shoppers.

A few of them had started whispering to each other but no one came over.

Toby's ticking also go them a few glances, a sneer or two as well, but they quickly looked away when they got sight of the silent man walking behind the group, his expression was one that unnerved them all on a glance at them. He looked like someone could die in front of him and he wouldn't bat an eye.

Toby's ticking became more prominent the more excited he got, and Brian kept having to push him forward to keep going whenever he stopped to look at something. Whenever he did Isaac could see the small smile on his face, it seemed that even he could show some sense of wonder.

They soon came up to a large white building with burnished bronze doors that stood in the middle of a fork in the road.

Tim threw the cigarette butt into a nearby bin and asked Hagrid if this was the bank.

Hagrid confirmed that it was Gringotts and led them up the steps into the building. He also pointed out the goblin staff. They were about a head shorter than Isaac was and looked devilishly clever, their pointed beards gave them an air of cleverness.

As they bowed to them as they passed the goblins bowed, though he felt that was more because it was part of their job, rather than politeness or respect.

Hagrid continued to lead them through the doors, when they reached the second pair they took in the inscription engraved upon them:

 _Enter,_ _stranger,_ _but_ _take_ _heed_

 _Of_ _what_ _awaits_ _the_ _sin_ _of_ _greed,_

 _For_ _those_ _who_ _take,_ _but_ _do_ _not_ _earn, Must_ _pay_ _most_ _dearly_ _in_ _their_ _turn._

 _So_ _if_ _you_ _seek_ _beneath_ _our_ _floors_

 _A_ _treasure_ _that_ _was_ _never_ _yours,_

 _Thief,_ _you_ _have_ _been_ _warned,_ _beware Of_ _finding_ _more_ _than_ _treasure_ _there._

"What's the betting that L.J. and Jeff would take that as a challenge?" Toby whispered to Isaac as Hagrid repeated himself about being mad to try and rob the place.

Inside were more goblins sat on high stools, each of them working diligently whether it be writing in large ledgers or examining large gemstones or counting piles of golden coins.

Hagrid took them to a nearby goblin that was free.

"Morning," he said to the goblin before dropping his voice, "We've come ter take some money outta Mr Harry Potter's safe,"

"Don't you mean the vault of the younger Mr Rogers?" the goblin queried in his oily voice, "... we would be ill-fitted to run a bank if we were unable to keep up with changes in name with our patrons, now wouldn't we?" he smirked to himself before turning to look at Isaac.

"Do you have your key?" he asked him.

Isaac fished out the envelope that held his equipment list and key. He gave the key to Toby, after getting the attention of the ticking teen who was looking around the hall, who passed it up to the goblin since he was to short to reach up.

After the goblin deemed everything in order Hagrid added on something about important business that Dumbledore had asked of him, handing over a letter that the goblin read carefully before calling for Griphook to take them to Isaac's vault and the one Hagrid was talking about.

Toby and Isaac shared another glance about the 'important business' Hagrid mentioned.

After being led down the narrow stone passageway, Toby had let out a relaxed sigh as the sound and smell of burning torches filled the air, and they were led to what almost seemed like a small train station built over a ravine with the tracks suspended over the air.

Brian had to grab Toby's backpack to keep him from getting too close.

Griphook whistled and a cart hurtled down the tracks and he stepped out of the way to let them climb aboard.

Toby let out a whooping cry as the cart shot off down the rails, his arms held above his head, treating the whole thing as a roller coaster. Brian was slowly looking more and more annoyed as he had to keep a hold of Toby so that he didn't fall out when he thought that he had seen a burst of flame down one of the passages they passed.

When the came to a stop Toby and Isaac were both giggling slightly, he might not like roller coasters as much as Toby but he still thought them fun.

"Vault 687 ," Griphook announced as they disembarked. Hagrid and Tim both leaned against one of the pillars, looking a little green. Brian dusted off his hoodie and stood next to the vault door.

"Key please," Griphook asked Isaac.

He took the key from him and unlocked the vault.

Isaac was pulled back a bit by Toby when green smoke billowed out, covering the both of their mouths with a sleeve.

"The preservative system is non-toxic," Griphook smiled at then, looking a little smug.

As they walked round to look at the inside of the vault.

"All yours," Hagrid said to Isaac as he and the others looked at the piles of gold, silver and bronze coins.

"Proxy pact guys, we tell no one of this, save from that he's got a school trust to help cover costs," Toby said, nods from Tim and Brian showed they agreed.

"Inside joke," Tim said to Hagrid, who looked confused about their exchange.

"If you'd like, when we return to the lobby I can provide you with the guide to exchange rates, for future endeavours," Griphook offered, his small black eyes shifting between them.

"That'd help, yeah, thank you," Tim said as Brian and Toby helped Isaac fill a money bag with what, they hoped, was enough for their shopping with a little extra for anything else as Hagrid gave a quick explanation of what coins were which and how much went into each.

"What's the policy regarding smoking in this place?" Tim asked Griphook, rubbing his forehead.

"Not inside I'm afraid," he replied, not sounding sorry at all.

"Right then, you got what you'll need?" Tim asked the others.

"Think so, plus if not then one of us can always run back up," Toby said.

"Personal visitation to the vaults are required only for the first time the person accesses the vault. A withdrawal can be requested and you only have to present the key to verify that you are allowed to make such a request," Griphook supplied.

"Well, that's handy," Tim said as the vault door closed.

"Vault 713 now," Griphook said, gesturing to the cart.

"Can we go more slowly please?" Hagrid asked and Tim made a noise of agreement.

"One speed only," said Griphook.

Toby's whoops filled the air again as they headed deeper into the caverns. Isaac tucked into himself against the cold air.

When they arrived at vault 713 Tim, and Hagrid, both looked rather pale and a little green in the face.

"Stand back," Griphook said importantly as he made his way to the vault door.

He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and the door melted away.

"If anyone other than Gringotts goblin tired that they'd be sucked through the door and trapped inside," Griphook said as he looked at them, sounding smug at getting to boast about the workings of the bank.

"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Isaac asked as Hagrid entered the vault.

"About once every ten years," Griphook said, with a rather nasty grin.

Hagrid exited the vault at that point, tucking a small and grubby package inside his coat pocket.

"Right, back on this infernal cart," Tim said reluctantly and Hagrid seemed to share his opinion.

Another cart-ride later, Toby wanted to return for the trips alone, they stood blinking in the sunlight outside looking over the equipment list.

"Might as well get it in order," Tim said.

"Madam Malkins fer robes," Hagrid said, pointing them towards the shop not far from them, "You wan' teh join me fer a pick-me-up whilst he gets sorted?" he asked Tim.

The both of them still looked a bit queasy so they agreed that they'd meet up outside 'Malkins' when they were done.

Isaac, Toby and Brian entered the shop and Isaac was guided to the back of the shop where another boy was being fitted. Toby and Brian lingered nearby, looking at the robes on display while they waited.

"Hullo," the boy said, "Hogwarts too?"

"Yes," said Isaac.

"My Father's next door buying my books and Mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy. He had a bored drawling voice, "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first-years can't have their own. I think I'll bully Father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow,"

Isaac got a faint reminder of Dudley from this boy.

Have _you_ got your own broom?" the boy went on.

"No," said Isaac.

"Play Quidditch at all?"

"No," he said again, wondering what the hell 'Quidditch' was.

" _I_ do – Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"

"No," Isaac said, feeling more stupid by the minute.

"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been – imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

"Mmm," said Isaac, wishing he could say something a bit more interesting.

"I say, look at him!" said the boy suddenly, nodding to a few aisles from them.

"Come on Bri, don't I look ravishing," Toby said, holding a dress up to himself and posing. Brian merely closed his eyes in response.

" _That_ is obviously a muggle," the boy said, as if telling him a joke.

"That's my brother," Isaac said.

"Oh, sorry," the boy said, though he didn't sound overly compassionate.

"He's mainly doing it to annoy Brian, plus who cares if he's a bit weird," Isaac said, trying to defend him.

The boy regarded him oddly in silence for a few moments.

"Why's he in here with you then, are your parent's shopping else where too?"

"They're dead," Isaac said shortly, he didn't feel like discussing this with him.

"Oh, sorry," he said, sounding less dispassionate than he had the first time, "But they were _our_ kind, right?"

"They were a witch and a wizard, if that's what you mean,"

"I don't really think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways," the boy went on.

"What's your surname, anyway?" he asked Isaac.

"Ro..." Isaac started, but was cut off by Madam Malkin saying that he could go.

"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawing boy as he left the shop.

Isaac watched him as he left, there was something off about him but he couldn't put his finger on it.

A rapping on the window had him looking up and outside he could see Hagrid and Tim. They were both holding ice-creams, Tim gave a shrug to show that they couldn't get in with them.

Isaac was rather quiet as he ate the ice-cream bought for him ( salted caramel) as they walked to the general supplies shop.

"You ok?" Tim asked as he threw their used napkins into the bin.

"Yeah, just wondering about stuff," Isaac said as they entered the shop.

Toby and Isaac instantly got distracted by a jar of ink that changed colour as you used it.

After they had paid for what Hagrid assured them would be enough ink to last a semester,

Isaac had taken a leaflet that told you how to pay for supply delivery, they bought a large pad of parchment and a few quills.

"Hagrid, what's Quidditch?" Isaac asked him as they left the shop, remembering the conversation he had had.

"Blimey, keep forgettin' how little yeh know," Hagrid said as they walked down the street, "... not knowin' about Quidditch,"

He told them about the conversation he had had in the robe shop.

"Yeah, yeh get nutters like them," Hagrid muttered, "An' as far as his view on Muggle-born Witches an' Wizards, some o' the best I ever saw came from muggle families. Take yer mum for example. A ruddy fine Witch an' look what she had fer a sister, bloomin' cow if there ever was. Know yeh shouldn' speak ill o' the dead, but in a' fairness,"

Isaac smiled a bit at the insult against his Aunt; it was nice to know more about his parents all the same.

Hagrid explained about Quidditch as they entered the bookshop. It sounded fun, at least, to watch, none of them looked too fond of the idea of having to dodge sentient dodgeballs over thirty feet in the air.

Tim talked to the store owner about where to find them, turned out he kept the required reading materials nearby to help ease people coming in and out the shop.

As he did that Toby, Issac and Brian looked around the shelves. There were a few others inside the shop, but whenever they looked like they were getting too curious Toby would call Isaac over to look at the books where he was.

This was working well, until Toby called him over without realising what books were in front of him.

As Isaac came over, a book propped up on display had both of them look at each other.

There, on the shelf, was a thin, mint green, book with the title 'The _fall_ of the Wizarding

War'.

What made them slightly uncomfortable was that on the front of the book was undeniably a picture of a baby Isaac, lightning bolt scar and all. A small notice on the blurb of the book said that the picture had been edited to include the now infamous scar.

The book was apparently the last in a series of three.

Isaac, and Toby, were pretty glad when Tim called them over so they could pay and help carry the books. He had also asked for a few recommendations about entering the wizarding world, as well as about any he had for Hogwarts in general. Isaac was fine with this since he enjoyed reading a fair bit.

"Best to get yer wand last, the shop to get everythin' else is closer," Hagrid recommended as they left the shop.

The shop owner was a kindly person who pointed where the best things for new students was. They got a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients and a cauldron to go with, as well as a collapsible brass telescope for astronomy.

Toby, meanwhile, got distracted by the solid gold cauldron, wondering aloud to them about just why someone would buy it.

"Bragging rights for the most part," the shopkeeper said, getting a few chuckles from them.

The apothecary was across the street, they needed to go there for potion ingredients so that was handy. Hagrid handled this one and got him a basic potions set, with a few spares of each thing just to be safe.

Outside, they consulted the equipment list again.

"Just yer wand left – oh yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present," Hagrid said.

Isaac felt himself go red. In all the excitement he had forgotten that it was his birthday.

"You don't have to..."

"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal."

Tim did try and argue with Hagrid for a few moments, but the man said that he wouldn't feel right if he didn't. Having lost the argument, Hagrid pointed them to a shop called Ollivanders to get his wand from.

The shop was narrow and shabby, though it held an odd sense of a balance that made it seem welcoming.

A tinkling bell sounded from the depths of the shop as they entered. It was a tiny place, empty except from a spindly chair that Brian claimed as they entered. The silence, the dusty smell in the air and the ceiling high stacks of narrow boxes gave the shop the feel of an extremely strict library.

"Good afternoon," said a soft voice, causing them to jump.

Save for Brian who got up calmly from the chair as an old man walked towards them. His wide, pale, eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.

"Hello," Isaac said awkwardly.

"Ah yes," said the man, "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter," it wasn't a question, "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work,"

Mr Ollivander moved closer to them.

"Your Father, on the other hand, favoured a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favoured it – it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course,"

Mr Ollivander had come so close that Isaac could see himself reflected in his eyes.

"And that's where..."

He pointed to where the thin scar on Isaac's forehead.

"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did that," he said softly, "Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands... Well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do..."

He trailed off, looking at the others in the room.

"I don't believe that I've ever sold one of you gentlemen a wand before, and to hazard a guess I won't be at all, I presume," said Ollivander.

"No, just Isaac," Toby told him, "Though if you want to try with any of us I wouldn't mind," he said, grinning.

Ollivander returned it with a coy smile, "To non-wizards like yourself, and your companions, it would be a mere stick. Though something tells me that you three are more than muggle,"

Before they could question what he meant he started asking Isaac questions and taking measurements. He moved to examine the stacks of boxes and they noticed that the tape measure was still measuring on its own.

A snap of Ollivander's fingers had the tape measure fall to the ground, mid-measure of Isaac's nostrils, as he removed a box and turned back around.

"Here, try this one," he said, opening the box and removing the well-polished item from inside, "... and give it a wave,"

Isaac took the wand and, feeling a little foolish, waved it.

He had barely started when Ollivander took it back, muttering to himself.

"Perhaps, this one,"

The same again, before he could get farther than a flick of his wrist, Ollivander would take it back and search for another.

The pile of wand boxes on the counter grew as they tried more wands. Ollivander seemed to be enjoying himself immensely, rambling on about how each wand was special and no two were the same.

Tim and Toby kept themselves busy by looking out the window and at the results of the day's shopping, whilst Brian would neatly stack the boxes of wands that lay on the desk.

"I wonder, yes, why not," Ollivander said, taking a rather dusty box from the shelves.

He swung the wand in an arc above his head. This time when he brought it down the end of the wand sparkled slightly, but not much else happened.

"Hmm, rather thought something would happen then. No matter, no matter. Getting closer though," Ollivander said as he put the wand back in the box and passed it to Brian, who added it to the stack he had made.

He continued to pull boxes out until he excused himself to try from another room.

"Maybe, try this," Ollivander said, returning with a new box, "I got this wood by coincidence, the seller had it labelled as 'Ebony'. No, the wood turned out to be 'Grenadilla' or, as it's also known 'African Blackwood'. Thestral hair. Ten inches," he offered him the box.

When Isaac took a hold of this wand he felt a sudden warmth in his fingers. He waved the wand above his head and, this time, when he brought it down a stream of crimson red and white trailed from the end.

Toby whooped at the display and Brian clapped politely.

"My, my, my," Ollivander chuckled to himself, "You presented me with quite a challenge

Mr Potter, though you prefer to go by Rogers now don't you?"

Everyone shared quick glances again.

"Ok, how do you know about that?" Tim said as he and Toby moved to stand beside Isaac.

Ollivander merely chuckled some more.

"Oh, did you not properly read the sign outside? My family has specialised in wand making for generations, we have travelled the world and all its many, many, continents to expand our knowledge. What stories do you think we have heard and retold throughout our travels, dear Proxy?"

They all took a step back from Ollivander.

"Explain," Brian said moving to stand in front of them all, his rucksack unzipped enough to reach inside and Isaac could just make out the hilt of something.

"We have travelled the lands for a long time, looking into the various lore and myths that are told, searching for knowledge to further the understanding of wand lore. Isn't a part of your jobs to spread myths and stories to warn people from the dangers that they know not?"

Ollivander walked round the desk and pulled up an extremely old book. It looked like you could sneeze on it and its pages would blow away.

He opened the book, sending puffs of dust into the air as he did so.

"Aah," he said, tapping an old page, "When I was young, oh so long ago now, I joined my grandfather who was travelling to observe the odd effects that a tree in Germany was rumoured to have. When we got there we found the tree. Odd thing it was, as plain a tree that you would ever find, nothing special about it. Except... for the markings engraved in its exterior," he spun the book round and pushed it towards them.

There on the page, was an extremely weathered and old picture of a tree. It's branches reached into the sky, beyond what the picture's borders, but they couldn't make out much due to time and decay.

"Allow me," Ollivander said, waving his own wand over the picture.

The picture started to renew itself, tears sealed back together and creases smoothed.

Even on such an old picture, not a lot of detail could be made out, they could see the symbols engraved on it.

Numerous crossed out circles carved into the bark. Slenderman's symbol.

"I thought it an odd little thing, that not long after I took that picture my nights were troubled and my feeling of security lowered. Then I looked back at this picture and imagine my surprise when I looked away from the tree, and started looking in the background," he said, lowering a finger to a point in the background.

From behind a tree, partially blocked, was a tall figure dressed in black with bone white appendages.

"The locals had many names for him, though the one I found for him was 'The Slenderman'," Ollivander said in a hushed whisper, "I decided to return to the tree after I found his name,"

Ollivander sat in the chair behind him.

"I never did see him again, though I did try looking. When the time came for me to leave Germany, I returned twice more to that spot. On the first, I left a letter. Saying my apologies if I had infringed upon a part of its lifestyle. I returned the second time the day I would leave. The letter was gone, though a new piece of parchment was where I had lain the first," he reached forward and turned the page.

Stuck on the new page was a smaller piece of parchment, the crossed out circle in the centre with writing in German around it.

"'Knowledge for knowledge sake, unbound and tainted by corruption. Take care Scholar'," Ollivander translated for them.

He let out a sigh, "So long ago now I can barely remember,"

The rest of the time in the shop passed without further mention, they paid for the wand and Mr Ollivander bowed to them as they exited the shop.

"Well, that was... odd," Tim said as they exited the shop.

He got varying degrees of agreement from the others, Brian just nodded.

"Aah, there yeh go," Hagrid said, walking over to them, "Perfect timin'," he had a hand held behind his back.

"Oh, hey Hagrid," Toby said, trying to peek round his back to see what he was holding.

Isaac looked between the two confused for a moment, then he remembered what Hagrid had been off doing whilst they got his wand.

"Happy birthday," he said, revealing the animal in the cage.

Isaac took the large cage from him. Inside was a gorgeous snowy white owl, large amber eyes peeked out from under a wing before ducking back under to sleep in the warm sun.

Isaac stammered his thank you's all the way back to the next shop. Hagrid suggested that they get him a trunk to hold everything in, their bags were getting pretty full and couldn't close properly. A quick trip into the last shop and they came out with a very nice dark oak trunk for all of Isaac's magical books and supplies.

Hagrid suggested a cup of tea at the Leaky Cauldron to end their trip, he could answer any other questions they had there and get a snack as well.

Isaac, Brian, and Hagrid got a table as Tim and Toby went up to order the drinks.

The owl, Isaac wished that he had a name for her, sat in a spare chair and dozed peacefully.

"She's a beaut', isn't she," Hagrid said as he sat in the chair the barman had hovered over to him; it had apparently been spelled just for him so it didn't break.

"Yeah, she is," Isaac said, looking at her as she moved slightly from her slow, peaceful, breathing.

"Shopkeep said tha' she's got a bit o' a temper in her, but tha' just means she doesn' back down from challengers and can hold her own," Hagrid said, setting his massive coat on the back of his chair.

Isaac smiled, a nervous one at that. He was worried a bit about what might happen to her at the Mansion, especially if Smile tried to play with her.

A yelping from the bar had them, and other patrons look over.

The tray that Tim had gotten to take back to their table hadn't been able to hold everything so Toby had offered to carry the teapot filled with hot water for them.

He was now holding said teapot, not using the handle so he could get a better grip by holding it's base, as the barman looked at him as if he was insane.

"What?" Toby said, looking around at the onlookers, "Oh, this is hot isn't it?" he asked the barman.

The barman nodded frantically.

"I'd better be quick then," Toby said, sounding rather bored, and quickly made his way to the table, leaving a facepalming Tim at the bar.

After a quick explanation Tim sat down at the table, setting the tray of cups and cake slices he had bought with a little of the remaining money they had taken out.

Hagrid was pretty good for chatting too. He was able to answer a few more questions that Isaac had from his conversation in Madam Malkin's.

He was a bit confused by his descriptions of the houses at Hogwarts, but Hagrid had only given him a brief description of each one.

"So, how are you sorted into the houses?" Toby asked before he took a bite of the cake bought for him.

"Well, there's this hat tha's been with the school since it was founded. Now, this hat's been enchanted or what-not by one o' the founders an' the firsties put the hat on an' it chooses yer house," Hagrid said, taking a swig of his drink once he finished.

"So it's magical version of names in a hat," Tim summed up.

"Aye, pretty much,"

The talk turned to what Hagrid did at Hogwarts, and that was a fair bit more interesting.

It turned out that he was the 'Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts' and, aside from this, he helped out the Care of Magical Creatures Professor ( Professor Kettleburn) since the man had gone through quite a lot in his day so he wasn't as able to aid the creatures that lived on the grounds of Hogwarts so Hagrid did that for him.

"While we're on the topic of creatures," Toby said, "... there was a couple of us back home who were wondering what sort of creatures there were. Like, are Dragons and Unicorns real?"

"Oh yep, both o' them an' lots more," Hagrid said as he let out a sigh, "Crikey, I'd love a dragon,"

He took out a small bundle of unicorn tail hairs that had been pulled free from the branches that had they had been caught on.

"Dead useful stuff, very strong. Use it fer binding splints on injured animals an' what have you," he said as he unwound one of the hairs from the bundle and gave it to Toby, who proceeded to try and pull it till it snapped.

When he couldn't he tried to give it back to Hagrid, who waved it away saying he could keep it. He had plenty after all.

Tim had to play devil's advocate at that point, saying that they should get going.

They thanked Hagrid for showing them around. Even Brian had a soft smile on when they departed.

They had gone a few steps out the door when Hagrid quickly called back to them.

"Almos' forgot. 'Fraid I didn't think about the name change, and I might 'ave leant on it at some point, but I reckon it'll taste all the same," he said, passing Tim a white box.

Inside was a large, sticky, chocolate cake with emerald green icing making the letters 'Happy Birthday Harry' on the top.

Despite the old name Isaac looked up at the giant of a man and began stammering his thank you's again.

Hagrid waved them away with a large hand and kept waving till they were lost in the crowd.

Tim pulled out the last cigarette in the box as they walked down the streets back towards the alley they had arrived in.

Soon after that, and a few head shakes to clear the dizzy spell, they were back at the

Mansion. Tim, now back as Masky, hung around outside to finish the cigarette as the rest of them went inside.

A faint buzzing filled his ears and he drew a long puff as Slenderman materialised a few meters away.

" **Interesting** **trip?"** he asked.

Masky exhaled, "Definitely interesting," he said as he stamped out the cigarette.

" **And** **there** **were** **no** **problems,"**

"Nothing you didn't expect to happen," Masky said.

" **Mobbed** **often?"**

"Nearly once, gave him a hat and had no other problems there,"

" **Any** **what** **is** **your** **opinion** **of** **their** **world?"** Slenderman asked him.

Masky took in a deep breathe.

"From what I've heard there are quite a few who believe that 'Muggleborn', I think it was, wizards or witches belong in a lower class to others," he said.

" **That** **is** **true** for a **few,** **though** those with **those** **beliefs** **are** **a** **definite** **minority,"** Slenderman said.

Whilst Slenderman was told what Masky and the others had found out; Toby, Hoodie and Isaac were inside with the others, talking about what they had done as well.

It was getting late in the Mansion by the time they had gotten back so only L.J, BEN, Sally and E.J. were there to greet them back.

Sally was bursting with joy when she was told that unicorns did exist, BEN also looked similarly awestruck at hearing about the dragons. And Sally also looked like she had reached her breaking point when she saw the owl in the cage that Hoodie was carrying.

Both the Jacks were looking at the potion set, L.J. wondering what would happen if he tried to make a few candies with them and made a mental note to go with them next time they went shopping.

Masky came back in not too long later and, for the second time, played devil's advocate and pointed out how late it was getting.

E.J. packed the books back into the bag, taking the potion set from L.J. before he could run off with it.

Sally and BEN looked a little disheartened as well, wanting to look through Isaac's new stuff. Sally tried to get Masky to let them stay up a bit longer, saying that Isaac hadn't had time to open his gifts, but Masky said that he could open them tomorrow.

Isaac set the owl on the desk in his room where she would have a nice view of the night sky.

Toby had helped him carry the trunk up the stairs and it was now sitting on it after heaving it to the end of the bed.

"Well, no way that day was boring," he said as he dusted off his hands.

Isaac laughed a bit before joining Toby to go and brush his teeth and get ready for bed.

When he came back into his room, Smile was looking up at the owl in the cage, and she back at him. Both of them barely moving save for barely visible changes in facial features.

Isaac stood frozen for a moment.

As he moved to knock on the wall separating his and Toby's room Smile walked over to the desk and curled up underneath, the owl shook her feathers a bit and turned to look out at the moon.

Isaac closed the door behind him.

"No fighting," he said to the animals.

Smile twitched an ear at him and the owl shook once more before turning to look out the window.

Getting quickly changed he climbed into bed, setting his glasses on the bedside table and rolling over to sleep.

BEN, not one to be distracted from the fact that dragons are fucking REAL, had decided to dream-walk himself into Isaac's dreams.

When he got there he found himself in an odd, blurred out, landscape.

He looked around and realised that he wasn't in a dream, so to speak. He was in a memory.

Looking round he found himself in what looked like a wooden box, cylindrical bars made the edges and the ground looked soft.

'It's like a baby crib,' he thought to himself.

From somewhere beyond the borders of the crib a high, bone-chilling, laugh had started up.

Trying to look over at where the laugh was coming from; a figure with blurred features with fiery orange hair stood in front of the crib.

At that point, a sickening green light flared from somewhere in front if the figure and a scream filled the air. The laughing still going.

BEN found himself thrown from the dream and was back in the cyberspace that he considered his second home. Lines of data streaming past him, waves of static masking parts of the code, as he made his way out of the screen in his room.

Looking at the clock, he found it to be not long past the witching hour.

Walking softly out the room he made his way towards Isaac's room.

A scratching at the door could be heard and when BEN opened the door, he found Smile standing at the door. As he pushed it further open, Smile went over and curled up under the desk to sleep.

Isaac was sitting upright, eyes closed and trying to calm his breathing.

"Bad dream?" BEN said, closing the door behind him.

Isaac opened his eyes and BEN was mildly startled to see them glassy with held back tears.

"Old one, it's not important," he said softly, dabbing his eyes to dry them.

"Old don't cover it. That was ancient, and if you can remember that from being a baby at the time then it certainly ain't nothing," said BEN, leaning on the end of the bed.

Isaac sat there for a few more moments in silence.

BEN sighed, "Do you want me to go get Toby for you?"

"No," came the quick reply.

"Okay," BEN said, stretching out the vowels.

"N-no, i-it's fine," Isaac said, drawing in even more on himself.

"Well, since you haven't stuttered like that in a while, I'm guessing that it's not," BEN said, "Ok Specs, listen up,"

Isaac looked over to where BEN was sat.

"Pretty much everyone here gets nightmare or two every so often. Toby took a couple of weeks to even get a decent night sleep, E.J. could be found sitting up a tree high enough that we had to go get Slendy to get him down. Hell, I got no sleep for a week after I had a shower and forgot that the hot water had been fucked over by L.J. I freaked out and broke pretty much everything electrical in this place," BEN said softly.

Isaac looked a bit puzzled.

"You remember your first whole day here, when Toby ruined my totally badass entrance?"

Isaac nodded.

"There's a reason, why my name is BEN _Drowned_ ," he let out a sigh.

"Look, my point is," BEN said, "That nightmares really can't be helped, and that bottling things up won't help in the long run either," an old memory of the first few weeks Toby had been there floated to mind as he spoke.

Though it was an unspoken agreement not to bring up anything Toby did then with Isaac. It was Toby's choice if he ever talked about it again.

BEN was thinking what else to say when Isaac spoke.

"It's my oldest memory, I think, I don't really know that much about it. All I remember is that laugh, and that light," he said softly, "The Dursley's used to say that it was from the car crash that killed my parents, but Slendy told me a bit about what really happened and I found out the rest today,"

Ben sat in silence as Isaac told him about what Hagrid had said and when he had finished, he let out a low whistle.

"That sucks," BEN said.

"Yeah," Isaac and BEN jumped as Toby spoke from the door.

Neither of them had heard him come in, and from the expression on his face, he had been there for a while.

"I'll just... I'm gonna..." BEN mumbled as he backed out of the room.

Isaac and Toby watched as BEN walked backwards to the door, bumping into the wall and awkwardly moving around Toby to get out.

Toby didn't say anything, he simply walked over and sat down at the spot where BEN had been leaning.

"So... you want to talk about anything?" he said, breaking the silence between the two.

"I'm sorry," his voice was barely an octave above a whisper.

"For what? If it's the headbutt from this morning, again, no harm no foul," Toby said, turning a bit more so he could prop his leg up on the bed.

"Keeping you up," still, barely above a whisper.

Toby tsk'ed and waved a hand, "I doubt that I could get to sleep anyway, I close my eyes and I'm back on that cart in the bank,"

As if to demonstrate his point he closed his eyes and let a smile slowly form on his lips.

When he opened them again Isaac was sitting in a more relaxed position, a small smile starting to show.

"Everyone has nightmares, considering that you just found out a little more about what happened to your parents... I'd say you're justified," Toby said as he put an arm on Isaac's shoulder.

Isaac's smile widened a little more.

"Thanks, I guess I'm still used to not talking about these things," he said, fidgeting with the covers.

"Eh it's fine, now sleep. We got to finish celebrating your birthday tomorrow," he clapped Isaac's knee as he got up.

He walked up and closed the door gently behind him.

"Sleep tight buddy," he said softly to the closed door before he walked back to his own room.

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Well, there we go.

The first outing into the wizarding world.

I do hope that you enjoyed reading this more than I did when writing this, seriously, why didn't I practice with a one-shot or something simple before doing this.

Anyway, it has begun.

Next chapter, to Hogwarts.

Also, before this gets uploaded, my dad had a go at fixing the word check on my laptop. Couldn't. And so, he's set me up with an online thing that works yay. Even converts pdf into word documents which is helpful since DPFG sent the checked chapter back in a pdf which fanfiction doesn't allow uploaded. So there should be even less typo's next time.

Also, I may have snuck in a 'Madame Macabre' song reference in somewhere. For a hint, look at the scenes with Ben.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoy the next;

SteamGeek01.

CreepyPasta's mentioned and their owners, to my knowledge.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets. Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb. Jeff the Killer – BanningK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – still haven't the foggiest.

The Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.


	9. Chapter 9, Welcome to Hogwarts

Chapter 8, Welcome to Hogwarts.

"Word" – Speech. 'Word' – Thought.

" **Word"** **–** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$Word$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any Creepypastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes. I also have no ownership of any brands, games or shows mentioned in this fic.

Author's note.

And here we are.

The one you've all been waiting for.

Time for Isaac to begin his years of Hogwarts.

Considering that a good few reviews were people saying that they couldn't wait till a few of the creepypastas met with a few of the Wizarding world, I think the last chapter did pretty well with a first introduction.

So, without further ado... the response to reviews.

DarkRavie;

Thanks, glad you like the chapter. I said in a previous review that the character based Creepypastas that I recommend are the ones I put in this story and have listed at the end. Also, no. Slenderman is not from an Anime or Manga, I don't know his story fully but I'm going off what I've gathered from other mentions of him and 'The Operator' in Marble Hornets.

Kurokitsune666;

Hello again.

It's time for exactly that, Isaac's off to Hogwarts. There'll probably be two chapters covering book one, probably gonna end this one around when Christmas is and finish year one next chapter. And, if I follow that plan then I can confirm at least one confrontation between Creepypastas and the

Wizarding World.

TheGavenExpress;

Happy to hear how much you like this story.

Ok, I wasn't expecting that...

I really don't know what to say because since this is my first fic I'm not really that well versed in writing ships, despite reading a whole lot of slash fics, and to be honest I might not have a ship as a centre in this fic.

I do have an idea or two of whom I might have as a couple, I also sneaked in a ship early on that I don't think anyone's mentioned, but I won't be using that as a major point (pause to salute Major Point) so I'll leave off on any ships concerning Harry / Isaac till later when he's a bit older in the fic.

Actually, while I'm answering that review I'm gonna put in a thing for you all to know.

Ben's glamour, in this fic, can shift for any age from his death age to whatever age Link appears as in a game, since he's sorta become a possessed Link sprite, using the Elegy of Emptiness statue as a conduit.

And, the more I think of it, that pairing isn't the worst thing in my head, but like I said, I'm holding off on shipping Harry / Isaac till later when he's older.

Right, I think that's everything I gotta say or write till either more reviews come in. Does my helpful Beta have anything to add?

Hello again lovely readers! If you don't remember me from last chapter, my name is

DannyPhantomFanGirl1. I am SteamGeek01's Beta reader. I am very excited for this chapter and hope you lovely readers enjoy it too!

Thank you 'DPFG', and before I let you enjoy this chapter, about a week in the making, I have one last little announcement;

OVER 4000 VIEWS!

We are steadily getting closer to the point I will be able to go, "OVER 9000!", and of course seeing that people keep coming back to this is awesome, and really, thank you all.

Right then, time for the chapter to begin...

Let's go catch a train.

But one last thing.

When writing this chapter, my laptop started to slide off my bed. And in my panic, I somehow typed this.

"[mggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggdxr0"

I promise, I did not add the speech marks.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter.

SteamGeek01.

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Toby leapt back as the large man dashed forward, brandishing a large kitchen knife as he yelled out in a tar strained voice. The cigarette the man had been smoking lay abandoned on the floor where small wisps of smoke were starting to rise from the piles of paper lying next to it.

"You know those'll kill ya but to be fair, most things can," Toby taunted as he leapt with ease backwards over a sofa.

"Can it ya freak!" the man yelled, swiping at the air where Toby had been.

"Woah, woah, easy there big boy," Toby said, kicking a can on the floor into the man's face, there was already a small trickle of blood seeping into his brow from another of Toby's attacks, "You really like those things don't you, whole lotta them lying here," he gestured at the piles of cans on the floor.

Toby would have lied if he said he wasn't enjoying himself, or drawing it out for the watcher outside.

It was about a month after he and a few others had gone to London with his little brother Isaac, formerly Harry, and it was Isaac's last day at the Mansion before going off to the UK to begin his wizarding education.

It had been a while since he had had a job and he was enjoying himself, plus getting a little last bit of brother bonding in with Isaac.

Yesterday, when he told Isaac that he was ducking out tomorrow to kill a guy that Slendy pointed him towards, Isaac had pretty much all but begged to come along. Toby had pointed out that he was under a 'No Jobs' until older rule by Slendy but Isaac had pointed out that was only for if he was actively taking part and so, after clearing it with Slendy, he had gotten to come watch Toby 'work'.

Isaac had been a bit excited at the least to get to come watch, and was now standing in the neglected garden of the man. He was watching as Toby seemed to now be playing ring-around-the-rosies, around the couch in the living room.

Toby leapt over the couch and kicked the man in the chest, sending him backwards into the kitchen and falling out of sight. Toby crouched as he landed, dropping out of sight as well.

When he stood up, he motioned to Isaac that it was ok to come in.

When he did he found the man lying across the open dishwasher, the steadily growing pool of blood suggested that various kitchen utensils were now sticking into his back. The man's eyes were wide and unblinking, his chest still rose and fell a little, and his hands and fingers flexed and twitched every little while, showing he was slowly dying. His eyes were wide and a few streaks of spittle and blood were starting to dry into his scruffy and unkempt beard.

Isaac looked down at the man in grim glee and satisfaction. He hadn't been allowed to go out on any kills of his own, with a partner or solo, and had been living off of stories from the other inhabitants of the Mansion till he could.

"So what do you do know?" he asked his older brother.

"Well, since it's kinda bad to leave them like this. Plus my footprints are all over the place along with who knows what," Toby said, looking around the place.

His eyes fell on the lit cigarette on the floor.

Toby started whistling innocently as he walked over and nudged the cigarette onto the paper.

Once he did the paper began to brown and curl. He got down and blew gently on it till wisps of smoke started flowing out of the paper, followed by a small orange flame that grew as it spread across the paper.

"Oh good golly gosh, a fire," Toby said, "We'd better get out of here before someone get's hurt,"

Isaac laughed and as they walked out the house and down the street, looking back at the flames now shining brightly in the window of the house, he fell into step with Toby as they headed to the Slender-Portal that would take them home.

'Down the rabbit hole,' Isaac thought, as the world shimmered as it changed to Slendy's forest.

He had gotten pretty used to the Slender-Portal system by now, only ever getting affected if they went to the far edges of North America or cross-continental.

There had been a reason that he had been fairly keen to watch Toby on this job, and that was because he was leaving for Hogwarts soon. He had a feeling that sleeping tonight would be pretty difficult because, despite his nervousness at going to that world, he was pretty excited to be learning to cast magic.

They walked along the path to the Mansion, talking about the kill as they moved.

When they got back inside they found that everyone was either milling around or out on other jobs.

Helen was sitting in the living room, pencil dancing gently across a pad of paper, with The Puppeteer dangling next to him, suspended by golden string, with an arm swaying softly that occasionally brushed against Helen.

The odd static on the TV showed Ben was currently lounging inside doing whatever he did normally.

Jeff was lounging across a couch. From the way he was sitting, he was either looking out of the window or sleeping, it was hard to tell. One time, Isaac had sat on the couch watching something Jeff had put on, not knowing that he was asleep, he didn't change the channel as to avoid annoying him.

Turns out, Jeff's program had ended a while ago and he had fallen asleep, so it would have been safe to do so.

Helen gave a slight wave at Toby and Isaac's return. Jeff mimicked the move, meaning he was awake, and a few moments later the TV rippled as Ben started crawling out, mumbling to himself.

"Fucking hackers thinking they can beat me… no idea who I am… try modding your setup now you bloody basement goblin..." he grumbled his way into of the room, looking haggard and scruffy.

"Busy day?" Isaac asked as Ben joined him on the stairs, both of them going up. Toby had gone to give his report to Slendy.

"Hectic. First this paranoid nutjob in Australia, whose backyard camera system saw L.J, needed a system wipe and his bloody firewall goes up so I have to go through his pervert of a son's pc to get out," he shivered at the memory, "Then, when I try and make sure that no one got any footage of Masky and Hoodie in Seattle, the power goes out and I have to spend my time in this tourist chick's phone waiting for the power to turn back on." Ben paused and took a breath, then continued his rant.

"Then, when I get back here, I decide to relax a bit online. Turns out this hacker moron's got a lobby on lockdown, you join the server and BAM, headshot from across the map. Plus a lag switch that even put me on edge! So I decided to trip a few systems on the guys setup. Right now I think they should have a blown up disk drive, a corrupted hard drive and a completely rebound keyboard,"

Isaac opened the door to his room, Hedwig hooted at his return and this snapped Ben out of his monologue. He had given her the name when he had come across it when reading a few of the books he had gotten in Diagon Alley.

"Woah, I gotta pay more attention to where I'm goin'," he said, lying on the bed and looking at Hedwig, "Polly want a cracker?"

Hedwig ruffled and snapped her beak at him. Isaac poked a few owl treats through the cage bars to try and pacify her.

She had just gotten back from flying around the forest a bit, Slendy had modified the wards around the place so that she was unaffected by them so she could hunt and fly freely.

"You want to play something?" Isaac asked, shuffling through the games he had looked out.

"Yeah, might as well. Gonna be a while till you go for the train," Ben said, diving into the TV.

Four rounds, and one win for Isaac, later Toby came up after finishing his report.

"How's it going?" he asked as he entered the room.

"Take a guess," Isaac grumbled under his breath.

"Well, you've got one, it's a start," Toby said as he left to go shower before he joined them.

The rest of the evening passed without any incident; save for Sally accidentally tracking the blood of her previous playdate through the foyer of the Mansion, so Hoodie had to help her clean it up.

Jeff and L.J eventually joined in with the last gaming session they would be able to have with Isaac before he left for Hogwarts. As per the norm, Ben ended up with the most wins and, by the end, Jeff was threatening to skin L.J again.

Dinner for Isaac, Hoodie, Masky and of course Toby, was earlier than everyone else's since they would be needing to get up early again, and the fact that Isaac still had a little packing to do.

The trunk they had gotten had most of the spell books already packed. Isaac then looked at the stuff he still needed to put in his trunk; his robes and a few other clothes, other various wizarding things like his wand, potion kits, parchment and quills; and a few mystery packages that the others had made for him to open there.

Jeff's had been removed earlier by Masky, and Isaac had the sneaking suspicion that it was the throwing knives Jeff had gotten him for his first Birthday at the Mansion. They had been regularly taken from him till he was older by Masky, but Jeff kept sneaking them back to him somehow.

After dinner, another order in from Runic, Toby went upstairs with Isaac to help finish the packing; leaving everyone else downstairs at the dinner table.

"Alright, I'm gonna say it," L.J said, breaking the silence, "What the hell do we do if something happens to Isaac whilst he's there? We can't exactly walk in there if the place is warded up like this place is," he said, gesturing around himself with a spare hand.

"Slender said that since he's shown proof of 'legal' adoption by Toby there'll be little they can do to keep him there, plus Slender's already looked into the wards surrounding the school. A couple of days after we went to England, he went to the school to look at what's protecting the place," Masky said, tossing the last empty pizza box to Hoodie.

"Ok, so what'd he find?" Jeff said, kicking his feet up on Hoodie's now empty chair.

"It'll take him some time to get around the wards surrounding the place, but if there was an access point for the Slender-portals there, then we would be able to get in without hassle. There is a town nearby that he's already set up a link to though," Masky said, taking a drink, "Though he did say that if he does set one up 'inside' the school perimeter that, like the portal for the town, it would be locked off unless he himself opens them,"

A few cries of protest went up from Jeff, L.J, and Puppeteer when Slendy 'walked' into the room.

"Considering that **ever** **since** **Isaac** showed signs **of** **accidental** **magic,** **you've** **been** considering going **after** **a** **few** **of** **his** kind for **'a** **challenge'** **Jeffrey,** **I** **shouldn't** see why **I** **would** **have** to explain **that** **decision,"** he said, lightly dusting off his suit.

Jeff grumbled at being singled out.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Toby was helping Isaac with sorting the trunk out so it would be easier to get stuff out when he got there. Isaac, meanwhile, was taking down a poster of 'Death the Horseman' from Supernatural that he had gotten for his tenth birthday.

"Ok, that's pretty much the last of it," Toby said as he put in the last couple of books, "All that's left is the stuff from us," he gestured to the packages on the bed.

"You want to open them now, or wait until you arrive at Ho...gwarts?" Toby said, trying to remember the name of the school.

Isaac thought for a moment, "I'll wait until I'm at Hogwarts," he decided, passing Toby the poster he had rolled up and put in a travel tube.

"Fair enough," Toby said, placing the packages on the top of everything else and closing the lid.

"Well, that's it. Unless you want to try and put Hedwig in here too," Toby joked, opening the trunk again and sliding in the box of owl treats.

Isaac laughed a bit at the joke as he looked around his, now mildly less filled, room. "It's going to be strange not waking up here everyday," he said, letting out a small sigh.

"It's gonna be weird not having you here," Toby said in reply, standing next to him.

The two of them stood there for a few more moments of silence, neither really knowing what to say.

"You... you want to play a few more games for a bit, or watch a movie?" Isaac asked, not really wanting to waste any of the time he had left.

"When don't I?" Toby said, nudging Isaac on the shoulder.

For the rest of the evening, the two of them were leant against the edge of the bed, comforter dragged over them both, sitting in front of the TV.

A sudden increase in weight had Toby looking down at Isaac.

He had fallen asleep, slouching against him as he drifted further to sleep.

Smiling to himself at the sleeping figure he carefully stood up, trying not to jostle Isaac too much as he picked him up and set him back down under the covers.

After laying the comforter across him, Toby turned off the TV and walked out of the room.

"Kid fall asleep?" Jeff said as he passed him in the hall.

"Yep," Toby said, walking next to Jeff. He didn't say anything until they came to their rooms.

"If they try and take him again, I will gut each and every one of them until I find him,"

Jeff looked at Toby, surprised that Toby would do something that violent.

He let out a huff of laughter, "I'll hold 'em down for you," he said, pushing his own door open with his foot.

Toby nodded in agreement, a sort of deal forged between them.

And that was how the night was passed, as normal as it ever was around there. A deal based on murder made, Ben's screen flickering as he floated in cyberspace, Jeff sneaking into Isaac's room to sneak a certain package back into his trunk under a few sweaters, Masky having one last cigarette before turning in for the night.

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"Whoo, smell the air," Toby said, stretching his arms out as they entered the station.

"Again Toby, too goddamn early," Tim growled out, shocking a few elderly ladies nearby.

Isaac, on the other hand, was looking around the station with the same sort of wonder he had when they were walking down the streets of London.

Tim let out a sigh, rubbing the space just above his eyes, "Right, the letter said somewhere between platforms nine and ten, come on," he said, leading the way through the crowds.

Isaac kept close to Toby, who was helping him push the trolley that held his trunk and Hedwig, who was looking irritated at the constant shaking of the trolley, as Brian kept an even pace not far behind them.

Tim was a little annoyed that morning. They had forgotten the letter that said how to get onto the platform and from what they could remember, and from the ticket, it was somewhere around platforms nine and ten.

Finding a bench at the platforms they had a look around for anyone who looked Hogwarts bound like them.

Isaac was the one to spot the small group that passed nearby them.

"-packed with muggles, of course-"

Isaac swung his head to look at the speaker.

It turned out to be a plump woman talking to four boys, all with flaming hair. Each of them were pushing a trolley with a trunk upon them – and one had an _owl._

Isaac pointed them out to the others and Tim sized them up.

"Ok, I'll go talk to them and find out... TOBY!"

"Hi, you lot Hogwarts bound as well?" Toby called out as he bounded over to them.

"Oh. Oh, yes," she said, mildly surprised at the human puppy dog that had bounced up to her, the little girl on her arm had hidden behind her, "... first time?" she asked hesitantly.

"Oh. No, not me, my little brother though," Toby said, waving to the others to come over.

Isaac pushed his trolley and trunk over eagerly before Tim could stop him.

With a sigh, he and Brian followed shortly behind.

"Sorry about this," Tim cut Toby off before he could speak again, "... it's just that we lost the letter that said how to get onto the platform,"

"Oh, how to get onto the platform. Not to worry," she said kindly, looking at Isaac, "It'll be your first time at Hogwarts then,"

Isaac nodded meekly.

"Not to worry dear, it's Ron's first time at Hogwarts as well," she said, pointing to the youngest boy.

He had turned a little red at having attention drawn to him in front of the group of strangers.

"Right well, off you go Percy," she said to the eldest there, "Might as well show you how first," she said to Tim.

As the boy approached the platforms a large crowd of tourists came swarming in front of them, and by the time the last rucksack had cleared away, the boy had vanished.

The woman let out a sigh and turned to face them again.

"Well, you didn't see, but all you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous," she said to Isaac.

Toby took up position next to him as he lined up his trolley.

With a shared nod at each other they began moving forward, speeding as they drew nearer.

Isaac closed his eyes, awaiting the crash.

When he found that he was still moving he opened his eyes and looked around at where he was.

They were now standing on a mildly less crowded platform, a scarlet steam engine waiting next to the platform. A sign overhead said ' _Platform_ _9_ ¾, _Hogwarts_ _Express,_ _11_ _o'clock_ '.

"Wicked," Toby breathed next to him as smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, cats of every colour wound here and there between their legs. Hedwig snapped at a few that came too close, sending them off with a screech.

Not long after the red-headed twins from the group came through, causing Isaac and Toby to quickly move out of the way.

"...calls herself our mother," the second was muttering to himself, moving forward and not paying attention.

"Hang about George," his twin said, grabbing onto his cart to stop him hitting Toby and Isaac.

"Oh, sorry," he said sheepishly at the two.

"No worries. My name's Toby," he said, holding his hand out as he introduced himself.

"Fred," one of the red-headed boys introduced himself, "George," his twin said, moving alongside them.

"Though on days ending with 'Y', it's also Fred," the one who had introduced himself as George said.

"And George," Fred said, re-introducing himself.

"As it should be," Toby said, matching the Cheshire grins on their faces.

"Didn't get your name though," Fred said to Isaac.

"Oh, sorry. I'm Isaac," he introduced himself.

The twins chatted for a little while as Toby and Isaac waited for Brian and Tim. Things were going smoothly until Isaac wiped away some of the sweat that had built up on his forehead from the heat.

"What's that?" one of them said, they had gone over to sit at one of the benches and the twins had swapped places more than enough times so that even L.J would have had trouble picking them apart.

"Blimey," said the other, "Are you...?"

"He _is,_ " said the first, "Aren't you?" he added.

"What?" Isaac asked.

" _Harry_ _Potter,"_ chorused the twins.

Toby and Isaac shared a quick, worried, glance at each other.

One of the twins, Isaac had decided to stick to calling this one Fred, nudged his sibling in the side after noticing their glance.

"Excuse my twin, I got the brains," Fred said apologetically; ignoring the quick glare from George.

Though he seemed to catch on quickly enough.

"Yeah, I, erm. You know, erm..." George mumbled off as he tried to think of what to say.

"What my brother means," Fred cut him off, "... is that we won't say anything to anyone," he said.

"Good," Tim said, causing everyone to jump.

Brian and Tim had came through the barrier and walked up on them without any of them realising.

Tim gave the twins a deep glare and they hurriedly excused themselves at that point, going off in search of their friends.

Tim gave Toby an exasperated look as they made their way down the platform, looking for an empty compartment.

They found one near the end of the train and helped Isaac lift the trunk into the overhead space, setting Hedwig's cage on a seat to mark it for Isaac.

Brian climbed back out when the trunk was up.

A little of the way away they could hear the red-headed woman calling out for the twins and fussing over the youngest.

They listened carefully as the twins came over. They didn't seem that concerned with what was going on, taking the chance to pester the eldest about him being made Prefect.

It was the little girl that brought up the topic that they didn't want to be discussed.

"Harry Potter's supposed to start Hogwarts this year mum. Can I go look for him on the train mum, can I, can I?" she bounced up and down slightly.

"No Ginny. The poor boy isn't something that you can stare at like an animal in a zoo," the mother reprimanded.

"Plus, we've been up and down the train a bit. Haven't seen anyone who'd look like him," Fred said, George nodded in earnest next to him.

Fred looked around a bit, and upon spotting Tim, paling a little.

When Tim nodded stiffly, he visibly relaxed a bit.

"Do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?" the youngest, Ron, said absentmindedly as his mother started rubbing at a bit of dirt on his nose.

Their mother suddenly became very stern.

"If you do see him, Ronald, I forbid you to ask him. No, don't you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day of school,"

Ron went very red in the face as a whistle sounded.

Tim tried to usher Isaac back onto the train at that point, but Toby pulled Isaac back and gave him one last hug. Spinning him around a bit.

"You have fun, and don't get into too much trouble! Otherwise, teacher meetings will be hellish to go to," he said, ruffling Isaac's hair as he set him back down. Isaac held onto him for a few more moments.

"I'll miss you," he said into Toby's shoulder.

"I'll miss you too," Toby said, standing back up as Isaac let go.

Brian clapped him on the shoulder, giving Isaac a small smile and a thumbs up.

"Take care kid," Tim said, copying Brian and clapping him on the shoulder.

Toby shut the door behind and leant in the window.

"If we don't hear from you once a week at least, Slendy'll probably pop down as Thalmann and check in," he said.

Isaac laughed a bit at the idea, and promised to write when he got settled in, and once a week at least.

The train started moving a little at that and Toby began jogging, before running, to keep at the window as much as he could; reminding Isaac of little trivial things like socks, teeth and eating at least three waffles for breakfast.

As the train got faster than Toby could run he leant out and waved as he got smaller, and smaller, until he couldn't pick him out of the crowd.

Isaac opened Hedwig's cage and stroked her, absent-minded, as he watched the passing hills and houses.

A little into the journey the compartment door slid open. It was Ron, the youngest of the group.

"Anyone sitting there?" Ron said, gesturing to the seat opposite Isaac, "Everywhere else is full,"

Isaac shook his head and the boy sat down.

"I'm Ron, by the way. Ron Weasley," he introduced himself.

"Isaac, Isaac Rogers," Isaac introduced himself in turn.

The first few minutes of the journey were passed in a mildly uncomfortable silence, only Hedwig's chirps broke the silence.

A cheerful set of double laughter echoed down the corridor, breaking the silence.

The twins from before were walking down the corridor, a third boy with dreadlocks had joined them.

Seeing their little brother, they stopped for a moment in the compartment, they said they'd catch up with him later.

"Hiya Ron, hey Isaac," one of them said as he closed the door behind them, George, Isaac thought from the way he moved. A little jittery.

"Hi," Isaac said, resuming his petting of Hedwig.

"So, we interrupting anything or were you sitting in uncomfortable silence?" Fred asked, "Cos, if that's the case, I got a pack of exploding snap ready to be opened," he said as he pulled out the box.

"What snap?" Isaac asked as he leaned forward, careful not to disturb Hedwig much.

"Exploding snap," George answered, "A deck of cards..."

"That at any given..." Fred continued.

"Point run the chance..."

"Of blowing up in your face," they finished in unison.

"Oh," Isaac said,

'Holy cow it's as if L.J had twin... Oh god, if L.J had a twin,' Isaac was a little shocked at the prospect alone.

"Hey, don't worry," Fred said, misreading the worried expression on Isaac's face, "It's like a Christmas cracker explosion, all bang no flame," he explained.

Isaac did join in with a few games, doing particularly well in 'Go Fish' and drawing with Fred a couple of times in 'Snap'.

Lee, their friend, came back later on and they left with him to go find some of the older students in their year. Something long and hairy was poking out of his chest pocket and Ron seemed to be trying to melt away into the wall away from it.

"Your brothers are cool," Isaac said as he closed the door behind them.

"Yeah, they said they're planning on giving Percy at least twelve migraines this year, since he got made Prefect. Your brother seemed cool too," Ron said, rubbing a few marks on his hand from where the cards had got him, "Your other brother seemed a bit scary though,"

Isaac confusedly looked at him for a few moments.

'Other brother? The only ones with me and Toby were Brian and... Ohhhhh,' he realised who Ron was talking about.

"You mean Tim?" Isaac asked, "Straight dark hair, sideburns?" Isaac listed a couple of Tim's facial features.

"Yeah, him," Ron said, "Gave me the creeps,"

"Oh, Tim's not my brother, he's more like an uncle," Isaac said, setting Hedwig's cage on the empty seat next to him as she fell asleep.

"Really, then why was he with you at the platform?" Ron asked, confused at why a muggle had accompanied them.

"He and Toby are... workmates," Isaac said, thinking of a way to explain, "We live together with the others and they were the only ones allowed to come to see me off,"

"Others?" Ron asked.

Before Isaac could say anything, someone knocked on the door. A smiling woman slid back their door and asked if they wanted anything off the trolley.

Isaac went to see what there was, he didn't have much to eat since it had been a tricky start in the morning and was still a bit hungry, Ron, however, muttered that he'd brought sandwiches.

After collecting a small pile of assorted sweets that he had never heard of. Isaac was interested in what sorts of sweets wizards have. He handed over a small handful of sickles and knuts to pay for them, and sat back down.

Ron stared at the pile Isaac had brought back into the compartment and dumped on the other spare seat on his side.

"Hungry, are you?"

"Just a smidge. Didn't have much to eat, late start," Isaac said as he unwrapped a pumpkin pasty and took a bite out of it.

After a bit of coaxing Isaac managed to get Ron to join him in eating the many, many, sweets after he heard him mumble to himself about his sandwiches.

"These aren't really frogs, are they?" Isaac asked a little later, holding up a chocolate frog box.

"No," said Ron, "But see what the card is, I'm missing Agrippa,"

At Isaac's confused expression he explained how each frog came with a card of a famous Witch or

Wizard.

Unwrapping the frog he picked up the mildly wriggling lump of chocolate shaped into a frog, and enchanted to life before hesitantly biting its head off. Ignoring Ron's amused looks he picked up the card that was lying on the bottom of the box.

He was faced with a rather old man with a long crooked nose and half-moon glasses.

"So this is Dumbledore," Isaac said, reading the name along the bottom of the picture.

He tuned out whatever Ron said, as he looked at the card and nodded when he asked if he could have some, as he read the back of the card.

"No, I've got Morgana again... do you want it, I've got about six of her?" Ron said, offering Isaac the card.

"Thanks, help yourself," he said when he saw Ron's eyes wander back to the unopened pile.

"Thanks, is it true that in muggle pictures that they don't move at all? Ron said, tearing into another box.

Isaac was about to question what he meant when he turned the card back over and saw the picture of Dumbledore idly scratching his nose.

"Yeah," Isaac said slowly, "Yeah, they don't move,"

Isaac disagreed a bit with Ron's declaration that that was weird but didn't say anything as he picked up another frog.

After a few of the frogs had been eaten, and Isaac had started his own small pile of cards, he opened a box of what looked like jelly beans.

"You want to be careful with those," Ron warned when Isaac picked up the box, "When they say they've got every flavour, they _mean_ every flavour,"

After a brief list of a few flavours, and an anecdote of one of George's times eating them, they started to take it in turns eating beans from the box.

Isaac laughed when Ron got a chili flavoured bean, soon having the table turned on him when he himself got dog food.

Looking out the window Isaac was shocked to see that the signs of urban life had pretty much gone, they were now speeding through plains with winding rivers, dark green hills, and woods.

Another knock at the door heralded a round-faced boy that looked a little tearful that Isaac thought he saw on the platform back at Kings Cross.

"Have you seen a toad at all?" he asked, doing a little double take that neither of them noticed as they shook their heads.

"He'll turn up," Isaac said as the boy wailed about how he had lost him.

"Yes," the boy said miserably, "Well, if you see him..." the boy said as he left the compartment to look elsewhere.

"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron, "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk," he said, gesturing to the dozing rat that had climbed out of his pocket earlier on and fell asleep on Ron's lap.

"He might've died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust.

He was about to try a spell to turn Scabbers' fur yellow when there was another knock at the door.

The tearful boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said, she had a bossy sort of voice. Large amounts of bushy hair surrounded her head.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see then,"

She let herself into the compartment and sat down next to Ron.

"Er – all right," Ron said awkwardly, clearing his throat.

" _Sunshine,_ _daisies,_ _butter_ _mellow,_

 _Turn_ _this_ _stupid,_ _fat_ _rat_ _yellow,"_

He waved his wand over Scabbers but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed grey and fast asleep.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl, "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice myself and they've all worked for me,"

Isaac scratched his head absentmindedly as she continued to talk, not noticing that he had brushed a few strands of hair that made up his fringe.

"I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?" she asked, looking between the two.

"Ron Wea..."

"Holy cricket! You're Harry Potter!" she exclaimed, looking at the scar on Isaac's head.

"W-what. No, no, my name's Isa..."

"I know all about you, I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in ' _Modern Magical_ _History_ ', ' _The_ _Rise_ _and_ _Fall_ _of_ _the_ _Dark_ _Arts',_ ' _The_ _Fall_ _of_ _the_ _Wizarding_ _War_ ' and ' _Great_ _Wizarding_ _Events_ _of_ _the_ _Twentieth_ _Century_ '," she listed off.

"Am I?" Isaac asked, surprise making him forget he wasn't supposed to be Harry Potter anymore.

"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione.

Isaac tuned out the one-sided conversation she had started up and thought about what she had said.

If he really was in everything, and probably more, of the books she had mentioned then there was going to be an entire school of people who have grown up hearing about that night of his life. Maybe the night Toby saved him as well.

He remembered that there were other people in the compartment when Hermione stood up, announcing her leave as she suspected that they would be arriving soon, taking the toadless boy whom they had forgotten about with her.

"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," Ron said, now looking at Isaac. An awestruck expression had settled on his face.

'Oh bugger,' Isaac thought, he had a feeling he knew what was coming next.

"How come you didn't say you were Harry Potter!" Ron exclaimed excitedly, bouncing in his seat a little.

Isaac looked at the now hyper boy sitting opposite him.

"I haven't been Harry for over three years now. I'm just Isaac. Isaac Rogers," he said, causing Ron to look bewildered at him.

"But why though, why wouldn't you wanna be known as _The_ _Boy_ _who_ _Lived_ ?" Ron said, looking at him like he was crazy.

"Remind me why that stupid name exists?" Isaac said, getting a little annoyed now. Annoyed at the girl for blurting out who he really was, annoyed at himself for not correcting her and annoyed at Ron for not dropping the topic.

"Because you survived You-Know-Who! Who wouldn't want to be recognised for that?" Ron said, talking like he was explaining the obvious.

"I wouldn't and I don't!" Isaac said, his annoyance lacing each word.

The two of them sat in silence for a few moments, Isaac turned to look out the window. The sky had changed to a deep purple that dulled out the landscapes.

"I... I'm sorry," Ron said quietly, causing Isaac to look back at him, "I'm sorry for bringing it up. There's probably a reason you don't go by Harry now and I should've realised that," Ron turned to look out the window as well.

"You know, I think the ends of Scabbers' whiskers are a bit lighter," Isaac said, giving a small smile at Ron who relaxed a bit at that.

Talk turned to what house they thought they would end up in, Ron telling Isaac about his other brothers and a bit about the other houses.

The more he heard about Slytherin, the more he wondered about what it must be. He supposed that he might end up there, his home life being the biggest point there though he didn't bring it up. Opting to shrug at Ron's question at what house he thought he might be in.

Not long after that, Ron started asking Isaac about his Quidditch team.

Upon hearing that he knew very little about the game Ron launched into an explanation about how the game was played, what each position was and what each ball was for.

A while later the door was slid open again, no knock to give warning, and it wasn't Hermione or Neville this time.

It was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop. He was looking at Isaac with a lot more interest than he'd shown in Diagon Alley. He was also flanked by two other boys that looked like boulders that had come to life.

"Is it true?" he said, "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?" he said, looking at Isaac.

"My name is Isaac," he said, not breaking eye contact with the boy, "Isaac Rogers,"

The boy sneered, "And the scar on your head is just for decoration then," he said, pointing at him.

Isaac's hand instinctively went up to cover it before he realised that it already was.

"So you are Potter then," the boy said triumphantly, "This is Crabbe, and Goyle," he introduced the lumps behind him, a nod in the direction of who was who.

"And I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy,"

Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.

"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles and more children than they can afford,"

He turned to Isaac.

"You'll soon find out that some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there,"

He held out his hand to shake Isaac's, but Isaac didn't take it.

"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," Isaac said as coolly as possible. He didn't exactly like Draco right now, and he was trying to remember everything that Masky had said about confrontations with people.

((FLASHBACK START))

"Never throw the first punch. Until then stick to talking," Masky said.

It was a couple of years ago and Masky was holding a pair of sparring pads in front of Isaac.

"You throw the first punch and you're the first to drop your defenses. Wait for them to do so," he made to hit Isaac in the head with a pad but was blocked.

In retaliation, he nudged Isaac in the head with the other pad.

"Keep your guard up," he reminded him again.

(X)(X)(X)

Another time that came to mind was after he had seen this guy try and start a fight with him in public.

Tim, since it was in public, didn't do anything until the guy tried to swipe at him. Before he had realised it, Tim had the guy's arm bent behind his back.

((FLASHBACK END))

Draco Malfoy gained a slight pink tinge in his cheeks at his rejection.

"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly,"Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riff-raff like the Weasleys and it'll rub off on you,"

Both Isaac and Ron stood up. Ron's face was as red as his hair.

"Say that again," he said.

"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" Malfoy sneered.

"No, we're not," Isaac said, slowing his voice and sounding as bored as he could. A chocolate frog was in his hand and he had been waiting to get to say this for ages.

"And why is that?" Malfoy asked, still sneering.

"Because," Isaac said, looking directly into Malfoy's storm-grey eyes, "You have an inflated sense of your importance," the slight American twinge in his accent became more prominent.

Malfoy looked surprised and tried to look down at Isaac. It didn't help that Isaac was taller than he was.

"This is one little planet," Isaac continued, "... in one tiny solar system, in a galaxy that's barely out of its diapers," he slowly walked towards Malfoy until they were within arms reach of each other. "If all the nonsense surrounding the name Harry Potter is to be taken seriously..." Isaac said, looking around the compartment, "Then I invite you to contemplate how insignificant I find you," he finished locking his eyes back onto Malfoy's. He held the chocolate frog out to Malfoy.

Malfoy, dumbfounded, took the wrapped sweet and muttered to Crabbe and Goyle to leave with him.

Isaac closed the door behind them.

"Bloody hell," Ron said, looking a little scared, "You'd fit right in with Slytherin with that,"

"Wait, you don't..." Isaac trailed off, "You haven't seen Supernatural, have you?" he asked Ron.

"No, is it a muggle thing?" Ron asked, still looking a little scared.

Isaac let out a sigh, "In season five Dean, one of the main characters, has to go to Chicago to try and stop the horseman Death from destroying it and starting the Apocalypse. Instead he finds Death in a diner, eating a pizza, and gets invited to sit with him," Isaac continued on to explain what was, in his and quite a lot of people's opinions, one of the most badass character intro's in all of TV.

At the end Ron still looked a little scared, though he got over that fairly quickly when Isaac mentioned that he almost called Hedwig, his owl, 'Jewel' after the actor who played Death, Julian Richings.

Ron asked about how Malfoy had acted towards him and Isaac explained about their meeting in Diagon Alley and Ron, in turn, explained a few of the things that his father had said about the Malfoys.

Isaac sat there listening to what Ron said, wondering exactly what sort of people ended up in

Slytherin and, by the sounds of it, the more he thought that that was where he was likely to end up.

He looked out the window again and saw that the train was slowing down and it was rather dark out. Pointing this out to Ron they closed the curtain of their compartment and took off their jackets. When Isaac took off his hoodie, the pendant Toby had given him for his first ever Birthday party got caught on the zip and pulled out from under his shirt.

Looking down at the shining circle and cross he tucked it back under his shirt and pulled on his robe.

He had been wearing the pendant for a long time, only taking it off when he showered or went to sleep sometimes, and had forgotten about it a little. Feeling the metal against his fingers as he tucked it back under his shirt gave him a new sense of security as a voice echoed down the train:

"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

Isaac's stomach lurched with nerves and Ron, he saw, looked pale under his freckles.

They crammed their pockets with the rest of the sweets and joined the crowd thronging the corridor, as the train slowed right down and finally stopped.

People pushed their way out of the door and out onto a tiny, dark platform.

Isaac shivered slightly in the cold air. It wasn't as cold as the Mansion got sometimes in the winter but it was still rather cold. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students and Isaac heard a familiar voice: "Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here! All right there Isaac?"

Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.

"C'mon, follow me – any more firs'-years? Mind yer step now! Firs'-years follow me!"

Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark either side of them that Isaac thought the trees here must be thicker than the ones in Slendy's Forest. Nobody spoke much. Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice.

A flash of white somewhere in the trees caught his eye for a moment. Though, when he turned to look, there was nothing there. He had a feeling that Slendy was checking he had got there safely and had gone back to the Mansion to say so.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "Jus' round this bend here,"

There was a loud 'Ooooh' from everyone as they rounded the bend.

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Isaac and Ron were followed into their boat by Neville and Hermione.

Once everyone was in, Hagrid, who was in a boat to himself, called out for them to go and the boats lurched forward of their own accord all at once and carried them across the smooth as a glass lake.

Everyone was silent as they coasted over the water, staring up at the castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads down as the little boats carried them under a curtain of ivy which hid a wide opening in the cliff face.

They were carried through a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right under the castle, until they reached a sort of underground harbour, where they clambered out onto the rocks and pebbles.

They were held there for a few moments as Hagrid checked the boats to make sure that nothing was left behind as they climbed out. After Trevor, Neville's missing toad, was found they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last on to smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.

They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?" Hagrid checked as he raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.

The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Isaac was reminded of how Tim looked without his mask whenever someone pissed him off, immediately putting her on the 'Do Not Piss Off' list in his mind.

"The firs'-years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here," Professor McGonagall said, giving a curt nod to Hagrid.

She pulled the door open wide. The entrance hall was big enough that it looked like you could fit an entire house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.

They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Isaac could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right where he assumed that the rest of the school was. Professor McGonagall, however, led them to a small empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather close together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall, "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly. But before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your houses will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.

The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are here at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

The sorting ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting," her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron's smudged nose. Isaac nervously tried to flatten his hair.

As Professor McGonagall was leaving she turned back to address the group once more, "Another thing to note, when I call your name, I will be calling your _birth_ name as that is the name that was initially put down on the student register. If any individual which has had a change in their name would like to amend this then report to your head of house at your earliest convenience,"

She left the chamber and Isaac swallowed. He knew why she had said that.

Ron gave him a sympathetic look as some of the other first-years around them talked amongst themselves at why someone would need a name change, others muttering about how they would be sorted.

Then something happened which nearly made him jump, several people behind him screamed.

He gasped. So did the people around him. About twenty pearly white and slightly transparent figures had just streamed through the back wall. They glided across the room talking to each other and hardly glancing at the first-years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying, "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him another chance-"

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost – I say, what are you all doing here?" one of the figures, wearing a ruff and tights, had suddenly noticed the first-years.

Nobody answered. Isaac was a little surprised to see that ghosts like the ones he had thought existed _did_ exist.

"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them, "About to be sorted, I suppose?"

A few people nodded mutely.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar, "My old house, you know,"

"Move along now," said a sharp voice, "The sorting ceremony is about to start,"

Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.

"Now, form a line and follow me," Professor McGonagall said as she waited for them to organise themselves.

Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Isaac got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Ron behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

Isaac had never imagined such a strange place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles, which were floating in the air over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the Hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting.

Professor McGonagall led the first-years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight.

Isaac distracted himself from them by looking at the ceiling which, if what Hermione was saying not far away from him was to be believed, was bewitched to look like the sky at night.

Isaac's attention was drawn back to the ground as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first-years. On top of the stool was an old, patched and frayed, wizards hat. The hat was extremely dirty and Isaac got a feeling that if his Aunt Petunia had ever saw it she would have fainted on the spot.

With that thought of grim amusement, he stood there smiling slightly. The smile was replaced with an expression of mild shock and awe as the hat twitched and a rip near its brim opened up, like a mouth, and the hat began to sing.

 _"Oh_ _you_ _may_ _not_ _think_ _I'm_ _pretty, But_ _don't_ _judge_ _on_ _what_ _you_ _see, I'll_ _eat_ _myself_ _if_ _you_ _can_ _find A_ _smarter_ _hat_ _than_ _me._

 _You_ _can_ _keep_ _your_ _bowlers_ _black,_

 _Your_ _top_ _hats_ _sleek_ _and_ _tall,_

 _For_ _I'm_ _the_ _Hogwarts_ _Sorting_ _Hat And_ _I_ _can_ _cap_ _them_ _all._

 _There's_ _nothing_ _hidden_ _in_ _your_ _head_

 _The_ _Sorting_ _Hat_ _can't_ _see,_

 _So_ _try_ _me_ _on_ _and_ _I_ _will_ _tell_ _you Where_ _you_ _ought_ _to_ _be._

 _You_ _might_ _belong_ _in_ _Gryffindor,_

 _Where_ _dwell_ _the_ _brave_ _at_ _heart,_

 _Their_ _daring,_ _nerve,_ _and_ _chivalry_

 _Set_ _Gryffindors_ _apart;_

 _You_ _might_ _belong_ _in_ _Hufflepuff,_

 _Where_ _they_ _are_ _just_ _and_ _loyal,_

 _Those_ _patient_ _Hufflepuffs_ _are_ _true_

 _And_ _unafraid_ _of_ _toil;_

 _Or_ _yet_ _in_ _wise_ _old_ _Ravenclaw, if_ _you've_ _a_ _ready_ _mind,_

 _Where_ _those_ _of_ _wit_ _and_ _learning,_

 _Will_ _always_ _find_ _their_ _kind;_

 _Or_ _perhaps_ _in_ _Slytherin_

 _You'll_ _make_ _your_ _real_ _friends,_

 _Those_ _cunning_ _folks_ _use_ _any_ _means To_ _achieve_ _their_ _ends._

 _So_ _put_ _me_ _on!_ _Don't_ _be_ _afraid!_

 _And_ _don't_ _get_ _in_ _a_ _flap!_

 _You're_ _in_ _safe_ _hands_ _(though_ _I_ _have_ _none)_

 _For_ _I'm_ _a_ _Thinking_ _Cap!"_

The whole Hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.

"So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered to Isaac, "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll,"

Isaac smiled at Ron, he had heard about how they were sorted from Hagrid in Diagon Alley, though he was feeling a little queasy.

Professor McGonagall now stepped forward, holding a long roll of parchment.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and be sorted," she said, "Abbott, Hannah," she called out.

Isaac watched as name after name was called out, a soon to be sorted student put on the hat, and then walk off to their new house while their new housemates applauded them. He joined in politely as each person was sorted.

When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, got sorted he did let out a small laugh as he ran off with the hat still on his head, and had to run back up to return it to the next student to be sorted before sitting down at the Gryffindor table.

He gave a small huff of laughter to himself as the hat had barely touched Malfoy's head, after he swaggered up to the stool, before the hat had sorted him into Slytherin immediately.

He was just starting to relax a bit when a new thought occurred to him.

What if he wasn't chosen at all. What if he just sat there with the hat over his eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall jerked it off his head and said there had obviously been a mistake and he'd better get back on the train?

There weren't many people left now.

Isaac listened silently as Professor McGonagall worked her way through more names until...

"Potter, Harry,"

Isaac steeled himself with closed eyes as he walked forward, ignoring the many hissed whispers that had broken out around the Hall.

The last thing he saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the Hall full of people craning to get a good look at him Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited.

"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear, "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, oh my goodness yes – and a nice thirst to prove yourself. Now that's interesting...

And what a peculiar family,"

Isaac felt his blood run cold.

'You dare say anything about them...' he thought.

"Oh relax, my boy, relax. I have been around since longer than this school and remember sorting the first students that ever heard the legends of 'The Slenderman'... your, and their, secrets are safe," the hat said.

'Oh thank fuck,' Isaac thought, relieved

"Language little wizard," the hat reprimanded, "Now let's see..."

The hat was silent for a few more moments.

"You could be great in Slytherin and they would help you on your way to greatness, there's no doubt about that here... but normally I would be alone in this decision," the hat muttered.

Before Isaac could question what... it?... He?... meant, the hat spoke again.

"My choice this time has been greatly influenced by an outsider, take care, Isaac Rogers..."

Isaac was more confused, but was startled out of this by the hat yelling out, "GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat was taken off him as the far left exploded in the loudest cheers yet. Percy, Ron's brother the prefect, got up as he applauded. The twins also looked extremely cheerful, though maybe a little subdued, as they clapped loudly.

Isaac sat down opposite the ghost in the ruff he'd seen earlier. The ghost patted his arm, giving Isaac the sudden, horrible feeling he'd just had the 'Bucket of Doom', as L.J had decided to call it, dump ice-cold water over him.

He could see the High Table properly now. At the end nearest him sat Hagrid, who caught his eye and gave him a thumbs up. Isaac smiled back weakly. And there, in the centre of the High Table, in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore. Isaac recognised him from the chocolate frog card.

Isaac could also see Professor Quirrell, the nervous man from the Leaky Cauldron.

There were only three people left to be sorted now. Ron was the second last to be sorted. He was a pale green by now as he walked to the stool and disappeared under the hat. Isaac crossed his fingers under the table and a second later the hat shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Isaac clapped loudly as with the rest as Ron collapsed into the chair next to him.

As the last person was sorted and Professor McGonagall took the chair away Isaac looked down at the plate in front of him. He had only just realised how hungry he was. The sweets from the train seemed so long ago now.

Albus Dumbledore had got to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all here.

"Welcome!" he said, "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

Thank you!"

He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Isaac didn't know whether to laugh or not.

"Is he – a bit mad?" he asked Percy uncertainly.

"Mad?" said Percy airly, a little pompous too, "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?"

Isaac's correction of his name was ignored as plates of food appeared before his eyes. Considering that at the Mansion, they would have had to go out to have the wide variety of food before him, and the chance that this would be his meals for each day, he could see why Percy got distracted.

As people around him piled their plates, Isaac set aside the spoon Percy had offered for the potatoes and began taking bits from the other meals set out in front of them.

"That does look good," said the ghost in the ruff sadly, as he watched Isaac cut a slice from a bit of steak.

"Can't you-?" Isaac asked, thinking about the times he had seen Sally eat. And the time she had to stay at the Mansion for overeating and getting a stomach ache for a couple of days.

"I haven't eaten for nearly five hundred years," said the ghost, "I don't need to, of course, but one does miss it. I don't think introduced myself?"

The ghost introduced himself as 'Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington. Though after an outburst from Ron, and a demonstration from Sir Nicholas himself, Isaac learned how, and why, he had the nickname 'Nearly Headless Nick'.

After another small speech from Sir Nicholas about them winning the House cup from Slytherin this year talk began to shift to about each other.

"So Harry, do I..." Percy began.

"Isaac!" he was cut off, "My name, is Isaac," he said slowly, enunciating each syllable.

Percy looked stunned for a few moments.

"Ok," he began shakily, "Isaac, is that an American dialect I hear in your accent?" he asked, a little offended that someone cut across their prefect.

"Yeah," was all Isaac said as he took another bit of his steak.

Percy looked a little annoyed at the lack of an explanation.

"Hey, I-zzik," Ron said through a mouthful of mashed potatoes, thankfully he swallowed before he spoke again, "... on the train you said you live with your brother, his workmates and the others. Who are the others, they like your sorta-adopted family too?" he asked.

"Yeah, I guess they are," Isaac said, "Aside from me, Toby, Tim, and Brian there's..." he said, trailing off and counting his fingers, "... nine others, including the dog, so there's thirteen of us in total," he told Ron.

"Wow, and I thought our family was big," Ron said, before listing off all his older brothers and his younger sister. It was pretty cool to hear about Bill, the curse breaker for Gringotts, and Charlie, the dragon researcher in Romania. The twins did a little bow when Ron introduced them as the prankster princes of Hogwarts, apparently there was a group of students from a decade or two ago that had earned the rank of 'Kings', "... and you've met Percy, third prefect in the family," Ron finished.

"Cool, you gotta lot of brothers," Isaac said, taking a sip from his goblet. He didn't know what he was expecting to be in it, but pumpkin juice was not on that list.

"Yeah, so what's it like living in America?" sandy-haired Seamus Finnigan asked. His conversation with Dean Thomas, another first-year Gryffindor, had ended during Ron's listing of his family members.

"Well, going by experience, I prefer America," Isaac said in a lowered voice.

"So Isaac, what's your family like then?" Dean asked him, leaning round Seamus to talk to him.

Before Isaac could reply Percy spoke again, cutting him off, before he could start.

"Why do you keep on insisting on being called Isaac?" he asked, a little more confident in himself than he had been before.

"Maybe because that Isaac Rogers has been my legal name for over three years now," Isaac said, losing a little of his patience, "... or maybe the name 'Harry Potter' has a whole load of bull associated with it that I'd rather not deal with,"

Percy went a little red in the face at being talked to like that, though it was his turn to be cut off as the twins spoke.

"Leave him alone, Perce. Can't..." one started.

"... you remember that 'Daily Prophet'..." the other picked up and dropped off.

"... that came out a few..."

"... years back? What makes you..."

"... think he want's to deal..."

"... with whatever his old name means to him?" they finished, again, in unison.

If Percy was red in the face before he had definitely reached a new shade of colour now. Though that quickly went away when Hermione started asking him about the courses.

"So Isaac, you were saying?" the twins asked, unison again.

"Well," he began, smiling at their way of speaking, "... you saw Toby, my big brother. He's the one who came up to you to ask how to get onto the platform," they nodded, "Everyone refers to him as a human puppy dog.

You also met Tim, he was wearing the flannel jacket. He's sort of the kinda strict uncle that doesn't mess around if there's something needing to be done or someone could get hurt.

There was also Brian, he doesn't talk. I think the records six weeks without a single word. He's a bit like Tim, but a little more carefree, but can be a whole lot stricter if something starts to go wrong.

Back home, at the Mansion, there's..."

"You live in a _mansion_ ?" Seamus cut across him, sounding awestruck.

"It's basically just a big house and the name stuck," Isaac said, he didn't know if the Mansion qualified as a mansion or not. Plus he didn't need the whole 'be awestruck at my being' vibe that most people seemed to associate him with.

"Oh, sorry. Go on?" he apologised.

Isaac smiled to show no foul, "Back home, they didn't come since plane tickets are expensive," a cover they had to be careful to use to avoid talking about the Slender-portal system, "There's Ben, he's a little older than me and a genius at video games. He has an online help site for gaming problems.

There's L.J, there are two guys with the name Jack, he's sort of like that wild card that puts together those mad-science try-at-home things for fun whenever he gets bored. He's also got this mail-order prank kit service that he runs in his free time," Isaac rattled off, taking a break to have another sip of pumpkin juice.

"Don't tell Fred and George about that last part. They drive mum mental with the stuff they get from 'Laughing Jester Prank Services' alone," Ron said, cutting into a porkchop.

Isaac put on a small smile and gave a slight chuckle. 'Laughing Jester' was the name of L.J's mail order prank service.

"Ok, got it," Isaac said, hiding his smile behind his goblet, "Ok, erm. Aside from them, there's the other Jack, E.J. He's kinda the reason that we have Smile, the dog, since he's E.J's seeing-eye dog. He's a load of fun to be with though, and he's the one who pretty much homeschooled me. Also, he's a better cook than most of us so take that as you will," he got a few laughs from that.

"There's also Jeff, he's pretty much the emo cousin. Big music fan, sticks to himself, doesn't really care what's going on in the world around him unless it affects him. The first time it was just the two of us home, he spent like, five hours teaching me to play guitar," Isaac grumbled, unconsciously rubbing the ends of his fingers. An action that didn't go unnoticed and raised a few more smiles.

"There's also Helen. He's a, yes I said he, really good artist. He's tried teaching me a few things, but I'm still pretty rubbish. Erm, who haven't I... Oh yeah, Jonathan," Isaac said, giving The Puppeteer's

other name for when he was glamoured, "... he's a bit like Jeff, bit of a recluse, but he's more outgoing and relaxed. He's really the only one who can get Helen to relax for some reason.

Sally's eight, she's pretty much given herself the title of everyone's younger sister, she likes drawing and playing with others but she get's a little carried away sometimes," he said, remembering the time she had hidden on the roof during a game of hide and seek. They had to send Hoodie up to get her since she refused to come down until she was caught.

"I guess the last one to mention would be Mr Thalmann. He owns the Mansion, and is sorta the caretaker for all of us. He has to travel a lot for work, he's only really there for short bursts so Tim and Brian pretty much make sure we don't burn the place down," Isaac finished. There had been an agreed amount that he could say about everyone, and what to say about them, and he was pretty sure that that wasn't going over or giving too much away.

"Your family sounds cool," Seamus said, swallowing a bit of roast beef, and Dean nodded.

"Did you say that you were homeschooled?" Hermione asked, leaning behind Percy to see better, "What was that like? I imagine that there'd be a lot of differences between going to school and studying at home,"

"Honestly, I found it better and easier," Isaac said, leaning back to see her as well, "It was easier to ask something that I didn't understand since it wasn't in front of a whole class and E.J is a good teacher," he told her. He knew that he was safe to say this since it was honestly true. E.J was, in his opinion, the best teacher he had had in life so far. He didn't go too fast, he didn't talk to him like he was trying to explain how one plus one equals two, he just sat there with Isaac and showed him how to work stuff out, helping him if he got stuck.

"So what about you guys?" Isaac asked, sitting back forward, "You heard about mine and Ron's, what about yours?" he asked the others.

The conversations about everyone's families lasted for the rest of dinner, and a small part into dessert.

Isaac was a little pleased, to say the least, when a plate of waffles and a gravy boat sized tub of syrup materialised in front of him. Hermione Granger looked a little shocked at the amount of syrup he had poured over the many waffles on his plate, but he figured that that had something to do with the fact that her parents were dentists.

The chattering delved into random talks as everyone slowly got more tired from indulging themselves.

Whilst everyone was chatting idly, Isaac spared a few glances at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore were deep in conversation with each other. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and shallow skin.

The hooked-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell's turban straight into Isaac's eyes. A mild, almost numb, sort of pain started to ache in his forehead and Isaac rubbed his head at the spot. He could feel the thin indent of the lightning bolt scar under his hair.

"You all right?" Percy asked, noticing Isaac's discomfort.

"Yeah, just a bit of a sore head. Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" Isaac asked

Percy.

"Oh, you know Professor Quirrell already, do you? No wonder he's looking so nervous, that's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to – everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape."

Isaac watched Snape for a little while but Snape didn't look at him again. From what he had heard from Percy, he didn't sound like that nice of a person, he sounded like someone that Toby or the others would go after.

At last, the puddings disappeared like the main course's had earlier and Professor Dumbledore stood up again.

"Ahem – just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you.

First years should note that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well,"

Dumbledore's eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes or in the corridors.

Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch.

And finally, I must tell you this year, that the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a most painful death,

And now, bedtime. Off you pop,"

Isaac looked around at his housemates as Dumbledore sat back down after dismissing them. Ron, and a few others, seemed to share his concern about 'death' awaiting them if they went in the third-floor corridor but not many others seemed overly concerned.

Percy, on the other hand, seemed a little miffed that Dumbledore hadn't told the prefects about why the corridor was out of bounds as he led the first-years up the many stairs of the castle to the

Gryffindor dormitories.

Isaac wondered how he was going to be able to navigate this place, especially after he saw the staircases moving, as they climbed the stairs he looked around.

He was thinking that very little could surprise him now as he looked around at the moving pictures that adorned each and every wall, waving meekly at the few that waved to him and shyly said hello to the ones that called.

As they climbed more stairs, Percy halted them suddenly.

He had stopped them at the entrance of a corridor. In front of the entrance was a floating bundle of walking sticks, blocking their way.

"Peeves," whispered Percy to them, "A poltergeist,"

He raised his voice, "Peeves – show yourself,"

A loud and rude raspberry was blown, by a certain invisible somebody, at Percy.

"Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron?"

There was a _pop_ and a little man with wicked dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross-legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks.

"Oooooh!" he said with an evil cackle, "Ickle firsties! What fun!"

Isaac had his fingers crossed that salt worked on _these_ types of ghosts and made a plan to try it at some point as Percy confronted the poltergeist. He was snapped out of his planning at the sounds of the poltergeist zooming off down another corridor, rattling suits of armour as it went.

Percy led them down the, now free, corridor to a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.

After Percy gave the password, at her prompting, they all clambered in. After a quick verbal tour of the common room from Percy, they began drifting to their rooms, Seamus leading the way to the first-year dormitories.

Isaac walked up into the dormitory after Seamus, the other first-years not far behind him. He was a little happy to see Hedwig sitting on his bed, he wanted to send the letter home before he turned in.

He walked over to the bed with his trunk at the foot and pulled out a sheet of parchment, a quill and a bottle of ink, and wrote the letter home.

Replacing the stopper in the ink bottle, he folded the parchment into itself and sealed it inside an envelope, before giving it to Hedwig and walking her over to the window.

Isaac watched as she flew out over the grounds, smiling as she did a spin midair and flew out of sight.

He was a little worried at the distance she would have to travel to deliver the letter, but he figured that she wouldn't have taken it if she couldn't deliver it.

He sat back on the edge of his bed for a few more moments before looking out his pajamas and going off to brush his teeth. When he came back he drew the curtains around his bed and changed in the privacy they provided.

When he reopened them he found that pretty much everyone was just settling down, Dean had finished tacking up a football poster.

He looked at his mildly ajar trunk and his still awake roommates and figured that he might as well sort out his part of the room too.

"No wealth, no ruin, no silver, no gold?" Dean asked when Isaac finished putting up the poster he had packed.

"Nothing satisfies me but your soul," Isaac finished, grinning at Dean, "Bitch," he said, turning back to his trunk.

"Jerk," Dean completed.

Isaac muttered that it was a Supernatural thing to Ron when he looked just as confused as he had done on the train.

Isaac paused as he looked at the packages. He was starting to feel the excitement of the day leave him and exhaustion take hold so he decided that he would open one now, and the rest tomorrow.

Picking one up at random he read the small note tied to the brown paper package wrapped in string that told him that it was from Helen and Teer.

Carefully untying the string, he didn't have any scissors, and opening the paper he found a small set of pictures in silver frames, bound together by more string.

Isaac slid out the first frame and smiled.

It was a picture that had been taken a long time ago. It was of him and Toby, both sleeping in the back of a car. One of Toby's arms was draped over him protectively as, from what he could tell from the background, they drove out an airport's parking lot.

Isaac smiled as he looked at the picture. Setting it down on his bedside cabinet, he began looking through the other pictures.

They were of various other times of his time at the Mansion. He was glad to see that they didn't have anyone in their actual forms. All the pictures had been altered, probably by Ben, to show them in their glamoured state.

He looked at each one as he set them on the cabinet.

There was one of him and Jeff sitting in the living room, a guitar in each of their hands;

One of him and E.J in the kitchen, Smile sitting suspiciously close to the fridge;

One of him walking with Tim, Brian, and Toby as they walked through the Forest;

One of him, Sally, Helen and Teer, pretty much taking up all of Helen's personal space by laying his head on Helen's lap, as they drew;

One of him, Ben, L.J, and Toby as they played a video game. Ben had added himself into the picture, leaning on one of the bed posts.

The final picture, he had been aware when it had been taken. It was at his tenth birthday party and it was a group photo of everyone with him and Toby in the middle. Even Slendy was there, sitting in the armchair, a cup of tea in one hand and a newspaper in the other. Ben had given him a small smile that somehow came across as both warm and the sort of smile a Lord would have when dealing with matters of the estate.

Isaac's smile had widened with each picture, the final one causing it to threaten to split to as wide as Jeff's. As he placed the last one down he realised that the frames had special clips that allowed groups of the pictures to be connected together.

He looked at the pictures, the now connected frames reflecting the pale moonlight slightly, before he rolled over on his bed and laid down to sleep.

'Who knows,' he thought to himself, 'This place might actually be fun,'

And with that, he slowly drifted off.

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Albus Dumbledore sat in his office.

His mind was more at ease than it had been in a while, but it was nowhere near at peace.

His pawn had returned to where he could find him.

Now all that was left was to groom him into the perfect warrior for the light.

But, for now, he had to see to another important piece of business.

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 **(X)** **(X)** **(X)** **(X)** **(X)** **(X)**

And were done.

Hogwarts has arrived witches, and I do wonder what'll change.

While I'm writing this I do need to go over and fix a few things before I send this to 'DPFG' for checking, but I'm pretty sure that I've done at least an ok job with this chapter.

I do have a few ideas, I will admit, that I know what I'll be changing in regards to the HP canon story and I think you might be a little surprised with where I go with one or two things.

Also, about 'Laughing Jester Prank Services';

I sorta think that each Creep would have something to do in their spare time. Plus this does sort out the 'Where would they get money from?' problem.

So I added in a few things like that. I imagine that when time at the Mansion get's a bit stuffy for Helen he'll go out and do those street cartoons of people that you sometimes see in tourist districts. L.J, the prank service.

Jeff, I imagine just raids a bit from his victims whenever he kills.

So, I did change a few things this chapter.

1, Since Slenderman removed the soul fragment ( Horcrux) from Isaac, I figure the connection to Voldy will have been weakened greatly. He'll still feel a few little twinges, but they won't be the crippling pain that he would have felt.

2, I know, in regards to how Isaac dealt with Malfoy on the train... let's just say I may or may not be marathoning Supernatural right now and have just started season 8. So I'll probably leave off on as many references than the amount I did this chapter. Unless you actually liked them then I'll still add a few here and there.

3, You may have noticed that things I put in happened in either the books, movies or both. Since there isn't an option for both of them I'm gonna have a few things from both versions. I'll mainly follow things as said in the book, but there'll be changes that the movies had as well.

In regards to what I had Isaac say about the CPs. This was just a few things that I feel they would be like, or how Isaac would see them if he had to compare them to a family.

Plus, what do you think would happen if I let L.J meet the Weasley twins.

And I will admit, I nearly changed Hedwig's name to Jewel like Isaac mentioned, but a quick chat with my Beta, DPFG, helped me to decide to keep Hedwig's name the same.

Thank you to the two that reviewed and I have one little thing to say in regards to the reviews.

I really don't care what I get in them, and I am open to hearing if you disagree with something I've written. If you think a part of the story is 'too cliche' or OOC (Out Of Character) then mention it. I'm writing this to be read and enjoyed so any feedback is welcomed so I know what I'm doing right and wrong.

However, I do hope you enjoyed this chapter. And I hope you enjoy any others that I put up.

Till the next one,

SteamGeek01.

CreepyPasta's mentioned and their owners, to my knowledge.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets. Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – might be an actual myth.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Plus a whole bunch of references to Supernatural, with line quotes and a poster.


	10. Chapter 10, Year 1, Part 1

Chapter 10, Year 1 – Part 1.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$Word$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes. I also have no ownership of any brands, games or shows mentioned in this fic.

Author's note.

Well, here we go.

Hogwarts time.

So, the format for this chapter might be a little weird. How I'm planning on doing this is that unless it's a specific moment, a flashback or similar, it'll be in letter format. So there'll be a few moments that'll be changed and a few that'll be small for the most part.

This chapter will most likely go from week 1 to just after the Christmas holiday, and a little heads up, one of the biggest changes will be happening around that time.

And as usual, let's get to the reviews;

Kitsunerocker;

Glad you like the chapter. I did hope to get a few laughs from that little bit.

DarkRavie;

Glad you like the chapter and to hear that you still look forward for the next one, or this one as it's the next chapter after the last one.

TheGavenExpress;

Thanks for understanding on why I'm holding off on the ships till later.

If I do ever get to having a ship as the centre for a chapter then I'll have a small build up to it in prior chapters like I did with the only ship I've got in this one right now.

Glad you like the chapter, hope you enjoy this one and any more to come.

Tister60;

Glad you like the chapter. I hoped that I would get a few laughs out of the Supernatural stuff. Glad to hear that you like how I'm doing the story,

Kumo-No-Kuro;

Thanks, glad you like it.

Really? Could you tell me what area it falls under, I went through them all and didn't find it? That would be really helpful, thank you.

Alright, my usual ramble is wearing thin, any final things from 'DP'?

I don't really have much to say, other than welcome back readers. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

One last thing though.

If you go to my profile you should see that I've added a bit that has the upload status of any story I'm working on, so if you want to check whether a chapter will be late or not that's a good place to do so.

Till the next one, SteamGeek01.

Additional Note; 24/01/2018;

Fixed error in character names when Reviewer brought them to my attention.

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Hogwarts.

It was the end of the first week of Hogwarts and all was quiet.

Well, as quiet as a large, drafty, castle filled with hundreds of young minds and teenagers being educated in magic could be; though as it was later in the evening, it was a lot quieter.

In the scarlet and gold decorated tower, a few students were lounging around doing the final bits of their homework, a couple were lazily reading and practising incantations in front of the large fireplace, and one student was idly stroking a snowy owl as he wrote out a letter home.

Isaac Rogers was sitting at a small corner table in the room as his quill scratched over the parchment as Hedwig stood next to him, looking around the room and at the crackling fire with large amber eyes.

Isaac rubbed his own as he replaced the stopper in the jar of ink and read over the letter.

Smiling to himself he folded it inside another envelope and gave the now sealed away letter to Hedwig who shook her wings free and took off out a high window in the room.

He watched her fly out over the grounds again and walked up to the first-year dormitory, ready to sleep.

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The Ark.

Toby Rogers was sitting in the living room, a sharpening stone in hand as he did a little maintenance on his axes.

Masky was standing outside, probably having a smoke, and Ben was in the kitchen, probably getting a drink, and he didn't know where the most of everyone else was.

"Heads up Toby!" Masky called from outside.

Setting the stone down, he tightened his grip on the handle, wondering what was coming.

His grip relaxed when he saw a flash of white zoom past the window. A few seconds later Hedwig had flown into the room, Masky probably held the door open for her, and came to a perch on the armrest next to him.

"Hey girl," Toby cooed as he petted her head gently.

Hedwig hooted as he messed up a couple of her feathers and dropped the letter in his lap before heading back out to where Toby had set up a resting post, which was just outside of Isaac's room for her. He made sure that there was a small bowl of water and a few treats ready to eat there each morning.

Toby allowed a small smile to grace his lips as he unfolded the letter.

~Hey Toby, and anyone reading this over his shoulder.~

A tsk behind him revealed Ben had finished what he was doing and had probably come through from the kitchen at hearing the sound of Hedwig flying in.

~First off, thanks for the packages.~

~I've been opening one a day since I got here and I've gotten through Helen and Jonathan's; L.J and Sally's; E.J's, Tim and Brian's.~

~I'm opening yours tonight.~

~The first week here's been alright. Since the sorting ceremony used my birth name people kinda know who I am. There's been a few who know that I prefer Isaac, The Weasley Twins, Fred and George, apparently turned someone's hair streaks of neon pink and gold when they were being an ass about it.~

Toby allowed himself a few moments to laugh at the idea of somebody having to go about with that color combination on their head.

~I asked Professor McGonagall to change my name on the register after my first

Transfiguration class and the register should be changed by tomorrow.~

~Classes have been ok. The main problem is finding my way around, I mentioned in the letter I sent you when we got settled in that the school's a castle and the number of stairs I have to go up and down to get to each class, and the Great Hall for food, is ridiculous.~

~It took me and Ron until Friday to get there without getting lost.~

~The classes themselves are alright, though it turns out there's a lot more to magic than just waving a wand and saying a few funny words. It's all the usual focus and intent thing that people go on about, but I'm getting there.~

~The Potions teacher is a bit of a hardass, I don't think he likes me that much for some reason.~

(Earlier that week, Hogwarts, Friday,)

Potions lessons took place down in the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.

Professor Snape strode into the class in a billow of his deep, dark cloak.

"There will be no foolish wand waving or silly incantations in my class," he said in his oily baritone, sneering at the Gryffindor side of the class.

Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the register. Though unlike Flitwick, the tiniest person that he had ever seen, who gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight behind his desk; Snape paused and sneered a little more.

"Ah, yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new – celebrity,"

Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hands.

Snape finished calling the register and looked at the class. His eyes were black like coals, but they had none of Hagrid's warmth. They were cold and empty, somehow emptier than the substance that flowed out of E.J's sockets.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught each word – like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping groups of people silent with little to no effort.

"I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes..." Snape gave the class a small speech on the graceful art of potion-making, a few of Isaac's classmates were intoxicated at his mentions of what the skilled could achieve in his class.

"Potter!" Snape said suddenly, "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

'... what...' Isaac thought as he gave Ron a quick glance, from the look on his face he didn't know either but the fact that Hermione Granger's hand was in the air wasn't exactly encouraging.

He gave a small sigh and looked up at his teacher.

"I don't know sir, and it's Rogers,"

Snape's lips curled into a sneer.

"Tut, tut – fame clearly isn't everything," he said, ignoring Hermione's hand.

Isaac felt his cheeks heat slightly and began slowing his breathing. He had read his books when he had got them, E.J had given him the wise advice to do so but it sounded like Snape expected them all to have memorised the set texts.

"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

"The stomach of a goat sir," Isaac said, sending a silent prayer to E.J.

Malfoy and his friends fit of silent laughter ended abruptly. Snape's sneer dropped a little.

"Indeed, though can you tell me, Potter, what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

Hermione's hand had dropped when he had answered the bezoar question; though now it was back in the air, as straight as an arrow, it had flown back up when Isaac had frowned at the question.

"I don't know Professor. And, again, it's Rogers, not Potter," Isaac said.

"Lower your hand," he snapped at Hermione, "For your information, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the draught of living death. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes as aconite. And yes, a bezoar is the stone taken from the stomach. Though _anybody_ who would care to read their texts could tell you as much.

Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"

There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor house for your cheek, Potter,"

Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mix up a simple potion for curing boils. He swept around the room, criticising all of them save for Malfoy who he seemed to like, as they weighed out ingredients.

A while into the lesson, Neville had somehow destroyed the cauldron he and Seamus were using and Snape berated the boy as furious red boils that erupted over his skin where the potion had drenched him.

After furiously dismissing him to the hospital wing he had docked another point from Isaac, claiming that he should have warned Neville about the incorrect procedure he had used.

Isaac had opened his mouth to argue, but a warning from Ron had him keep his mouth shut.

"Don't push it," he muttered, "I've heard Snape can turn very nasty,"

Isaac was a little downtrodden as they climbed out of the dungeons, though he cheered up when Ron reminded him that Hagrid had invited him round for a cup of tea and asked if he could come with.

(XXX)

~Hagrid invited me for tea of Friday. He's a pretty nice guy. I went down to his with Ron. He's got a boarhound called Fang, though he's pretty much a big softy and I had to go change my trousers afterwards because he had drooled through the robes.~

~Also, you remember the time that L.J sent about 1/4 of his pranking stuff to a customer in the UK? That was the Fred and George who ordered it!~

~I don't know the whole story, but I do know it managed to get Laughing Jester supplies banned from Hogwarts and there's still a few who shudder from thinking about it.~

"L.J'll be glad to hear that someone is putting his junk to good use," Ben said over Toby's shoulder.

~The Twins are pretty fun to be around, if you know when to not look away from your food.~

(Hogwarts, Wednesday, lunch,)

Isaac walked down into the Great Hall amidst the lunchtime mail, Ron a step or two behind.

"How'd Quirrell get the job?" Ron asked.

Both of them had been feeling a little blue since the class they had both been expecting to be exciting, had turned out to be barely more than reading from a book, sometimes a small talk from the stuttering Professor had them stop for a moment, but there was barely anything interesting happening so far.

Isaac hoped that things got a little more interesting as the year went on.

Fred and George shuffled over a bit to make room for the two on either side of the table as they sat down.

Isaac had started to put a few sandwiches on his plate when Hedwig flew in, no letter but it was nice to see her. He put his goblet down to stroke her and feed her a piece of chicken from the sandwich he had put on his plate.

As he watched her fly back out away he turned back to his plate.

He picked up his goblet for a moment before setting it back down.

He looked between the Twins, working out who was who.

"George," he turned to the one sitting next to him, "What did you put in my goblet?"

George looked a little surprised that he had gotten his name right, "Nothing," he said, going back to his baked potato.

"Alright, what did Fred put in it?"

"Potion that has the same effect as helium for a couple of minutes,", "Nothing. OI!" George and Fred said at the same time.

Isaac snorted at their exchange and went back to eating his sandwich.

When a third-year Ravenclaw tapped Fred on the shoulder to talk Isaac reached over and nudged Fred's goblet an inch or two from where he had set it down.

The Ravenclaw left and Fred turned back round.

"Oh nice try Isaac," Fred said, swapping his and Isaac's goblets round and taking a drink, "Close, but you're gonna have to do a bit better to... wait what the hell," he broke off as his voice rose in pitch.

Isaac smirked to himself and toasted him with the unspiked goblet.

(XXX)

~Also, it was in the wizard papers, someone broke into Gringotts the day we were there.

The report said that it was the vault that Hagrid had emptied earlier. I tried to ask him about it but he didn't say anything.~

Toby and Ben shared a glance.

~All Hagrid said was that it was Hogwarts business and I didn't need to worry about it.~

~How's things with you? Has anyone had anything interesting happen at work?~

~I'll send another letter next week,~

~Isaac.~

~P.S, remember that pale kid in Madam Malkins that I told you about? He's here a well. He was a bit of an ass on the train and I got to quote Death at him. He looked like his brain had frozen.~

Toby and Ben's laughter at Isaac's achievement of finally getting to quote Death in a conversation attracted through Masky and E.J, who had been a room away in one of the makeshift gyms, a towel around his neck.

Masky read out the letter for E.J, who joined in with the small chuckles from Toby and Ben.

Masky rolled his eyes at the three of them, though the small smile playing his lips showed his amusement.

"Don't forget to send a reply Toby, it's getting late," he said, going back outside to check whether the cigarette he had left in the tray had been blown off.

E.J wiped away the small beads of sweat with the towel and turned to Toby, "So, what ya gonna tell him? Teer recreating John Hurt's famous scene in 'Alien', L.J bursting someone's gut open with a literal tonne of candy, Jeff shoving a guy's head inside a lawnmower?" he listed a couple as he went for a drink.

"Eh, probably both. Just gotta word it so it doesn't sound like a kill," Toby said, scratching his head.

"Speaking of L.J, where'd he go?" Ben said.

As if by the will of the plot L.J descended from the stairs, a large box under his arm.

"Hey guys," he said, setting the box aside and sitting down, "That Isaac's letter?" he asked, pointing to the parchment on the table.

"Yep, what's with the box?" Ben asked in return as Toby worked on how to mention that he had knocked a guy's head clean off on his last job.

"Well, remember that pair from the UK that bought a good portion of my stock a couple of years ago? Well, apparently they're stepping up their game again. Something about a new kid at their school," L.J said, picking up the letter.

Ben sat there, watching and waiting for L.J to finish.

A victorious smirk rose on his face, his shark-like teeth glinted a little.

"Pass me a bit of paper and a pen Ben," he said, slitting open the tape he had sealed the box with a claw-like finger.

He scribbled a quick note and folded it on top of the packages.

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Hogwarts.

Isaac had finished adding syrup to his morning waffles when Hedwig flew in, a letter clamped in her beak and a small blue bag in her talons.

Isaac tore apart some toast for her and took the letter and bag.

~Hey buddy.~

~Sounds like you're having fun across the pond, kinda wish I could say the same over here.~

~Most exciting things that happened was Jonathan messing up in a butchers and accidentally spilt that mush that gets turned into sausages all over the place, looked like something from Alien, L.J asked me to send some candy over, the first _bag_ he was putting them in burst and they went all over the place-|/~

~ _Good on ya with the twins kiddo!~_

Isaac smiled at the quick sentence written by L.J, from the lines on the page he had taken the note from Toby as he was writing.

~He says that some of them might have been diluted, so they'll probably not taste too good.~

Isaac looked in the bag as Hedwig took off. Inside was a small bundle of individually wrapped Kalakuta Gumdrops. From the letter, he guessed that about five or six of them would be 'fun' ones.

He still had a few from the package L.J had packed for him so he put the bag on the table for now. He had eaten the cookies that Sally had added in the package, it had taken him about five minutes to get the bits of marshmallow out from his teeth.

~Anyway, other than that not much else's happened. Apart from Jeff dropping a lawnmower on a _gnome,_ and me getting a one-shot split streak with the axe on _wood_ for the fire, not much else really. Just the normal, boring, day to day routine.~

Isaac smiled at the phrasing Toby had used. The slight change in writing could be written off as part of his tic if anyone asked.

~Yeah, apart from that not much else has been going on. Thalmann dropped in for a bit, though he hasn't had any exciting stuff happen either.~

Isaac looked through the bag, carefully taking out a sweet he knew to be safe and popped it in his mouth. He had memorised those ones ever since the first batch.

~Anyway, hope that school there doesn't suck too much. I can't imagine a magic school would be dull.~

Isaac snorted a little, thinking back on the History of Magic lesson he had sat through and the way Quirrell had to delegate the reading of parts of the passages to other students so he didn't have to.

~Anyway, hope you're doing well. I'm talking with Thalmann about travel stuff for

Christmas and other Hols' so I'll get back to you on that.~

~Take care buddy.~

~Toby.~

~ _Be sure to share some of the sweets.~_

L.J had taken the note again.

~ _See if you can find stuff about Dragons! Also, how often have you had waffles for breakfast? Just proving a point._ ~

Ben had taken the note that time.

Isaac smiled at the letter and went back to eating his waffles.

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The Ark.

"Oh fuck you, Ben, "

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The Ark.

It had been awhile since Isaac's letters had held anything more than some of the day to day things that'd been going on and other small things.

His next, however, came with a letter from the school.

Toby looked at the two letters. He figured that he'd read Isaac's first, then the official-looking one.

Slendy had solved the problem of having owls continually die in the forest by having them deliver the letters to the local post office and getting Ben to tell them if any arrived.

He shook open the letter from Isaac.

~Hey Toby.~

~Ok, first things first. There were flying lessons today and we were doing them with the Slytherins. Earlier Neville, he's in my year and dorm, got this thing to help you remember when you've forgotten something, and Malfoy tried to start a thing but Prof. McGonagall shut it down before anything happened.~

Toby smirked a little. He had no doubt that Isaac could have broken Malfoy's arm in a few places if he pissed him off enough.

~Anyway, at the lessons Neville hurt himself and had to be taken to the hospital wing. The thing that he'd gotten to help remember stuff had fallen out his pocket and Malfoy took it and tried to stash it up a tree.~

~I went after him and he threw the thing, I can't remember what it was called, and I caught it before it hit the ground.~

~The thing is that we were on brooms at the time and we weren't supposed to be flying unless Madam Hooch, the instructor was there. Prof. McGonagall saw me and took me inside.~

Toby thought that he had a good idea on what the letter from the school was about.

~I thought she was going to give me a detention when we went in, but she brought me to a fifth-year called Oliver Wood and said she had found him a Seeker for Quidditch.~

~Me! She's going to try and bend the rule on first-years not being allowed a broom to see if she can get me on the house team!~

Toby read over the line again before smiling to himself.

~She said that she'd send home a letter about it so I don't know if you'll get it before this one or not.~

~Apparently my Dad was a Seeker when he was at School here.~

~Malfoy was acting like an ass about the whole thing and he tried to challenge me to a wizard's' duel tonight. Ron told me what that means and I don't think that Malfoy's gonna know what hit him.~

Toby was stuck with a sort of half smile, half frown, as he read about Isaac getting into a fight.

If it was melee, or weapons, then he knew that Isaac could hold his own fairly well. But this was a wizard's duel, that meant magic and he didn't know much about fighting with magic.

~He's set the duel time for midnight so I'll let you know how well it goes. Part of me thinks that Malfoy's not gonna show up, but I'm heading there any way in case I'm wrong.~

The rest of the letter was just what had been going on at the school and some stuff in his classes.

He put that letter down and picked up the one from the school.

~To Isaac Roger's guardian(s).~

~My name is Professor McGonagall. Deputy head of Hogwarts and Head of Gryffindor house.~

~Isaac has shown impressive skill on a broom and I am looking into having him placed on the house team for Quidditch.~

~To play on the team Isaac shall require a broom of his own.~

~As I am unsure of your knowledge based around Quidditch I have sent along a pamphlet of brooms currently in shop that the school can get on short notice.~

~Costs of the brooms are included and if you are willing, or able to, aid in the purchase would be greatly appreciated.~

~Hope this letter finds you in health.~

~Professor M. McGonagall.~

Toby fished the pamphlet out of the envelope.

He would admit to anyone who asked that he had no idea what he was doing.

Not paying attention to the prices, he looked at the speeds given. He remembered something Hagrid had said about Seekers being fast so he circled the fastest one there with a pen he fished out from under a pile of clothes in his room.

After that he wrote out a letter saying that they'd be able to help pay for the broom, thinking back to the day in Diagon Alley where the small handfuls that they had taken had lasted them the day with more to spare. He'd send the letter back after getting Isaac's go ahead to do so.

He sat down on the bed, moving Isaac's letter over.

As he moved it he saw there was something written on the back and he remembered that that was probably the result of the duel Isaac had been challenged to.

~MALFOY'S A FUCKING COWARD AND THERE'S A FUCKING MASSIVE DOG

WITH THREE FUCKING HEADS BEING HELD HERE ON THE THIRD FLOOR!~

Toby looked over the large, sprawled out, letters that took up the back of the letter and stood back up.

He had to go ask Slendy a couple of things.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

The Ark.

Sally skipped around the Mansion, excitement radiating off her.

"You're gonna tire yourself out before you get to go out if you keep that up," L.J said, sorting out various piles of candy of all shapes, sizes, and colors, into multiple bags.

It was very early on Halloween day and Sally would always get excited around those few special holidays. Especially the ones where she got to eat lots and lots of candy and sweets.

Easter was her favourite there, Halloween a close second.

Sally didn't say anything to the monochrome clown, opting to flicker away, giggling as she did so, to somewhere else. Probably a 'playmate' that had found one of the abandoned houses she liked to hang around at sometimes.

L.J gave a gravelly chuckle as he turned back to sorting out things for his own 'playmates'.

He didn't kill all of them, only the ones that he wouldn't be able to deter from snapping.

He didn't know how to properly explain his ability to sense which children would snap and which wouldn't, but the times he ignored the instinct and let them grow up, forgetting about him in the process, all of them had snapped. And none were salvageable.

Toby came down at that point, yawning and trying to get rid of a kink in his neck from sleeping.

"Mornin'," he grumbled through a yawn as he zombie walked past L.J into the kitchen.

"Morno' Tobo'," L.J said, irritatingly cheerful, "You taking Sals' guising later?"

A grunt of confirmation came from the kitchen.

L.J sat forward and stretched out his back as Toby came back through, a steaming plate of waffles in hand.

"So, whatcha think Isaac's doing about now?" L.J said, trying to get some semblance of life from Toby as he sat down.

"Well," Toby stood back up and threw the whoopee cushion under his seat across the room,

"Well, it's about... I dunno, eightish over there. Probably dinner,"

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Hogwarts.

"Do something!" Isaac yelled, dangling from the mountain troll's hand as he tried to hit him with the club.

"What?" Ron said, looking around at the debris on the floor.

Isaac found himself wishing that he had the throwing knife set Jeff had snuck him so he could at least get a few hits in.

"Anything!" Isaac cried, lifting himself up to dodge another swing.

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The Ark.

"Yeah, probably getting bored at this point," L.J said, packing the bags into the bucket.

(Later)

Masky walked after Toby as he stalked towards his room.

"Listen, I don't like it either, but you know what Slenderman said!" Masky said, the note of finality in his voice could have stopped an army in its tracks.

"I know, I know," Toby gritted out as he shoved the door forcefully open, "But you read the letter, you were there when I opened the sodding thing,"

Isaac's latest letter had worked Toby up quite a bit.

It was the day after Halloween in the UK and they had just gotten Isaac's letter about the troll that somehow got through the school's defences.

"I was Toby. And the fact that nothing came from the school, and Isaac said himself that he was fine, means that nothing too bad happened," Masky said as Toby picked up his axes and a few other things.

In all honesty, he agreed with Toby and wanted to pay the school a visit himself.

"Move," Toby said as he made to leave.

"If you're planning on trying to get into the school then..."

"I'm not going to the school! I'm going to the throwing range, then the lumber pile," Toby cut him off.

"I have a need to hit things and with a lack of jobs and not being able to go to the fucking school, logs will do!"

Masky followed Toby out of the Mansion, just to make sure that he didn't try to go anyway.

They didn't run out of chopped wood until the end of December.

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Hogwarts.

Isaac read over Toby's latest letter.

Slendy had said that he would have to stay at Hogwarts for the winter holidays to keep up with the cover that he was flying by plane to and from America, so he added his name to the list of those staying at Hogwarts over the break with a little bit of reluctance.

He was cheered up a bit when it turned out that all of the Weasley's were staying as well.

Their parents were going on a trip to Romania to visit the second eldest, Charlie, where he studied dragons.

Isaac was a little excited for the holidays, though he wondered why despite all the magic in the air the castle was still very drafty, and spirits were high.

He did feel a little guilty about not doing any shopping for anyone, but decided he could fix that by doing it when he got back and giving them their gifts late.

"I do feel so sorry," said Draco Malfoy, during the Potions class the day that the Professors had taken the list of those who would be staying over the holidays, "... for all those who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home,"

He was looking at Isaac as he spoke, who returned the look with one of boredom.

Ever since the Quidditch match, Malfoy had been more unpleasant than usual.

Isaac's first Quidditch match had been... interesting, to say the least.

For some reason, main suspect being Snape, Isaac's broom had started trying to throw him off mid-game. It had nearly succeeded too, he had been dangling off it by one hand when Hermione had set Snape on fire and created a distraction that allowed him to get back on.

That was the only other letter he had been a little worried about sending home.

Since then Malfoy had been trying to get people to laugh at him since when he caught the snitch he had nearly swallowed it.

When that hadn't worked he had gone back to trying to taunt him with the fact that he didn't have a proper family.

Isaac ignored him, as usual, in favour of weighing out ingredients for Potions.

After class they had bumped into Hagrid taking another tree into the hall and got invited to see the Great Hall as it was being decorated.

When they mentioned they were heading to the Library to research Nicolas Flamel Hagrid had nearly had a heart attack.

After he had accidentally let slip the fact that the dog, his own Cerebus called 'Fluffy' of all things, was guarding something for Professor Dumbledore and this Nicolas Flamel they had been insatiably interested in finding out who he is and what it is.

Hagrid had refused to tell them anything and Isaac figured that no one at the Mansion would know who he is so he hadn't asked them.

Once the holidays started, however, research pretty much dropped dead since Hermione went home to her parents.

They had become good friends with Hermione ever since the troll attack on Halloween.

The only reason that Isaac and Ron had come across the troll was because Hermione hadn't been at the feast when Quirrell had burst in shouting his warning because of a particularly nasty comment from Ron earlier that day.

They had burst into the toilet where she had been crying as the troll entered the room.

After a brief, semi-successful, distraction by Isaac; Ron had managed to knock out the troll by levitating its club and dropping it on its head.

Hermione had covered for them about why they were there in the first place and they had grown closer ever since.

Isaac didn't regret making friends with Hermione as she was the brightest of their year, and pretty good company when she was more relaxed and not focusing overly so on their education.

Homework got easier with her around and she did seem a whole lot happier from that point onwards.

Ron and Isaac's holiday started off with about half an hour of trying to find Flamel before they got involved in a snowball fight with the twins.

After an hour and a half of snow being thrown Isaac was declared the winner and a three V one match was started with Ron, Fred and George against Isaac since it soon became clear that Isaac was near impossible to hit and had very good aim.

Isaac held his own for about fifteen minutes as the three of them tried their best to hit him.

After all of them were sufficiently covered in snow they started to head back inside.

Isaac was following along behind them, having stopped for a moment to shake some snow from his hair before it slid down his back when a mild buzzing filled his ears.

Ron felt it too and shook his head like a wet dog to try and clear it.

Isaac, however, froze.

He excused himself under the pretence of re-tying his laces and hung back whilst looking around.

" **Hello Isaac,"** Slenderman said as Isaac came around a corner that led down to the greenhouses.

"Hey Slendy," he said, greeting the tall figure with a wide smile.

" **I can't be long, I had business in a part further north and decided to check in whilst I was here,"** Slendy said, **"Also Toby was particularly worried after you mentioned the troll and the incident at your Quidditch game,"**

Isaac wasn't sure if he should have mentioned those in his letters but he had figured that Toby would have preferred to hear it from him rather than someone else.

"Nothing else has happened since then," Isaac told him.

" **That is good to hear. Another reason for my visit was to inform you of something that I should have done before you left for here,"**

"What is it, sir?" Isaac asked.

" **Whilst there is no danger in asking the others for advice, I have placed a restriction on what they are capable of doing in this world,"** Slenderman said, any snow that landed on any part of his suit seemed to disappear completely without trace, **"Since this world could be seen as a great threat to us we have to be careful with our interactions,"**

Isaac nodded to show he understood.

He had figured as much on his own and Slendy had pretty much confirmed that any problem he encountered here, he would have to deal with on his own.

" **There are situations I will permit them to take action, though I do hope that they never occur,"** Slendy said, **"And one last thing,"**

A skeletal hand reached into a pocket.

" **Ben asked me to send this in the event I was able to stop by and meet you,"**

He gave Isaac what looked like a Gameboy if Doctor Frankenstein ever got a hold of it.

"I thought things like this wouldn't work at Hogwarts?" Isaac said, turning the device over in hand.

" **For most things, yes,"** Slenderman agreed, **"Though Ben is more stubborn than most when it comes to things like this,"** he said, giving Isaac an accompanying letter before disappearing completely.

Isaac gave a small smile at the space where Slendy had been a few seconds ago before putting the modified Gameboy in his pocket and walking inside to where the twins and Ron had sat down to eat a hot lunch.

That night, when Isaac was alone in the dorm room, he examined the Gameboy more clearly.

He placed it on his pillow and turned back to the letter.

~ Heyo Specs.~

~So it's been awhile since we've had a chat. So I put together a few things together, added a little Slendy background radiation, and hey presto!~

~This thing should work over there. You can't play games on it, until I fix the cartridges for it, but in the meantime, it should work as a pretty good 'Ben TV' signal box.~

~The batteries I stuck in this thing should last for a month or two if used sparingly, bout once or twice a week.~

~See ya soon.~

~BEN.~

Isaac looked back at the device on his pillow.

Later that night, once Ron's snores had filled the dorm, he snuck it out from under the spare robe he had kept it under and searched for the on switch.

The screen flickered slightly as he lifted the duvet and climbed back into bed.

It took a little longer to fall asleep and when he did he found himself in any other dream.

"Bor...ing!" Ben cried as he flickered next to Isaac and the next thing Isaac knew he was standing just outside the arena of one of the fighter games Ben had.

"Sup Specs," Ben said as he hugged Isaac in greeting.

"Hey Ben," Isaac said through a wide smile.

If there was one thing that made Ben-influenced dreams weird was that if you were to touch him in one then you wouldn't feel the sort of static that clung to his frame in the real world.

It was like running your hand over one of those big, old, TV's when it was on.

"Oh, it's been boring without you," Ben said as he handed Isaac a box of popcorn and sat back, watching the fighters.

"Really? I doubt that," Isaac said.

Eating in a dream was weird. Everything tasted like it was diluted down and weak.

"Well, boring for us at any rate," Ben smirked as he tossed a bit of popcorn in the air and caught it in his mouth, "You, on the other hand, are currently at a school for mutha-fucking sorcerers! Come on, details, details,"

Isaac laughed a bit as he told him about lessons, what spells he had learned so far and other things he had done at Hogwarts.

Recreating what he had done in some classes in the dream to show Ben, he started asking about what had been happening at the Mansion.

"Eh, same old, same old really," Ben said, looking at the box of popcorn hovering above them, "Had another cultist group pop up last week though. Toby had already sent his letter so we would have had to tell you in this weeks,"

He stretched his arms out a bit.

"I won't give much away, but Masky and Hoodie are still off trying to find the last members and Toby'll tell you a bit more when you get his letter,"

Isaac spent the next hour or two talking with Ben, watching fighter after fighter enter the ring.

Ben had snorted when Isaac told him that Jeff had snuck the throwing knife set back into the trunk and he told Isaac that Masky thought that he had lost them somewhere at one of his jobs the week after Isaac had left.

"Well Specs, it's been good catching up but I gotta head out," Ben said, the arena flickering in and out as Isaac's dream returned back to what it originally was.

"Good talking to you," Isaac said, giving Ben a final hug, "I haven't had a chance to go shopping so everyone will be getting late gifts when I get back,"

"Eh, don't worry too much about it, we figured you wouldn't have a chance to anyway," Ben said, patting Isaac on the back, "I'll get the Gameboy for you,"

Isaac smiled and waved as Ben flickered back away.

The next morning Isaac felt better than he had done in a while as Ron challenged him to another game of wizards chess.

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Hogwarts.

Isaac sat down on his bed, the small mound of unwrapped gifts lying next to his bed shifted a bit as he lay down.

It was Christmas day and he had spent the most of the morning sitting in the Great Hall with the Weasleys before going back up to the Gryffindor common room to unwrap the remainder of his gifts.

He had gotten through the ones from Hagrid, Hermione, and Mrs Weasley.

Ron had told him, blushing quite a bit, that he had mentioned him in a letter home and his mother had obviously taken it upon herself to send the youngest Weasley's best friend a gift or two.

Isaac laughed as he unwrapped the thick, hand-knitted, emerald green jumper and box of home-made fudge.

He pulled the jumper on overhead and found it fit rather well, considering she had seen him maybe once he was impressed that she had managed to get a close to perfect fit.

He had just unwrapped an anonymous package containing a silver cloak that moved through his fingers like fluid that had Ron frozen in awe.

After explaining what it was, and testing it to see if it was true, Isaac looked down at his invisible body.

The note that came with the cloak didn't have the sender's name, just saying that Isaac's father had left it in his possession before he died and he thought that it was time to return it to him.

He hadn't had time to go through the rest of the presents on the bed, another mild pang of guilt had risen since he hadn't gotten anybody at home a gift for Christmas, when the twins came up to drag them down to breakfast.

Isaac sat on the bed as he pulled the gifts closer.

Jeff, unsurprisingly, was the only person that didn't send him something since Masky probably confiscated it like he had done the previous times with the throwing knife set.

Ben had sent him some of the working cartridges and a couple of spare batteries for the Gameboy;

Sally had sent over a book similar to one he had gotten a while ago that contained myths and legends in Scotland, he had flicked the book open at random and came across the story of 'Wulver', a werewolf that left food at the houses of struggling families;

Helen and The Puppeteer had sent another joint gift of a sketchpad and pencils, there were a few blank pages and some that Helen had etched in a few pre-prepared drawings for him to practice on;

Masky and Brian had sent him a couple of books on stories in the Wizarding World and a beginners book for defensive magic, they had gone back to Diagon Alley to check out a bit more on whether or not the mass public was aware of Isaac's true identity a few times and had stopped in a few of the shops on one of their trips;

E.J had sent a modelling clay sculpture kit and a couple of books on home projects about making things like pencil crossbows and kitchen chemistry, a note attached had subtly hinted at E.J teaching him a few things about dissection when he got back. Something he had been interested in ever since he had seen E.J expertly extract a body's kidneys in under a minute;

L.J sent over another bag of sweets, a box of his pranking supplies from the more 'experimental' line of things and a note that contained a string of hisses that apparently Kalakuta had said in wishing him 'Merry Hissmas'.

Toby's gift had been a facemask, kinda like his own but with no stripes and only a solid bar of grey across where the mouth would be, a box of homemade caramel waffle wafers, a poster that held the standard exorcism for Supernatural and a couple of books. One had a bunch of stuff to do with fires and explosives and the other the next in a series of fantasy novels that he had started reading before going to Hogwarts.

The rest of the evening had passed in a merry dinner and jokes with the twins.

Isaac had planned on testing out one of L.J's more potent stink bombs but with Filch, the caretaker of the castle, lurking around nearby he had held off on it till later.

After a _very_ filling dinner, Isaac found himself lying down on his bed and unable to sleep.

Throughout the day his thoughts had kept coming back to the invisibility cloak stuffed under his duvet.

As he lay there a new thought came to him.

With the cloak, he could go pretty much anywhere in the castle undetected.

Isaac debated whether he should wake Ron or not but something about the fact that this was his father's cloak had him feel like the first time should be just him.

He ignored the Fat Lady's squawks as he left the common room and walked quickly down the corridor.

As he thought about what he should do, he remembered his idea that information on Flamel might have been held in the Restricted Section of the library. So he decided that he would go there and try to find more about Flamel.

After all, what could happen from reading a book?

Isaac down the corridor, he carefully ducked under Filch's outstretched arm as the scream from the book he had picked up echoed inside his ears.

He was pretty much running in the dark, the only light coming from the pale moon.

He looked around the corridor he was in. Perhaps because it was dark, he didn't recognise where he was at all.

He was trying to figure out where he was when he heard voices that caused the blood to drain out of his face.

"You asked me to come directly to you, Professor, if anyone was wandering around at night, and somebody's been in the library – Restricted Section," Filch's wheezing voice huffed out.

"The Restricted Section? Well, they can't be far, we'll catch them," Snape's reply had Isaac's heart jump into his throat.

He backed away down the corridor, away from where the two staff members were walking down, trying to move as quietly as possible towards the ajar door that lay a little away.

He listened to their dying footsteps as they walked past him and he dared to breathe a little harder.

It was a few seconds before he noticed anything about the room he had hidden in.

It looked like a disused classroom. The dark shapes of desks and chairs were piled against the walls and there was an upturned waste-paper basket – but propped against the wall facing him was something that didn't look as if it belonged there, something that looked as if someone had just put it there to keep it out of the way.

It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved around the top: _Erised_ stra ehru _oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi_.

His panic fading now that there was no sound of Filch or Snape, Isaac moved nearer to the mirror, wanting to look at himself and see no reflection again.

He had to clap his hands to his mouth to stop himself screaming. He whirled around. His heart was pounding far more furiously than when the book had screamed – for he had not only seen himself in the mirror, but a whole crowd of people standing right behind him.

But the room was empty.

He tried to calm down as he turned back to the mirror.

A new sort of panic took over him as he saw Toby standing behind him with two people standing either side of him.

He looked back around the room, trying to figure out how he could see Toby and everyone else there when he was alone.

He looked in the mirror again. Standing next to Toby was a man and a woman. The reflections were so close that when he felt the air behind him, he expected to feel whoever she was.

He looked at the woman in the mirror more closely. She had dark red hair and her eyes – her eyes were just like his. Bright green and exactly the same shape.

The tall, thin, black-haired man standing on Toby's other side put an arm on her shoulder, his other was resting on Toby's. He wore glasses, and his hair was very untidy. It stuck up at the back, just like Isaac's did.

Isaac was very close to the mirror now, his breath fogging the surface slightly.

"Mum?" Isaac whispered, "Dad?"

They just looked at him, smiling.

Toby looked like he was laughing slightly, both of his hands were on Isaac's shoulders.

As Isaac looked around at the other people in the background of the mirror and realised that he was looking at, what was at one point, his family.

The Potter's smiled and waved at Isaac.

There was also a young woman with dirty blonde hair standing a little away. She didn't look like any of the other Potters there, though she did have the same sort of nose and face as Toby.

'Lyra?' he thought, wondering if that really was Toby's sister.

He had never seen what she looked like since Toby had no pictures but she looked as kind as Toby had described her.

A noise from somewhere outside the room brought Isaac back down to earth as he remembered why he was in the room in the first place.

After a whispered promise to come back he started making his way back to the Gryffindor common rooms.

When he told Ron about the mirror the next day he agreed to show Ron after everyone went to bed tonight.

After retracing his steps, which took a while, Isaac finally found the room that held the mirror.

To his surprise, Ron didn't see the same thing. Instead, Ron saw himself standing victorious with awards given to him by the school, Head Boy, Quidditch Captain. He was also holding the House and Quidditch Cups.

After Isaac tried to get another go with the mirror, a small argument between the two drew Mrs Norris, Filch's cat, to them and they had to leave.

Ron tried to deter Isaac from going to back to the mirror again, but Isaac couldn't think of anything else he'd rather see.

It was a sort of melancholy joy to see his old family. Even better to see that they had accepted Toby and his Sister as part of it as well.

Isaac sat on the cold floor, soaking in the image in front of him.

He could have sat there all night with his family. Nothing at all.

Except-

"So – back again?"

Isaac felt his insides freeze as he turned around and saw Dumbledore sitting on one of the desks.

He must have been in such a hurry to get to the mirror that he hadn't noticed him

"I-I didn't see you, sir," Isaac said.

"Strange how short-sighted being invisible can make you," Isaac was relieved to see that Dumbledore was smiling.

"So," Dumbledore said, standing up and walking over to sit on the floor next to him, "You, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised,"

"I didn't know it was called that sir,"

"But I expect that you've realised by now what it does?"

"It – well – it shows me my family - "

"And it shows your friend Ron himself as Head Boy,"

"How did you know - ?"

"I don't need a cloak to become invisible," Dumbledore said gently.

Dumbledore kept giving Isaac little prompts at what the mirror did, until he corrected Isaac's very close guess of the mirror showing you what you wanted to see to the mirror showing nothing more or less than showing the deepest, most desperate, desires of the heart.

He explained how it showed Ron standing alone, no longer worried about being overshadowed by his elder brothers and the best of them all.

He also warned Isaac about not going to look for the mirror again as it was being moved to a new home.

As he kindly dismissed Isaac back to his bed, Isaac asked him one last thing.

"Sir – Professor Dumbledore? Can I ask you something?" Isaac asked, halfway to the door.

"Obviously, you have just done so," Dumbledore smiled, "But you may ask me one more thing, however,"

"What do you see when you look in the mirror?"

"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woollen socks,"

Isaac starred.

"One can never have enough socks," said Dumbledore, "Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn't get a single pair. People insist on giving me books,"

It was only when he was back in bed did it occur to Isaac that that answer might not have been entirely truthful, then again, it was a rather personal question.

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Hogwarts.

The end of the holiday was heralded with a light sprinkling of snow as the many students began filing back through the doors.

Hermione's return came with mild disapproval since the two of them hadn't found anything out about Flamel and the fact that Isaac had been out of bed three nights in a row.

However, something had caught Isaac's eye.

Malfoy had walked into the Great Hall, Crabbe and Goyle flanking him as usual.

One thing that Isaac had learnt to do overtime at the Mansion, was be able to tell whenever someone had a glamour on.

Over time, his exposure to them all using glamours on a semi-regular basis had helped him to recognise when a glamour was in use.

One of the things that helped him recognise a glamour was that, with a quick glance, there would be the same sort of shimmering around the glamoured area that a hot surface would have. Those ripples in the air.

And a few quick glances at Malfoy showed that tell of a glamour, shimmering palely around his face.

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Dumbledore sat on the cold floor as he watched the boy's retreating back.

A curse was going over his head as for some reason the tracer spell he had tried to silently cast on the boy had failed to take hold.

That was of little irritancy to him, however. He had effectively solidified the image of a trustable person in the boy's mind.

His question at the end had thrown him off a little, though he had expected to be asked something of the sort so he gave the humorous response he had prepared earlier.

Things were going slower, far slower, that he would have liked. But he would persevere and he would reclaim his pawn.

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"Fred!" George called out to his twin as a large owl carried a box over to the window of the third-year dormitories in Gryffindor tower, "Jester's supplies are here!"

"Wicked, what we got this time?" Fred said, exiting the bathroom, toothbrush still in his mouth.

George cast a cutting charm to open the tape and the first thing he saw was the letter lying on top of the contents.

He shared a quick glance with Fred since none of the other packages had come with notes.

He flicked the paper open and his jaw hung open.

 _~At Laughing Jester Pranking Service, we applaud those who aim for mischief and strife.~_

 _~However, if you can manage to pull one over on Isaac fucking Rogers I'll gladly fly my ass over there and shake your hands myself!~_

 _~It took me a day to get one over him and even then it wasn't the one I had originally intended on getting him with.~_

 _~L.J~_

 _~P.S~_

 _~If any harm comes to him, I have quite a few things held back because they're 'too dangerous' for public use, and I don't think I need to go further.~_

Fred shared a look with his twin as he read over the letter.

Later in the common room, as they were sitting by the fire, finishing their Transfiguration homework, Isaac walked past on his way to the Great Hall with Ron to get lunch.

"Hey Isaac," George called over.

"Yeah?" Isaac said, moving out of the way of the portrait.

"Settle a thing for us," Fred said, "You said that you..."

"Live with two guys..."

"Called Jack right, well..."

"Was one of them..."

"M.J, L.J, T.J or E.J?" they finished in unison.

Isaac looked between them for a moment, "We call them E.J and L.J, why?"

Fred and George shared a quick glance.

"Couldn't remember and it was annoying me," Fred said as he flicked over a few pages of his Transfiguration textbook.

"Ok then," Isaac said and turned back to the portrait where Ron was waiting.

When they were gone Fred and George exchanged silent glances of panic.

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Author notes.

And we're done.

Ok, it's pretty late and this need to go up soon so I'm wrapping this up quickly.

Yes, I skipped lots of stuff in this chapter. Yes, I've probably missed an important thing or two, however I can fix that in either flashbacks next chapter or another chapter.

And we're getting into a few of the changes I've been thinking of and you'll find them out next chapter.

In response to me taking the chapters down and fixing them, I'll most likely do that since the more I think of the errors the more it annoys me.

Big chance that I'll do that at Christmas, so I'll let you know closer to that if I will do it. The big decider is if the reviews will stay or not. If not then I'll wait until the story is completely finished and fix them, that way there'll be at least a permanent testament to them.

Anyway. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you enjoy the next.

Till the next one, SteamGeek01.

CreepyPasta's mentioned and their owners, to my knowledge.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanningK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – some geezer with a computer.

The Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.


	11. Chapter 11, Year 1, Part 2

Chapter 11, Year 1 – Part 2.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$Word$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPasta's mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the end notes. I also have no ownership of any brands, games or shows mentioned in this fic.

Author's note.

And part 2.

And it's reached over 5000 views so that's good and the story has been added to it's second community, woohoo. I'll admit that I do have the manage stories page constantly open to watch the view count rise.

And the reviews.

DarkRavie;

Glad you like it, writing the last chapter was a little struggle since I kept getting distracted but I'm glad I was able to get it out.

brokenstrings001;

Finally, a bit of criticism.

Seriously, you're the first to give me something I can work off of to improve on. The fact that this is my first story and I hadn't gotten any criticisms was getting a little worrying since I really didn't expect it to be overly good.

I know it's a little dull right now, I will have it a little more CP based in the future, but it is still pretty early in the story and we can all agree that book 1 was the calmest and tame one of the series.

It will become more CP centric in the future like I said, but for now, I'm gonna keep things relatively 'normal' in terms of HP canon since that's the one I am more familiar with and understand better. I'm still looking into CP based stuff to try and better understand that side.

TLDR: I'll be working more on the story more and there'll be more focus on the CP side of things later.

Dage;

Yes. I know that venom is poisonous only when injected into the bloodstream.

However, if it is ingested, it can make the person extremely unwell. The type of venom matters as well. Kalakuta, formerly Lucille, is a Black Mamba so the venom would be incredibly potent.

Also the name Kalakuta, I did find it online and it apparently meant 'Potion of Death' according to the website I used.

I'm glad you found the scene to be sweet...

Wait hang on, was that a pun?

*clap clap.

TLDR: The sweets are made to make the consumer ill, not kill them, and the reviewer made a candy pun.

Next weeks gonna be the end of book one, and I will say this.

Toby and a couple others are going Brit side a little early.

Till the next one.

SteamGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

Isaac watched as Malfoy crossed the hall and claimed a seat at the Slytherin table.

He turned back to Ron and Hermione as they continued to discuss on how to find out more about Flamel. Though whilst they were exchanging possible ideas, Isaac's mind was filled with questions about why Malfoy had a glamour.

That, coupled with the fact that he was sure he had read Flamel's name somewhere before, was starting to really annoy him. He cut into his baked potato with a little extra vigour as he heard the distant squawks of the mail owls.

He got a brief distraction by the mail flying in, Hedwig bringing another letter from The Ark.

This time surprised him since in his last letter Toby said that he would be working for a while, definitely longer than a week, and probably wouldn't be able to send him a letter that week, so this was a little surprise. A welcome one though.

He took the letter from Hedwig's beak and she began taking a few sips from his goblet before taking back off for the owlery.

~ Heyo Specs.~

~So Toby's busy working and Polly kept scratching at my screen till I started writing to you.~

~So things are pretty dull here.~

~L.J's hiding on the roof from Jeff, more onions yes, and I think I can hear Jeff trying to get the chainsaw working somewhere.~

~So Toby, Tim, Brian, Helen and Jono have all got things spread out from like coast to coast. I got no idea other than it's their usual shtick.~

~Other than that, Sally's been having fun with her playmates, they had fun baking a few things and guess what E.J didn't close properly again.~

~Take-out for days, yay Smile.~

~So yeah, not much else happening. I can't really think of anything else to mention other than E.J accidentally knocking someone over on his way to the shops and them falling in a puddle. Looked like a drowned rat when he got picked up.~

~Oh, also, L.J might have 180'd every room and superglued the couches to the floor so there's that.~

~Anyway, I gotta go.~

~Have fun, don't get into more trouble than Toby would.~

~Or just don't do whatever Toby would do if he was there.~

~Ben.~

Isaac folded the letter inside his inner robe pocket and tuned back into the conversations going on around him. The thought of Malfoy and the glamour pushed back a little.

Neither Ron nor Hermione had any more luck in the library the next day, whilst Isaac was dragged by Oliver Wood down to the Quidditch field to practice. Upon his return he broke the news to them about Snape's sudden desire to referee the next Quidditch game.

As they offered options to get him out of the match, Ron's suggestions got a chuckle from him as it sounded like something Jeff would suggest, Neville toppled into the common room; his legs bound together by the Leg-Locker Curse.

As most in the room laughed at his predicament Hermione rushed over and performed the counter-curse. As she led him over to where Ron and Isaac were sitting she asked him about what happened.

His shakily answered reply of 'Malfoy' brought back the memory of Malfoy and the glamour as Hermione urged Neville to go to Professor McGonagall about him.

Ron's attempt to try and boost Neville's confidence didn't exactly have the effect he was hoping for and Neville looked like he was on the verge of a breakdown.

Isaac felt around on the inside of his pocket for the last of the Chocolate Frogs that Hermione had given him for Christmas and gave it to Neville.

"Malfoy, is a spoilt brat and you are worth twelve of him," he said as he pressed the Frog into Neville's hand, "The Sorting Hat chose you for Gryffindor, and if something that's been trusted to sort for centuries placed you here, you belong here,"

Neville's lip twitched in a weak smile as he unwrapped the Frog.

"Thanks, Isaac... I think I'll go to bed... D'you want the card, you collect them, don't you?"

As Neville walked away he gave Isaac the card in passing.

Isaac flipped the card the right way round and chuckled to himself.

"Dumbledore again," he told them, "He was the first one I ever-"

He paused as he flipped over the card to read the back, a small sense of excitement rushing through him.

" _I've found him!_ " he whispered to Ron and Hermione.

He read out the small section halfway down the card. At the mention of Professor Dumbledore's partner in alchemy, Nicolas Flamel, Hermione gasped and rushed out of the common room, up the stairs, into the girls' dormitories.

Isaac and Ron exchanged confused glances as they watched her take the stairs two at a time.

She came dashing back down a few moments later with an enormous, old, book.

"I never thought to look in here!" she whispered excitedly, "I got this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading,"

" _L_ _ight_ ?" said Ron, but Hermione shushed him as she flicked through the yellowing pages.

"I knew it! I _knew_ it!"

"Are we allowed to speak yet?" said Ron grumpily. Hermione ignored him.

Hermione read out an entry from the book, whispering dramatically, "Nicolas Flamel is the _only known maker of the Philosopher's stone_ !"

This didn't have quite the effect she had hoped for as Ron exchanged a confused look with Isaac.

"The what?" said the two of them.

"Oh, honestly, don't you two read? Look – read that, there," she said as she pushed the book towards them.

 _The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The Stone will transform any metal into pure gold._

 _It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal._

 _There have been many reports of the Philosopher's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera-lover. Mr Flamel, who celebrated his six-hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight)._

Isaac and Ron read the extract from the book. By the end, both of them thought a massive, three-headed, dog seemed like a perfectly good thing to guard the Philosopher's stone with.

"See?" said Hermione once Isaac and Ron finished reading the page, "The dog must be guarding Flamel's Philosopher's Stone! I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they're friends and he knew someone was after it. That's why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringotts.

They discussed who could be after the Stone, Snape kept coming up due to their belief that Snape had been jinxing Isaac's broom and another incident that had happened in the lead up to Isaac's first Quidditch match.

Back in November, when the Quidditch season had first begun, Isaac, Ron, and Hermione were sitting in the freezing courtyard during break. Their source of warmth coming from jars of bright blue flame that Hermione had conjured for them.

Isaac was reading a book Hermione had loaned him called ' _Quidditch Through the Ages_ ' when Snape crossed the yard, a limp was slightly prominent in his stride.

They had shuffled closer together to hide the flames a little better, as they weren't sure that they were strictly allowed, and their actions drew Snape to them.

He hadn't seen the fire, but he seemed to be looking for a reason to tell them off anyway.

"What's that you've got there, Potter?"

Isaac grudgingly held up ' _Quidditch Through the Ages_ ', Snape had stuck with calling him Potter, despite the name change on the register, something none of the other teachers had done.

"Library books are not to be taken outside the school," Snape said, "Give it to me. Five points from Gryffindor,"

"He's just made that rule up," Isaac muttered angrily as he watched Snape's retreating back, taking a little pleasure out of the painful limp the man had.

Later on, in the Gryffindor common room, Isaac, Hermione, and Ron sat together next to a window as Hermione checked their charms homework. She wouldn't let them copy hers, but she was fine with going through them for them.

Isaac was restless. He wanted ' _Quidditch Through the Ages_ ' back, to take his mind off his nerves about tomorrow.

Why should he be afraid of Snape? He'd seen worse whenever L.J pissed Jeff off and if someone got in Masky's way before his morning smoke and coffee.

Getting up, he told Ron and Hermione he was going to ask Snape if he could have it back.

"Rather you than me," they said together as Isaac left, he had the idea that Snape wouldn't be able to refuse his request if there were other teachers present.

He made his way down to the staff room and knocked.

There was no answer so he knocked again. Nothing.

He wondered if Snape had left the book inside? It was worth a try. He pushed open the door and peered inside.

He was a little shocked at the sight in front of him. Not because of what was happening, but more that he would have thought if Snape had needed his bloody and mangled leg fixed that he would have gone to the hospital wing.

Instead, Snape was holding the hem of his robe up as Filch handed him bandages for the vicious gashes that ran the length of his leg.

"Blasted thing," Snape was saying, "How are you supposed to keep your eyes on all three heads at once?"

Isaac tried to close the door quietly, but-

"POTTER!" Snape yelled. His face was twisted with fury as he dropped his robes to quickly hide his leg.

"I just wondered if I could have my book back," he said, his voice a lot calmer than what the normal child's would have been when confronted with this sight.

"GET OUT! OUT!"

Isaac left before Snape could take any more points from Gryffindor.

When he had gotten back, he told Ron and Hermione about what he had seen and soon, after the Quidditch match the next day, they all agreed that it was most likely Snape who was after the package from Gringotts, though at the time none of them knew what it was.

Now that they knew that the Stone was the package someone, Snape, had been trying to steal it made a whole lot more sense.

Immortality and infinite riches. Who wouldn't want that?

Next morning in Defence, as they were writing down ways to treat werewolf bites, they discussed what each of them would do with the Stone. Hermione said that she would pay for the replacement and repairing of the books in the library and pay for a holiday with her parents.

When Ron said he'd buy his own Quidditch team, Isaac remembered what they had been talking about before the revelation of the Stone.

"I'm going to play," he told Ron and Hermione, "If I don't, all the Slytherins will think I'm just too scared to face Snape. I'll show them... it'll really wipe the smile's off their faces if we win,"

"Just as long as we're not wiping you off the pitch," said Hermione.

"Oh thanks, try hiding your confidence next time," Isaac snorted.

As the match grew nearer, however, Isaac did find that he was worrying a little more.

He had the feeling that Snape was now following him wherever he went. Whenever he walked down a corridor Snape always seemed to be walking in the opposite direction.

Whenever he had Potions Isaac tried to keep his head down and focus on the work in front of him. The way Snape's eyes seemed to bore into his, whenever he looked up to read the instructions off the board, gave him the feeling that Snape could read minds.

On the day of the match, Isaac bid farewell to Ron and Hermione and went down to the pitch. He barely heard a word of Wood's pre-game pep talk as he pulled on his Quidditch robes.

Fred was standing at the door to the pitch as Wood gave Isaac a quick talk, telling him to try for an early catch before Snape had time to favour Hufflepuff too much. He was interrupted as Fred called out to the rest of the team.

"The whole school's out there!" he said, squinting up at the stands, "Even – blimey – Dumbledore's come to watch!"

Isaac half jogged over to look out the door as well. There was no mistaking that silver beard.

He wanted to laugh out of relief. There was no way Snape would be able to try something with Dumbledore here.

Above them, sitting in the stands with the rest of the school, Ron and Hermione were keeping a vigilant watch on Snape. Unknown to Isaac, Ron and Hermione had been practising the Leg-Locker curse having gotten the idea from Malfoy to use against Snape. Speaking of Snape, Ron thought he looked rather angry.

"I've never seen Snape look so mean," he told Hermione, "Look – they're off. Ouch!"

Malfoy had poked Ron in the back of the head, "Oh, sorry, Weasley, didn't see you there,"

Malfoy grinned broadly at Crabbe and Goyle

A few minutes later he spoke again.

"You know how I think they choose people for the Gryffindor team?" Malfoy said a few minutes later, just as Snape awarded Hufflepuff another penalty for no reason at all, "It's people they feel sorry for. See there's Pott..."

Malfoy was cut off by the roaring of the crowds around him.

Isaac had just caught the snitch, spinning upside down and hanging off his broom by his left arm and leg to reach the now captured golden ball, and the Gryffindor section of the stadium was deafening.

Malfoy leaned back, arms crossed, moodily as the Quidditch teams landed on the pitch.

Hermione pretty much all but dragged Ron and Neville away from Malfoy before anything happened.

Isaac had said that he would be having a long shower so everyone had left for the Gryffindor tower without him, Fred and George said that they'd save a few snacks for him from the inevitable party for taking the lead for the Quidditch cup.

Ron and Hermione sat in a couple of armchairs next to the fireplace, a game of Wizards chess between them, as they waited for Isaac.

When he finally came through the portrait Hermione jumped up at once, she was in the one facing the entrance so Ron hadn't seen him yet.

"Isaac, where have you _been_ ?" she squeaked, she had just caught sight of his mildly ashen face.

Before Isaac could say anything Ron had come over and thumped him on the back, saying, "We won! You won! We won!"

Well, shouted might have been a better word.

"Talk about showing Slytherin! Everyone got started without you but Fred and George did save you a couple of things that they nicked from the kitchen," Ron said, leading Isaac over to where he and Hermione had been sitting and pressing the small pile of food on a plate towards him.

"You alright? You look a little pale," he said, taking in Isaac's appearance for a moment.

"Listen, let's find an empty room, you wait ‚til you hear this..." Isaac said, setting the plate of food aside as he stood up.

Hermione followed him and Ron up to the boy's dormitories, Ron dashed inside quickly to make sure that nothing... _personal_ was on display before she entered.

Isaac made sure that there wasn't anyone else in the room, or the joining bathroom, before telling them what he had overheard on his way up.

He had just come out of the shower when he noticed Snape heading off towards the forbidden forest.

He had flown on his Nimbus, the broom that had been bought so he could play on the Quidditch team. He'd have to remind Toby to read things over before he circled things since apparently the Nimbus Two Thousand was a world-class broom, and he'd have to check how much it had cost next time he got the chance.

He had landed quietly on one of the branches of the forest as he kept a close eye on where Snape had walked. That hadn't been an easy feat as the Potions master had a fondness for dark clothing that was easily swallowed by the darkness.

He had been a little surprised to hear Quirrell's voice rise up from where Snape was.

He listened closely to the conversation that followed. The icy tone Snape used made him a little glad he wasn't talking to him right now.

A few moments later his, Ron's and Hermione's, suspicions were confirmed about Fluffy guarding the Philosopher's Stone.

From what he could hear, before the hoot from a passing owl startled him slightly, Snape was trying to get the information on how to pass Fluffy from Quirrell. By the time he focused back on the conversation he had missed the first part of what Snape had said.

"... your little bit of hocus-pocus. I'm waiting,"

Quirrell's stuttered response had apparently irritated Snape enough to leave with what sounded like a thinly veiled threat, warning to him to consider where his loyalties lay.

Quirrell looked petrified as Snape whirled out of the forest.

"So we were right, it _is_ the Philosopher's Stone, and Snape's trying to force Quirrell to help him get it. He asked if he knew how to get past Fluffy – and he said something about Quirrell's 'hocus-pocus' – I reckon there are other things guarding the stone apart from

Fluffy, loads of enchantments, probably, and some anti-Dark Arts spell from Quirrell which Snape needs to break through," Isaac said, pacing next to his bed where Ron and Hermione sat.

"So you mean the Stone's only safe as long as Quirrell stands up to Snape?" said Hermione in alarm.

"It'll be gone by next Tuesday," said Ron.

They didn't have much to discuss after that, Isaac was tired from the match and wanted to get some sleep.

He did write out his next letter home before he went to sleep though, brushing off the crumbs from a few of the tarts that had been saved for him, before sending it off with Hedwig.

His owl always seemed to know when he would want to send a letter.

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~Hey Toby,~

~And Ben.~

~We won our next Quidditch match and are in the lead for the Quidditch cup. All we gotta do is make sure that on our next match that we don't lose by more than whatever the next overtaker has, plus whatever they get from that match.~

~Classes are pretty much the same, we've moved onto transfiguring fruit into other kinds of fruit. Ron managed to make a lemon, with the colour of an orange, that tastes like apples.

In charms we've gone onto colour changing and have got to try and have a spool of rainbow thread by the end of next week.~

~I don't know if I ever mentioned it but there's this thing called the Philosopher's Stone being held in the school. Not only that but we, me, Ron and Hermione, think that one of the teachers is planning to steal it. The hardass by the way.~

~I don't know much about where it's being held other than it might be under a trapdoor in the floor that Hermione saw when we first found 'Fluffy', the three-headed dog.~

~Yes that's really his name.~

~We're going to go talk to Hagrid later tomorrow to see if he'll tell us anything else about it.~

~I don't know what he'll tell us, but we pretty much know nothing right now anyway.~

~How are things back home? Ben said something about you guys being at that forest fire down south yesterday before he left.~

~Isaac.~

Toby looked over at Masky and Helen, they were the only other two in the room when the letter had arrived.

Masky let out a sigh, "What the hell?" he walked over and threw open one of the large windows, leaning out and lighting a cigarette.

Helen motioned for Toby to pass Isaac's letter for him to read.

"Well alchemy's a thing then, it would seem," he said, fiddling with the yellow badge on his lapel.

"So, what do we know about the Stone then?" Masky asked, the smoke pluming upward in a pale white cloud.

The TV turned to the rippling static that heralded Ben's arrival.

After they caught Ben up, Masky asked the question again.

"Well... turns lead or maybe other metals to gold; makes a potion that makes the drinker immortal, but they have to keep drinking it I think, other than that, not much really. A fancy desk weight?" Ben listed off, handing the letter back to Toby.

Toby looked at the letter and sighed, "I'd better mention this to Slendy, shouldn't I?" he asked Masky.

"Better safe than sorry," he said, flicking the cigarette butt out of the window.

As Toby walkeed away to find Slendy Ben took his place on the couch.

"So," he said, "Totally hypo question here, but what do you think would happen if Smile met that dog that Specs mentioned?"

Helen looked curious whilst Masky fixed him with a death glare.

"If Smile meets a goddamn Cerebus then I'm using you as a meat shield," Masky said, closing the window.

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Hogwarts.

Isaac was sat in the Great Hall, another plate of waffles in front of him, when Toby's response came.

He tore open the envelope and let Hedwig eat a few scraps of toast as he read.

~Hey Isaac.~

~Listen, aside from Ben, we know pretty much diddly squat about the Stone. Ben did fill us in a little, but he's going off of movies and shows so we don't know how good that info is.~

~I did mention it to Slendy and he did say that he'd have a look. I don't know what he'll find, but me and Masky both agree on something.~

~You need to keep your head down and don't get into trouble.~

~Yes I know, how hypocritical of me, but my job pretty much launches me at trouble faster than Jeff could gut a _fish_ . I know how to handle myself, and I know you do too, but you're in a school of magic and one of those classes is a defense class for dark magic that you've not practiced a single spell for according to you.~

~If what we know about the Stone is true, then it's an easy bet that some bad dude's gonna be interested, and if you're right about your teacher then that's worse. What's to stop him holding you back and doing who knows what?~

~Promise me that you'll try to keep your head down a bit, keep looking if no one's looking your way, but if anyone gets suspicious then BACK OFF!~

~If push comes to shove I know you can shove back better than probably most of your class but that won't mean much if the other person can throw you across the room with a twitch of his hand or turn you into a frog or something.~

~In other news... it was Jeff's fault for not telling me that the cans had gasoline in them.~

The rest of the letter had a few other things that they'd done over the past couple of days.

Isaac wondered how someone could have managed to cut someone's head off with a cinder block, but Jeff was creative like that.

He was a little annoyed about being told to keep his head down, but he did figure that Toby had a point about not being too up-to-date with fighting with magic. The book Masky and Hoodie had sent him was more based on defensive spells and knowing when to dodge.

He cut into a waffle as a small laugh ghosted from his lips.

Really, they hadn't told anyone in Hogwarts (save for Hagrid) about their looking into the Stone so, what sort of trouble could he possibly get into...

(A few days later)

Isaac sat in the common room with Hermione as they waited for Ron to descend the stairs.

Twas the night of the detention the three of them had gotten for being out after curfew. The only reason that they'd been out anyway was because, somehow, Hagrid had actually managed to get his hand on an _actual dragon egg!_

Along with their detention they had also lost Gryffindor house fifty points each. The glee that had filled many of the students had disappeared in a solitary day when everyone found out that Slytherin were once again in the lead for the House and Quidditch Cups and everyone had became disenchanted with the three Gryffindors that had lost the points.

Isaac didn't mind that much, it wasn't great that everyone still pointed at them and hissed to their friends but he preferred that to the awestruck looks that had followed his every movement since day one. Hermione and Ron had stopped drawing attention to themselves in classes too, keeping their heads down and focusing on their work.

Ron finally came down and the three of them headed down to the entrance hall where Filch, the foul-tempered caretaker, would sort out their detention.

They made it to the entrance hall with a couple of minutes to spare.

They hadn't long to wait before the wheezing, shuffling, figure of Filch came into view with a smaller figure following just behind him. Malfoy.

Isaac had forgotten that the entire reason that they had been caught was because Malfoy had snuck out too and spied on them before running off to Professor McGonagall. He had gotten himself in detention with them and the same amount of points lost, though his house had somehow already started to close the gap to single digits with Ravenclaw.

As Filch led the four of them out of the entrance hall and out onto the grounds an Idea came to Isaac. The glamour that Malfoy had came back to school with was still there, though it had faded slightly it could still be seen by those who could see them; and if he was able to Isaac was going to find out about it.

He gave a slight start, though that was soon replaced with relief, as a loud voice called out to them.

"Is that you, Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started," Hagrid's voice called out to them, there was a slight shake to it though.

"Oh Good God man, you're not still on about that bloody dragon, are you?" Filch said as they drew nearer.

Hagrid fumbled with the crossbow he kept outside his hut for a moment before looking up.

"Norbert's gone," he said, not really looking at any of them, "Dumbledore sent him off to Romania to live in a colony,"

Isaac, Ron and Hermione, shared a small sigh for a moment.

Norbert had been tricky to look after, Hagrid had needed to get replacement boots regularly from Norbert trying to eat them. It wouldn't have been that big of a problem if Hagrid's foot hadn't been in them whenever Norbert tried to eat them.

"For God's sake, pull yourself together, man. You're going into the forest after all," Filch said. Malfoy's complexion changed to a rather awkward colour. The fact that he still had most of his normal skin tone but parts looked like a splotchy pale meant that there was definitely something hiding behind the glamour.

"The Forest? We can't go in there, students aren't allowed. And there are..." Malfoy said, a faint tone of panic underlining his words.

"You bloody well are," Filtch said, it looked like he was taking pleasure out of Malfoy's panic, "In my mind you sorry lot are getting off easy. Used to hang you by the wrists from the ceiling for a few days, oh I miss the screams..." Filtch said as he hobbled off, muttering to himself about the punishments of the 'good' old days.

After a little more arguing from Malfoy, Hagrid led them into the Forest. He took them down one of the Forest's many twisting paths.

He stopped them at a puddle of what looked like silver water. Isaac thought for a moment that it was a puddle of mercury, but Hagrid revealed that it was in fact unicorn blood. One of them must have been injured by something so it was their job to find it.

He told them that he had found a dead one a few weeks ago and that he was hoping to find this one before it died.

"It's our job, to go find the poor beast," Hagrid said, "Ron, Hermione, you'll come with me, an' Isaac, you'll go with Malfoy,"

Isaac put on an annoyed face, though inside he was having a minor celebration.

"Okay. Then I get Fang," Malfoy said, looking at the canines and incisors in Fang's mouth.

"Fine," Hagrid said, "Just so you know, he's a bloody coward,"

As they split Malfoy took the lantern, and Isaac held Fang's leash.

The first couple of minutes, neither of them said a thing to each other, though Malfoy was grumbling about how his father would hear of this. His voice catching slightly at the mention of his father. Deciding that this would probably be the best time, Isaac turned to face his moody companion.

"Malfoy," he said quietly, still keeping an ear out for any noise that the unicorn might make, "... can I ask you something?"

"Like you just did, _Potter_ ," he spat the last word.

At that point, Isaac grabbed him by the shoulder and spun Malfoy to face him.

"What are you...", "Ok Malfoy, listen here," Isaac cut him off.

"I haven't been Harry bloody Potter for over three years now. My name is Isaac, Isaac Rogers, and as far as I'm concerned, the name Potter belongs to someone who might as well be _dead_. I don't care for a single thing that name holds, and right now all I want to know is why you've got a fucking glamour on," he felt that he did a fairly good job at conveying just how he felt at that moment.

Whatever Malfoy had been expecting, it most certainly wasn't that.

"How can you..." his eyes had widened slightly and his voice warbled a little.

"Why have you got the glamour?" Isaac asked again, a little softer than the first.

"Like you'd care," Malfoy said, taking a step back, "Why should I tell you, _Potter_ ? After all you've done, you hate me, why should I?"

"Again, it's _Rogers_ . And what do you mean, 'after all I've done?' you've always been the one to start things, and I just ignore you for the most part," Isaac said, tugging on Fang's leash to get him to sit.

Malfoy turned a slight pink at that, though it only happened to one side of his face.

"Why have you got a glamour on the left of your face, Draco?" Isaac said softly, it took him a moment to remember his name, he'd been referring to him by his surname for so long.

Malfoy tried to look anywhere but at him.

Isaac sighed, "Alright then, let's try another. Why'd you think I hate you?" Malfoy looked a little surprised about the way he said it. He'd heard that Pott...

Rogers. Rogers' accent sometimes shifts a little into American, but he had never heard it apart from _that time_ on the train.

The memory still brought a shiver to his spine.

"For starters, the first time you met me, you called me insignificant and belittled me,"

Malfoy said, "You look like I could drop dead and you couldn't care less half the time, need I go on?" Isaac could tell that Malfoy had been penting this up for a while, "I offered to be your friend and you went off with someone else you had just met without giving me a second glance or thought,"

Isaac frowned a little at the way the last had been said.

"You've forgotten what happened the actual first time we met and when we first met," Isaac said softly.

"Did I?" Malfoy sneered, though he didn't sound like he was putting much effort in.

"Madam Malkins," Isaac said, "Diagon Alley,"

Malfoy frowned for a moment, before his eyes widened.

"I... I thought..."

"We first met and you insulted my brother, the first person to actually care for me, so yeah. Not the best start," Isaac said.

"I'm... I..." Isaac waved Malfoy's stammers away with the hand not occupied with the lead.

"Relax, Toby's a lunatic. That was him on a good day and often I can get swept away with what he's doing sometimes too," Isaac offered him a small smile, "Listen. I don't hate you. If anything I find you a little annoying and only when you're trying to annoy me. My biggest problem was that your first thing that you did when you met me on the train was to insult someone I had made friends with,"

Malfoy turned red, nodded, and made to continue on the path.

"Ok, Malfoy, wait a moment," Isaac said, grabbing his sleeve, "You still didn't tell me about why you've got the glamour,"

Malfoy paled a little.

"I don... I can't..." Malfoy closed his eyes.

"Well... Why don't you tell me what it's covering," Isaac said, knocking Fang's head away from his leg.

Malfoy fumbled with something in his robes, his wand.

"Finite... Finite Incantartem," he said, pointing it at his face.

When it dropped, even though it had aged and in the yellow light from the lantern, a large bruise that spread its way across the side of his face was clearly discernible.

Isaac didn't really know what to say.

"H... how... who?" his voice croaked slightly.

"You," Malfoy said, his voice was a little stronger.

"Me, but... but I..." it was Isaac's turn to take a step back, his eyes wide.

"You didn't put it there, but you might as well have," Malfoy said, a faint anger in his eyes.

"When I told father about you, when I went to go find him after Malkins, he informed me of who you might've been," Malfoy said, "He was a little upset that I had apparently disenchanted the _Great_ Potter. He told me that the next time I saw you, I was to gain you as a friend, though he didn't use those words,"

"When I got home, for Christmas, he was waiting in the study. He had gotten a few letters from one of the Teachers about our... animosity. He told me that he expected better from the 'Heir of The Malfoy's' and then he..."

Malfoy's voice caught in his throat and Isaac could guess what he would have said. So he nodded to show he understood and Draco continued.

"After I got up, I promised that I would try again. Better, harder next time...

And he did it again. He said, 'Potter is no longer a concern of yours. A Gryffindor under the watch of Dumbledore's manipulative mind is of no use to us. If you had done your task properly when I gave it to you, then there might have been hope but you soiled any of those plans.' and then he left the room, after a few more insults, and I cast the glamour and haven't taken it off since..." he trailed off.

"Draco, I'm... I'm sorry that I..." Isaac started but didn't quite know how to finish it. He had been a little confused about why Draco's father thought Dumbledore to be manipulative, but he'd bring that up later.

Draco nodded to show he understood as he reformed the glamour over the bruise.

The two of them stood there for a moment, Fang kept knocking his head against Isaac's leg so he stroked it to appease the drooling dog.

"Draco, I'm sorry that I outright ignored your offer, but I'm not going to apologise for the way I acted after the train," Isaac said, breaking the silence. Malfoy nodded, he knew that pretty much all hostility between the two had came from him to begin with, "However... if the offer is still open, then I wouldn't mind getting to know you a little better, he held out his hand.

Draco looked at the outstretched limb and back to Isaac.

"Did you miss what I said?" he asked, making to turn.

"More or less, you said that you could never become friends with Harry Potter. It's a good thing that I'm not him then," Isaac said, his hand still between them.

Draco looked confused for a moment, before remembering what Isaac had said earlier.

He smiled slightly, "Nice to meet you Mr Rogers, I'm... what's so funny?"

Isaac had snorted in laughter.

"Sorry it's just that," he said between snickers, "Mr Rogers was this old show that I saw a few episodes of back at the Dursleys," his smile pretty much dropped with the sour taste that entered his mouth that came with any mention of them.

"Never mind that, sorry, let's... let's try again," Isaac said, "Hi, what's your name?"

"Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, and I'm not the wrong sort," Draco said, a small smile on his face again after his confusion at Isaac's amusement.

"Yeah, I had that one coming," Isaac said, scratching his head.

Malfoy smirked, warmly, and offered his hand.

"Isaac, Isaac Rogers," he said, taking the hand.

The two of them stood there a moment.

"Your hands are really cold," Draco said, breaking the grasp and rubbing his own together.

"Oh, and yours are toasty and warm then?" Isaac said, "We'd better get back to finding the unicorn," he said, tugging on the leash to get Fang back over to them. He had laid down next to them and whined about being moved.

"Could you... Could you not mention this to anyone, even Weasley and Granger?" Draco asked as he breathed on his hands.

"Course not, Ron would probably throw a fit if I told him that we were friends," Isaac said, reflecting on Ron's frequent moody spells.

Isaac and Draco walked along the path, not speaking but it was a comfortable silence that didn't break for a moment.

"Did you make up what you said to me on the train, cause if so then you should have gone to Slytherin for that alone," Draco said as he moved a branch from his path.

"Urgh, why does hardly anyone here watch Supernatural?" Isaac moaned.

"What? Watch what? Is it some muggle thing?"

Isaac moaned for a second time and launched into the same explanation he had given Ron on the train.

"No, it's not devil worship," Isaac said a little later as they came to a clearing, "It's just... Pellegrino's great as Lucifer, ok," Malfoy laughed a bit.

As Isaac looked around the clearing they had walked into and flung out an arm to stop Draco.

In Front of them was the unicorn. It was dead.

Isaac was never bothered by death, it was a fairly common thing at the Mansion, but before now he had never understood why or how Jeff, or Helen, could see beauty in the death of someone.

But with the unicorn, he saw it clearly.

Even in death, the creature was gorgeous. It's long and slender legs lay at odd angles and its mane that flowed with hair that was softer than any silk on the planet was spread over the roots that erupted from the grounds and then leaves looked like streams of pure silver in the moonlight.

Isaac had barely taken a step towards it when a slithering sound had him freeze. A bush on the edge of the clearing quivered and a cloaked figure glided out from the shadows behind it.

Isaac, Draco, and Fang stood transfixed.

"Go, RUN!" Isaac said through gritted teeth at Malfoy, slipping the leash into his hand, as the figure bent it's head and began drinking from the animal's side.

As Draco ran he snapped a fallen branch underfoot and the figure raised its head and looked right at Isaac, unicorn blood dribbling down its front.

Isaac ignored the irritating headache that had decided to grace his forehead with its presence at that moment and his eyes began darting round the clearing.

He didn't think he would be able to outrun whoever that was, so his best chance to give Draco time to get to Hagrid, would be to take up the defensive, drawing its attention to him whilst Hagrid came.

He had just found a particularly sharp and painful looking rock on the ground and had prepared to grab it when he heard hooves from behind him.

Instinct caused him to crouch down and a few moments later he was glad he did.

When he looked up he felt his jaw drop in surprise, threatening to tug the rest of his head down with it.

Infront of him was a palomino centaur.

 _A centaur_!

Isaac might have had time to register the fact that, once again, he was beginning to really love what came with magic.

"Are you alright?" the centaur asked, pulling Isaac to his feet.

"Yeah," Isaac said slowly, the centaur had shockingly blue eyes, "What... what was that?" he asked, hoping that it might've just been a thing in the forest that he didn't really have to worry about.

"The stars were particularly hard to read around you, Harry Potter," the centaur said as he straightened, his long white-blond hair being pushed slightly in the breeze, "Though they did shine more clear once you adopted the mantle of Rogers," the centaurs voice was slow, calm and mildly distant if he had to describe it.

Isaac didn't know what to say to this so he didn't say anything.

"In regards to your prior question... do you know what unicorn blood is used for?" the centaur asked him, bending forwards a little.

"No," Isaac said, "We've only used the horn and tail in Potions,"

"That is because it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn," the centaur said, "For something so pure to be slain and defenceless to save yourself you will live nothing more but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment it touches your lips,"

"But why? What is the blood used for?" Isaac asked, the centaur seemed to have it's order of speech back to front as it answered him next.

"The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at its terrible price," the centaur said.

Isaac didn't realize that he had wondered 'who would be that desperate?' aloud until the centaur answered him.

"Death would be better than that life, unless you were biding time until you could gain something that could bring you back to full strength. Something that could make it so you could never die," he leaned further down until he and Isaac were looking straight into each other's faces, "Do you know what is guarded inside the castle at this very moment?"

'The Stone,'

Isaac's eyes widened as he relayed his suspicion to the centaur, who nodded in confirmation.

"And can you not think of a single person who may have waited many years to return to power, someone who has clung to life, awaiting their chance?"

Isaac wondered who the centaur was talking about, until he remembered something that Hagrid had said in Diagon Alley, when Masky had asked him about the killer of his parents, the wind seemed to carry Hagrid's voice from that day.

'...some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if there was enough human left in him to die...'

"You mean," his voice low in the cold air, "... that that was _Vol..._ "

"Isaac? Isaac, are you alright?

Hermione came running towards them, down the path he and Malfoy had followed, Hagrid puffing along behind her.

"I'm fine," he told her as she came nearer.

"Hello there, Firenze," Hagrid said as he came nearer, lowering the crossbow, "I see you've met our young Mr Rogers,"

"This is where I leave you," Firenze said, "You're safe now. Good luck,"

And with that, he turned and galloped away into the night.

Though he wasn't sure, he could've sworn that Firenze said 'little Proxy' at the end there.

Back in the common room, Isaac told Ron and Hermione about his and Firenze's conversation.

"You mean, You-Know-Who is out there right now in the forest?" Hermione said, she and Ron had been barely able to keep their eyes open on the way up but now they were both alert.

Isaac was pacing in front of the fireplace, his hands unable to stay still and going from rubbing his numb fingers, to scratching his head, to making random turns as he spoke.

"Snape wants the Stone for Voldemort... and Voldemort's waiting in the forest, feeding off

Unicorns to stay alive... and all this time we thought Snape just wanted to get rich..."

"Stop saying the name!" Ron said in a terrified whisper, as if he thought Voldemort could hear them.

Isaac wasn't listening.

He was about to go on when Hermione interrupted him.

"Isaac, everyone says Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who ever feared. As long as he's around, You-Know-Who won't touch you,"

Isaac gave a half smile at this, Draco's comment lingered in his mind for a moment but he pushed it aside. He was starting to feel the exhaustion piling onto him.

As he clambered into bed the night's sky was already starting to give way to dawn.

Isaac let out a sigh as he flumped into the warmth of the bed, any problems to do with murderers could be dealt with tomorrow when he would send his next letter home.

He looked out the window one last time as Ron's heavy snores filled the room.

He was a little surprised when he saw the upper half of a plain black suit and red tie.

He managed a quick thumbs up before he succumbed to the clutches of sleep.

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Author Notes.

Part 2 done, Jesus I need to focus more on this.

I'm finding the chapters that I have to rely heavily on the book from harder to write than the ones that I have total control over. Is that common?

Anyway, part 2. I had planned for Philosopher's Stone to be split over 2 chapters but with how late it is, and the fact that this chapter goes up this morning, I'm having Stone spread out over 3.

Anyway, again, a brilliant response to the last chapter. I got a review that I could work off and another reviewer made a candy pun. Yay.

So yeah, I'm firing this over to DP and posting it as soon as I get it back.

As always, I hope you enjoyed and I look forward to posting the next.

Till the next one,

Steamgeek01.

CreepyPasta's mentioned and their owners, to my knowledge.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets. Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – Again, no idea.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.


	12. Chapter 12, Year 1, Part 3

Chapter 12, Year 1 – Part 3.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks

if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$Word$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPasta's mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the end notes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games or shows mentioned in this fic.

Author's note.

And part 3.

The final of Stone and last chapter pushed this story to over 6000 views.

Again, I'm a broken record, thank you. It really has been incredible the amount of support I've received for this.

So thank you. Thank you for everything.

Anyway, Review responses, no more sappiness from me.

DarkRavie;

Hello again. Glad you like it, this one's gonna be fun.

Kilare T'suna;

Hello newcomer, welcome to the story.

No. He won't (big shocker) and I'm toying with _so_ many ideas on what to do with him.

Blind sharingan;

Thank you, and welcome to the story.

Sorry to say, I have said it before though and had a very minor conversation through the reviews, but Isaac (Harry) will not be keeping Fluffy.

I did look into what happened to Fluffy after Stone and it turns out he's living in Greece, where he's from, so there is a chance that I'll maybe write a trip to Greece just to bring him back.

Or I might do something else...

Right, Dp, you got any words?

Other than telling the readers to enjoy the chapter, I don't have anything else to add.

Also, one last thing, I'm gonna share what I do when I find myself hitting a little block.

Whenever I get to a part that I can't seemingly get past, I imagine if somehow Laughing Jack was inserted in somehow.

Like when the Hogwarts letter came to The Ark I had it so that it was delivered by a pigeon with L.J's head stuck on. Full size L.J head, teeny tiny pigeon body, and he talked like that was nothing out of the ordinary.

For this chapter, I had the Quirrell reveal, but instead of Quirrell it was L.J dancing the main part of the dance from 'Rasputin' on 'Just Dance' but to the Doctor Who theme from Smith's first season.

Yeah, it works. Annoyingly well to help motivate me.

And without further ado,

Chapter 12.

See you in the next one,

SteamGeek01.

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The Ark.

Masky carried the cans of beer that he had gotten for him and Hoodie.

He was halfway across the hall when the front door was flung open.

He paused and turned to look at the figure in the now open doors.

Toby was stood in the center, a hand on each door. Half of him was covered in mud and what looked like copious amounts of twigs, leaves, and blood was tangled in his hair. Two circles around his eyes showed that he had been wearing his goggles when whatever happened to him occured.

A few patches of the mud was mingled with blood, and the way that one of his arms was held out showed that it was probably broken.

He slowly shuffled down the hall, letting the doors swing closed behind him, and took off the rucksack that adorned his back.

He slowly walked up to Masky and handed him the bag.

"The..." he started, wiping a few splashes of mud off his face with his sleeve, "The next time there's a job in a zoo, you're going,"

Masky opened the bag as Toby moved past him, he was now muttering about how monkey's spit, and took out the item Toby had been sent to retrieve.

It looked like one of those wooden dolls that you'd find in a fashion student's desk, for making models of clothes, though age shone with this one. It's joints moved without noise despite the rusting metal that hooked each of the limbs to the torso.

"Well at least you got it," Masky said, giving the doll a shake.

And Toby was sent slamming into the wall.

Masky slowly put the doll back in the rucksack and, after leaving the cans of beer with Hoodie, went to go put the latest collection in the attic. Careful not to jostle the bag too much as Toby walked off towards the nearest shower.

By the time he had finished washing away the mud; spit and blood, some of which turned out to be his own, and E.J put a wrist brace on his arm which had only been dislocated, Hedwig had arrived.

Though this time, she was carrying two letters.

Toby didn't recognise the writing on the first one, the second was written with the same formal style that all the other official letters from the school had came with.

The handwriting on the first was rather small. It was also rather neat and bunched together. It was also addressed to him rather formally, the name on the front being ' _Mr. Toby Rogers._ _'_

He sat down at the table. It had been Jeff's turn to cook and he had thrown together a stir-fry, which meant that he was in a good mood.

Toby decided to read the school letter first.

He stabbed a bit of chicken nestled amongst the string beans and was about to eat when he read the very short letter.

He let the fork fall back down as he tore open the other letter.

"What's up?" Ben asked, normally when Toby was hungry or had food in front of him that was where most of his attention went.

Toby didn't answer as he speed read the letter.

"Something wro..." Toby took off, leaving Masky's question unfinished and dead in the air.

Ben got to the letters before anyone else.

"Oh crap,"

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Hogwarts, two days ago.

Isaac walked along the corridor behind Ron and Hermione.

They had just finished the last of their exams, Hermione was chattering away about how she had over studied after all.

He rubbed at his forehead, the dull headache had returned and hadn't left.

They kept walking till they came to the shade of a tree near the edge of the lake, the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan could be seen further along the water edge tickling the tentacles of the giant squid which had been basking peacefully until then.

"No more revision," Ron said with a happy sigh, stretching out to lean against the tree, "You could look more cheerful though," he told Isaac, "We've got a week to find out how badly we've done,"

"Yeah, just wish my head would stop hurting," Isaac grumbled.

"Go to Madam Pomfrey," Hermione suggested.

"I'm not ill," Isaac said, maybe a little too quick, "I think it's a warning..."

Ron scoffed at this a bit. As he quickly tried to shut down any ideas that something could be wrong. He pointed out that they were done with exams, that they'd all be going home soon, the Stone was safe because Hagrid would never betray Dumbledore.

As soon as Ron mentioned Hagrid something hit Isaac.

Literally.

"Sorry," Fred called from where he was sprawled on the ground having failed to catch the ball he, George, and Lee were tossing.

Isaac laughed a bit and picked up the egg shaped thing that hit him in the back.

He turned it in his hands for a bit before throwing it back to them.

As he threw it over to them something else came to him and he jumped to his feet.

"Where're you going?" Ron said sleepily.

"I've just thought of something," said Isaac, he had gone white now, "We've got to go and see Hagrid, now,"

"Why?" panted Hermione, hurrying to catch up.

Isaac quickly relayed what he was thinking, "When we first met, Hagrid said that one of the things he wanted most in the world was a dragon. And isn't it a little funny that he meets someone in a pub, who just so happens to have one? How many people wander around with dragon eggs in their pockets if it's illegal to do so here?"

When they came to Hagrid's hut they found him outside, shelling peas into a large bowl.

Ron looked rather thankful when he offered them a cup of tea, but Isaac cut across him and got straight to the point.

"No, we're in a hurry. Hagrid, the night you won Norbert, what did the guy you won him off of look like?" Isaac asked, inwardly asking himself what was with Hagrid's names for his animals.

The harmless and dopey dog was called 'Fang', the three-headed dog with a temper issue was called 'Fluffy' and he had called the vicious dragon 'Norbert'.

"Dunno," said Hagrid casually, "He wouldn' take his cloak off,"

He looked at the three of them and took in their stunned expressions.

"It's not that unusual, yeh get a lot o' funny folk in the Hog's Head – that's one of the pubs down in the village. Mighta bin a dragon dealer, mightn' he?"

Hagrid continued to be incredibly nonchalant about the entire thing, until Isaac asked about what they talked about.

Hagrid revealed that they had, in-fact, talked about a couple of his duties as groundskeeper and when talk went back to the egg the man had wanted to make sure Hagrid could handle it.

"I told him, that after Fluffy, a dragon'd be a piece o' cake," Hagrid said, a half sad and half happy smile on his face.

"And did he - did he seem interested in Fluffy?" Isaac asked.

"Well – yeah – how many three-headed dogs d'yeh meet, even around Hogwarts? So I told him, if yeh know how to calm em, then yeh can train anything," Hagrid said, waving the knife he was using to shell peas at the three, "Take Fluffy for example, just play him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight off ter sleep-"

He suddenly looked horrified.

He tried to call back to them but the three had run off back towards the castle.

"We've got to go to Dumbledore," said Isaac, he was a little wary of the man after Draco's comment but he still didn't know what to think of the man. He seemed to really care for his students, "Hagrid told that stranger how to get past Fluffy and it was either Snape or Voldemort..." he ignored Ron's squeak, "... under that cloak – it must've been easy,, once he got Hagrid plastered. I just hope Dumbledore believes us. Firenze might back us up if we could find him. Where's Dumbledore's office?"

They looked around a little for anything that might have told them where it was, until they were found by Professor Mcgonagall carrying a large pile of books.

"What are you three doing inside?" she asked, her glasses glinted slightly from the li8ght pouring through the windows.

"We want to see Professor McGonagall," said Hermione rather bravely, rather bravely in Isaac's mind.

"See Professor Dumbledore?" Professor McGonagall repeated, as though this was a very fishy thing to want to do, "Why?"

"Professor, we think someone's going to steal the Philosopher's Stone," Isaac said, cutting straight to the point.

Whatever Professor McGonagall had expected, it wasn't that. The books she was carrying tumbled out of her arms but she didn't pick them up.

"How do you know-?" she said, regaining some of her prior composure.

"Professor, I think – I _know_ – that Sn- that someone's going to try and steal the Stone. I've got to talk to Professor Dumbledore,"

She eyed him with a mixture of shock and suspicion.

"Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow, he was called away on urgent matters to the Ministry of Magic. Now I don't know how you found out about the Stone, but rest assured, no one can possibly steal it, it's too well protected,"

They tried to argue with her but she dismissed them, waving her wand to gather the books lying on the floor.

As they walked back along the corridor, talking in low voices to themselves about what they were going to do, they didn't notice Snape silently stride behind them until he spoke.

"Good afternoon," he said smoothly.

Hermione and Ron jumped a little but Isaac, having spent a few years with a ghost girl that would spontaneously appear next to you whenever she got bored, turned around as if he had known he was already there.

"You shouldn't be inside on such a fine day like this," he said, his lip curling slightly, "You want to be more careful, hanging around like this would make people think you were up to something," he said the last part slowly, drawing out each syllable.

They turned to go back outside. When they reached the door, Snape called to them again.

"Be warned, Potter – any more night-time wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled," and with that, he left, cloak billowing behind him.

Isaac watched the man walk down the corridor.

"Well, that's it then, isn't it?" Isaac said, "I'm going to try and get to The Stone first,"

Ron and Hermione looked at him as if he was mad. They tried to convince him not to, but he eventually got them to accept the fact that he was going there regardless of what they said.

He was a little shocked however, when Ron asked if the cloak that Isaac had gotten would be big enough to cover them all.

After dinner, the three of them sat nervously in the common room. Nobody, save for the Weasley twins at one point, bothered them; most of the Gryffindors had anything to say to any of them.

Finally, when Lee Jordan left the room, Isaac ran upstairs to the dormitory to grab the invisibility cloak and his hoodie. As he pulled it free from his trunk something else came unlodged.

Hagrid's flute, the one he had carved and given Isaac for Christmas, had caught on a fold of the cloak and had pulled a small package with it.

Isaac pocketed the flute and turned over the package.

He smirked and opened the paper, quickly, and took out the throwing knives that Jeff had given him. He put two of them in his hoodie pocket with the flute and put the rest back in the box and closed the trunk.

When he ran back down to the common room he found Ron and Hermione waiting, Hermione had been going through every note she had made throughout the year for anything that could help them.

"We'd better put the cloak on here, and make sure that it covers all three of us – if Filch spots one of our feet wandering along on it's own-"

"What are you doing?" said a voice from the corner of the room. Neville appeared from behind an armchair, clutching Trevor the Toad, who looked as though he'd been making another bid for freedom.

"Nothing, Neville, nothing," said Isaac, hurriedly putting the cloak behind his back.

"You're going out again," Neville said.

As Ron and Hermione tried to argue that they weren't Isaac looked over at the grandfather clock by the door. They didn't have time to waste.

Ron and Neville were in an argument when he muttered to Hermione for her to do something.

She stepped forward and, after curtly apologising, cast the full Body-Bind on him.

Leaving Neville lying motionless on the floor didn't feel like a very good omen to Ron and Hermione, but Isaac wasn't too worried about it.

He remembered the the dinner conversations at home that had brought up the topic of people getting in the way of business and having to dispatch them as well. So in his mind, Neville was lucky.

As the trio walked along the corridors, each shadow looked like Filch, every distant breath of wind sounded like Peeves swooping down on them.

They didn't meet anyone except Mrs Norris, Filch's cat, and Peeves on their way to the third floor.

Ron had wanted to give Mrs Norris a good kick but Isaac kept them moving.

Just outside the staircase that led to the third floor corridor they found Peeves, bobbing halfway up and loosening the carpet so that people would trip.

Peeves must have heard their footsteps for as soon as they came closer he started calling out.

Isaac took in a slow breath and put on a hoarse voice, "Peeves, the Bloody Baron has his own reasons for being invisible,"

Peeves was so shocked that he nearly felt out of the air. Percy, the Gryffindor Prefect, had told them fairly early in the year that the Bloody Baron was really the only ghost that Peeves would listen to.

Peeves started apologising and nearly fell out of the air. Isaac told Peeves not to disturb the corridor this night and sent him on his way.

He smirked at Ron's decaration of how brilliant that was and the three of them made their way to the door that held Fluffy seperate from the rest of the School.

Hermione unlocked the door and the three of them walked inside.

As soon as the door closed Fluffy's noses started sniffing madly in each direction, each head searching another part of the air.

Isaac carefully took out the flute from his pocket, wincing slightly as he spiked his finger on a knife.

He brought the flute to his mouth and, feeling a little foolish, started to blow.

As the notes rung in the air, sounding a little like the soft hooting of an owl, Fluffy's heads immediately started to droop and the growls ceased.

Isaac fixed Ron with a look that plainly said, 'Ya think' when he told Isaac not to stop playing as they slipped out from under the cloak.

As they pulled open the trapdoor in the floor Isaac started to wave at Ron, careful to keep a steady stream of noise coming from the flute.

Ron looked up from the dark hole in the ground at him.

"You want to go first? Are you sure, I don't know how far down this thing goes?" Ron said, peering back at the hole in the ground.

Honestly, as Isaac passed the flute to Hermione, he was half tempted to give Ron a little shove to see if the fall was survivable.

He crouched down next to the hole, swinging his legs over, and looked at Ron and Hermione.

"If anything happens to me, don't follow. Go straight to the owlery and use one of the school owls to send a letter to Dumbledore. Then send Toby a letter using Hedwig and tell him what we did and... that I'm sorry,"

Ron nodded as Hermione gave a slight jolt of her head, trying to keep Fluffy asleep. She was a lot better with the flute than he was and he vaguely recognised the the tune as something he remembered from school before he went to The Ark.

After returning Ron's nod he pushed himself down and braced himself for the landing.

Cold, damp, air rushed past him and...

FLUMP.

He landed on something very soft, though the odd shiver that passed through him told him that something magical had prevented him from injury.

"It's OK!" he called up, peering around the gloom of the cavern he now found himself in. If he strained his ears he could just hear the faint whistles of Hermione far above.

A few seconds later, a streak of orange landed next to him, he too seemed to halt in midair before dropping onto the spongy thing that they now both sat upon.

"What is this stuff?" Ron asked him.

Far above them, the growls of a dog muffled Isaac's guess that it was some sort of plant.

Hermione landed on Isaac's other side.

Ron was saying how lucky they were that the plant thing they landed on was there when Hermione gave a yelp, " _Lucky!_ Look at you both!" and she started to struggle her way to the damp wall that seemed plant free.

She had to struggle because the second she landed on the plant, it had started to wrap snake-like tendrils around her ankles.

Isaac and Ron were already bound in tight holding creepers without them noticing.

Hermione managed to get free, the plant hadn't had enough time to get a strong hold on her, and Isaac tried tugging at the tendrils before getting out one of the knives that lay in his pocket and cutting at the vines.

"Fuck Buckets!" he growled under his breath as a few held his wrist to the twisting mass in retaliation as Hermione called out for them to stop struggling.

"This is Devil's Snare! It'll tighten it's hold if you struggle against it!" she cried, backing flat to the wall to avoid any on the ground.

"Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's great help," snarled Ron, leaning back to stop the plant wrapping around his neck.

"Shut up, I'm trying to remember how to kill it!" said Hermione.

She began to mutter under her breath. Isaac caught something about the plant liking the dark and damp so he decided to put in his penny's worth.

"Light a fire!" he half yelled at her, the plant had started tightening and it had tugged painfully at his wrists as it did so.

"Yes – of course – but there's no wood!" Hermione cried, wringing her hands.

"HAVE YOU GONE MAD?" Ron bellowed, "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"

"Oh right," Hermione muttered, a little pink in the face, as she waved her wand and sent a few balls of the blue flames she had gotten quite good at conjuring onto the plant.

Instantly, the plants tendrils released Ron and Isaac and they climbed over to where she was standing.

Hermione scowled at Ron's muttering about her panic but Isaac shushed them before they could start arguing.

"SHH! Listen," Isaac said, flapping a hand at them, "Can... can you hear wings?"

They followed the noises into the next chamber.

As they peered around the corner of this one, above them was an array of fast moving things that glinted in the light that was making the noises they could hear, they could also see the next door across the room from them.

They hurried across the room, incase whatever was flying above them attacked.

After Hermione tried a few charms they had covered in unlocking things, and Ron had given a few unsuccessful shoulder barges against the door, they started to look around the room for where the key could be.

Isaac turned back to the flying things as Hermione examined the lock further and Ron meandered around the room, looking in any shadows that the torches cast.

They looked like enlarged dragonfly's, though he didn't know of any that looked like they were made of metal.

'Hang on...' Isaac peered closer at them.

They were keys! Floating above them were hundreds of flying keys.

And he bet that one of them opened the lock.

"They're keys!" he called to the others as he spotted an old broom.

He moved over to the broom and Hermione and Ron joined him.

"The Key will be big and old fashioned, like the lock," Hermione said, squinting up at the keys, "It'll probably be silver too,"

Isaac looked around too. It took a little while to see through the fluttering masses.

Once he spotted one that seemed to be lagging a little, one of its wings bent at an odd angle, he swung a leg over the broom and braced himself.

When nothing happened he looked around and found the key again.

He weaved around the swarms, looking for an opening, and charged through a few of them.

He gritted his teeth as the metal scratched at the exposed parts of his skin but it didn't take long for him to weedle his way through to the key to the door.

He flew back down quickly and they ran to the door.

Thankfully, the key worked and Isaac released it back into the air. It looked extremely battered now as it flew almost drunkenly back into the masses, and was quickly lost in the swarm.

They walked into the next room.

Dark and foreboding shapes loomed on either side as they walked forward onto a dimly lit black and white floor.

As they approached the middle the lights flared alive and they found themselves standing between two rows of what looked like larger than life chess pieces.

They tried to go forward but the line of pawns on the white piece's side, the ones blocking their path forward, drew their swords and prevented them from moving further.

They backed towards the black pieces.

Ron walked over to one of the knights and asked if they had to join them to get across.

" It looks like we've got to take their places to play," he said as he walked back to them, "Now listen, no offence, but neither of you two are the best at chess -"

"Just tell us where to move," Isaac said, giving Ron a nod and a smile.

Ron directed Hermione to take the place of a castle and he had Isaac swap out with a bishop. He himself took the reigns of the knight he had talked to. The knight picked him up with a hand and placed him on the back of the horse that was frozen mid-rear.

After the first white move was made, Ron took over command of their pieces. The first shock came when the other knight was taken. The white queen hit it with such force that it shattered into thousands of pieces.

"Had to let that happen," Ron said, "Leaves you free to take that bishop Hermione, go on,"

The battle lasted for longer than Isaac would have liked, each minute was filled with tension.

Had Snape gotten to the Stone yet? Was he already on his way back? Was he turning a few scraps of metal into gold to revel in his new wealth already?

As they drew on, the pieces still playing shrunk in numbers on each side. If one was taken then either side showed no mercy.

"Nearly there, nearly," Ron muttered to himself, "Let me think – let me think..."

The white queen turned her blank face to look at him as he examined the board.

"Yep," Ron said, an odd tone in his voice, "I've got to be taken..."

Isaac and Hermione both yelled out NO at the same time.

Isaac didn't see why Ron had to sacrifice himself. The idea of anyone dying for him again repulsed him slightly. He felt a little sick now.

Ron snapped at the two of them.

"That's chess! Sacrifices have to be made. Once she takes me, Isaac, that leaves you free to mate the king," Ron said, he looked a little pale.

"But..."

"Do you want to stop Snape or not?" Ron cut across Isaac.

"Ron..."

If you don't hurry up, then the chance that that slimy git gets the Stone, gets worse the longer you argue,"

Ron tensed as Isaac nodded.

He called out his move and announced the check he placed on the king.

The white queen moved towards him, the sound of stone on stone grating filled the already tension saturated air and when she entered the same square as Ron she took her sword and plunged a deep blow into the horse's side.

The resulting blast threw Ron from the back of the horse and he lay still on the ground.

Hermione made to move over to Ron but Isaac stopped her.

He quickly moved to the square Ron directed him to and declared checkmate.

The king's sword clattered to the ground at his feet and the light's dimmed slightly.

He let out a sigh he hadn't realised he was holding and turned to go to Ron.

Hermione had already run over the second the sword had fallen and was crouched at his side.

Isaac hurried over and, carefully, placed two fingers on Ron's neck.

He let out another sigh as he felt the steady rhythm of his pulse.

Hermione let out her own baited breath and they quickly moved Ron into the recovery position, just in case.

The now two remaining Gryffindors then moved past the leftovers of the many pieces and went to the next room, glancing back at Ron before opening the door.

The stench that filled the air almost had them throw up. Hermione took it a lot worse than Isaac, who hadn't thrown up aside from once or twice over the years from stomach bugs.

Ever since... _that_ dinner things didn't seem to hold the same nauseating effect as having known you'd eaten another human's kidney.

The source of the smell turned out to be a troll far larger than the one they had faced at Halloween.

Both were glad they didn't have to face this one and they hurried round it's limp legs. As they met the next door Isaac turned and could see a large, bloody, lump on its head.

Inside the next room was a slight let down from what they had faced. A table with what looked like a few bottles.

As they stepped inside however fire sprung up before each of the doors. The door leading forward had flames the colour of oil lick harmlessly at the door whilst the one they had just came through had purple one's blocking them inside the room.

"This one must be Snape's," Isaac said to Hermione.

What seemed ages ago now, when they first worked out who Flamel was, they had paid Hagrid another visit. After revealing what they knew, Hagrid had told them everyone who had put in with protecting the Stone.

So far, by his reckoning, they had Sprout's; Devil's Snare, Flitwick's; the keys, McGonagall's; the chess board, Quirrell's; the troll, so this one had to be Snape's. Dumbledore's must've been using the castle in the first place and Hagrid had loaned Fluffy.

He asked Hermione what it was she thought they had to do, but she had already moved to the table and was reading the parchment there.

"Look!" Hermione said, a little too excitedly, as she pushed the parchment into his face.

Isaac shoved it away and asked what had gotten her so excited.

"This isn't magic – It's a puzzle!" she exclaimed, "Most wizards haven't got an ounce of logic so they'd be stumped here. I bet Snape bewitched the bottles so that you can't use spells to tell which one gets you forward," she began reading the note, pulling a bottle towards her and pushing another back as she worked through each line.

Isaac wasn't altogether great at lateral thinking puzzles, though he was fairly good at physical problems. A recurring gift had been at least one puzzle box for his birthday since he got there.

After a minute Hermione pushed them all back, save for two.

"Got it! The smallest one'll take us forward to the Stone, and this one takes us back!"

Isaac thought the smug undertone in her voice was well deserved.

"Ok, you drink that," Isaac said, picking up the bottle that would take him to the Stone, "No, listen – get back and get Ron. Use the broom from the key room to get you up and past Fluffy," she still had the flute so she could send Fluffy back to sleep, "Go straight to the owlery and send the letters I told you about, one of the school's to Dumbledore and one to Toby,"

"But, Isaac – what if You-Know-Who's with him?" Hermione said tentatively.

"Well – I got lucky once, and I wasn't exactly sheltered with Toby and everyone. Ya know, the whole murder thing," Isaac said with a small shrug.

Hermione's lip trembled a bit and she threw her arms around him.

" _Hermione_ ,"

"Isaac – you're a great wizard, you know,"

"Err," Isaac's mind stalled, "Thanks, but, I'm not as good as you,"

"Me!" Hermione said, "Books! Cleverness! There are more important things – friendship and bravery – oh Isaac – _be careful_!"

They broke apart and Isaac had her drink first and go back before he turned to the black flames.

He took out the stopper and drained what was left of the small bottle, shuddering as the feeling of having ice lathered on every inch of your skin covered him, and walked through the flames.

It was an odd feeling.

Toby had shown him a trick on how to set yourself on fire and have it not damage you with soap before and if he had to compare it to something, it would have been that but with even less of a nip.

He came out into a small corridor, there was barely enough space to fully raise your arms though it was a good few paces long.

Isaac relaxed as he looked down the dimly lit corridor, unsurprisingly, the black flames didn't give off much light.

He took in a deep breath through his nose, surprisingly though the air was fairly cool.

As he looked at the faint glinting of the doorknob at the end and took the first step, a song filled his head.

Smirking, and letting his shoulders drop as he snuck one of the knives up the jumper's sleeve, he started to hum softly along with it.

When he reached the end of the corridor he skipped to the end and turned the doorknob.

"... is Death and the end is here," he hummed the final bars and pushed the door open.

There was already someone there – though it wasn't Snape.

Professor Quirrell was standing with his back to him, the turban was recognisable anywhere.

" _Y-you_!" Isaac gasped.

"Me," he said calmly, "I wondered if I'd be meeting you here, Potter,"

This unnerved Isaac slightly, he almost let the knife fall out of the sleeve in his shock.

"But, I thought that Snape-"

"Yes, Severus does seem the sort doesn't he," Quirrell said, his temor and twitch completely gone and a cold look in his eyes as he turned to face Isaac, "So useful to have him swooping around like an Engorgio'd bat all the time. Next to him, who would ever suspect p-p-poor o-old st-st-stuttering Professor Quirrell?" he said, over exaggerating each and every twitch.

Isaac felt his temper rise slightly and he took a step closer.

No sooner than he had done so Quirrell snapped his fingers and thick ropes bound themselves around Isaac's ankles and wrists.

"You're too nosy to let live, Potter. Scurrying around like you've done. For all I knew you'd seen me let the troll in on Halloween when everyone else was running around like headless chickens with piss in their pants," Quirrell went on, the venomous sneer he wore was so unlike the cowardly Professor that couldn't even _talk_ about the effects of Dragon's blood in medicinal treatments without going pale at the mention of blood.

"Now, be still while I examine this _very_ interesting mirror," he finished, turning round and Isaac now noticed that in the middle of the room stood the Mirror of Erised.

"This mirror is the key to finding the Stone," Quirrell murmured to himself, tapping his way around the frame.

Isaac tried to slip the knife from his wrist out, but the rope prevented it from coming free, it was being pressed against the flat of his arm and he was trying to ignore the sting that was starting to burn at his wrists.

Isaac tried to keep Quirrell distracted, if he worked out what puzzle the mirror presented then tonight was for nothing.

"I saw you and Snape in the Forest," he said as Quirrell walked behind the mirror.

"Yes," Quirrell said, "He was on to me at that point, trying to find out how far I'd gotten. Tried to frighten me - as if he could when I have Lord Voldemort on my side..." he walked around to examine the back of the mirror.

"But Snape always seemed to hate me,"

"Oh he does," Quirrell said casually, "Heavens yes. He was at Hogwarts with your father, they _loathed_ each other. But he didn't want you dead... shame, more work for me," he muttered at the end.

"I heard you crying a few days ago, sobbing. I thought Snape was threatening you..."

For the first time, a spasm of fear flitted across Quirrell's face.

"Sometimes," he said, "I find it tricky to follow my master's instructions – he is a great wizard and I am weak"

"You mean he was there in the classroom with you?" Isaac gasped, the idea he could have been so close to the person who had killed his parents... if he had known he would have unboxed the knives earlier.

"He is with me wherever I go," said Quirrell.

Isaac tuned out his monologuing as he looked at the mirror.

When he first entered the room, he had wished Toby or someone else had been with him since he knew nothing of what he was getting into, but now, all he could think about was getting the Stone before Quirrell.

He looked back at the mirror. He wanted to find the Stone...

Maybe the mirror would show him how.

He tried to edge into the mirror's field of view, but the ropes binding him were too tight and he slumped sideways.

Quirrell ignored him, he was getting frustrated at his lack of progress with the mirror.

"What does this mirror do? What has Dumbledore done with it? Help me, Master,"

Isaac smirked at Quirrell's outburst, though that faded quickly and he paled when a voice answered.

A voice that seemed to come from Quirrell himself, though Quirrell's lips did not move.

A voice he had not heard in a long time.

"Use the boy – Use the boy..."

Quirrell rounded on Isaac.

"Yes – Potter – come here," he snarled, clapping his hands and the ropes fell away.

Isaac just caught the knife, the tip of it slid free and spiked the middle of his palm.

"Come here," Quirrell spoke again as Isaac slowly got up.

'Got to lie – got to lie..." Isaac thought as he walked to Quirrell.

Quirrell stood behind him, making it so he couldn't see what Isaac was doing. He had gently pressed the knife between his side and forearm and the tip was now clenched in between the base of his palm.

Isaac stepped in front of the mirror and looked at his reflection.

His reflection stared dully back at him. And then it winked.

His reflection relaxed and rummaged inside it's pockets. A few moments later it pulled out a blood-red stone. It smirked and dropped it back inside it's pocket. As it did so something heavy weighted down Isaac's own.

Jostling his leg a little he found that there was a heavy lump in his pocket now.

He had got the Stone.

"Well," Quirrell snapped impatiently, "What do you see?" he said, leaning down a little.

Isaac could see in the reflection that his head was just above his own, if a little to his left.

"You don't want to know," Isaac said.

This was kinda honest since the image had changed now.

"Why?" demanded Quirrell, "Answer me,"

"Well... it's a little like this..." Isaac said.

He let the knife slide further down and grasped it's handle.

He pivoted on his foot and spun the knife round so that the blade was facing up. He slashed upwards at Quirrell's face and it came bloody (quite literally) close from cleaving a large gash along the side of Quirrell's face and slicing open one eye.

Quirrell had, unfortunately, reacted quick enough to divert the blade away from the front of his face. With one hand he parried the knife and with his other he pushed Isaac backwards into the mirror.

The back of Isaac's head collided with the glass painfully and he dropped the knife.

Quirrell drew his wand and pointed it directly at Isaac's chest.

"You will pay for that you impudent bug," he snarled, a steady stream of blood starting to slide down, staining his robes.

"Stop - " the voice called again, "Stop... Let me speak to him,"

"Master, you are not strong enough!" Quirrell gritted out.

"I have strength... Strength for this..."

Isaac stood up, hoping that the mirror didn't topple over as he leant against it.

He didn't have to worry about knocking it over as Quirrell flicked his wand and sent him flying forward, crashing onto the ground about ten feet from the door.

Quirrell turned, keeping his face to the mirror as he undid the oversized turban that adorned his head.

As the last folds fell away Isaac felt a chill pass through his body.

Isaac felt his throat close a little. Where the back of Quirrell's head should have been, it looked rather small without the turban, was not the smooth expanse of flesh that it should have been.

Instead, a face was there. It looked like it had gotten stuck trying to force itself free from Quirrell and it's pale as bone flesh mingled horribly with Quirrell's fleshy tones.

There were two slits for nostrils where a nose should have been and a pair of glaring red eyes bore into his own.

"Harry... Potter..." it whispered.

Isaac stood his ground. He tried not to let the fear that he felt show as he glared back at the face.

"See what I have become, mere shadow and vapour," the essence of Voldemort said, "Form only when I can share another's body... Unicorn blood has strengthened me. You saw dear, devoted Quirrell willingly drink it for me... But now, once I have the Stone... I will create a body that is truly my own... Now, why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket?"

So he knew. Isaac took a step backward. Quirrell snapped his fingers again and flames erupted around the perimeter of the room.

The potion he had drunk had definitely worn off by now so he straightened up defiantely, and braver than he truly felt, and continued glaring at them.

"Don't be a fool," snarled the face, "Better to save your own life and join me... or you'll meet the same end as your parents... they died begging me for mercy..."

It was Isaac's turn to snarl.

"LIAR!" he gritted out.

"How touching..." it hissed, "I have always valued bravery... Yes, boy, your parents were brave... I killed your father first and he would have put up a most courageous fight... but your mother needn't have died... she was protecting you... Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain,"

"Never," Isaac said in a cold voice. Whilst Voldemort had been talking, he had retrieved the second knife from his pocket, he was turned to the side so he was able to sneak his hand inside the front pocket of his hoodie without him noticing.

"Still so brave, I see..." the face sneered, "Then I shall offer something better... Quirrell here told me a lovely story about how you have a new _family_ after your relatives _horrible_ demise... join me, and I'll spare them too... defy me, and they will die... slowly... painfully..."

At the threat to his family Isaac threw the other knife.

Quirrell waved his hand and the knife was knocked away before it hit it's intended target. Even though Masky had taken the set away from him, Jeff had given him a few lessons with the ones from the kitchen and a few of his own. Their target had been cardboard cutouts of celebrities that Jeff _wanted_ to kill, but wasn't allowed to since they were forbidden from going after high-profile people unless it was confirmed by Slender that they were turning.

"KILL HIM!" Voldemort screeched and Quirrell turned to face Isaac, before he charmed himself to zoom across the room.

Isaac rolled out of the way, knocking away Quirrell's wand by kicking it with his foot as he rolled.

As he stood up he felt Quirrell's hand close around his wrist.

At once, a sharp pain flared across where his scar was; his head felt like someone was holding it too tightly.

He growled as he tried to pry Quirrell's hand away, and to his surprise, it came away as Quirrell let go of him.

His hand was blistering and a few seconds later it began to crumble into dust.

"W-w-what is this magic?" Quirrell asked in panic, his voice shaking as he clutched his disintegrating hand.

"You _fool_! _KILL HIM!_ " Voldemort cried.

Isaac looked down at his hands and stood up fully.

"Oh," he chuckled, drawing Quirrell's attention, "Word of advice, never attack someone who lives with deranged killers,"

As Quirrell's eyes widened, Isaac crouched down and kicked at his kneecaps. Quirrell gave a shout of pain and Isaac lunged forward, grabbing hold of the man's own neck and face with his hands.

The effect was instantaneous.

Quirrell howled in pain. Isaac could feel the skin bubbling and crumbling under his grip so he tightened, forcing his hands into the collapsing man.

He was knocked back as Quirrell leapt back up and stumbled backwards, his features looked like a statue that had been sandblasted for days on end. Cracks and clay-like shards dominated his features.

He raised a feeble hand as he took a fluttering step towards Isaac.

He barely got closer as he collapsed into piles of dust that blew away slightly as his now empty robes fell.

Isaac took the Stone out of his pocket and looked at the Stone in the shimmering light from the flames.

He looked back at Quirrell's remains and took a step back.

A swirling column of dust was rising from the robes.

He'd didn't react fast enough to prevent the cloud from flying straight at him, the spearhead of the cloud formed itself into the face that had existed on Quirrell, and flew threw his chest.

Isaac felt himself flying backwards as darkness closed in.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Now, The Ark.

Slenderman stood outside the doors of the Mansion.

A soft breeze rustled the leaves around him.

A few seconds later the doors were flung open.

Toby Rogers took a few steps forward and stopped just on the edge of the porch.

"I need the Portal to Hogwarts open," he said, his fists clenched tight enough to leave marks in his palm.

" **I will open the link,"** Slenderman told him.

"No, listen you don... wait what?" Toby said, obviously expecting a fight.

" **I will open the connection I have established to the nearby village that lies just outside the grounds of Hogwarts,"** Slenderman said, **"Tomorrow at Eleven,"**

"I need to get there _now!_ " Toby protested.

" **And how will you explain how you were able to travel halfway around the world in less time it would take someone to their feet?"** Slenderman said, taking a step forward.

Toby glared at the towering figure before letting his shoulders drop.

"I can't... I..." he said, emotion seeping through, "I can't lose another. I can't lose someone else,"

Slenderman placed a hand on the once Proxy's shoulder.

" **You won't. Isaac is on the mend, he** **just** **hasn't awoken yet,"** Slenderman said.

" **Tomorrow at Eleven, I will open the connection to the village. You, Masky and Hoodie shall travel there,"** he looked past Toby and into the foyer.

" **Pack light. No weapons,"** he told Masky who had followed after Toby.

With that he Slender-walked' away and left them.

Masky poked Toby in the shoulder to get his attention.

"Bad news from the school?" he asked, Ben had taken the letters before he could get them so he went to make sure Toby didn't do anything stupid. Which was always a possibility.

" _Dear Mr. Rogers,_ " Toby recited the school letter, " _We regret to inform you that Isaac was in an incident two days ago. We shall send you an update on his condition when he awakens,_ " Toby took in a deep breath.

"That isn't a letter, that's a god-damn fucking footnote to one," Toby said as he turned to go back inside.

Masky followed him again, closing the doors after them both.

Ben hadn't any success getting into Isaac's dreams so either the souped up Gameboy he had given him was off, or he was out of it's range.

Toby didn't get any sleep that night. Jeff didn't for a while either but got some after he yelled out the window for Toby to quit chopping the wood at half past twelve in the fucking night.

The next morning, Toby waited in the living room, staring at the static filled TV as Ben tried again to get into Isaac's dreams. Ten AM passed infuriatingly slowly and he figured that he had made more waffles than he normally did in a month to keep his mind off things.

The second the minute hand returned to twelve and signalled the passing to Eleven he jumped up from the seat and walked to the door.

Masky and Hoodie followed a few seconds later, both in their 'casual' apparel.

Masky back in his Tim persona with a red plaid jacket over a dark tee-shirt and Hoodie, as Brian, wearing his usual jumper minus the balaclava.

None of them said anything to each other and they walked out of the doors and down the path to the trees.

Slenderman stood, the ever silent sentinel, barely giving indication that he was aware they were there until he turned and lead them into the Forest.

The ground passed underfoot, the trees shifted in species, and they found themselves walking into a quaint, dull, village.

He supposed that it would look more lively if it was a little later in the day.

The three of them, Slender having stayed in the cover of the trees, walked along the main road.

A little on, Tim stopped them, "Wait, did Slender say how to get to the school?"

The three of them looked at each other before groaning and looking around.

"That place looks good," Tim said, pointing over to what looked like the local town tea shop and pub.

"Three Broomsticks," Toby read, "Yeah, sure, why the hell not?" he said, though his gaze was occupied by the grey-stone building standing atop small mountain in the distance.

And so, the three of them walked over to the building.

Brian tapped them both on the shoulder before they stepped inside and gave them both a bronze colored knuckle duster.

"Slender said no weapons," Tim told Brian, who responded with a look that clearly said 'Not to me, he didn't'.

Smirking, Brian led the way inside.

It was a nice little place, they had to admit. It wasn't busy either, a few patrons dotted around.

"Hello there," a woman in sparkly high heels walked over to them, a flip book in hand and a quill tucked behind her ear, "Always nice to see new faces 'round here," she smiled at the three.

"So, what'll it be then?" she asked, taking the quill and trailing it over the pad.

"Nothing for us, sorry," Tim said, "We were wondering how you'd get up to the castle?"

"How to get up ta' Hogwarts?" the woman asked, eyes wide and cherry-red lips pursued, "Whatever for?"

"Because my little brother is pretty much comatose up there and I got a fucking post-it note about it _two_ days later," Toby said, tightening the hold he had on his arms.

The twitching teen had gotten a few glances from his erratic twitches. But the cold tone he spoke in had the onlookers shuffle awkwardly, some turning up the edges of their cloaks up, as they avoided looking at the newcomers.

Brian tapped him on the shoulder to get him to loosen his grip a bit before he started to draw blood, there was already a few sharp dents in his arms from the waiting period to get there.

The woman tsked at this and said she'd pop an owl over to the school.

"Right well, might as well get ya lot something. Three butterbeers?" Madam Rosmerta asked, after she introduced herself.

"They alcoholic?" Tim asked, taking a seat at a small table near the corner of the bar.

"Butterbeer, no hun. I got a bit of Firewhisky if you're looking for something with a kick?" Rosmerta offered.

"Butterbeer for him," Tim said, "And two Fire Whiskeys," he added a polite smile.

Toby glared a little at him, but handed over the small pile of coins to pay for the drinks.

He did find that the drink was pretty nice, maybe a little sweeter than what he was expecting, but he had had sweeter before. He smirked at the shade of red that Tim went after taking the Firewhisky, glad he wasn't having any now as he gave a small cough.

Brian patted him on the back and downed the rest of his, a slight rise in his eyebrows showed all the effect it was going to have.

There was a fluttering through the window and Rosmerta's screech owl came back in.

"Right ok darlings," she said, reading the response, "They say that they'll have someone meet you at the gate, just down the road, but only be able ta' let two of you's up due to school rules an' such," she handed the reply to Tim to read.

Brian patted the two of them on the shoulders and pulled Tim's glass closer to him.

"Thanks," Toby said to Rosmerta as he gave Brian the pouch that he held the coins in.

Brian watched as Toby and Tim made their way out of the pub.

"So sweetie," Rosmerta said, picking up the empty glasses to put on the bar counter, "Take it that you lot are from America?" she asked him, taking one of the empty seats and bringing him a refill, a double, "On the house, since it's your first time here," she said.

Brian gave her a smile that could have won awards as she chatted about some of the goings on in the village.

Brian didn't speak for the entire conversation, but his actions spook volumes that words could not.

Toby and Tim walked along the street that led up to the castle drive. The path wasn't a fairly tricky trek but neither of them would have wanted to do it in the winter.

Eventually they came to a pair of wrought iron gates that stood tall in the middle of the path. An equally tall cobble and Iron pole fence stood either side of the gates.

Toby fingered the knuckle duster in his pocket as he paced in front of the gate.

Not long later, a shallow skinned man came striding down the lawn towards them.

The man tapped the gate with his wand and stood back as they swung open.

The man eyeballed the two of them, "You are Potter's guardians?" he said.

"I dunno about a Potter, but I'm Isaac Roger's elder brother. I was told he was in some sort of accident," Toby told the greasy haired man, matching the man's sneer in a mock expression.

The man's gaze grew colder and he looked like he wanted to slam the gates shut in their faces.

"Follow," was all he said and he walked back up the drive.

The gates closed behind them and Tim turned to face Toby.

'Professor Hardass,' Toby mouthed, 'Guard up,' Tim nodded. Ice and stone mode for this asshole then.

Snape led the way to the castle and Toby and Tim both agreed, sharing a nod with each other.

It was a complete letdown.

It was a castle, that was always kinda cool to see, but it looked like every other castle. There wasn't anything that made it stand out; Isaac had said that the ceiling in the Great Hall was enchanted to look like the sky and that the pictures moved between frames but that was about it.

It was dull. He'd been expecting pillars with blue flames, he got torches on walls; an electric buzz in the air, a slight summer breeze; students practicing spells and enchantments in the halls, people talking about whether they've got enough hairspray to last the rest of the day.

Through into the Great Hall they could see that it was lit by floating candles, that was kinda cool, but that could also be done with batteries and wires.

As they walked past the large doors the Weasley twins were walking out and saw Toby and Tim following just behind Snape. They both froze for a moment as Tim looked back and fixed them with a mild glare; before he nodded at them with a small, quick, smile and turned back to see where Snape was leading him.

Both twins let out a sigh of relief and went back inside to find Ron and Hermione.

Snape led them along the corridor that led away from the Great Hall and towards the lake, at the end was a smaller pair of double doors.

"There is the hospital wing, directly ahead, and if you'll excuse me I have papers to mark," Snape said, his lip curling as he strutted away, his cloak billowing around him.

Toby and Tim walked at a fast walk, or slow jog, down the corridor. As they got closer to the doors they opened and a man with a _very_ long beard walked out. A slightly sour expression on his face. As the old man saw the younger men walking towards them he stopped and closed the door behind him.

"Oh. Excuse me, I must apologise, I wasn't aware that I had any appointments..." he said, clasping his hands behind his back and fixing the two with a calculating look.

"Is this the hospital wing?" Toby asked, his foot starting to tap a little.

"Yes, but I'm afraid you must..." he was cut off as Toby sidestepped him and walked in.

"Ignore him, what were you saying?" Tim said, his face a symbol of neutrality in both expression and interest.

"Oh, I need to send a letter to a student's guardians. I promised news when he awoke," Dumbledore said.

"Isaac Roger's, you mean?" Tim said, a small curve on the edges of his lips.

"Yes. How did you..."

"He just stepped past you. Tim Sutton, I live with Toby and Isaac over in the US of A," he said, holding his hand out to Dumbledore.

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"Alas! Earwax!" Dumbledore said as he put the box of Bertie Bott's every Flavour Beans down aside the pile next to Isaac's bed.

Isaac watched him walk out of the room as he fluffed up his pillow so he could sit up in a more comfier position.

As he thought that he could hear voices from outside he turned to look at the enormous mound of confectionaries that had been bought for him (minus the toilet seat the Twins had apparently tried to gift him) when the doors burst open.

If he had been holding something, he most likely would have dropped it as Toby sped into the room; did a quick glance around the place, before finding Isaac and running over to him.

Isaac tried to get out but Toby had him pinned to the bed with his arms around him.

"Are you ok?" he asked, his voice muffled slightly.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm fine," Isaac said, "Erm, could you ease up a bit, I'm still using my lungs here,"

"Ok good. Good," Toby said, letting go of Isaac and moving the pillow from the bedside table into his hands.

"The what the fuck were you thinking?" Toby said, batting Isaac round the head with the pillow.

"Toby, gyah," Isaac managed out before Toby buffed him softly in the face with the pillow.

Toby put the pillow back on the chair and sat down.

"So I could fit everything I got from the school about what happened into a bleeding fortune cookie. Hermio... Hermione... your friend that's the girl sent the letter you asked her to. So you went after Prof. Hardass since you couldn't get anyone to listen to you and she said you went to face him alone. You'd better have thought that through before Maa...aa good buddy Tim hears," he said. Forgetting that they were in public for a moment.

Isaac told him about how he had grabbed a couple of knives from the set Jeff had given him before setting off and that eased Toby up a little.

He told him more about how they snuck past Fluffy; Toby looked a little giddy at the mention of spells that could make fire you could out in jars to carry around; he gave himself congratulations for Isaac's spotting skills since he had set up an overly elaborate easter egg hunt the first year of Isaac's stay that had him searching the entire morning (Toby actually found one he had forgotten about in a bush after falling in it a couple of months ago); he gave Isaac a small smile of consolation when he heard about the chess game and how Ron sacrificed himself, he knew that Isaac must have felt uncomfortable about his friend sacrificing himself for him.

He gave a sigh of relief when he heard that they didn't have to fight _another_ troll; he made a mental note to about logic if he ever needed to fight a wizard based on what Hermione said at the Potions task.

He relaxed a little more when Isaac told him about how Snape, grease-ball he had started calling him in his head, hadn't actually been the person after the Stone; but was very confused when Isaac told him it had been the stuttering mess that they had met in The Leaky Cauldron.

When he got to the part where Quirrell removed the turban Toby thought that he might have broke one of Isaac's ribs when he pulled him in for another hug.

He fished out some chocolate thing from the pile when Isaac told him of the lovely face scar that Quirrell would have carried had he lived. He looked at Isaac's hands in horrified awe when Isaac told him of how he finally beat Quirrell.

"Dumbledore said that it was the protection that my Mum gave me when she sacrificed herself for me," Isaac muttered as he looked down at his hands, "But.. I was wondering... Did I... you know, have I..."

"Snapped?" Tim said, causing Toby to jump and then brood at him, "No. The way Thalmann spoke about it, he still referred to you as a 'Proxy'. So I don't think so, not yet anyway," he said as he took the other chair.

"The hell are these?" Tim said, looking at the mound of candy next to Isaac's bed.

"Apparently, it's 'Tokens from my admirers', Dumbledore said that what happened between me and Quirrell was a secret so..." Isaac said, trailing off.

"Everyone knows," Toby said, looking at the opened box of Bertie Bott's.

Toby and Tim sat with him for a little while longer, and then Ron and Hermione came into the wing.

The both hurried over until the caught sight of the other two in the room.

Ron looked awkwardly between the four of them while Hermione stepped forward.

"You must be his brother," she said, looking uncertainly at Toby.

"Yep," Toby said, popping the 'P', "And since I've given up on pronouncing your name, I'm just gonna call you 'H'," he said, holding out his hand.

"Hermione," she said, it was a hard name to read after all.

After Ron meekly introduced himself they sat down, Tim asked for a recap of what the story was for his, Hermione and Ron's sake since he himself had came in around the end.

He had a few things to tell Slender about Dumbledore.

Isaac rolled his eyes as he re-told them what he had told Toby.

Toby himself had gotten a smack around the head from Tim when he scared Ron and Hermione when Isaac paused for effect before revealing what was under Quirrell's turban.

Not long later Madam Pomfrey bustled over, saying that Isaac needed his rest so that they would have to leave. She couldn't make Toby or Tim leave since Toby, and to her knowledge Tim, were Isaac's legal guardians and had every right to be with him whilst he was there; but she made them sit quietly as Isaac tried to doze off.

Tim got bored after a bit, the magazines present were a little outdated, so he offered to make a cup of tea.

"Oh, thank you," Madam Pomfrey said, taking the steaming cup from Tim, "You know, it's nice to see that that young man has such wonderful guardians," she said, looking over at where Toby was sitting next to Isaac.

"Yeah, well. I've pretty much gotta to act as the guardian to both of those two half the time," Tim joked.

"Yes, well, sounds like you have to make sure that neither of them are doing the stupid thing you told the other not to do," Madam Pomfrey said, reflecting on the amount of times that a student had come to the wing having heard about what another had done and needed her to fix only to restart the cycle.

"Oh yeah," Tim said, drinking the scalding tea, "Wouldn't have it any other way though,"

Madam Pomfrey tsked at him, "So, pardon a lady for asking, but you and... Toby, that his name?"

"Yep,"

"Aah, thank you. You and Toby, how long?" she asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Oh, err, good question, a solid few years, round eight," Tim said, oblivious to what she was meaning.

"He looks rather young, doesn't he, oh well. Ever thought about popping the question?"

"Hmm... wait what?" Tim said, nearly spitting out a little of his tea.

"You know. Down on one knee, making it truly official..." Madam Pomfrey went on.

"Oh wah... NO, NONONONONONOO!" Tim said, putting the tea down and flapping his hands.

"I'm not... we're not..." he was as red as his jacket now, "We're coworkers, we aren't... we're not..."

"OH. Oh my mistake I..." she started to chuckle to herself a moment later.

Whilst this was going on, Isaac and Toby looked over at the pair.

"Why does Tim look like he's trying to become a tomato?" Isaac asked Toby, who was holding back snorts of laughter.

"Oh, later. Way later, you ain't ready for that side of things yet," Toby said in gasps.

There was only one other time he had seen Tim that red and that was when a certain computer ghost printed off around fifty pieces of fanart and re-decorated Masky's room.

It was getting a little later on, Hagrid had popped by when Toby was at the bathroom and they just missed each other; but Toby was pretty interested in the pictures that Hagrid had given Isaac.

Sooner that any of them would have liked, Toby and Tim had to go. Isaac had gotten Hermione to bring down the Gameboy from his room for him since he couldn't get it himself so that he could talk to Ben; but he didn't tell her that, just that he was going to try and see if it would work again.

Toby and Tim told him that they would be staying in a motel down in London and they needed to get going to catch their 'train' but they'd see him again when the school year ended.

That night Ben popped over into Isaac's dream so that he could talk to him. Isaac ended up chatting for about an hour in real time, though he had more than enough time for the blow-by-blow recap that Ben wanted to hear.

When Isaac said that he just wanted to rest for the rest of the night Ben shifted them to a midnight sky on a clear and calm ocean.

Isaac had always found the gently drifting of the sea relaxing and Ben didn't mind the water _as much_ when it was in a dream. He could change how it interacted with him in a dream, make it warmer than it could ever be, have a bubble around him, or have it disappear whenever.

His problems in the real world where when he didn't have any control over it. He hated baths but could have a shower just fine after a bit of prep as long as the water wasn't anywhere near cold or room temp.

Here though, he could understand how Isaac found it calming, the gentle motion was like being rocked by a gentle hand and the waves did have a peaceful rhythm to them after he listened to the gently crashes.

He did mute them for the most part for himself though as they did start to irritate him after a while.

Isaac slept in peace for the whole thing, Ben kept away any nightmarish things his mind wandered to and he was truly at rest.

The final two days passed without incident with no exciting talk beyond the fact that two apparent muggles had walked inside the school grounds. Isaac did curse Toby and Tim's name at one point when the higher ups of the classes asked him how the hell they did it.

Each and everyone of them got the same response, "Toby see's a rule book as kindling for a fire, I don't really know but trust him to 'accidentally' his way past whatever this place has that makes it hard for muggles to find,"

Fred and George didn't bother him too often either, aside from their spontaneous haiku's of Isaac's latest adventure.

The first few times had been impressive enough, the nineteenth had been the point he had started hitting them with whatever he had in hand at the time.

Draco also, anonymously as 'D', sent him a letter asking about what had happened and Isaac had sent him a reply that night, so that no one suspected that the biggest rivals in year one were actually fairly friendly. Draco had also said he'd give him a heads up if he did anything more than a snide comment or two in the future.

The end of year feast hadn't been all together bad, he'd started seeing Toby's point about the school being a bit dull aside from the people, but the food was great. Madam Pomfrey hadn't let him eat more than a healthy 'normal' breakfast instead of what he usually got so he had pilled his plate with his favourites for that meal.

Gryffindor had came in last for the House cup, and second for the Quidditch cup since Isaac had been out for the count the day of the final match, until Dumbledore gave Gryffindor some last minute points for his, Hermione and Ron's acts to protect the Stone.

Percy could be heard boasting about how his younger brother had bested McGonagall at her game of wizards chess.

With the points Dumbledore had given them they had now tied for first with Slytherin and Isaac thought that that was fair enough. But then Dumbledore awarded Neville Longbottom an additional ten for his act of bravery in the common room when he had tried to stop them.

Isaac's joy ride lasted him until the next morning; where the excitement of going home and relaxing, CP style, was overwhelming. He'd probably take a day or two to get through the truck load of questions that Sally, and maybe a few others, would inevitably have and see if he could tag along with any solo targets that came up over the holidays.

Fred and George had grumbled when they got on the train about how McGonagall never forgot to hand out the letters that forbade against using or practicing magic at home over the holidays.

Toby, Tim and Brian were waiting on the platform for him and Isaac walked through the portal with Toby's arm slung over his shoulder as he steered him away from the crowds of people that had called after him.

Brian and Tim's combined glares had kept and possible reporters, save for one particularly determined woman with an acid quill that had been snapped the second she had came within reaching distance of them.

He told them about his testing results of the year as they walked through the portal.

Isaac was a little shocked, but a little pleased too, when he saw Mrs. Weasley there with her daughter.

They had stopped for a quick word, Isaac thanking her for the sweater, before they left.

The little girl had hidden behind her mother for the first while before standing between her and Isaac, casting glances over at him every so often.

After that, and after Brian flicked a beetle that had tried to use him as a climbing frame off his shoulder into the puddle spattered streets outside, they headed off towards an alley where a Slender-Portal was set up that would lead them all away to The Ark.

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(Little bonus scene because I like you guys.)

Toby and Tim walked back to The Three Broomsticks to collect Brian, wondering whether he would have stayed there or gone off looking around.

When the got inside there was a small crowd gathered around a table for two inside.

When they got in, they could see that the window seats were filled with eight people nursing ice packs against their heads and empty bottles of 'Hopeton's Hangover Healer' next to them.

Sitting at the table, with a confident and conquering smirk, was Brian. Two pyramids of shot glasses next to him, both with a base of nine glasses, as he looked at his latest challenge.

The man shakily lifted up the shot glass to his mouth and when he took the drink Brian picked up his own and completed the second pyramid with it as the man slumped to the floor.

Brian looked over at Toby and Tim and stood up, picking his hoodie off the back of his chair and draping it over his shoulders like a cape. There was a slight sway to his step but other than that he looked just as he always did; though now there was a merry grin on his face that had quite a few of the female, and a couple of the male, patrons looking at him with undisguised lust.

He tilted his head and smiled wide enough to squint his eyes as the walked out of the pub.

If he had had the ability to do so, he would have warned them against the dangers of trying to best Hoodie in a drinking game. He could hold his liquor better than anyone in The Ark and had once drunk a pub dry of their selection of Whisky, Rum and half of their Tequila.

He showed little to no effects whenever he was actively drinking, but the day after...

When he got back he made sure that the shack that they kept outside the Mansion, a little further in the forest than they normally would practice in, was prepped for him to sleep off whatever came his way.

He still, to this day, refused to think about the disaster that had befallen The Puppeteer, Jeff and L.J when they disturbed him after a particularly heavy drinking spree.

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BOOK 1 IS FINITO!

And Ladies and Gentlest of Men, we are done with Philosopher's / Sorcerer's Stone.

Probably one or two chapters between this one and Chamber but I do hope that each and everyone of you enjoyed reading this chapter.

As of writing this, I do have a little surprise lined up for you all for Christmas so be sure to check my list of Stories around **10PM Greenwich Mean Time Zone.**

And as usual, my end ramble.

I have little to say other than the fact that this story nearly has 100 followers. When that hits I'll be sure to something special to celebrate it, but until then.

Thank you for reading, and till the next one;

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, happy whatever Holiday you may celebrate and I wish you the best of luck in the new year.

SteamGeek01.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – 'Witty joke about not being able to find Smile's owner here'.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.


	13. Chapter 13, Back to the Mansion

Chapter 13, Back to the Mansion.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks

if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$Word$ - Parseltongue.

Any translations posted at the end.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games or shows mentioned in this fic.

Author's note.

Hope you all had a happy Christmas or whatever you did that day and I hope that you enjoyed the surprise I posted for you.

If you are wondering what I'm talking about, I've uploaded a side story for this fic. If you go to my profile then you will find 'Brother in Arms. EXTRAS' where I'll be uploading little bits that I might not be able to put in this story or maybe some user suggested scenarios.

Not everything that goes up there will happen in this story but I'll mention if it isn't.

So, in regards to this story, I'm probably going to have a couple of chapters before I make a start on Chamber.

So, we're shifting back into CreepyPasta territory once more and now we've got more action of The Ark going on.

And of course, the review responses;

kitsunerocker;

Glad you liked that part, I had planned to write something like that since 'Around the world in' and I'm glad that it got a positive response.

Simple-a-person;

That does seem like a good idea, I'll probably start doing that instead of trying to put something funny there each time, thanks.

Glad to hear that you like it, I hope you enjoy any future chapters.

Right then, hold on,

And my ever helpful Beta, Dp, any words?

I hope you all have a wonderful New year and all that. Please enjoy the chapter.

Alright then, back to the story.

Till the next one,

SteamGeek01.

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The Ark.

Isaac Rogers flopped down onto the bed in his room, breathing deeply in as his trunk stood at the end of his bed.

He rolled over, smiling for finally being home, and stretched his arms out.

He made to lean back up but a sudden blur of pink obscured his vision as Sally threw herself onto the bed.

"You're back! You're back!" she said happily, bouncing on her knees.

"Hey Sally," Isaac said. He sat up and pulled his trunk over to the end of his bed so that he could unpack and Sally crawled over, lying down on the foot of the bed with her head falling over the side.

"So what did you learn? Was there Unicorns like that guy said? Did you turn people into frogs? Did you really fly on a broomstick?" she kept up a steady stream of questions that had Isaac smiling as he opened his trunk to unload things.

As he started piling clothes at the side of the bed unoccupied by Sally, he started answering her questions.

"I'll tell you later. Yes, there was. Not yet. Yep," Isaac said as he put the robes that had been folded somewhat neatly in his trunk to one side.

Sally immediately pulled one on, leaping around the room and waving her hands about, saying random words that had always been used by children's magicians when they performed.

Toby came up as she leapt across the room, yelling 'Abracadabra', with a plate of waffles.

"Woah!" he said as he dodged Sally, the cloak trailing on the floor slightly as it was a bit too big, "That didn't take long, here," he said as he put the plate of waffles on the bed, in front of Isaac.

Isaac looked a little confused. Until he remembered that it was earlier in the day in America so it would still be around breakfast here.

"Fanks," he said as he took a bite and moved his spell books onto the bed as well.

Toby rubbed his hair and took the robes to hang up in the wardrobe.

Sally picked up the book about the magical creatures and flopped back down on the bed, dangling half off and reading the book upside down.

"Do you think Slendy would let me keep an Ac-Roman-Acromanta... this," she said, giving up on trying to read the word and showing them the page of the book.

"Acromantacula," Toby read out, he mumbled a few lines of the page as he read about it, "Erm... I'm gonna go out on a limb and say _no,_ " he said.

Sally screwed her face in disappointment and read about more of the creatures.

"Do you think Slendy'd let me get a toad?" she said, flicking to another random page.

 **"You are not getting that to breed one of those either,"** Slenderman said, using a tentacle to remove the book from the little ghost's grasp and place it on the shelf where Isaac had set all the other books.

"Hi Slendy," Isaac said. It would have been a mystery to all how someone could greet the towering faceless entity so cheerfully.

 **"Greetings. Toby and the others informed me of the little adventure you found yourself on,"** Isaac blushed a little at that, **"It would appear that we'll have to up the scale of your lessons if you're going to keep running into danger,"**

Isaac managed to see through the veiled comment on the fact that he had met the person that had left the soul-shard in him all those years ago.

"So, what ya wanna go do?" Toby asked as Slendy 'ported away.

"I have no idea," Isaac said, his voice a little strangled from the latest wave in the wake of Slender's method of travel.

"Well, finish unpacking and I'll go see if Ben's free and we'll play something," Toby said, helping Sally take off the cloak.

The rest of the day passed rather dully, in Isaac's opinion. Ben had been free to play some games with him, he and Isaac teamed against Toby and Hoodie in an online game, for a while before he had to go deal with Jeff's latest 'subtle' killing.

After that the three of them, later joined by L.J and Teer, sat on the couch as Isaac caught up with everything he missed.

After a few hours, Jeff came back, grumbling because Slendy hadn't allowed him to walk through the Mansion unless he had taken off his hoodie and was walking inside a large trash bag. By the look of the small pool of blood in the bag that held his outer two layers of clothing, it seemed that Jeff had taken a literal bloodbath to freak out his latest prey.

He grunted a greeting to Isaac as he adjusted the black vest he had worn underneath everything and started to climb the stairs.

L.J fidgeted in his seat, making a few holes in the upholstery in doing so, as he restrained himself from pulling the carpet out from the shuffling killer.

By the time that lunch rolled round, Isaac had started to find himself tiring, but the stories of kills that everyone had gone on that Toby hadn't mentioned, kept him up as he listened to Teer describe just how a neck sounds when it's pulled right off of the body.

After that, talk turned to what Isaac himself had gotten up to when Sally asked about what he learned.

She was a little disheartened when Isaac told her of the notice about how he wasn't able to cast magic outside of Hogwarts, but she brightened right up when he said that he could show her a few things that he had brought back with him.

Sally had been mesmerised by the moving pictures on the Chocolate Frog cards and he gave her a couple of the doubles he had to keep her satisfied. The moving pictures had also caught Helen's attention and he had taken another double to see what would happen if the card was delicately separated into each of its layers.

After a while things died back down. It took all of his willpower not to pass out and sleep where he sat. He managed to last until closer to eight or seven before he skipped dinner and went upstairs to sleep.

As Isaac slept upstairs; Toby, Masky, Hoodie, L.J, Teer, E.J and Jeff (he had finally managed to get rid of all the blood) sat downstairs, getting ready for dinner and making idle chit-chat amongst themselves for a bit.

After a few minutes, talk turned to Isaac's encounter at the end of the year.

"What's this fuckwad got against him?" Jeff said, his bushy black hair fell further around his head after the intensive rinsing of blood he had gone through.

"All Slendy said was that the guy used to be the leader of a magical group that waged a secret war to try and re-design the wizarding world in their image," Toby said.

"Sounds like the guy's got a serious case of the grudges," L.J said, carving up a piece of kitchen roll into shreds with a finger.

"Well, we did get one thing from that meeting though," E.J said, "Seems like that world is pretty useless if they don't have a wand to use,"

"That they do, Darling," L.J said as he turned the shreds into little bows.

"So catch them off guard and get the wand," Masky said, "That's all well and all. But, don't forget, Slendy's forbade us all from interfering with that world,"

A few grumbles went up.

"Just in case we need to protect ourselves," Jeff said, balancing a knife on its point, "All I'm getting from this," he continued, "Is that we gotta teach the squirt how to properly kill a bitch,"

The mutterings from everyone signified their arrangements.

"Well. When you guys decide to teach him how to actually fight, come get me," and with that Jeff left to do whatever he did when he wasn't killing anyone.

"You know he's got a point," E.J said after a bit.

Toby nodded. There was no point denying the fact that Jeff was probably one of, if not, the top fighters there. The fight between him and Slendy that had brought Jeff to the Mansion in the first place was known to all.

"Yeah," Toby said, crossing his arms, "How far do you think you've gotten with him?" he asked Masky.

"Isaac could take care of himself, he knows how to defend himself well enough," Masky said, the tapping of his fingers on his thigh meant that he was due for another smoke in a few moments, "I'd say give me a day or two, see how rusty he is, before we ask Jeff about it," he began fishing in his shirt pocket for a cigarette.

"Also, did anyone tell him about the guest Slendy's letting stay for a bit?" he asked as he stood up.

A few moments passed. The only movement from anyone was the blinking, for all except E.J, of their eyes.

"SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT..." Toby said as he stood up and hurried out the room.

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Upstairs.

Isaac walked into his room.

His feet were already beginning to drag on the floor a little.

He stifled a yawn with the back of his hands as he grabbed his toothbrush and paste from the pile of miscellaneous items on his desk before heading to the bathroom. Unaware of the person with his face hidden in shadows that was watching him.

He was too tired to notice that the door that had been closed upon him leaving the room was now open slightly, but still closed enough that no light entered or left the room.

He pushed it open and made his way to the bed.

A face appeared upside down in front of him and he fell onto his back in shock.

After looking up at where the person should have been, he was met with only the empty ceiling.

'Must've been something outside that flashed. I'm way too freaking tired,' he thought, rubbing his eyes again.

"遊びたいか?" Isaac froze.(1)

He looked back around the room, searching for the speaker.

When he turned to leave back out the door, he found his path blocked by the upside-down face again.

Isaac moved closer to the bed and looked at the person standing on the ceiling in front of him.

A black and white striped scarf was wrapped around his neck and the black hoodie he wore blended into the black jeans.

The person's face was obscured by a two-tone mask.

One side was luminous white, and the other pitch black. There was a basic smile on one side of the mask. The white side was empty but the black side had the markings that made half of a smiley face, like the one on the lapel of Helen's jacket, with a very curved mouth.

"遊びたいか?" it said again, dropping to the floor and landing right way up without making a sound.(1)

"I'm sorry?" Isaac asked. Right now that was for whatever he had done to set -whoever this was- after him and also the fact that he didn't understand a word he was saying.

"遊びたいか?" it repeated itself for a third time.(1)

Isaac looked at the man. Then to the door behind him.

"あなたは私を理解できないのですか?" it said.(2)

Isaac looked back at the man that was looking at him curiously.

Before darting around his left after feigning to go right.

The man seemed to have guessed this and caught him with an arm.

"You are, Slendy-Proxy?"

Before Isaac could shout out the man spoke again, English this time.

"Yeah, now back the fu..."

"私が紹介することを許可する," the man said, "Allow me introduce myself. Apologies. Long time since speak English, quite rusty,"(3)

He cleared his throat.

"Allow me to introduce myself. Kagekao," the man let go of Isaac's shoulders and offered his hand, "Slenderman allow me stay for while,"

"Isaac," he replied, slowly taking the man's hand.

"ドリンク?" Kagekao said, "Drink?"

He put a hand inside his hoodie pocket and took out two chipped wine glasses and a bottle that looked like the high-end bottles that Aunt Petunia would gaze at longingly whenever she went shopping.

"Erm... No thanks, I don't," Isaac said, hoping that he sounded polite.

Kagekao shrugged and replaced one of the glasses back in the hoodie pocket and poured himself a glass.

"You are Rogers Toby's little brother?" he said, swirling the red wine around the glass.

"Yeah..." Isaac said.

Toby at that point half ran into the room, only slowing down so that he didn't go past the room.

"Aah, the devil's talk," Kagekao said, raising the glass to the mask. Isaac thought that he had forgotten that he was wearing it until he saw the wine disappear from the glass and through the mask.

Toby walked over to stand next to Isaac.

"I erm... may have forgotten to mention something," he said.

"Ya think," Isaac said.

"You are ドリンク? Little wizard?" Kagekao asked Isaac, swirling the glass some more.

"Yeah... I'm a... a wizard," Isaac said. The whole situation was getting a little awkward.

"Aah, 謝罪, you are tired. I leave," and with that Kagekao left the room, taking another sip of wine as he did so. (4)

Isaac and Toby watched as the man left the room.

"He got here yesterday. Slendy's letting him stay a while since he's apparently got business over here," Toby said, "You didn't drink anything he gave you, did you?"

"No, why?" Isaac said, worried that he was almost poisoned.

"You're way too young to be drinking and I don't like the taste of wine," Toby said, "You still going to go to bed, or do you wanna come down? Dinner's probably sorted by now,"

Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, Isaac was feeling tired again. Maybe a bit more than he did before.

"Nah. I'm gonna sleep," he mumbled as another yawn escaped him.

"Right well, sleep tight," Toby said as Isaac crawled into bed, "Don't let the demon-dogs bite,"

Isaac smiled and stifled yet another yawn as Toby left. Hedwig flew in through the window at that moment, a recently killed dormouse in her beak.

Isaac smiled at her latest kill and allowed himself to drift off.

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The next morning.

Isaac walked downstairs to an extremely tense scene.

Jeff and both the Jacks were glaring daggers at each other.

"Like I fucking said, I DIDN'T SAY THAT!" L.J snarled.

"Oh yeah, and I'm the fucking Tooth Fairy," Jeff shot back.

Isaac carefully made his way around the outside of the room, sticking to the edge so that he wasn't crossing into any of their paths.

"Rejected Joker fanboy," E.J said, but it didn't seem like it had come from E.J himself.

"FUCKING DARE YOU TO SAY THAT AGAIN MR. MAGOO!"

Isaac quickly moved round the corner so that he was clear from whatever Jeff threw.

As he moved round the corner he accidentally bumped into someone crouched down on the floor. Kagekao.

"Oh, sorry," Isaac said.

"静かにして。静かにして," Kagekao said, flapping his hands at Isaac.(5)

He seemed to be shaking slightly from contained laughter.

"What are you..."

"I'm the fucking Tooth Fairy," Kagekao said in a perfect imitation of Jeff.

Isaac looked at him, then back to the scene in the living room.

"You started that, didn't you?" Isaac asked the crouched demon.

"Yeah," Kagekao said, imitating Isaac from last night this time. His laughter starting to escape him.

Isaac couldn't help but join in with the laughing a little as he walked to the kitchen.

Later on, when it was revealed that Kagekao had been the one to cause the three killers to nearly rip each other's throats out, the three of them were pissed.

L.J let it go pretty quickly, he could appreciate a good laugh, as did E.J. Though you could feel the slight glares and the icy tones in his voice whenever Kagekao was present.

Jeff, on the other hand, had gone through several training dummies in the gym and was now practicing throwing a miniature arsenal of sharp objects at trees where he had stuck up targets that looked like a half white/half black mask that looked like you had stuck those two drama masks together.

Isaac's home lessons started up again. Hoodie had taken the appearance of Kagekao as a bonus as he swapped out with him for a couple of days so Kagekao could show Isaac a few things about stealth at night, how to completely hide yourself in shadow and behind light sources.

This led Isaac to a few sleepless nights as Kagekao would only teach him when it was dark out; sometimes taking him, plus Masky or Hoodie (whoever was free), to different cities in the States. Kagekao seemed to be more about having fun with what he showed Isaac, his playful nature whenever he was working seemed to be infectious, and by the end he and Isaac were on fairly good terms.

This only seemed to piss Jeff off more.

Isaac, not wanting to have to deal with a pissed off Jeff for the entire time that he was home, didn't protest when Jeff dragged him to one of the spare rooms to start back up the guitar lessons. His sore fingers were a small price to pay for keeping him from going psychotic. Well, more than he already was.

On top of all that, he also had homework from Hogwarts to do over the summer. He could often be found in the living room after dinner going over his texts with a few pieces of parchment next to him as he looked up the history of Pepper-Up potions.

Aside from all that, life at the Mansion was as close to normal as things could ever get.

About a week after coming back to the Mansion Kagekao had completed whatever business he was there for and left again. Jeff definitely cheered up a bit but Sally was a little sad since she had found his ability to recreate any voice he heard amazing and would get him to imitate characters from her shows.

Over the rest of June, and part way into July, something that had bothered Isaac was the lack of letters he had gotten from his friends at Hogwarts. He felt a little embarrassed when he had forgotten all about them, so he decided that he'd send Hedwig off with a letter for Ron and Hermione each. He didn't send one to Draco since in his last letter Draco had recommended that he didn't unless it was with whatever he had sent the letter to him with.

Isaac sat down and pulled out two pieces of parchment.

~Hey Ron,~

~How are you doing? Things are pretty much normal here, though I'm really beginning to hate timezones since I barely managed to stay awake long enough to get my body clock back to normal.~

~We had a guest from Japan stay with us for a bit. Don't tell Hermione but he may or may not have taught me a few swears in Japanese and how to write one or two of them, I'll put one on another piece of parchment with this one.~

~How are things over at yours? I'm willing to bet that Fred and George have started driving your Percy, Mum, and Dad crazy.~

~Write when you can, you can send your reply with Hedwig if you need to.~

~Isaac.~

He then tore a little off the bottom of that parchment and quickly wrote down '私はフライより脳が少ない' and how to say it. He put on the back of the note that it was how to write 'Go eat a shit' in Kanji, one of the three ways that people wrote in Japan he had found out from Kagekao, but really it said 'I have less brains than a fly'.

He then copied out what he had written to Hermione, taking out the part of being taught swears and replacing it with that he had been taught a few basic phrases like saying hello or how to introduce himself. Which was true, Kagekao still preferred to speak in his native tongue for the most part and Isaac had picked up a few things.

He put the letters in envelopes and labeled them to each of his friends. After a little wait for Hedwig to return from her midday hunt he sent off the letters, watching her fly off over the trees.

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The Burrow.

"C'mon Percy, just let me borrow Hermes to send a letter to Isaac," Ron said to the closed door.

"Go away Ron, I'm busy," came the curt reply.

Ron grumbled to himself as he climbed back up the stairs to his room, ignoring the small bangs and fizzes that came from Fred and George's room.

His room was at the top of the burrow, the highest room there was apart from the attic that housed their ghoul. He pushed open the door, frowning at the small piles of clutter that were strewn around the floor.

He walked over to the desk and looked at the piece of parchment that took up the only space not preoccupied with old ink pots or broken quills.

This was going to be the third letter he would send to Isaac. He had tried to borrow Errol, the family owl, to send the first two but his Mother shot that idea down, pointing out that Errol was far to old and tired to make such a journey. After that, he had tried to borrow Hermes, but Percy always seemed to need him.

After he asked his Father for help, he had said that he would send the letters through work. He had a few friends that worked maintenance at the Perma-Floo Stations that allowed quick travel to distant continents or magical communities so he'd loan an owl to send the letters for him.

That had been a few weeks ago, and there was no reply.

Ron didn't think his Father was at fault, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

"RON!" his Mother called from downstairs, "You've got a letter,"

Ron hurried down the stairs.

Hedwig was standing on the back of the couch, two letters tied to her leg.

Ron half walked, half jogged, over to her and she held out her leg.

Ron ignored his Mother's mutterings about what a gorgeous owl she was as he read the letters.

Hedwig had apparently stopped off at Hermione's place before coming here since there was a letter from her to Isaac already attached to her leg.

He took the letter marked with his name and silently read through the page. After fishing in the envelope for the other piece of parchment he quickly slipped it into his pocket before his Mother asked what he'd written.

"He says that he had a bit of trouble getting used to the time zones. They had a guest from Japan over for a bit as well. He bet's that Fred and George are already driving all of us crazy," Ron said from a few parts of the letter, he wisely left out the part of being taught Japanese swears.

"Well, that sounds lovely," Mrs Weasley said, "Why don't you hurry up and get your letter from your room to send back with her?"

Ron took the stairs two at a time, ignoring Percy's shout to stop thundering up and down the stair, to get to his room. He quickly added a little to the letter asking Isaac if he'd managed to get his other letters before hurrying back downstairs and giving the letter to Hedwig.

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The Ark.

~Hey Isaac, long time no hear.~

~Things haven't changed much here, Fred and George are annoyed that Percy's locked himself in his room so they can't bug him as much.~

~He's been pretty quiet for the whole holiday so far, he got all his O.W.L's and hardly boasted.~

~How are things over in America?~

~By the way, did you get my other letters? Dad sent them off through work since Errol wouldn't be able to make the journey so I don't know if you got them or not.~

~Ron~

Isaac read over the letter when Hedwig came back. She was now sat on Smile's back, stealing the dog's warmth, as he rested.

"Hey Ben," he called over to the other couch where Ben was sat, "Did any letters arrive at the post box Slendy set up?"

Ben mulled that over for a moment, "Don't think so. Not even a letter without a stamp this week. Why?"

"Ron said he'd apparently sent out a couple of letters to me through his Dad's work," Isaac told him.

"Hmm, I'll go check the cameras," Ben said, crawling into the screen.

Isaac read over Hermione's letter whilst he waited for Ben to return.

 _~Hello Isaac.~_

 _~I was wondering how I'd be able to send you a letter when Hedwig turned up.~_

 _~Things have been quite fun here, my parents took me to London Zoo for a day when I got back so that we could catch up.~_

 _~How are things with you? How are you after having to go through timezones after leaving Hogwarts?~_

 _~I hope you are enjoying your holidays as much as I am. Ron sent Errol over with a letter a couple of times since we got back. He says that you might have been having trouble getting letters so hopefully Hedwig is able to bring these ones to you.~_

 _~Glad to have heard from you, did you really learn a few things in Japanese? I've always been interested in learning how to speak foreign languages but I don't think that Japanese would be an easy one to learn. Did you know that they have three ways of writing things down?~_

 _~Hope you are well and I'll probably see you back at Hogwarts,~_

 _~Hermione,~_

Isaac put the two letters down on the arm of the chair and turned to the screen as Ben pulled himself back through.

"Check this out," he said and beckoned Isaac over.

He put one of his hands back through the screen and it changed from static to a video of what Isaac recognised as the exterior of the post office in town.

He watched as Ben sped up the footage until it showed an owl swoop down and drop a letter into the little mailbox that letters could be dropped into.

"Ok, now watch this," Ben said as the picture changed to inside the office.

The letter could be seen flying into the opening outside through the window and one of the workers walked over to clear the box.

Isaac watched as he opened the door to the space in the wall, expecting him to pull out the letter. But instead he walked away.

There was nothing in the box.

"Wha..." Isaac half said as Ben took his had out from the screen.

"Looks like someone's snatching your mail," Ben said, "Give me a few moments,"

Ben pulled himself back into the screen.

Isaac went back over to the chair he was sat at as he awaited his return.

"Watcha up to?" L.J asked as he walked into the room.

"Got a couple of letters from Ron and Hermione, and it turns out that someone's been taking the letters that Ron tried to send before Hedwig brought this one," Isaac told the towering figure.

"Hmm, how rude," L.J said taking the seat that Ben had been sitting in prior and flicking through the channels.

"Ok," Ben said, coming down the stairs with a sealed envelope, "I have a plan,"

"Is it a cunning one, Baldrick?" L.J asked as he continued to channel surf.

"Oh sod off," Ben said as he held the envelope out to Isaac, "One envelope, complete with little battery powered Bluetooth circuit from a dismantled speaker,"

"Ok," Isaac said, not following along.

Ben pointed over at Hedwig, "Polly takes the letter to the post office," Hedwig snapped her beak at him, "Snatcher takes the letter, I follow Bluetooth signal to snatcher and find the letters," Ben said, bending down and holding the letter in front of Hedwig.

She snapped the letter up in her beak and took off, hitting Ben in the head with a wing as she did so.

"Be back soon," Ben said, pulling himself back into the TV.

Isaac went back upstairs to write out his replies for when Hedwig returned.

A while later, Ben came back.

"Well, England is lovely this time of night," Ben said as he left the TV.

Ben had been gone for a good portion of the day, it was now nine in the afternoon.

"England? You mean the person taking my letters is from the UK?" Isaac asked as Ben dusted himself off.

"Oh yeah, middle of the night over there. Snuck the letters out, got a box and it should be on the next flight over, so shouldn't be too long a wait," he said as he reached past Isaac and took a slice of pizza.

"So who was it?" E.J asked. It was only him, Isaac, L.J, Smile, Helen, Teer and now Ben in the Mansion since everyone else was doing rounds across the country.

"Well, that's a good question," Ben said as he took a seat, "Is there anything in your magic world that's about the height of my leg, has big bat-like ears, and a really long nose?" he asked Isaac.

Isaac shook his head in confusion, "Not that I know of,"

"Well whoever this was needs to visit a surgeon," Ben said.

Just then, a wave of static and ringing pierced through the air. Not audible, but felt all the same.

"Someone's here!" E.J said as he and L.J quickly put on their glamours. Smile following suit a few second later as Teer vanished in a flash of his eyes.

"Go to your room!" Helen told Isaac, "That was one of Slendy's wards. It lets us know if anyone breaches the defenses, and right now, someone's here that shouldn't be!"

Isaac nodded and quickly ran out of the dining room and up the stairs, moving as quietly as he could.

He quickly slid inside and locked the door.

He let out the breath he had held in as he turned to get the box he kept under the bed, where he kept the throwing knives that Jeff had given him and the airsoft pistol that Hoodie let him keep.

The problem was, that there was already someone on the bed.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

The roof.

The Puppeteer reappeared in the shadow of the tiled roof next to the chimney stack.

Something or someone had breached inside the wards of the Mansion and everyone was on alert. Helen would have sent Isaac to his room since he was the least experienced one of them all, and Ben would be sending a message or two to everyone not there.

He closed his eyes as he concentrated. Unseen by the eye, his string started weaving around the trees, as light as the thread of a spider's web. If anyone even so much as breathed on them, he would know.

After a minute, he shrunk the area that he was watching, so that an area of a few metres away from the Mansion would have become an unavoidable minefield.

If anyone stood on the string now they'd be ensnared and dragged along the side of the Mansion that was covered in ivy.

He sent a few straggler strands inside the Mansion.

He relaxed a bit when they found Helen and his breathing calmed along with the beat of his pulse.

A few tuggings on the strands attached to Helen signalled that he was cleared to come back in.

"Any signs of who it was?" he asked Helen as he faded in alongside him, keeping his glamour up.

"Not yet, but they weren't inside the Mansion, we checked everywhere. Chances are that the defences Slendy put up got them and they died just after triggering the ward," Helen said, looking into Teer's eyes, "You over exerted yourself, didn't you?"

"It's just been a while since I've had to string out that many, plus I didn't have much to eat and not a whole lot of warning," Teer said as he smiled at Helen and took his hand in his own, "I'll be fine. So you checked everywhere?"

"Yep, everywhere... except Isaac's room but he's up there. He'd have shouted if anything was wrong," Helen said, though it sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

"We should probably...", "Yeah," Teer cut off Helen as he already knew what he was going to say.

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Isaac's room.

Isaac looked at the small creature sitting on his bed.

The creature slipped off the bed and bowed so low that the tip of his long nose pressed against the carpet. It straightened up and looked at him with bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls.

"Er – hello?" Isaac said, carefully reaching behind him to unlock the door.

"Harry Potter!" said the creature and Isaac felt his shoulders flop down. So this thing was from the magical world, "So long has Dobby wanted to meet you, sir... what an honour,"

"Thank you," said Isaac deflatedly, "Erm, what are you?" he couldn't have cared if he had offended the little creature right now, he was trespassing in his home and looked a lot like the thing that Ben had described.

"Dobby, sir. Just Dobby. Dobby the house-elf," said the creature.

"Ok, erm, this isn't exactly the best time for you to be here," Isaac said, "Not that it's not nice to meet you," Isaac said when the elf hung his head, "But, er, is there any reason why you're here? It's just that the wards here detected an in...tru...d..."

Isaac mentally hit himself on the head.

"Oh, yes, sir," said Dobby earnestly, "Dobby has come to tell you, sir... it is difficult, sir... Dobby wonders where to begin..."

"Sit down," Isaac offered. Dobby was standing between him and the box under the bed, if he could get him out of the way then he'd...

Isaac was cut out of his thoughts when Dobby burst into tears.

" _S-sit down!_ " Dobby wailed, " _Never, never ever..._ "

"Sorry," Isaac said. It was hard not to pity the grubby looking things in front of him, "Didn't mean to offend you, or anything,"

"Offend Dobby!" choked the elf, "Dobby has _never_ been asked to sit down by a wizard – like an _equal_ -"

Isaac tried to calm Dobby down and ushered him back onto the bed.

It was rather hard to look sympathetic when you were trying to comfort something that looked like a large and very ugly doll. He did seem to be calming down though, his large eyes fixed on him with watery adoration.

"You can't have met many decent wizards then," Isaac muttered, more to himself than to Dobby. Though Dobby did nod in agreement.

Before turning round, seizing the bedposts, and hitting his head on the wall; repeatedly saying, " _Bad_ Dobby! _Bad_ Dobby!"

"Don't – What are you – STOP..." Isaac pulled Dobby back onto the bed.

"Dobby had to punish himself, sir, Dobby almost spoke ill of his family, sir," Dobby said, he had gone slightly cross-eyed.

"Your family?" Isaac asked.

"The wizard family that Dobby is bound to serve, sir, Dobby is a house elf. House-elves are bound to serve one family and one family only forever," Dobby told him.

"Do they know you're here?" Isaac asked curiously.

"Oh no, sir, no... Dobby will have to punish himself most grievously for coming to see you, sir. But Dobby had to come, to warn Harry Potter," he stood on the bed, his eyes barely reached the bottom of Isaac's face he was that small.

"I'm not Harr..."

" _Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts!_ " Dobby said.

"Wha..." Isaac said. His mind immediately went to what Draco said in the Forbidden Forest, ' _A Gryffindor under the watch of Dumbledore's manipulative mind..._ ' Could Dobby be from Hogwarts?

"Dobby. _Who_ doesn't want me going back to Hogwarts, and _why_ don't they want me back at Hogwarts?" Isaac asked, leaning over Dobby a little.

"Dobby cannot say who, sir, but Dobby has heard of a plot to make terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year," Dobby said, trembling, "Dobby has known it for weeks, sir. Harry Potter must not put himself in peril. He is too important, sir!"

Isaac felt his shoulders flop down for a second time. Again with that name, he was starting to resent anyone who brought it up.

"Dobby, who's plotting them?"

Dobby started banging his head against the wall again.

"Alright! you can't say, got it," Isaac said, pulling Dobby from the wall again, "Dobby, listen to me. If someone is planning something, then I've got to go. My friends will be going there and..."

"Friends who don't even _write_ to Harry Potter?" said Dobby slyly.

"So you're the one that's been stealing my letters," Isaac said, not revealing that he had already known.

"Harry Potter mustn't be angry with Dobby – Dobby did it for the best... but Dobby may have lost the letters," Dobby started eyeing the wall again.

"Doesn't matter," Isaac said, Ben had already taken care of the letters, "Wait, hang on. Dobby, how did you even know how to find me?" Isaac asked.

"Dobby followed..." Dobby started, but at that point, the door opened and Dobby disappeared with a snap of his fingers before Isaac could grab him.

"DOBBY!" Isaac said as his fingers grasped thin air.

"What the hell was that thing?" Helen asked as he and The Puppeteer walked into the room.

"The guy that's been stealing my mail," Isaac said, turning round on the bed to face them.

He told them everything that Dobby had said. He had to repeat the story again later when everyone else got back.

And a third time, directly to The Slenderman.

That time, Isaac felt was the worst. He had to look him in the face and tell him exactly what Dobby had said, word for word.

By the end Slender didn't seem angry, 'Thank god,' Isaac thought, but he did tell Isaac not to let an intruder go un-alerted in the future.

After that, he went around modifying the wards around the Mansion and Forest to accommodate for house-elves.

"So the wizarding world has their own working slave force," Masky said, as they were walking back, "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

The rest of the holiday passed without further incident.

The most exciting thing that happened was when Isaac was out giving Smile a walk through town and a raven bomb-dived him. Dropping a letter addressed to him from Draco.

The raven continued to follow him through the town as Smile dictated where they go, for the most part, Isaac had to drag him away from the town carvery more times than he could remember.

When the stopped for a rest at a stream so Smile could cool down, Isaac opened the letter from Draco.

~Hello Rogers,~

~How are you? I can't imagine what you'll have been getting up to with your family, so I have no idea if it is enjoyable for you or not,~

~Things have been fairly dull here. Mother and Father have been quite busy with social events and Father's work tends to keep him away quite a lot. Mother has continued teaching me how to fly and I shall be trying out for the Slytherin Seeker position upon our return. She used to play Chaser for the Slytherin team back when she was at school and she says that I should be a guarantee for the position.~

~How has your holiday been? I finished our set homework within a week, I found the potions one particularly easy.~

"No shit you found it easy, Snape favours you lot," he mumbled to himself.

~I hope that we'll be able to meet up at Hogwarts at a later time, it's a Slytherin kept secret that we have a copy of Filch's path he monitors the halls at night to, so we will most likely meet at night and I shall tell you what routes to avoid depending on meeting point.~

~See you at school,~

~D~

Isaac smirked at the knowledge that Filch had a set route for his nighttime duties and folded the letter inside his jacket pocket.

When he got back he wrote a quick reply for Draco and sent it off with the Raven that had waited on a fence post by the road.

When he got back Jeff was arguing with L.J and Masky about something, so Isaac let Smile wander by himself and he headed back up to his room.

The rest of the day passed by and soon enough it was time for dinner.

"Eat up," Toby advised, "You got a big day tomorrow,"

Isaac rolled his eyes. Toby would always say that the day before his birthday and most of the time they would spend about four to six hours out somewhere, decide that they were both pretty bored and head back and play a bunch of games with Ben and L.J.

"That's right," Jeff said as Isaac picked up a burger and took a bite, "Tomorrow, I finally get to show you how to actually fight,"

Isaac looked between the two of them.

"Yu therzsus?" he said before swallowing and asking again, "You serious?"

"Oh yeah," Jeff said, stabbing a few chips with a fork and chewing, "Tomorrow, you get to see how it's done,"

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Author Notes.

And that's a wrap people.

Well, got a few things out the way in this chapter.

So, a whole lot of you are probably wondering if Kagekao will make a reappearance later on.

Yes, he probably will, but for the foreseeable future, he won't be living in the Mansion for a while. I might bring him there full time, but I do know who the next two I'm going to bring into the story are and I think I'll have another new Creepypasta in next chapter.

Sorry if any of the translations are off, I'm relying on Google Translate for this so I have no idea if I'm doing this right or not.

Kagekao translations.

"Do you want to play?"(1)

"You can't understand me, can you?"(2)

"Allow me to introduce... damn it,"(3)

"apologies,"(4)

"Be quiet. Be quiet,"(5)

Also, before anyone jumps the gun, 'Darling' is an Old-English term for a favourite underling that works under you.

Since Laughing Jack is from the 1800's I thought he'd probably use terms from that time period.

Right, anyway, thank you for reading.

And for anyone who hasn't noticed,

There is now a side story for this where I'll be posting any scenes that I think of but might not be able to put them in the story, anything that I've thought of after I've already posted a chapter and would have liked to add in, any user-submitted ideas and other things like that.

If you've got an idea to go there, then message it to me or leave it in a review. I've got an idea of what the next one I put up is... and I'm gonna have fun with it if I do.

It should be available if you go to my stories and I hope you enjoy the first one there.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, I got a Creepypasta shirt and a few books so I'm catching up on stories and brushing up on my knowledge.

I also went back over and fixed the first three chapters and I'll be doing that until I get to the beta'd chapters and they'll all be typo-free.

Right, that's about all I've got to say.

Apart from this.

101 FOLLOWERS! I reached my goal of getting 100 before the new year and I'd like to thank you all for following.

So yeah, now working on another little chapter for the side story. I'd been working on one already but now I think I'll upload a double.

Thank you all and I'll raise a glass of whiskey to you all this New Years.

See you in the new year,

SteamGeek01.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – Still no idea.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Guest appearance; Kagekao – GingaAkam.


	14. Chapter 14, Lessons with Jeff

Chapter 14, Lessons with Jeff.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks

if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$Word$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Something that I should have added ages ago.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from.

Author's note.

Well, chapter 14 and a new year, I hope that everyone didn't get too plastered.

I've got no idea if I did or not since I'm writing this part here the day before chapter 13 goes up. I got this little whiskey thing from a friend, probably gonna try a bit.

So yeah, probably going to try a bit of the whiskey selection that I got for Christmas, been wanting to try it for a while now. I wonder how that's gonna go...

SteamGeek at New Years – 'Groans' "NO! No. Noooooo..." 'rinses mouth with Smirnoff'

So, anyway, here we go with Chapter 14.

After a previous reviewer said that they'd have preferred the story if it was more CP centric and was based more like a CP itself, I'm trying to find a compromise.

While I finalise how the main CP parts are going to change the main HP parts, I'm going to have both sides of the story, CP, and HP, separate for a while. The HP canon will change in the future, but for year 2 to possibly 4 not much will change. I think year 4 will be where the biggest changes start happening. Year 5, holy crap, hold my... tea, I guess, I don't drink beer.

But yeah, the parts of this fic that are more Creepypasta centric will be put in the summer hols of the story until a little later.

But yeah, that's all I got to really say, DP. Always good to check in with your beta, they can mess up a story and put 'pink camel farts' in somewhere when you get it back.

So, DP, how are you?

I am doing really good! Also, I had to laugh when I saw the 'pink camel farts'. I wouldn't do that to you lol.

Good, good, always nice to hear.

Anyway, rambling over, time for the reviews.

DarkRavie;

Thank you, glad you like it.

TheMarpasChappers;

Thank you, been trying to think of how someone from that era would talk and wouldn't you know it, Supernatural to the rescue. Thank you Crowley.

A list is always helpful, easier to organise thoughts.

1\. In my head, Sally is going to always be the eight year old ghost.

Despite having been born before Isaac, she's always going to be the little sister.

Yeah, saying this again, They're not getting to keep the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets or breed their own... but then...

Ok, I'm going to think about an idea I've had and go from there on the Basilisk thing.

2\. Yep. Jeff training anyone would be a scary thought.

Which is why they held out on Jeff training Isaac. After Kagekao's little tricks, which had been going on since after Isaac went to bed, Jeff was pretty much ready to kill Kagekao but Slendy's rules forbade him from doing so. The fact that Kagekao got to train Isaac before Jeff despite being there for barely a day irked him since he's been waiting since Isaac was eight. So yeah, maybe a little jealousy but...

'thud'

Jeff – I WAS NOT JEALOUS OF THE WINE DRINKING LITTLE...

S.G – OWW, Jeff, back in the closet with you...

...

Jeff – Really...

S.G – I didn't think that one through,

'Thud of S.G's head hitting the desk again as Jeff vaults over him and out the window'

'SG walks over and closes the door to the BiA world portal he keeps in his wardrobe'

S.G – Owww... right, where was I?

Jeff was totally not a little jealous.

3\. Yeah, I read Kagekao's a long time ago.

Sorta forgot about him a little, and found him again browsing Pinterest. So I thought I'd add him into this world because I think he's cool and I'm planning to cosplay as him after I finish my Ticci Toby and Eyeless Jack ones.

I'm glad that you liked that chapter and a Happy New Year to you too. :-D

Ok, reviews done? Back to the main reason you're all here.

Till the next one,

SteamGeek01.

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The Ark.

Isaac awoke with a groan.

He hadn't slept until the early hours of the morning and he was used to getting up early. Thankfully, the alarm clock on the bedside table... looked like a bunch of blurred out blocks since he didn't have his glasses on.

It was just after eight so he had managed to get a good bit of sleep, despite the fact that his stomach was trying to tear itself apart.

He wasn't sick or anything, but right now he was stuck between two feelings.

Panic and glee.

On panic's side, Jeff was going to be taking over his training sessions and was probably going to be a whole lot worse than Masky when it came to training.

On the glee side, this meant that he was getting closer to being a Creepypasta himself!

The thought of his snapping session did still worry him a bit, but Toby had come through and gotten Masky to talk to him about it when he brought up his concern. The worry was still there, but... he felt better about it.

Isaac pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt before walking out of his room and taking the stairs down.

Toby and Ben were already waiting down in the living room.

"Heyo Specs, Happy B-day," Ben said, giving a small wave as Isaac took the last couple of steps and tossing a wrapped box at him, "Figure that you'll be needing one of those one of these days,"

Isaac unwrapped the box and was presented with a flip-phone fresh in the box.

"It's already got mine and Toby's numbers in it," Ben said as Isaac opened the box and held the phone in hand, "... and Masky's for emergencies,"

"Plus, flip phones are way better for ending calls with," Toby said as he budged over to make space for Isaac, "It's so much better to snap them closed than push a part of the screen," he continued as he put a plate of waffles stacked with cream and caramel syrup, that undoubtedly held either a few hidden strawberries or blueberries, with a solitary candle sitting upon the sticky mess on the table in front of Isaac.

It had become a small tradition between the two that Toby had started. Breakfast would consist of a small mound of waffles with an unhealthy amount of toppings and a few bits of fruit for added flavour. Another part of the tradition was that Toby would change up where he got the waffles from each year.

It had become a shared goal for the two of them to try waffles from each country at least once.

"What's it this year?" Isaac asked as he swapped the phone for the fork offered to him by Ben so that Ben could get it all set up.

"Belgium," Toby said, resuming his flicking through channels.

Isaac hummed in answer as he tore a piece off one of the waffles on his plate with the fork and shakily brought it to his mouth.

"Relax a bit, before you spill it down yourself," Ben said, tossing a napkin at him, "Do you really think that something other than Slendy could ever get Jeff up before two?"

"So," Ben said, leaning across Isaac and snatching the remote from Toby, "This time we are changing up the routine of going out somewhere, getting bored after a few hours, coming back here and playing games to playing games," he said, changing to the channel that was connected to the games console, "... _then_ you go out, get bored, and come back and play games,"

After a few hours of playing online, Ben's help in getting through to lobbies and re-directing people searching for lobbies came into play many a time, they eventually changed to watching an old slasher film that had come on.

"No, don't split up and... they split up," Ben said, throwing an arm up in defeat.

"People in horror movies," Jeff said, stretching his arms as he descended the stairs, "... are fodder to pad the runtime and give your horror fans something to laugh at," he cracked his neck as he walked through to the kitchen.

A few moments later he came back through, a couple of bits of toast in hand, and lay across another of the couches as he chewed, "What's the kill count at?" he asked after swallowing the first bite.

"Just at four, for now," Toby said as they watched the characters of the movie discover the burnt remains of the fourth kill.

"Eh, it'll pick up towards the end," Jeff said, taking another bite.

"Yeah. Practical effects are badass though," Ben said, taking a couple of pieces of popcorn from the bowl they had made up.

"That they are," Jeff said slowly, "You got another couple of hours before we leave," he said as he stood back up, throwing the piece of kitchen roll that held the toast in the bin as he did so.

"You'll be fine," Toby said once Jeff had left the room, "He's not stupid enough to put you in any danger that he can't handle himself,"

"Yeah," Ben said, adding his two cents to the mix, "He'll probably stick you in a corner, taunt the sap, draw out killing the sap, then say his cheesy finishing line and kill the sap,"

The three of them sat in the living room for a while longer, before Toby got bored and decided to go set up the firepit for when Isaac returned, until Jeff came back down. The pocket of his jumper bulging slightly from the two knives he favoured for kills.

"Right, hurry up and get what you need, we're going," he said to Isaac as he kicked his feet up on the coffee table to watch the next slasher film that had come on.

Isaac only had to run upstairs for his hoodie and trainers. He also reached under the bed and took out one of the throwing knives before turning to leave. He paused for a moment by the door before going to the chest of drawers and rummaging inside for the facemask that Toby had given him last Christmas.

He stuffed the facemask in the hoodie pocket and hurried back down the stairs.

"Took you long enough," Jeff grumbled as he stood up and led Isaac to the front door.

"You got this," Toby said, clasping Isaac's shoulder. Ben leaned round the couch and gave him a thumbs up and wide smile as Isaac rounded the corner after Jeff.

"C'mon," Jeff said, opening the door, "Burning daylight here,"

The walk down the drive seemed a little longer than Isaac remembered and he was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he barely noticed the shift in scenery.

"Where are.." Isaac started but Jeff cut across him.

"Up North," was all Jeff said, "Keep up,"

Wherever they were, it had to be pretty far north since it was already getting darker. Though it was nowhere near night time, the sky was already dimmed and a few of the lights flickered on.

They walked along the dirt path from the treeline towards a road with a few cars passing at a junction.

Jeff told him to keep close as they jogged across the road.

Isaac looked around the town as they walked through the mildly busy streets. He would have liked to explore the place a bit but Jeff kept them moving forward.

They passed a few groups of girls who did nothing to hide the fact that at least one or two of their group found the glamoured killer attractive.

To Isaac, it was just plain weird to see Jeff in his glamoured state.

He had gotten used to seeing the perpetually smiling and never blinking teen so often that the boy with mousy brown hair and unmarred cheeks with eyes that squinted slightly in the light was a complete stranger.

He also thought he had seen Kagekao walking on the other side of the street but on a second glance it had turned out to be someone else. He hadn't seen Kagekao in his glamoured form much but he knew that the teen walking on the other side of the street wasn't him.

The scarf that he wore was similar to Kagekao's though.

The teen must have noticed his starring as he looked back at Isaac and Isaac dropped his gaze and hurried along a bit as Jeff told him to keep up again before they crossed over into a smaller and more sparse part of town.

Isaac was starting to get tired from all the walking at this point and was fairly glad when Jeff stopped in a back alley of either a restaurant or a takeaway.

"Ok, Slendy's had me on this guy for the past couple of days," he said, "You go sit over there..." Jeff gestured to where a few dumpsters were lined with a few extra bags piled on the sides.

"... now the best way to learn, by my standards, is to watch and learn," Jeff continued, "So, you go sit over there and watch me kill this guy, then I'll show you how to properly fight tomorrow since I can't be bothered to today,"

Isaac did as he was told and took up his position, hidden from view by the piles of bin bags and heavy dumpster. He was fairly sure that Jeff chose for him to hide here just because of the stench that filled the air.

Isaac sat there, crouched down on his knees, as Jeff hid in the shadows of an alcove of another store.

Isaac wondered how much longer that they'd be there as he put on the face mask and drew his arms inside the hoodie to keep warm.

A little later, a man stumbled into the alley, the scent of alcohol thick in the air.

The man was muttering to himself, fumbling with the lid of another bottle, as his staggered steps took him deeper into the alley. As he passed Isaac, he could see the ends of his sleeves were stained a crimson red.

"W-why-I-I-I-Sh-she-she-wha-" the man's faint mutterings were cut off slightly as he raised the bottle to his mouth and it seemed like he was trying to drain the bottle in one go.

The man threw the remains of the bottle away. Although his throw had been weak the glass broke and fell to the ground in large chunks as it smashed against the wall, and the man started laughing.

Isaac tightened his grip on his arms as the man's laughter stayed low, quiet, but cruel and malicious.

The man was laughing through clenched teeth now, the hissing as he drew in breath was just as obnoxious to him as the manic grin on the man's face.

"Such a... happy laugh," Jeff called out from the shadows.

The man drew in more air through clenched teeth, a slurping noise as the new breath caught the saliva that was dripping down the man's chin.

"Who's there," the man said, the nervous stammerings were gone and a deeper voice had replaced them. The smile stayed though.

"Just another guy who likes to smile," Jeff said, stepping out of the shadows. His glamour still up.

"Well beat it, kid," the man hissed out, "Little boys like you don't always make it home at times like this,"

"You mean half-six in the evening," Jeff said, consulting an imaginary watch, "Might need to check that your watch ain't running fast there pal," he smirked at the man.

The man's smile was replaced with an ugly sneer.

"I'd watch your mouth kid, unless you wanna end up with that grin stuck on ya mug for the rest of yer life," the man said, moving closer to Jeff and taking out a large switchblade.

"What, this smile?" Jeff said, taking a few steps closer to the man as well, "Or this one?"

And Jeff let the glamour fade away.

"Cos, guess what, I beat you to it,"

His hair darkened dramatically, lengthening down his back as it grew wilder and messier, and his skin paled till it was as white as the moon. The small smirk that Jeff had been sporting had morphed into the wide and gory smile that he was so well known for.

"Wha-What the HELL!" the man growled as he swiped at Jeff's neck with the blade.

Jeff parried with one of his own large knives, taking both out.

He swiped at the man's face, with the one currently not stopping the switchblade from digging into his throat, and caught the upper of his head; clipping the top of the man's ear as he did so.

The man staggered back and Isaac made two mental notes.

1\. Don't drink before a job.

2\. Don't ever piss off Jeff.

He had already made the second one during his first week of being at the Mansion but now there was a long line of 'Don't ever, ever, ever...' in front of it.

The man took another blind swing at Jeff. The alcohol was starting to take its toll on him now as he stumbled mid-swing and Jeff was able to kick the man's feet away from him.

As he fell to the ground Jeff stood over him and dug both knives into the man's shoulder blades, at the point where the man's arms connected to his torso.

The man would have screamed but Jeff stood on the back of his head, forcing his face into a puddle that lay in the ground, and the man's painful cries were muffled by the bubbling of dirty water.

Jeff took the knives out from the man's back and twirled them.

"Now," Jeff said, crouching down and pulling the man's head back out of the water, " _Go to Sleep,_ "

And with that Jeff dug a knife into the back of the man's neck before standing up and stomping the blade further into him.

Jeff bent down and yanked the knife free form the now limp body.

As he made to turn to get Isaac a clicking noise came from the mouth of the alley.

Someone was standing in the middle of the entrance; her strawberry blonde hair fell graceful curls and her highly manicured nails were clutched around a camera phone from where the clicking had originated.

Jeff crouched down, raising a hand behind his back to tell Isaac to stay put.

"You... You..." she said, shaking as Jeff carefully picked up the man's switchblade.

"You... You... _you're real,_ " she said, a smile gracing her lips.

Isaac sat there confused. Unbeknownst to him, Jeff was having completely different thoughts.

Since he was closer to her, he could see the little chibi of him that was dangling from her phone and the matching case.

'Oh for fucks... FUCKING FANGIRLS!' he thought angrily.

However...

He had experience dealing with them.

"You... you know who I am?" he asked softly.

Isaac, despite being hidden behind an extremely filthy dumpster, moved closer to the piles of garbage so that he could still see; but was still heavily hidden. Whenever Jeff spoke this softly someone always got hurt, and that was just at the Mansion where he wasn't allowed to kill anyone.

"Yes. Yes, I do," the girl said, drawn in with the gentle tones that Jeff was putting on.

"You... aren't scared?" Jeff said, letting his shoulders drop with the knives that clattered to the ground. The switch-blade, however, had been slid up his sleeve.

"No, I'm not," the girl said, taking a few steps closer.

"But, why? After everything I've..." Jeff broke off, faking a few shuddered breaths.

The girl gave a sad sigh, moving even closer, "It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, you do what you have to," she said, coming within arms reach of Jeff.

Jeff took a hesitant step towards her, he seemed to be willing what was left of his cheeks to drop along to fit his act. His bottom lip quivering.

That seemed to be the final thing that drew her in and she pulled Jeff into a tight hug.

"Shh, shh, it's ok. It's ok," she said, patting the matted tangles that was Jeff's hair.

"I know," Jeff said softly, "I know," he said, dropping the act and returning to his normal voice.

Isaac saw the girl's eyes widen slightly before Jeff stabbed the girl's back with the switchblade.

He clamped a hand over the girl's mouth to stop her screaming and he withdrew the blade from her back. He then pushed her back into the wall and slashed a few times at her arms and finally at her throat, letting her choke on her own blood.

"Go... To... Sleep," he said in a soft hiss with each slash.

As he stood up, the job finally finished, Isaac came out from where he was hiding.

He walked slowly over to where Jeff was, unsure if it was safe to approach him.

"A good thing to remember," Jeff said, turning his head to face Isaac, "Is that people are morons,"

"But... but she..." Isaac said, "She didn't have to... why didn't she run?"

Jeff let out a sigh and crouched down so that he and Isaac were face to face.

"Listen. She saw what I was doing, by Slendy's rules that's the reason to kill her. Guy's like Teer can get away with letting them go since he can alter people's memories, but I can't so I have to kill them too," he said. Isaac was surprised at how gentle Jeff was explaining this to him, "You're just a kid, so you probably don't understand most of what we do outside of the 'kill to prevent demon apocalypse' side of this,"

'There we go,' Isaac though as Jeff returned to how he normally acted.

"But that's the way it is here. Better get used to it," Jeff said, looking past Isaac to the street.

"Listen, while I make this look like a mugging gone wrong, you want to go get something to eat from that vendor that we passed just down the street?" he offered a couple of notes to Isaac.

"Just get me something without onions," he told Isaac.

Isaac nodded mutely and took the money.

Before he turned to leave the alley he slid the facemask down and smiled at Jeff.

"I was asking why she was dumb enough to stay, not why you had to kill her. I got that you had to from the whole 'kill to keep secret' shtick,"

Jeff snorted and hit Isaac round the head, "Insolent twerp," he muttered as Isaac walked out and down the street.

Jeff walked over and picked up the large part of the smashed bottle and started masking the large knife marks he had left in his original target.

He then went and rubbed the girl's hand over the glass, wrapping her hand around the piece of jagged glass and pressing tightly.

Once he was satisfied that his work would pass at a quick glance he reformed his glamour and walked out in the direction that Isaac went.

Something was wrong.

As Jeff walked to where the vendor was he couldn't find Isaac.

"Hey, did a kid come here a few moments ago?" he asked the owner of the vendor, "I'm watching him for his brother. Blue hoodie, gray sleeves?"

"No, sorry," the man said and he turned to face another customer.

Jeff walked back down the path he had taken, looking for Isaac in case he had gotten lost on his way to the vendor.

After a minute of fruitless searching, Jeff got out his phone and called Toby.

"C'mon. Pick up. Pick up!" he grumbled under his breath.

#"Jeff, what's wrong?"# Toby's voice came through the speaker.

#"Listen. Could you give your brother a call? I finished work and he went to this vendor just down the street and he's gotten lost,"# Jeff said.

#"Wait, YOU LOST HIM!?"# Jeff moved the receiver away from his ear.

#"I didn't lose him. He must have gotten turned around on his way to the vendor or got distracted following a bee or some shit like that,"# Jeff spat back.

#"Jeff... hold on, Isaac's calling Ben,"# Jeff let out a small sigh of relief.

After a few moments, Toby's voice came back through the speaker.

Scared.

#"G-get b-back h-h-here now,"# Jeff looked at the call screen. The last time he had heard Toby stuttering that badly from his tic was when he had just woken from one of his night terrors the first week he was there.

Jeff hung up and started running back towards the nearest Slender-port point.

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The Ark.

Toby was sitting on the couch.

It had been about an hour or so since Jeff and Isaac had left and to fill the void he and Ben had gone channel surfing again and found a more recent horror film.

They were just watching one of the characters get blocked from escaping mid-motorbike jump when his phone went.

Toby frowned as he saw Jeff's caller id.

#"Jeff, what's wrong?"# Toby asked. He was hoping that he was just calling to let them know that they were on their way back.

#"Listen. Could you give your brother a call? I finished work and he went to this vendor just down the street and he's gotten lost,"# Jeff said.

Toby stood up, though the action was pointless since Jeff was who knows how many miles away.

#"Wait, YOU LOST HIM!?"# Toby half shouted into the receiver. Panic was truly setting in now. He ignored the thud of his leg as it hit the couch on its own will.

#"I didn't lose him. He must have gotten turned around on his way to the vendor or got distracted following a bee or some shit like that,"# Jeff said in retort.

#"Jeff... hold on, Isaac's calling Ben,"# Toby looked over at Ben as he stuck his hand in the tv.

Despite the situation, this always amused Toby.

The fact that Ben was still loosely linked to the wireless networks that he had set up around the house despite not being in the tv, and being able to turn anything with a speaker or microphone into a phone just by touching them, never failed to bring a smile to Toby's face.

Though he probably looked a little constipated from the smile being twisted by worry.

#"Isaac, you alright buddy?"# Ben asked, using the microphone from the headsets he had brought down to speak.

#"Isaac... so that's his name,"# someone answered.

Toby felt his insides freeze and he walked over to the screen, glaring at the static as if it was who was speaking.

#"Listen to me, whoever you are, you have no..."# Toby said but was cut off.

#"Sounds lovely,"# the voice said again, #"But I've got more pressing things to talk about,"#

#"I'll call back in half an hour, if Jeff isn't there then I'm going to hang up and try again after another half hour, so I suggest that Jeff's present,"# the voice said, #"Toodles,"#

#"You listen here... hello, hello?"# Toby started but the dial-tone was already sounding.

Ben had climbed into the screen the moment that the dial tone had started.

When he came back, shaking his head, Toby spoke back into his phone.

#"G-get b-back h-h-here now,"# was all he was able to say as he dropped the phone, his tic getting out of hand and the cracking sounded as though it would have been immensely painful.

He focused on calming his breathing as his neck and wrists spasmed violently.

Less than fifteen minutes passed and Jeff barged in through the front door.

"What happened?" he asked.

Toby looked up at Jeff and stood up, half ran towards him, cocked back his arm and prepared to punch him straight in the face.

"Woah, Woah," the Puppeteer said, Toby had no idea when he or the others had gotten there, but he and Helen had been sitting on the lower stairs and Teer had wrapped a few strings around his arm to stop Toby attempting to fully split Jeff's face into two, "Let's calm down. First, we get Isaac back. Then, you use Jeff as a punching bag,"

Toby nodded, despite every part of him screaming to tear Jeff a new one.

Teer released Toby and everyone sat in tense silence for the rest of the time before the call came through.

Teer and Helen sat conjoined at the hip on the stairs, Masky was sharpening a hunting knife with Hoodie and Ben was pacing in front of the window. He wasn't able to trace the call since the caller had taken out the battery, blocking him off completely, and he wouldn't be able to find Isaac this time since he would probably call him again.

Toby sat on the couch, holding his legs tight to his chest to stop them hitting everything within reach as his body shook every so often with a twitch.

Jeff stood in the archway to the room. Not knowing what to do with himself.

After waiting for what seemed like hours Ben stuck his hand back in the tv to connect the call.

#"Alright, listen here you punk,"# Toby said, walking across the coffee table and talking in cold tones that had everyone sit up or stand straighter.

#"I'd love to chat with you,"# the voice said, #"But my quarrel isn't with you. Is Jeff there?"#

Jeff took a few steps closer to the tv.

The voice sounded familiar.

#"What do you want with me?"# he asked, joining Toby in glaring at the screen.

#"I want to meet up for a little chat,"# the voice said calmly.

#"Oh, you really think that's wise,"# Jeff said, taking another step to the screen, #"Where's Isaac? And I promise you one thing, if he's hurt, I will use you as a sharpening post,"# Jeff growled into the headset.

For a few moments, it sounded like Jeff had spooked him. All was silent.

Until laughter started echoing from the other end of the call.

#"HUH HUH HA HA HA,"# Jeff growled again.

He was about to call the voice a whole list of things that could have easily gotten someone punched in the face in an instant, but the caller cut him off.

#"Ha ha, ohhh. Oh Jeffy... you don't know who I am, do you?

And I'll let you know something else Jeff, you've already used me to sharpen those pretty little knives of yours."#

Jeff felt his nails dig deep into his palm.

#"What have you done with my brother?"# Toby demanded.

#"He's fine, he'll sleep, for now,"# the voice said, sounding bored now, #"Though I do find this quite fun, in an ironic sense,"#

#"Alright, I'll tell you where your little brother is, as long as Jeff meets me. Alone, no one else from your lovely little group coming with,"#

The other's shuffled where they sat.

#"Alright, you piece of shit,"# Jeff said, #"You tell us where Isaac is, and I'll come meet your fuck-ugly face alone,"#

#"Oh. Jeffy, Jeffy,"# more soft chuckles, #"Such harsh words. C'mon now..."#

#"Is that any way to talk to your big brother?"#

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 **YOU HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA HOW FUCKING BIG A PART OF ME WANTED TO END THIS CHAPTER RIGHT FUCKING HERE!**

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Abandoned old store-house.

Isaac blearily opened his eyes. Someone had taken off his glasses.

He winced slightly, he had been lying on his side for who knows how long and he let out a small groan as he rightened himself.

A small thud sounded off his chest as something was thrown at him. His glasses.

"Here," a gruff voice said from somewhere near the dirty window that served as the only source of light.

Isaac put on his glasses and looked over at the figure.

The boy he had mistaken for Kagekao was standing there. Even though Isaac had been wrong about him being Kagekao, this person also knew how to produce a glamour.

"Who are you?" Isaac asked. Trying not to let panic overtake him.

"Sully... for now," the figure replied.

'You're shivering from the cold,' Isaac told himself.

He moved away from the window and Isaac caught sight of his scared face. There were two gashes on each side of his face, and a third that ran along the centre of his head that curved from under his left eye to join with the scar on his right cheek.

He reminded him a bit of Jeff, if Jeff had had his mouth stitched back together instead of keeping the carved smile split and open.

"Well Sully," Isaac said shakily as he tried to sit up, but found that he had been tied at the waist to a pole that ran the height of the room, "What do you want? If it's money I got none, and I suggest you let me go before my brother finds me,"

Sully let out a laugh.

"Funny you should mention brothers, I'm waiting for mine as well," Sully pulled over a chair and sat opposite Isaac, "We're doing a little trade-off. Your big brother gets you, and I get to do a bit of catching up with my little brother," Sully gave a sadistic smile. Pale yellow eyes bore into his own.

For a moment as Isaac looked at Sully, he thought that he had seen them flicker to a soft hazel for a moment but he ignored that for a moment.

Either Toby and the others were going to kidnap someone to swap for him... or someone at the Mansion was Sully's brother.

"Well, I say my brother," Sully said, leaning back, "Really he's this meat suit's brother," he said as he took out a bottle of pills, shook a couple out, and dry-swallowed them.

"You're a demon," Isaac said, ignoring the mildly gleeful fanboy inside of him right now, and the sly smile he got in return was confirmation enough, "... and you're possessing whoever that is to... wait, what exactly do you get out of this?"

"Wai-what?" Sully asked.

"Well, let's say that our brothers get here," Isaac said, "What happens next? Either way, you're gonna end up dead,"

"How so?" Sully said, kicking his feet out so they just within licking distance of Isaac's face.

"Well... who's your brother?" Isaac asked.

"Meat suits brother," Sully corrected, "... is Jeff,"

"Ah," Isaac said, his mind froze for a moment at this revelation, "Wait, Jeff has a brother?"

"He did," Sully replied, a dark sneer on his face.

"Well... then either my brother kills you, or Jeff does," Isaac paused to swallow, "Cos either way... wait, why are you going after Jeff anyway? You're already possessing one guy, and I don't think you're just doing this for fun,"

Sully grunted.

"Go back about, ooh, lost count it's been that long," Sully said, pushing his hair back off his face, "... and see little Jeffrey Woods getting flambé'd into the wonderful maniac you see today. I was the demon that should've gotten control of his worthless skin," Sully spat on the ground.

"But no, instead he manages to retain some essence of humanity when he goes to kill his dear, older brother, Liu," Sully stood up, knocking away the chair, "... and he's not able to bring himself to do it properly and he lives. I was cast out," Sully threw the chair across the room, "I should have gotten a proper body to claim as my own, but no. I got ejected from the brat. It was my luck that I managed to latch onto Liu," Sully walked a circle around Isaac.

"He was barely alive when the brought him in and stitched him up. He still had some use though," Sully came to a halt in front of Isaac, looking out of the window, "Even if I do need to juice him up to keep me in control," he muttered more to himself than to Isaac.

"If I couldn't get Jeffrey Woods then Jeffrey Woods would die," Sully grinned with a growl as he looked out the window, "And who better to use to do so than his own brother?" he turned to look down on Isaac.

"Tell me," he crouched down so he was eye to eye with Isaac, "Do you think that Jeffy'll be able to kill me? When I look like his own flesh and blood? If there is _one_ thing that Jeff could possibly regret, it's that he as good as killed the older brother that would turn himself in for something he didn't even do to protect his little brother,"

A noise from outside caught both their attention.

"Well, half of me thought that he wasn't going to show," Sully said as he stood up.

As he did so, the pill bottle fell out his pocket. Isaac quickly dragged it closer to him with his foot so that it was hidden from Sully.

Sully left the store-house and Isaac started to struggle against his bonds. If he could just get to the throwing knife in his pocket.

"ISAAC!" Ben cried as he skidded to a halt, falling over onto his side as he did so. The Puppeteer followed a little more calmly but also rushed.

Ben started to try and undo the knots on the rope before Teer not so subtly coughed behind them and swiped at the bonds, golden strings slicing through them like a hot knife through butter.

"Hey guys – oof," Isaac said as Ben pulled him in for a hug.

"You okay?" Ben asked, looking over Isaac.

"Yeah, just a bit sore from lying here for so long," he said as Ben helped him to his feet.

Greatly appreciated help since his other leg had gone to sleep and he half fell onto Ben.

Before Ben had time to help him out of the store-house Isaac bent down and grabbed the bottle of pills.

High strength steroids.

"Listen, the guy who took me..."

"Yeah, Jeff's big brother, we know," Teer said as he led the way out.

"No, well yeah," Isaac said, "But it's not him. It's the demon that would have taken Jeff if he had fully snapped,"

He quickly launched into telling them what Sully had told him.

"You get dragged into all sorts of things now, don't you?" Teer said rhetorically as he stroked the back of his neck, "Alright, I'm gonna go help Jeff, you get him to Toby and the others at the Slender-port," he told Ben.

Ben acted as Isaac's other leg as he helped him out of the industrial estate where he was being kept to the outer parts of a nearby forest.

"ISAAC!" Toby shouted and ran over as they got near, Masky, Hoodie and Helen not too far behind, "Isaac, what happened? Are you ok? Did he do anything to you? Did he hur..."

"He's got a severe case of sleepy-leg," Ben cut across Toby.

A few moments later more footsteps could be heard.

Jeff and Teer walked over. An unconscious Sully spread between them.

"The hell is he doing here?" Toby growled at Jeff and Teer.

"I'll explain back at the Mansion, Toby, come on," Isaac said, gingerly using his foot which now had the worst case of pins and needles he had ever felt.

Toby walked silently next to Isaac, casting wary glances at the unconscious member of their party.

Unsurprisingly, Slenderman was waiting for them when they got back.

As soon as they were all sat down, and Sully restrained in the infirmary, Isaac told them all what had happened.

From having a weird smelling cloth shoved over his face, to waking up in the store-house, to what Sully had said.

Jeff barely moved throughout the entire thing, the only thing that showed any indication that he was alive was the steady rise and fall of his chest and the slight shift of the hair that moved with each breath.

After he finished Slenderman dismissed everyone except Jeff. Not knowing what to do, he let Ben lead him up the stairs after Toby.

They went into Ben's room, which in Isaac's mind, would have been any computer nerd or geek's dream haven.

There were two desks.

One was filled with what looked like the top gaming systems on the market and a custom built pc that whirred slightly and flashed blue and green.

The other had what looked like a shelf from a gadget store installed on the wall above it with a bunch of tools for what Isaac assumed were for making and changing parts of electronics.

The walls of the room were covered with posters of the greatest game and television franchises and everything else looked surprisingly neat and tidy. Though that was probably to do with the fact that Ben spent his free time floating in cyberspace.

Though the bin was overflowing with what looked like months of thrown out rubbish.

Ben stuck his head in the tv as Toby shut the door.

"Nope, he's turned it off," Ben said, pulling his head back out.

"What's going to happen?" Isaac asked them.

"Hazard a guess," Toby said, "Slendy's going to explain a bunch of demonic mumbo-jumbo to Jeff. He's then going to offer Jeff the chance for him to remove the demon from Liu or he's going to allow Jeff to say goodbye,"

"But why can't Slendy remove the demon like he did the soul-shard for me?" Isaac asked.

"That was a fragment of a soul," Ben said, "To hazard my own guess, it's going to be a lot harder to actually exorcise a whole demon,"

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The large training room.

Jeff looked at the figure tied to the chair.

It had been years since he had seen his big brother and now he was sitting in front of him as they waited for him to wake up.

From what Isaac had said the demon that would have claimed him had taken Liu in retribution the night of his snapping and was hell-bent on killing him.

As the sleeping figure stirred Jeff wondered who he'd be faced with.

Sully or Liu.

As he slowly walked over the figure opened his eyes.

Soft hazel.

"Liu," Jeff breathed softly.

"J-Jeff?" Liu's head snapped violently to the right.

"G-go," Liu said, "Go, he wants to ki..." his head snapped violently again.

"I'm not going anywhere," Jeff said, "This fucker wants to kill me, it can bring it on and leave you the fuck alone,"

Liu snickered, and his head snapped up to face Jeff.

Pale yellow eyes.

"How sweet," Sully taunted, "And what happens when I leave little Liu's body? Your boss standing in the shadows over there sends my ass back to whatever hell-zone I'm from?" Sully turned his head to face Slenderman before turning back to Jeff.

Jeff smirked. How he managed that with the chunks gouged out from his cheeks was anyone's guess.

"You're going to anyway," Jeff walked back and sat down in his chair.

"And why's that?" Liu sneered.

"Because we don't need you to be out of my brother to exorcise your ass outta here," Jeff taunted back, "I'm just offering you the chance to finish what you started,"

 **"Jeff,"** Slenderman said warningly.

"This bastard used my brother as a fucking sock puppet Slendy!" Jeff glared at the suited entity in the corner, "I'm wanting round two with this piece of shit!"

He sneered at Sully.

"Or are you too chicken to face one little human?"

Sully's expression turned sour.

Before Liu's body spasmed again.

And again.

And again.

Shadows seemed to melt from every fold, crease, and gap Liu's body as it twitched repeatedly, each twitch more violent than the last.

The shadows seemed to form a solid shape.

It dropped to the floor on all fours, it's burnt-red leathery hide seemed to fold and ripple into itself and its knees bent in both directions as each... foot? hit the ground with many misnumbered claws digging into the ground.

As the last of the smoke left Liu's body, his head lolled to the side.

As the creature landed on the floor Jeff took in the form it had chosen.

It looked like someone had Dr Frankensteined the limbs of a grizzly bear onto a horse; flooded the entire thing with steroids and inflated it until its joints were popping from their sockets. Its hide seemed to be stretched thin at some points and sagging off in others.

Its head looked like an alligator's if someone glued a day's worth of trimmings off the floor of a barbers over its scales. Its jaw seemed unhinged, the muscle tissue holding it in place was gaped and holey. Its teeth would be perfect for a meat grinder though, each one seemed to point in a different direction than the last and twice as sharp as a razor blade.

Its forked tongue lolled over them, not getting cut as black drool dripped over its jaw.

Jeff looked at the thing that had possessed his brother. Venomous hatred dripping in its poison yellow glare.

Before he took another step back and dropped a lighter onto the ground.

Instantly an intricately designed rune that lay on the ground lit up as the spirits it had been drawn with caught the flame and spread to each and every part.

Slenderman had already removed Liu from the area and quickly ported Jeff away to the infirmary too just as he drew his knives.

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The infirmary.

Eyeless Jack pulled the cork off the bottle of Jack Daniels, he amused himself as he thought of what L.J would say to this, and poured a glass.

He nearly dropped the bottle as Liu dropped onto one of the few beds in the room and Jeff followed a few moments later, looking dazed at first then extremely pissed.

"Sonnuva!" Jeff shouted as he looked around the room.

Jack sighed and poured another glass as two thuds sounded from the wall behind him.

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Ben's room.

Isaac rushed to Ben's side as he collapsed, holding his head.

Isaac gritted his teeth through the increasingly painful static that rippled through him as he helped Ben into the tv.

"What happened?" Toby asked. He had stepped outside for a moment to refill a couple of the bottles that he had in his room with water for them to drink and had come back to see Isaac helping Ben into the tv on the desk.

"I dunno," Isaac said as they waited for Ben to reappear.

He did a few moments later.

#"Good thing Sally's away,"# he said as he drifted back into view.

Isaac frowned as Ben lazily floated around the screen.

Blue and red hues seemed to blur his edges and a pair of shackles with broken chains were attached to his wrists.

His eyes had changed back to black with deep red iris' that seemed to bleed blood and Isaac was reminded horribly of the face that had been forcing its way out the back of Quirrell's head. There was something more comforting about Ben's eyes though, they held more... emotion.

He was also looking more like Link from Zelda at the moment, though he figured that after what happened, Ben wasn't going to bother too much with putting up a glamour right now.

#"Ooooh, that hurt,"# Ben moaned as he stabilised himself.

"Are you ok? What happened?" Isaac asked.

#"Well, I think Slendy's just started laying the smackdown on the demon,"# Ben said, shaking his head and changing his appearance so he looked more like how he normally did.

It then hit Isaac that Ben probably spent most of his time with a glamour on, even though no one bothered to keep them active when at the Mansion.

Just then, the ground shook beneath them.

#"You two'll probably feel a hit soon,# Ben said.

And not a moment or two later a piercing wave of static had Isaac on the ground. Toby gritted his teeth through it since he was less affected but Isaac could feel each ring as it passed.

After a few moments the static passed and Isaac sat on the bed, shaking.

He managed to drink from the bottle he saw Ben starting to crawl out of the screen.

"Wait," Isaac said coughing, "What if..."

"Slendy's already plugged the tv downstairs back in and given me the all clear," Ben said as he clambered out the tv.

A few moments later Slendy appeared in the room and told them that himself.

"What happened to Liu?" Isaac asked before Slendy could leave.

 **"He is currently unconscious in the infirmary. Time will tell,"** and he 'ported away again.

"C'mon, let's go see what everyone else is up to," Toby said as they walked down the stairs.

Jeff and E.J were sitting in the living room.

"Nuuu," Jeff said, leaning heavily on his arm that wasn't preoccupied with a glass, "If you pudn egg in a potv water so far bayend boiling tizza bowlv steam," he slurred as he took another drink, a little sloshing out the edges of his smile, "It'll cook before yucan schnap yofingrs," his head slowly dropped down onto the table.

"No," E.J said, nursing a similar glass, there were three empty bottles next to him, "Nonononononono, If you gotta bowlf watar gnat hottd melt yorfingrsss..." his head slowly dropped down as well.

L.J was beside himself in fits of silent laughter.

He carefully walked round the two mumbling drunks resting on the coffee table and joined Ben, Isaac, and Toby as they quietly walked to the back patio.

Masky was standing a little down the steps, a lit cigarette between his lips, Helen and Teer had claimed one of the small benches, Hoodie was standing off to the side of them all, looking out over the treeline. Whether he was actually looking out there or had his eyes closed was anyone's guess.

None of them spoke for a while.

"We watch the Masky in its natural habitat," L.J said, "Smoking outside, brooding, and surrounded by the freakiest mo-fo's around,"

"Bite me," Masky growled amidst the chuckles from everyone else.

"Just trying to diffuse the tension," L.J said, sitting up on the banister, "The whole situation with Jeff and Liu's complete cold coffee... he's gonna need a coffee later too,"

"You think Liu's going to pull through?" Toby asked.

"Well," Teer said, sitting forward from his slouch against Helen, "If he's anything like his brother..."

"Don't forget Jeff's the younger brother," Ben said, sitting down next to Isaac.

"Fairpoint," Helen said, finally showing some semblance of interest, "God knows what he's picked up from Liu,"

Everyone else nodded. A cold breeze flowed past and Isaac shifted a little closer to Ben for warmth.

A few moments later E.J and Jeff half fell through the door.

"Heeeyyyyy," Jeff said, his tongue lolling out of one side of his mouth, "There's evryin, how ya'll doin?"

He was leaning heavily on E.J. Meanwhile, L.J was clutching the pillar holding the little roof above them up to stop himself falling.

"Holy crap! How much have you two had?" Masky said, throwing the butt into an old flower pot.

"Werouta Jack Dannls," E.J slurred as both he and Jeff fell to the ground face first.

"You drank five bottles of... urgh," Masky grumbled as he and Hoodie both moved to pick them up. Hoodie ruffled Isaac's hair on his way past for some reason.

"Therzs fiyv? I only phund vree," Jack said as Masky lifted him off the ground.

Jeff hiccuped as Hoodie lifted him onto his feet and steered him back inside the Mansion. L.J's silent laughter changed to small snorts and grunts.

"He, 'hic', hey. Yenow what you are?" Jack said, a drunken grin spread on his face.

It was freaky.

Very, very, freaky since his head kept moving around so the black gunk flowing endlessly from his eyes was spread further and wider across his face.

"You're _totally_ the mother-henuf the group," Jack said as Masky flung an arm round his shoulder to half-drag him back into the Mansion.

L.J fell backwards off the banister. Unhampered laughter echoing from him.

Everyone else chuckled to themselves for a few moments until Ben nudged Isaac in the side.

"Well, this was one hell of a birthday, wasn't it?" he smiled at him.

Everyone else did very good impressions of an owl.

"Wait," Ben said, looking at them all, "Am I seriously the only one that didn't forget?"

He fell snickering into Isaac's shoulder.

Teer quickly vanished and reappeared a few seconds later with a few haphazardly stacked parcels.

Once he dumped them on the table he repeated the action as Isaac sheepishly walked over.

Ben helped him carry everything up since Toby and Helen were called away by Slendy to deal with something. As they put the mostly unwrapped gifts on the bed, a screeching sound came from the trees.

Hedwig flew in through Isaac's window, a few feathers ruffled from the wind that dropped a few flecks of rainwater as she shook herself down.

After dropping the letters in her claws down on Isaac's pillow, she flew back over to the perching post that was kept in the corner of Isaac's desk.

"Herm-however-you-say-it and Ron's letters?" Ben asked, placing a few owl treats in Hedwig's bowl.

"Yeah," Isaac said, opening them both and shuffling between them.

Ben sat on the bed next to Isaac, reading over his shoulder.

"Ron's invited me to stay for a bit before the school term starts," Isaac muttered.

"Yeah," Ben said, reading the letter, "You want to go?"

Isaac twisted the parchment in hand.

"Well it's not like you've got, pffftb, just under five weeks to make your choice," Ben said as Isaac switched to read Hermione's letter.

Ben watched as Isaac thought of what to do.

"Hey guys," Toby said as he came back in.

"Hey Tick-Talk," "Hi Toby," the two of them said as Toby kicked the door closed.

"What did Slendy want?" Ben asked.

"Eh, someone over in Australia uncovered the remains of this old thing from ages ago and needed me and Helen to torch the remains," Toby said, rubbing a few black smudges from his forehead.

"Whatcha use?" Ben said as Toby pulled the free chair over.

"Napalm a'la Toby No.7," he said with a grin, "With a sprinkling of nitroglycerin drenched magnesium for a bit of added flair,"

Ben sucked in air through his teeth imagining the size of the crater that that would have left.

Toby leaned back in the chair with a satisfied grin. A few bits of sand fell out his hair and onto the carpet.

"You alright?" he asked Isaac.

"Hmm," Isaac said, still caught in thought, "Wha – Yeah, I got invited to Ron's a bit early before the year starts.

"Oh," Toby said, sitting up, "You gonna go?"

"I – Don't know," Isaac said.

"Ok," Toby said as he leant forward, "What's on your mind?"

"I – Don't know," Isaac said.

"Sensing a theme here," Toby muttered as he scooched the chair forward, "Ok, Twenty Q, is it... that you don't want to go, but don't want to hurt his feelings?"

Isaac shook his head.

"No, okay," Toby said, "Is it that you don't know if you're allowed to or not?"

Isaac paused and waved his head to the sides a bit.

"Sorta," Toby said, "You want to go, are unsure that you're allowed to or not... Is it that you don't know if you're allowed to because of who _we_ are?"

Isaac paused for a few moments again, before waving his head to the sides again.

"Ok, I got it," Toby said, "You don't know whether you're allowed to go because of what we do here, and that you're pretty much the only person here with a somewhat normal social life,"

Isaac didn't say or do anything.

"You okay?" Ben asked Isaac.

"Hmm, yeah, I'm fine," Isaac said.

"No, you're not," Ben said, turning to face him, "You've been bottling some stuff up for a bit now, what is it?"

"It's nothing," Isaac said with a weak laugh, "It's stupid, really, I'm fine,"

"Listen," Toby said, shifting the chair closer still, "If something's bothering you, talk," he ducked his head down so that he was looking right into Isaac's eyes.

Isaac looked into Toby's eyes before dropping them to the floor.

"It's stupid," he mumbled.

"You were scared, weren't you," Ben said softly.

Toby looked confusedly at Ben and at how Isaac blushed and dropped his gaze even further before mentally hitting himself again.

Again, he had forgotten just how young Isaac was. He'd just turned twelve and Toby tried to put himself in Isaac's shoes.

This was a kid, who's idea for a normal kid's life was pretty much slavery up until about four years ago; who lived in a house of serial killers and, to be honest, monsters.

His examples of role models here weren't exactly the best, he would admit, so his worry about admitting how scared he was... Toby was clueless.

Not for the first time he was wishing that Lyra was here. She had always been the comforting voice in his life whenever things got too bad.

"Ok," Toby said softly, "So you were scared. So what, everyone gets scared. Everyone,"

Isaac didn't look up.

"Iz," Ben said, "You were kidnapped. Actually kidnapped this time and used as a bargaining chip by a proper demon,"

Isaac looked up a little.

"I was scared, Toby was _terrified_ ," Ben said, ducking his head down a bit, "He was ready to punch Jeff in the face because of what happened,"

Isaac looked up a little more.

"Would've too if Teer hadn't..." Toby grumbled to himself.

"See," Ben said, gesturing at Toby, "Even Jeff looked lost as hell before we came to get you,"

Toby moved the chair close enough so that he could put his arm on Isaac's shoulder.

"Everyone gets scared," he said as Isaac's eyes flicked up to meet his, "Even though no one here really shows it, we're just more used to this stuff,"

Isaac nodded, a smile gracing his features that somehow seemed to make things a little brighter in the room.

Toby gave his shoulder another squeeze before Ben shoved the remaining gifts at him.

"Right," Ben clapped his hands, "No more sad stuff. It's yo birthday and we gonna celebrate," he said as he stood up and moved the remainder of Isaac's presents towards him.

Funnily enough, the last two of the parcels he had to open were from Toby and Ben.

After putting aside Sally's gift of serpents of the world, she had had Masky take her and Isaac to a zoo just so she could watch him talk to snakes on her birthday, Isaac picked up Ben's gift.

"I have made it my mission," Ben said as Isaac unwrapped the modified walkman, "... to get you every comfort of home, one way or another, for when you go to that place,"

"How did you..." Isaac trailed off as a few custom cassette tapes slid out of the wrapping.

"I'm well connected," Ben said, "Also L.J's a complete hoarder and had a few things stored away,"

Ben listed off what songs he had managed to put on the tapes as Isaac opened Toby's, long, gift.

"I also got you these," he said, tossing him a pair of brown leather, fingerless, gloves, "I had a bit of time to kill in the petri-dish of death,"

Isaac smiled as he took the gloves and tried them on. A little big but still pretty comfortable.

As he finished unwrapping Toby's gift Isaac started to frown.

"Toby... wha..." Isaac said.

"Well, you've been here a bit," Toby said, scrunching up the used wrapping paper, "... so I thought you might want to see what you're best at handling,"

In Isaac's lap was a rectangular wooden box.

Isaac undid the latches and opened the lid.

Inside was a small assortment of different bladed weapons.

Isaac wondered why Ben seized up a bit when he pulled out an old hatchet with a dulled blade.

"Found that in the bottom of my wardrobe," Toby said softly, an odd smile that Isaac couldn't place was playing on his lips, "Might need a bit of a sharpen if you want to try that, so I'll show you how to tomorrow,"

"T-thank you," Isaac said, turning the hatchet over in his hand.

"Right then," Ben said, snapping his fingers, "Every kid's got to have that one night of their life when they play games at a friends for a night without sleeping,"

He nudged Toby in the shoulder to get him to move, "Gimme a hand getting things set up while he puts that stuff away,"

Isaac laughed a bit as he put the hatchet back in the box and closed the lid.

"You really giving it to him?" he asked as soon as they were in the hall.

Toby cast a glance back at the closed door.

"Yeah," he said with a small nod, "I don't need it,"

Ben glanced back at the door too before walking down the corridor to his own room.

Isaac managed to last till around half six in the morning before he started to drift away.

Ben stretched out on the camp-bed next to him, reaching over to take Isaac's glasses off before he rolled over and crushed them.

After trying them on for a moment he tossed them onto the bed and folded his arms under his head and went to sleep himself. The cyberspace he was constantly connected to would tell him if anything was wrong or needed his attention.

As he drifted to sleep the noise of some bird not keyed to the wards getting scorched outside wrought a small chuckle from him.

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Author notes.

The first chapter of the new year done.

So... Liu,

Yeah, I'd been planning a chapter like that for a while now and hopefully I didn't bugger everything over too much with him.

Seriously though, you have no idea how badly I wanted to end the chapter at his reveal. No idea at all, it would have been the perfect cliffhanger but I felt that the chapter would have been too short if I did.

I went through a few versions of this idea.

The first was that Liu would have snuck up behind Isaac when he was out walking Smile and forced him to take him to the Mansion after Isaac let Smile off the leash and run the rest of the way back.

Another idea had Liu drop down and interrupt Jeff's kill.

I like the version that I went with though.

Also, I have no idea what Liu's eye colour is since I tried to look it up and got no definitive answer. Some had them green, some hazel, some yellow-y green, yadda yada yadda.

So, I decided on the yellow eye version and after writing the meat-suit part I hit myself in the head. A demon possessing a guy that turns the guy's eyes yellow... hello Azazel.

After that, it turned into a 'how Supernatural can this chapter get' test for me.

Also, question for you;

Should I make it so that Liu still has the Sully personality, but it's just a more aggressive side of him and the Demon was just using the Sully personality to remain in more control...

Or should I keep it so that the demon was the whole of Liu's split personality and have it gone?

So, last things before this chapter ends.

1, The 100 follower special I'm uploading to EXTRAS will be getting worked on a bit more and should be up soon.

2, The owl at the end that got scorched was just another attempt by Dumbles to find The Ark, it wasn't his yearly equipment list. From what I could gather from Chamber that letter came 4 to 6 days after Harry went to the burrow at least.

3, There will probably be another chapter that melds the last of the summer CP side of the story with taking Isaac to the burrow next week. After that it's back to shifting a few things from the book.

Anyway, that's all from me.

Sorry that this chapter was a little late, I had a little trouble uploading the word doc to the site.

Also, I re-uploaded this because I forgot the CP claims, oops.

Thank you all for reading, and as always, till the next one;

SteamGeek01.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – Still no idea.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Introducing Homicidal Liu - Vampirenote13? Might be, some sites has 'unknown', this was the first I found that actually had the story.


	15. Chapter 15, Aftermath

.Chapter 15, Aftermath.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks

if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$Word$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from.

Author's note.

Well,

I get to say it. I have a genuine reason to say it.

Ladies, gentlemen. Shippers, readers, and artists.

The views...

On this story...

They're OVER 9000!

Well, at the writing of this statement, it's at 9001 so it still counts.

Or maybe I've got the scouter on upside down...

I'm turning into a broken record, I know, but this is still amazing to me.

In all serious, thank you, each milestone just urges me to do this more and more. It's a few days before chapter 14 goes up so I'm finally getting a jumpstart on this.

I have no idea what the response to chapter 14 is so I'm just going to leave a gap for the reviews and carry on.

Like a wayward son. Ha ha.

No, ok, I'm just... gonna go over here...

TheGavenExpress;

Thanks for the review.

I'm going to assume that you are okay with having Sully just be a more aggressive side of Liu, I'll probably drop you a message to get a better idea since I'm not sure of what you mean from the review.

DarkRavie;

Thanks, glad you like it.

TheMarpasChappers;

Hello again, is it favouritism to say I always look forward to reading your reviews. Probably, I don't care.

Yeah, I had thought about saving Liu for the summer before the third year, when Sirius broke out, but I decided to make it this summer instead.

I honestly read Liu's story not that long ago, like a few days before it turned 2018. I'd known there was a story for him for a lot longer, but I never got round to...

BUGGER!

I forgot to put, did I, hold on I gotta check a thing...

BUGGER! Ok, oops, I forgot the claims for the Creepypastas last chapter, fixing that now.

#" _Already got ya covered Geek"#_

S.G – Oh, thanks Ben.

#" _No problem-o Geeko"#_

 _S.G –_ Well, that was handy. So...

'Ben causes Laptop to crash'

... of course he did, I really need to close that portal. Ok, where was I?

Liu's story. Yeah, was originally going to be put in after second year but I decided to put it in now and I'll be introducing another CP to the story, most likely, next summer.

Thanks, it's fun writing with Isaac and Ben.

1, 'whispering' He was, just for the fact that a newcomer got to train their latest before he ever got a chance. Considering what happened last chapter with trying to train Isaac... I think it's going to be a bit before he's allowed to take Isaac on a ride-along.

2, I know, he's everybody's favourite dapper demon. His character's been around for centuries so it was a little easier to write when L.J when I looked up a few photosets and Tumblr posts.

I started watching Supernatural because I kept seeing Destiel stuff on facebook.

3, Yeah, I think he's definitely up there. I think the leader would definitely be Slendy, then maybe L.J. After that, I dunno.

4, Yeah. I'm not having a go at anyone in particular. It's a little jab at everyone, there's always going to be that one thing that we're all overly obsessed with, myself included, but it was either that, or have them accosted in the street or at something where they're disguised as theirselves by a rabid shipper.

Glad you like the chapter.

Guest;

No, everything I've ever read with Liu has always shown him to be the older brother.

Katopris12;

It will... oh it will.

So, I'm going to assume that the review responses were put in.

Unfortunately, nothing from 'DP' this time since I'm uploading what I've got on my laptop since this is late. Sorry about that.

And here we go, chapter 15.

A bit of CP stuff, a little HP stuff, all in all, it shouldn't be too bad.

Hope you enjoy, and till the next one;

SteamGeek01.

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The Ark.

'Thud'

"Little higher,"

'Grunt'

'Thud'

'Grunt'

'Thud'

"Ok, we're out of hatchets," Toby said as Isaac threw the last one.

They had been seeing how well Isaac could throw them to hit a target and, so far, all bit one had missed the target.

Toby and Isaac walked over to the practice dummy and looked at the only hatchet to impale its torso.

"Well, you got one," Toby said, picking up another three that had missed, "Not that bad a start since that was volley one,"

Isaac nodded as he pulled the hatchet free of the dummy and picked up the other two on the ground.

They spent another hour practicing with the hatchets and by the end it was a coin toss whether Isaac hit the dummy or not.

"Alright, you want to try the hunting knives?" Toby said, taking one out of its sheath, "Or, you want to try something a little more melee?" he said, picking up a machete.

"Toby, Isaac," Masky shouted from the patio door.

"Yeah?" Toby shouted back.

"Are you two ok?" Masky said as he ran over.

"Yeah, what's up?" Toby said as Masky came to a stop.

"Liu's missing," Masky said, Toby's grip on the machete tightened.

"What happened?" Isaac asked.

"Went to check up on Jeff and E.J since they were sleeping off their hangovers, lightweights," he added under his breath, "... and E.J asked me to check on Liu since he was down and out. I went to the room and he was gone," Masky said.

"Ok, I'm gonna take Isaac to his room then..."

"And this is the backyard, it's different from the front because it's round the back," Sally said as she walked round the corner, pulling on someone's sleeve.

Liu's sleeve, and as he came fully round...

Isaac snorted into his hand as he saw Liu.

Around his neck was a bright pink and feathery boa draped around his neck in place of his scarf and he had Charlie the Bear tucked under his other arm which was also holding a little pink teacup as Sally dragged him round to say hi to Masky, Toby and Isaac.

"GUYS! GUYS!" she bounced excitedly as she came nearer, "Did you know that Jeff has a brother? He was sleeping in the infirmary. Is he staying? Does anyone have any sisters that could come here?"

Liu shuffled awkwardly after her as she continued to pull at his sleeve to bring him over.

"Erm..." he said as Sally stopped him next to Toby.

"Hi," Toby said coldly.

Liu looked around, not meeting any of their eyes.

"Sally giving you the tour?" Isaac asked, forcing Liu to look at him, a friendly smile on his face.

Liu hummed his affirmation and nodded, not looking higher than Isaac's shoulder.

Isaac leaned over a little, Toby had slowly drifted between him and Liu, before speaking again.

"Head feel ok? Heard that Teer cold-clocked you one with a cinderblock," Isaac said.

"So that's where the lump came from..." Liu muttered, rubbing the back of his head.

"Yeah," Toby said, void of emotion and tense.

"Toby," Masky said, "Put down the machete,"

Toby's grip had tightened so much that even without his tics it was shaking.

Toby looked at Masky for a few moments before re-sheathing it, "I'm gonna go get a drink," he said before walking back into the Mansion.

Isaac, Sally, Masky, and Liu watched him walk away.

"I'm sorry," Liu said, barely above a whisper.

"Wha..." Sally started but Masky gently shushed her.

"I'm sorry for what he... I'm sorry for what I did," Liu said, turning back so that he was more or less facing Isaac.

"Sully he... he filled my head with... When Jeff..." Liu started and stopped with shuddering breaths that Isaac suspected only half because of the nip in the air, "Sully was a part of me for so long that I don't even know what was truly me or him anymore,"

He paused for a breath.

"We were one for so long our... ideas, our motives, I dunno what to call it, grew indistinguishable; we both wanted to find Jeff but he wanted to make him suffer. He wanted to be the one to throttle the light from his eyes and take pleasure in the fact that he killed him wearing my face,"

Liu took off the boa and handed it, the teacup, and Charlie back to Sally.

"When we saw you and Jeff walking down the street I was... in control," he said, waving a hand idly, "Sully argued with me about whether we should take you, I tried to argue that you had nothing to do with this but Sully forced that bottle down my throat and... next thing I was strapped to a chair in this gym or something. I got flashes, don't know what was real or not, but for the most..." he trailed off again.

The four of them stood in the slight breeze. Sally was looking confused at the other three, obviously not having been told the whole story yet, while Masky just stood there as silent as Hoodie.

"Believe it or not, but I kinda know how you felt," Isaac said, crossing his arms to guard against the cold and kicking his feet, "I got leeched on by a soul-shard for about seven years, met the guy a few weeks back actually, total bastard to be honest," Isaac muttered at the end.

"Language," Masky reprimanded.

Isaac gave a half pout and they were surprised to hear Liu laugh

It was a short laugh, but the change in Liu was startling. He looked younger, the tired look in his eyes lifted for a moment, and Isaac could almost see the carefree teen before it all.

"House full of killers, a ghost, couple of demons doing enough to turn you candle white," he gave a smaller, more quick, laugh, "Yet you still pick him up on swearing,"

At that point the door to the Mansion was flung open and E.J stood in the frame.

"Patient... room... now," he growled out, his voice still raw from the drinking.

A scarf was wrapped around his head holding what looked like an icepack in place.

"I'd better, erm," Liu said, walking to the door.

"HOW'S THE HEAD!?" Masky shouted over.

They were barely ten metres from the door, but Isaac was sure that Masky wasn't just shouting to make sure he was heard.

E.J winced and his talon-sharp nails scratched deep cuts in the wood.

"First of all, fuck you, I hope Smile pisses on your smokes. Second, hurts like hell, you prick. Third Jeff wants something to eat and lots of gravy to go with," E.J said.

Gravy, to Jeff, was one of things that you would have when your day had been pretty shitty and you needed a pick-me-up. Masky smirked with a knowing smile at what would happen.

"Alright, how much gravy?" Masky said, tossing the used butt into the flower pot as they walked nearer.

"Asked him the same, he said 'Enough to make a bathtub full look like a dark-roast," E.J said as he stood aside to let Liu past.

They found Toby sitting in the living room with L.J and Ben.

"Hello chuckaboo's," L.J said as they walked in, or in Sally's case; bounced, "Toby seemed a little... Un-Toby so I gave him a useful distraction,"

"This is not useful! This is... I don't even know!" Toby said, frustration oozing each in word as each one of his fingers were bound to another by five finger traps.

"Hey!" L.J said when Toby started pulling them as far apart as he could, which was fairly far since he couldn't feel the pain that them tightening would cause, "Don't break them, they're originals,"

L.J's trick managed to keep Toby occupied and distracted for another two hours before L.J unstuck his fingers.

They were trying to decide what to do with lunch, another jaunt into town being the most favoured option, when Liu and E.J walked in.

They stopped talking as Liu walked over to Toby.

"Could I, could I have a word?" he asked.

"Sure," Toby said and he followed Liu to the infirmary.

Everyone else watched as the two of them walked away.

E.J made to follow but Masky stopped him, "Best let them work it out themselves," he said as he went to go check up on Jeff.

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The infirmary.

Liu held the door for Toby but was ushered in by Toby before he took a step closer.

Toby walked over and sat on the end of the bed that Isaac had slept on after Slendy had removed the soul-shard and looked at Liu.

Neither of them spoke for a few tense moments.

"I... I'm sorry," Liu said.

"I'm sorry that we... he... I took him," he forced himself to meet Toby's stony gaze.

"I'm sorry that I took him, and I know that..."

"Just, hold on," Toby interrupted him with a sigh.

"I get that... this demon thing was... with Isaac this... It hit close to home," Toby said, leaning forward.

"Yeah, Isaac, he er, mentioned the whole soul-shard thing," Liu said, taking another bed across from Toby.

"Not that," Toby said, shaking his head, "Not that,"

He drummed a quick beat on his knees.

An awkward silence settled between the two of them.

"I don't... blame _you_ , it's just..." Toby tried to say.

"You don't blame me, but I'm the face that goes with," Liu completed for him and Toby nodded, "I don't blame you there either,"

Silence fell between them again.

"So how long have you had a brother?" Liu asked, breaking the silence this time, "Sul... he did his looking into everyone around Jeff. He found you, he found Masky, he found way too much stuff with Laughing Jack that I nearly threw up with," Liu said, turning a little green, "... but he never found a mention of you having a brother. A sister, yeah, but she..." Liu trailed off, "Ohhh," he said with a groan, " _That's_ what you meant by 'close to home',"

Liu flopped back on the bed with another groan.

"This is not... This ain't... Well this has gone well," Liu said sarcastically.

"Mmhmm," Toby hummed, resting his head in a hand and a small smile tugging on his face.

"So, when did you?" Liu said, propping himself up on his elbows, "Your brother, I mean,"

"Well, bout four years ago, I had a little jaunt to the UK," Toby said, swapping arms when his left arm ticked and he nearly poked himself in the eye, "... and I found Isaac..."

By the time that Toby had finished, Liu had flopped down on the bed again.

"Man, this kid gets all the bad luck," he said as he stared up at the ceiling, "So whats so special about this school that he has to go to?"

"Hmm, oh," Toby sat up a little more, "That's a whole other can of worms,"

"Really?" Liu said, rubbing the sore on his head, "Would've thought you guys would want to keep him a little closer to home if he still had to go to school, why's he got to go Brit-side?"

"Because there's a school that his name's been down for since he was born there where they teach you magic," Toby said with a completely straight face.

Liu snorted and sat back up.

"Ok, ha ha," he said with a lopsided smile, "Ok, C'mon, what's the real reason?"

"He's a wizard, he's learning how to use magic, and that's where his school is," Toby said again, his face still blank.

Liu just stared now.

"Really?"

"Yep,"

...

"Alright..." Liu said slowly, "Should I be worried that he's gonna turn me into a frog or something?"

Toby laughed, "No, you're safe... For now, he said he hasn't gotten that far yet,"

Liu's eyes widened slightly, "Well, who needs normalcy? Wait, are you even allowed to tell me this?"

"Boring people, that's who, and probably not, no," Toby said, outside the gentle thuds of rain signalled the beginning of a downpour, "Well, there goes lunch," he muttered.

They sat in silence for another couple of minutes before Liu spoke again.

"What was... How's Jeff been?" Liu asked.

Toby thought for a moment.

"Probably a bit different from how you knew him," Toby said.

"No shit Sherlock," Liu scoffed, "I heard he emptied a few bottles of J.D's with someone, with his track record, has he thrown up yet?"

Toby shook his head from the faint buzzing that meant that Slendy had probably ported into the living room, "What do you mean 'track record'?"

"Well... you understand that since I'm his big bro, I'm not supposed to tell you stuff like that;

So I can't tell you about the Christmas that where we had a couple of cans of beer hidden away from this barbaque the summer before;

And I'm definitely not supposed to tell you how we both spent the day after sick with Jeff throwing up on and off for the whole thing;

Nor am I allowed to tell you that I didn't stop calling him 'Pukey the Elf' for three weeks,"

Toby clutched his knees tighter to his chest as he fell on his side to try and stop the barely contained laughter escaping him.

"You understand that I'm not supposed to tell people about these things," Liu said with a shit-eating grin, falling back on his bed so he was level with Toby.

"J-Jeff-ff's gon-na be so-o-o pissed," Toby said through his laughs and tics.

"Yeah, well, after his ' _wonderful_ ' reconstruction of my face he can go suck an onion,"

It took another minute for Toby to stop laughing, just in time for someone to knock on the door.

"Hello?" L.J's voice came from the other side, "You two kissed and made up yet?"

"Piss off," Toby said as he stood up.

"Oh, am I spoiling the mood," L.J said as he opened the door and walked in, "I've only just gone and gotten lunch with Masky, _and_ had to carry it back without a rain napper, so a thank you would be nice," he grumbled as he slid a few whoopee cushions under the pillows and stuffed another into the stuffing of E.J's swivel chair.

"You must be the Laughing Jack," Liu said, fixing his trousers as he stood up

"That I am," L.J said, "And the only reason I'm here, aside from getting your butts through, is because Jeff threw up when he saw the gravy and Masky told me to get the mop from this place," he said as he offered Liu a brightly wrapped piece of candy.

"Erm, no thanks," Liu said as he walked out after Toby.

"Suit yourself," L.J said as he squeezed the candy out of it's wrapped and flicked it into his mouth before undoing the clasps on the light covering and placing a few firecrackers in the bowl, "Lunch's in the dining room, I'll just be a moment, gotta change a few things first,"

"Alright," Toby said as he stepped out of the way to let Liu walk in front of him.

"Hit the lights for me on your way out," L.J said, "It's hard to wire firecrackers when they're going off in your face,"

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Isaac watched as Toby and Liu walked into the room.

Toby's mood seemed better as he sat down next to him. Liu faltered for a moment before slowly walking over and sitting across from Jeff.

Jeff, much to Isaac's amusement, barely made any movement aside from the mechanical way he picked up slices of pizza and garlic bread before eating them. He had a thick-rimmed pair of sunglasses on and he too had a scarf tied around his head that, like E.J, was holding an icepack on the top of his head.

He seemed to be growling every time something flashed, whether it be the light off of someone's watch or the flicker of a light.

Isaac was about to ask whether they had worked things out when Laughing Jack walked in.

He had swapped his normally black shirt with black and white striped sleeves for something a little similar. Still black and white with black and white striped sleeves, but the entire thing was covered in sequins to match and there were numerous party poppers tied to his belt.

Jeff let out something between a groan and a deeper growl when L.J sat down, deliberately shaking his sleeves in a way that the sequins glittered with light each and every time he moved.

It was about three minutes into everyone eating and chatting that L.J let off the first of the party poppers.

Immediately, two knives, a scalpel and one from the table were flung into his torso.

E.J and Jeff both glared, they assumed that Jeff was glaring, at him as the rainbow streams of paper slowly floated down.

"Oops, sorry, string got caught on my wrist," L.J said, holding up his hands with an innocent expression on his face.

E.J growled and returned to his food while Jeff drew a thumb across his throat and mimed pulling at the skin there.

"Yeah, yeah, you'll skin me later, gotcha," L.J said as he turned back to his plate, the knives now lay on the table beside him.

"That one actually was an accident," he said in small giggles to Isaac, who was sitting across from him.

The next four, however, were not.

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Life with Liu at the Mansion was...

A little strange.

Liu himself seemed a little lost. He had just started living there and, for the most part, was having a little trouble finding where he was supposed to fit in with it all.

Then, of course, there was his other problem.

All his time with Sully had left his psyche... fragile.

There had been a few occasions where he would be calm and quiet, sitting on the floor where Sally had dragged him over to draw, and then, as if on a dime, his personality would flip and he be ready to tear out the throat of anyone who so much as looked at him wrong. Though he would have no recollection of the event and he was starting to get paranoid to the point where he started skipping meals in favour of locking himself in his room.

After a couple of days, and on Slendy's orders, Liu was taken to see a specialist under the watch of Teer and Masky. Jeff had been avoiding him and everyone else, save for Hoodie since he didn't talk.

When they got back Liu seemed fairly worried.

" **Well, what was the diagnosis?"** Slendy asked when they returned from their second visit.

Liu struggled to speak for a moment, his throat as dry and rough as sandpaper, "We..." cough, "Well; Bipolar disorder, at the least. Maybe 'D.I.D' but they can't tell just yet..."

Over the next few days, Liu's habits around the Mansion changed.

He wasn't hovelling himself in his room for as long, this was due to the fact that the therapist had drawn him up an exorcise schedule that had him with two runs a day. One in the early morning and a later one in the evening.

His runs were normally four or six times around the perimeter of the clearing where the Mansion sat. He didn't go into or beyond the forest on these runs since the medication he was on had a few side effects.

The runs helped him to get more rest, per doctor orders, and did keep the weight gain caused by the medication in check, though the runs were problematic sometimes since another side effect had him frequenting the bathroom a lot from either nausea or diarrhea.

He did take over quite a bit of the cooking duties for dinner and sometimes lunch since the doctor also recommended being more aware of his dietary requirements since this would help with the weight gain and a few of the disorder symptoms.

The cooking did help him get over a bit of his awkwardness around Isaac, since the young proxy enjoyed cooking more than the others so he helped Liu out a lot.

In all the hubbub since Liu's arrival, Isaac had forgotten that Ron had invited him to his before the school term started.

Finding out that wizards used owls to deliver mail had been... interesting.

For the most part, Liuhe had thought that the snowy owl that tended to keep using Smile as a makeshift perch was his 'wizard familiar' or something of the sort.

"So... she delivers your mail?" Liu asked when Hedwig flew into the room, dropping a letter in Isaac's lap and circling the room before softly landing on Smile's back as he rested.

Smile twitched his ear at her disturbing his rest but relaxed into a comfier position none the less. The two of them had gotten on rather well, surprising them all. It wasn't that uncommon a sight to see them both stalking among the forest; Hedwig swooping from tree branch to tree branch, her sharp and focused eyes able to pick up even the smallest of creatures scuttling about, and Smile gently slinking between the trees, the ground underneath untouched and undisturbed as he prowled in his spectral form.

"Yeah, never failed one yet," he said smiling over at his owl as she landed on Smile's back and picked up the letter. He had sent his response that he'd like to come to Ron's for a bit, but that he had to work out travel things first.

"You sent her off yesterday, how'd she do that so fast?" Liu said as Isaac opened Ron's response.

"Oh, Hermione looked into that. Apparently for each major country there's this thing called a 'Perma-Floo-StationPort'. Floo powder is used by wizards to travel between fireplaces of all things so there's a permanent connection to the major wizarding area in each county, or a central point if there's a smattering of areas with high witch or wizard population, but spread out over a bunch of close-together countries," Isaac rattled off part of what Hermione had told him.

"So they can teleport anywhere they need?" Liu said, looking a little wary. He was starting to get why some of the other's didn't treat the wizarding world as some joke now.

"Well apparently the fireplace needs to be connected to a 'Network' first, so it's more like the Stargates," Isaac said, drawing up a comparison, as he shook open Ron's letter and brushed the little bits of dirt that had come loose in doing so.

~Hey Isaac,~

~AWESOME. Mum and Dad did offer to go to yours and pick you up, but when I told them that you were in America they said that maybe from the airoplain-port would maybe be better instead.~

~So if you are able to come over early, you'll have to let us know when your airoplain would get here.~

~No idea about the house-elf though. Only old and wealthy families would have one, you should hear about how Mum wishes that she had an elf to help with the work. Maybe Malfoy sicked it on you to get back at you for something.~

~Anyway, let us now if you're able to get over here,~

~Ron~

Isaac stuffed the letter in his pocket as went to go find Toby or Masky.

Eventually, a plan was worked out that Isaac would go early with a couple of friends who were going on vacation for a bit nad that Toby, Masky, and Hodie would head over once Isaac's school letter came which, by their reckoning would be a couple of days.

And so, two days later, Isaac bid farewell to the Mansion for a while. His trunk packed with everything magic related and a smaller duffel bag for his more muggle items. Masky had allowed him to take just one of the throwing knives in case he needed to protect himself.

He had sent Ron a letter that said he would be able to make his way there with a couple of guys from the Mansion that were having a little holiday and would be able to take him. After getting the name of town where Ron lived, Ottery St Catchpole, they would feign having travelled there by plane and rented a car.

Toby and Ben walked Isaac and his two escorts to the forest.

Slenderman had bidden him farewell as they passed him, apparently, he had business on a small island near Greece.

It was once, again, rather early in the morning, around half six since they had told the Weasley's that they would be dropping him off around half eleven.

Liu had called out his farewell as he lapped past them on his morning jog.

Hedwig had taken off when they left and would most likely be there a few hours after they got there.

"Take care bud," Toby said, giving him a quick hug.

"Don't get into too much trouble," Ben said, also giving him a hug and patting him on the back, "... or if you do, make sure there are cameras," he said with an impish grin.

Isaac laughed, promising that if he did he'd try to make sure that there was a camera nearby, and tensed as he backed into the familiar twisting that meant that he was travelling.

His eyes didn't leave the sight of Ben and his brother, or the imposing Mansion that stood proud behind them, until they had faded away in the mist completely and replaced with brightly lit trees and birdsong different to the ones that had been chirped a few moments ago.

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Back at the Mansion.

Ben and Toby watched as Isaac faded from view.

The two of them stood there in silence for a few moments.

"You know," Ben said, "We need to get him something to keep his glasses safe when he goes out,"

Toby nodded and swallowed before speaking, he knew that Ben was having the same thought as him though.

Isaac's bright green eyes slowly fading as he disappeared had been a fairly creepy sight.

"Or something to wear instead, like something with his prescription,"

Ben hummed his nod.

"And green. His eyes damn near petrified me," Ben said before they both turned back to the Mansion to raid the fridge for an early breakfast.

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The town over from Ottery St Catchpole.

Isaac nearly fell over a tree root since he wasn't paying attention to where he was going.

After his little stumble, he turned to catch up with the others.

The plan was to go get a car that they could rent and pretend that they had driven from Heathrow.

After walking for a few minutes they came across a place where they could rent a car and started the drive to St Catchpole.

Meanwhile, at the Burrow.

Fred and George were in a state of calmly hidden mild panic.

Isaac's last letter, where he mentioned that a couple of the guys were going on vacation and were able to bring him over, meant that he would be coming today and was likely pretty close by.

The part that had them panicking, was that Isaac hadn't mentioned who was bringing him here.

Right now they were both in half a mind, which annoyed them since it would have been easier if one of them was worried about who was dropping him off and one of them was excited about who was dropping them off.

"He's here!" their mother, Molly, shouted up.

Above them they could hear Ron scrambling from his room to come and greet his friend, Molly had him cleaning out his room for the entire day and they'd bet their savings that he had spent about fifteen minutes at the most cleaning and then gotten distracted by something.

Another sound told them that their little sister, Ginny, had just dropped something. Probably in shock of Isaac being here earlier than planned.

It was no secret that she harboured a not so little crush on the figure overly glorified by the media.

After having spent a school year with the kid...

The idea that if you took away any distinctive features or asked someone with no idea about who the boy who lived was then there would be no doubt that the weird little kid that spaced out a few times a day, couldn't keep his hands still when he talked, generally looked like he ahd little idea what was going on for a good portion of his time and constantly muttered that when no one understood his references he was an unappreciated genius would not be their first, second, or anywhere in the top twenty to be The Boy who Lived.

The sound of a car rolling over the stones that made up their drive and front garden brought them out of their panic.

They quickly moved to the window to see someone walk just outside of their view to the front door, probably to let whoever was inside know they were there.

Isaac could be seen at the back of the car, giving someone help in getting his trunk and bag free. They couldn't see who it was but they could see a messy amount of black hair over the top of the boot lid.

"BOYS! GINNY!" their mother called again, "Come meet Isaac's..." her voice dropped for a moment, since they were a floor above they could hear her asking someone something, "Family," she eventually finished.

Fred and George walked down the stairs as casually as they could.

Isaac and the two mystery guests were standing by the table, their mother ushering them to sit while she made them some tea.

"Oh, no. No thank you," one of them said. This person had hair so dark that it almost had a blue tinge to it in the light.

"C'mon Helen," the other said, resting his elbow on Helen's shoulder as he forced the two of them to sit down with Isaac at the table, "We've got some time. It'd be rude to refuse, especially since she's putting up with Isaac for the next few weeks,"

The speaker also had black hair, but it was more a sort of inky black that absorbed all and any light that hit it.

The twins moved with mirrored paces as they came down the last few steps.

The bottom step, as they both forgot to skip it, creaked whenever it was stood on and the resultant groan brought everyone's attention to the two.

The one with the inky black hair stood back up and walked to greet them.

"You must be the twins," he said with a smirky smile, "Jonathan," he extended his arm.

"Fred," George said.

"George," Fred said.

"So you're the two that like to frequent Jester's stock," Jonathan said, after letting go of their hands.

Fred and George both visibly relaxed a little.

"So, pleasant trip?" Molly asked, bringing over the pot of tea that had started whistling.

"Think I was asleep till about half an hour before stepping in the UK," Jonathan said, reclaiming his seat at the table and taking the offered cup of steaming tea with a perfect smile.

"Oh," Molly said, a warm smile on her face, "Sorry, but I can't quite remember your name?" she said to the other.

"Helen," he said.

"Hel... oh," she said, a little taken aback.

"That is most people's reaction, yes," Helen said, bringing the steaming cup to his lips.

"Ah, well, it's lovely to meet the two of you," she said kindly, "I thought that you might have had some trouble with re-arranging your flight,"

"Oh it was fine, I was able to pull a few strings," Jonathan said with a satisfied smile.

Fred and George were left wondering why Helen and Isaac gave him quick side glares each.

"So, where you going for your holiday?" Fred asked as he took his own seat.

"Down to France," Jonathan said, taking a drink from his own cup and leaning his back against Helen.

He knew that Helen wasn't overly fond of 'pda' but he also knew that Helen would be grumpy at him for like five minutes before he started relaxing and forgot all about it.

"Just beaches, ice cream, the two of us failing to say things right... just chillin' and killin'," Jonathan said, running his free hand through the locks on the back of Helen's head.

Everyone assumed that the phrase was just that, that phrase. But no, there was some nut down the far south that Slendy wanted them to deal with so they were gonna dispatch him and then go sight seeing.

At that point Ron came down the stairs, nearly tripping on his untied laces as he did so, and started talking animatedly to Isaac.

"Why don't you help Isaac take his things up to your room," Molly said as she waved her wand and sent the mugs over to the sink.

"Well, we'd better get going," Helen said as he stood up swatting away Jonathan's hand and brushing any dust off his blue raincoat.

"Yeah, there's a tan just ready to be caught," Jonathan said, jumping to his feet as well.

"Bye guys," Isaac said, allowing Jonathan to pull him into a one-armed hug and noogie his as well.

Helen simply patted him on the back and gave him a quick smile.

Isaac waved out the window as the two of them drove off before turning back to Ron and asking how his holiday had been going.

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Author notes.

I am so sorry that this is late, I tried chasing up from 'DP' about getting it back but they weren't responding so I'm uploading what I had and checking it over on the website's edit page.

Little abrupt of an ending, I know.

So that was chapter 15.

I hit my favourite milestone for anything, getting to say 'Over 9000' for a genuine reason and I do hope you've all enjoyed this chapter.

I'm going to be starting chapter 16 the now and I've got the fourth chapter for 'EXTRAS' planned out a little so that's good.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed.

This chapter didn't really have any structure aside from a little of the aftermath from Liu and I haven't forgotten about the newcomer that is coming in shortly.

Most likely it'll be brought up by Toby next chapter.

Right, that's all from me.

Thank you for reading,

Till the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – Still no idea.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13. No idea if that's right, but it's what I found.


	16. Chapter 16, At the Burrow

Chapter 16, To the Burrow.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks

if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$Word$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from.

Author's note.

Chapter 16.

I've been doing this for sixteen weeks now, even longer since I wrote a few chapters in advance of posting the prologue and chapter 1.

I can safely say that this is the longest project that I've been continuously working on in my life.

I haven't gotten any responses yet since I'm still waiting on chapter 15 getting back to me from 'DP' but I should be getting it soon.

So, on the assumption that nothing of serious importance happens between me writing this, and uploading chapter 15, let's get a space there for the reviews.

Neverland and Dreamshade;

Oh great.

I knew I was taking a gamble with L.J's line in that scene...

I'm gonna have to write an extras chapter for that too now aren't I?

But to be honest... I think that if I did ever write any sort of thing between those two, I'd have a bunch of fun with it.

I might make it that everyone else insists that they're in a love/hate relationship just to annoy those two, that'd be fun.

TheMarpasChappers;

'Laughs'

Yeah, definitely a little favouritism when reading your reviews.

Yeah, the portal is fun.

Think something like a Stargate, except that there's no definitive ring and the chevrons are mini tesla coils that focus a... {bunch of technobabble that everyone stops paying attention to and skips over because they get it, there's a portal thing, there's no need to over explain it just get back to the point already}... that opens the portal between our worlds.

It's pretty nifty and, thankfully, I can close and lock it on my end.

Unfortunately, I have no dogs. So no Smile spawn coming into my world thank you very much.

Wait, your German.

Awesome, my little axis grows.

I've got contacts in America, Australia, Sweden, I think someone in Italy (I'd have to check) and now Germany. I've got to plan a little summer holiday where I basically backpack around Europe for a little, that'd be fun, but unfortunately, I'm fairly cashless right now.

Anyway, the list,

1, Ooh, that'd be interesting.

Playing around with a few of his more magical abilities... that'd be fun and thank you for helping with the Christmas era of second or another year.

2, A Creepypasta and Supernatural crossover...

I honestly can say that I'm fairly interested in the idea. I think that I'd wait until I finish writing this story before starting a new one, but I think that that one might be better for a long one-shot or a 3 chapter story.

Glad that you loved the chapter, I did re-upload it when I heard back from 'DP' and got things sorted out. I only uploaded my version to get it up there because my OCD was going a little nuts from being so late.

DarkRavie;

Glad you liked the chapter.

Got any suggestions or ideas for things, you're a fairly recurring reviewer so it'd be interesting to hear more feedback for possible story ideas.

ChaosDragon25;

Hmm, I'll look into it.

'Quick google session'

No, I can't find anything connecting the two, but thanks for the help anyway.

The only dog thing I could find with Stephen King was 'Cujo'. I think my dad's got the book somewhere so I might read it. From what I know about him, Cujo and Smile might be a fascinating team.

Guest;

I knew someone would bring that up, I knew it, and this story would hit a few bumps if I got rid of the Voldy-Sense that played a certain Deus Ex Machina in the original story.

Yeah, you don't get shot and have the skin heal as normal as it had. There's scaring. And I do have a few ideas for later on in the story about how that'll affect things, particularly fourth and fifth year.

Ok, I'm going to assume that any reviews I got had their responses up there so, I guess it's over to 'DP' for anything to say;

'DP' didn't actually write anything this time so I'm going to assume that they said hi.

Ok, now that that is out of the way, back to the story.

Also, I did fix a thing that I got wrong a couple of chapters ago.

The Demon with yellow eyes in Supernatural isn't Alastair, it's Azazel. So yeah, oops.

I hope you enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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The Burrow.

Isaac waved out the kitchen window to Helen and Jonathan as they drove away.

"So mate," Ron asked, waving away his mother's orders to help Isaac take his things up to the room they'd be sharing by grabbing the handle of Isaac's trunk, "... What's been going on at your end?"

Isaac opened his mouth to speak but closed it a few seconds later so he could think.

"Long story," he said, "Long, long, story,"

With that, he shouldered the duffel bag and gave Ron a hand in carrying his trunk up the stairs.

As the two of them came to the top of the first landing of the stairs that zigzagged their way through the house, they could hear Mrs Weasley's voice reprimand the twins for trying to sneak out last night and take the car to go see a wizarding band that had been performing.

As they came to the third landing a door next to them stood ajar.

Isaac just caught sight of a pair of bright brown eyes staring at him before it closed with a snap.

"Ginny," said Ron with an apologetic smile, "You don't know how weird it is for her to be this shy, she never shuts up normally-"

They climbed two more flights of stairs, Isaac apologising to Percy when his bag banged against his door and disturbed the elder Weasley as they went past his room.

They came to a stop outside a door with peeling paint and a plaque that said 'Ronald's Room'.

After Ron opened the door with his foot, the two of them awkwardly turned his trunk to get it to fit through the door.

Isaac stepped in, his head almost touching the sloping ceiling, and blinked. It was like walking into one of Toby's bonfires; nearly everything in Ron's room seemed to be a violent shade of orange: the walls, the bedspread, even the ceiling. Then Isaac realised that Ron had covered every inch of the shabby wallpaper with posters of the same seven witches and wizards, all wearing bright orange robes, carrying broomsticks and waving energetically.

"Your Quidditch team?" Isaac asked.

"The Chuddley Cannons," Ron said, pointing to the bedspread where the team logo was displayed proudly, "Ninth in the league,"

Ron's spell books were stacked untidily in a corner, next to a pile of comics that seemed to feature _The Adventures of Martin Miggs, The Mad Muggle_. Ron's wand was lying on top of a fish tank full of frogspawn next to Scabbers, the grey fat rat was snoozing in a patch of sunlight coming through the window.

Isaac stepped over a pack of self-shuffling cards on the floor as he and Ron placed the trunk on its end in a corner of the room.

As Isaac straightened up he caught sight of the view from the window.

The warm sun was shining with a few lazily clouds gently drifting across the sky. Fields of grass and what looked like a farm or two in the distance swayed softly with a near non-existent breeze as a bordering of trees, with what looked like a small clearing a little away in an orchard.

He turned to look at Ron, who was watching him almost nervously, as though waiting for his opinion.

"It's a bit small," said Ron "And I'm right under the ghoul in the attic, he's always banging on the pipes and groaning..."

But Isaac, grinning widely said, "This house is awesome,"

Ron's ears went pink.

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Hogwarts.

Dumbledore flicked through the recently completed school lists for the year.

He separated the bound stacks that were to be sent to the children returning for their second year.

He shifted past letter, after letter, until he found the one destined for 'Isaac Rogers'.

He held the letter in his wrinkled hands and suppressed the feeling of contempt that arose within him.

Isaac Rogers, the written name almost seemed like a taunt.

He had been patient that last year, waiting for a chance to pull him back into his web of control.

The incident with Quirrell had been almost a blessing. The boy had collapsed at his confrontation in an exhaustion that had him dormant for a couple of days.

He could have used this.

He could have used this to show the boy that he was still in danger and that it would be better for him if he allowed the Headmaster to relocate him for his safety.

He remembered how that plan had fallen apart.

The teacher's lounge had been filled with Professors finishing any last essays to be handed out when Professor McGonagall had received an owl.

Severus had finished his work and had just made an emotionless lament about having nothing to do when Minerva asked him for a favour.

"Severus?" she said, her eyes still trained on the parchment in front of her, "Seen as you are free, would you mind collecting a couple of a student's guardians? They've come in response to a situation regarding said student,"

Severus let out a small huff.

"Fine." He said as he walked to the door, "Which student's guardians?"

"Mr Isaac Rogers," Minerva said with a small smile as she sent off her response with the owl that had delivered the letter from Madam Rosmerta.

Snape's grip on the doorknob froze and tightened along with the steeling of his entire body.

The teachers in the lounge shared a few glances of amusement as Snape let out a near inaudible hiss and opened the door and strode out.

The fact that every teacher, save for the obvious one, had voiced their approval at how his 'family' had responded meant that he had little chance of one of them staying silent about forcing him back to his muggle family.

The fact that Vernon Dursley had disappeared as well wasn't entirely helpful.

The last he had heard of the man was his sentencing to prison. After an apparent psychotic break, the man had been moved to somewhere else and he had lost him after that, the muggle system of 'dijitil' record keeping had proven fairly difficult to access when none of his unlocking charms opened the files had instead opened the muggle contraption.

He feigned success in finding the information he needed after restoring the thing to how it had looked before.

He murmured a few incantations under his breath as he waved his wand over the parchment.

Numerous tracking spells were enchanted onto the parchment and the possibility that he would have a definitive fix on the boy's location grew with every spell he added.

When the letter was opened, an unblockable tracer signal would activate. He had spent the better part of the summer so far trying to find a special talisman that would bypass all possible blocking wards, runes, and spells and it would take at least another two years for another to be made by the supplier he had found.

He placed the letter back among the pile and replaced everything as to how it was when he entered and left the office. A twinkle in his eyes that many could mistake for kindness and safety gleamed, however, only he knew the extent of smug supremacy that flowed through his very being.

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The Burrow.

Isaac Rogers had had an exciting few days at the Burrow.

Living there was certainly different than at the Mansion.

Mrs. Weasley was an incredible cook and she always seemed to put her heart and soul into cooking.

Odd noises and bangs came from the twins' room time to time, but nobody ever bothered them since it kept them from playing pranks on everyone for the most part.

Mrs. Weasley had taken a little joy from the fact that they never seemed to be successful against Isaac. The boy seemed to have a sixth sense specially developed against the two of them and half of their pranks had backfired on them instead.

Living with L.J would do that to a person.

The house itself held a sort of different but similar feeling to Isaac.

In one way, it was similar from the weird chaos that would be unnatural anywhere else. He had gotten a shock the first time he had looked in the mirror over the kitchen mantelpiece and it shouted, ' _Tuck your shirt in, scruffy!'_ The ghoul in the attic had brought an odd feeling since this was yet another attic that held something spectral, though the attic at the Mansion held dangerous items that could devastate, start, and end wars the ghoul in the attic seemed contempt to merely drop pipes and howl a little whenever it felt that things were getting a little too quiet.

He had taken to wearing the headset for his walkman, even if there was no sound coming through them, just to try and muffle the bangs at night when he tried to sleep.

After they had placed Isaac's trunk up in Ron's room, they spent a little time catching up, taking a walk around the garden to do so.

It had been time for lunch and Mrs. Weasley had prepared a small pile of bacon, sausages, and burgers; along with a variety of salad for them to eat.

After that, she had told the twins to go de-gnome the garden and Isaac, after expressing interest and despite Mrs. Weasley's protests saying that he didn't have to, joined them and Ron.

De-gnoming the garden had been a little fun. After the twins grumbled, and worked out the resultant irritation, from their mother insisting that they consult what someone called 'Gilderoy Lockhart' had written on the subject of de-gnoming it had been fairly enjoyable.

Gnomes, as it turned out, were nothing like the little porcelain statues that muggles adorned their gardens with. Instead, they looked more like multiple, leathery-looking, potatoes stuck together with large bald heads and a fair grasp of insults to string together at the underage wizards.

Fred and George took pride in having taught them all those.

To de-gnome a garden was surprisingly easy. All they had to do was grab a gnome by its arms or legs, spin them around a few times so they were dizzy, and throw them as far as they could out the garden.

Isaac had a fair bit of fun and soon it turned into a contest to see who could throw a gnome the furthest or highest.

Isaac came close to Fred's sixty five foot toss when one of the gnomes with a little more fight in it had sunk it's razor-sharp teeth into Isaac's hand and he had had a hard time shaking it off until, in his slightly frenzied attempts to get it off him, he hit it off a fence post.

The bump had taken the wind out of the gnome, and when it let go, Isaac grabbed it by the leg and threw it hard round his head into a tree around fifty feet away from the garden wall.

"So Isaac," George said as he threw gnome after gnome to Fred, Isaac, and Ron since a large bunch of them had gotten stuck in an old wheelbarrow, "You said you had a long story, got time to share?" he said as he spun the last one off into the distance.

"Well..." he paused as he flung another gnome, "I guess a good place to start was that I got kidnapped again," he said casually.

After the three Weasley's got over their splutters Isaac told them a heavily edited version of what had happened.

"Well, it wasn't really that bad," Isaac said before any of them could speak, "I was like, in town, half a mile from where I stay. The guy dragged me to this pizza place we go to often and said that he wanted to talk,"

"What did he want?", "Who'd do that," Ron said and the twins asked in unison over each other.

"Well, Ron, to talk," Isaac said, "And to you two, this is the fun part, the guy... turns out he's Jeff's _brother_!"

After letting them gawk for a few moments Isaac told them the agreed upon story that had been agreed on. That being Liu had lost his memory for a few years and somehow ended up on a train that carried him to the other side of America.

The twins and Ron looked a little uncomfortable so he tried to lighten the mood by telling them what had happened when Sally had found him and dragged him around the place for a tour. Feathery boa included.

That seemed to cheer them up, despite the explanation that there was some stuff that he couldn't discuss with them, since it wasn't his place, and they resumed the de-gnoming.

After that, the twins dragged Ron and Isaac off for a quick game of Quidditch.

The four of them ended up playing a skirmish since they didn't have enough players, with two chasers and two keepers on each team.

After what must have been the tenth game, they were playing to fifteen goals, George floated up to see above the trees that hid them from view.

"He's back!" he called to them, "Dad's home!"

Everyone rushed to the ground, Isaac nearly tripping over yet another exposed root, and began hurrying back to the house.

Mr Weasley was slumped in a kitchen chair by the time that they got there, his glasses were on the table and his eyes were closed.

He was a thin man, going bald, but the little hair he had was as red as any of his children's. He was wearing long green robes which were dusty and travel-worn.

He was muttering about the amount of raid he had been on and someone trying to hex him when his back was turned.

He wearily told Fred and George about his findings on the raid, his eyes still closed so he didn't know about the newcomer in their midst. He was rambling to them about muggle baiting when Mrs Weasley interrupted him.

"LIKE CARS FOR INSTANCE?"

Mr Weasley's eyes jerked open and he looked very alert and awake now.

After a stuttered discussion with his wife, Mrs Weasley had come round from the living room and was holding a long poker like a sword, Mrs Weasley thanked whatever god there was that the twins and Ron hadn't gone off and collected Isaac in said flying car.

Mr Weasley was confused for a moment before spotting Isaac, who was still lost in the fact that a car could be enchanted to _fly_!

"Isaac?" said Mr Weasley blanky, "Isaac who?"

He looked around, saw Isaac, and jumped.

"Good lord, is it Ha... Isaac! Yes Isaac, Isaac, very pleased to meet you,"

He reached over and shook Isaac's hand. Apparently, Ron and the twins had already gone through the 'His name's not Harry, it's Isaac' speech with their parents.

Meeting Mr Weasley had gone better than Isaac had expected it to go and he would have Isaac sit near him at dinner so he could ask questions about muggles and other things he didn't understand.

The question about what a rubber duck was for had been an odd one, but he told him how it was a bathtime toy and an interesting fact about how a bunch of them had been lost at sea and oceanographers had used them to track the movement of tides in the sea.

Unfortunately, things hadn't gone over that smoothly with meeting Ginny.

Ginny was... Ginny was starstruck.

There was really no other way to describe it. She seemed more prone to knocking things over whenever Isaac entered the room and would go very red in the face. When they first came face to face downstairs she froze up and darted from the room.

In contrast to that, Percy didn't seem to care that he was there or if he wasn't. Percy tended to stay in his room more often than not, only coming out if he was called or to eat.

The twins, aside from their attempts to prank Isaac, merely flitted here and there around the place. If they weren't in their room they could be found practicing for Quidditch in the clearing in the paddock the Weasley's owned, hidden from Muggle view, and would often invite Isaac and Ron to come practice with them. Ron typically ended up in goals.

And Ron could normally be found with Isaac, the two of them discussing a whole bunch of stuff from the magic world and what each other had been up to.

Fred and George, after getting over the shock of Liu, had joked about how living there seemed to mean you had a lost or unknown sibling somewhere.

Isaac had laughed at that.

"Yeah, better than what it's also known for," he said absentmindedly.

"What?" the twins asked in unison and Isaac inwardly cringed and made a mental note to think before he spoke.

"It's... just this running joke because of everyone's names. It's nothing, never mind," he said before changing the topic to Quidditch so that he didn't have to explain further.

It was his fourth day at the burrow when the letters arrived.

After pretending to not notice Ginny knock over her bowl of porridge Isaac sat down at the end of the table and took a slice of the offered toast as he swayed a little. The ghoul had been particularly noisy last night and he stifled a yawn before taking a bite.

"Letters from school," Mr Weasley said, offering him and Ron who had came down a few seconds later, identical envelopes of yellow parchment addressed in green ink.

Isaac unfolded his letter, a spiky feeling in his fingertips had him brushing off any bits of dirt or toast that had gotten stuck to him.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Hogwarts.

Minerva McGonagall paused outside Headmaster Dumbledore's office as a loud crashing echoed through the door.

She hurried inside to the Headmaster straightening a table and waving his wand to return the objects, one of which was smashed into many pieces, to its surface.

"Is everything alright?" she asked.

"Hmm! What, oh yes. Yes, everything is fine," Dumbledore said, his face very red, "I merely bumped into the table and knocked it over, that's all,"

McGonagall eyed the broken pieces that were being levitated off the floor, into a nearby bin behind his desk, before placing the revised timetables on Professor Dumbledore's desk and leaving again.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

The Burrow.

Isaac looked at the letter addressed to him.

The first letter was hardly any different to the first letter he had ever received from the school, it told him to take the Hogwarts Express from Platform 9 ¾ as usual on September the first.

The next letter contained a list of books that they would need to get for the school year.

Pretty much every book on the list had been written by this 'Gilderoy Lockhart' and Fred joked about the new teacher being a witch after giving Isaac's book list a quick glance. Fred's was pretty much the same set books, except a few were at higher levels than Isaac's were.

Meanwhile, George and Mrs Weasley talked about how much this was all going to cost. Mrs Weasley assured him that they'd manage, but she did say that they'd have to get a lot of Ginny's things second hand.

"Oh, are you starting Hogwarts this year?" Isaac asked Ginny.

She nodded, blushing to the roots of her ginger hair, and put her elbow in the butter dish.

No one saw this because at that point Percy came down. He was already dressed with his Hogwarts prefect badge pinned to his vest. He tried to sit down in a chair but jumped up and pulled out from underneath him a moulting, grey feather duster – at least, that was what Isaac thought it was before he saw that the thing was breathing.

"Errol!" Ron said, rushing over and taking the limp owl that was the family messaging owl from Percy and extracted a letter from under its wing, " _Finally_ – he's got Hermione's letter. I wrote to her saying that you were coming over early,"

He carried Errol over to a perch next to the door, but when he kept falling off Ron lay him on the draining board.

He then ripped open Hermione's letter and read it out loud.

" _Dear Ron, and Isaac if you're there,_

 _I hope everything went alright, arranging international flights on short notice isn't easy according to dad._

 _I was really worried since Isaac wasn't responding to any of our letters and that business with the house-elf sounds fishy._

 _Will you let me know when he gets there?_

 _I think that you should perhaps use another owl, because I think another delivery might finish your one off._

 _I'm very busy with school work, of course -_ " "How can she be?" said Ron in horror, "We're on holiday!" he then resumed reading out the letter.

" _... and we're going to London next Wednesday to buy my new books. Why don't we meet in Diagon Alley?_

 _Let me know what's happening as soon as you can,_

 _Love from Hermione."_

"Well, that fits in nicely, we can go and get all your things then, too," Mrs Weasley said as she started to clear the table, "What're you all up to today?"

Isaac had finished most, if not all, of his homework at the Mansion and had finished the last couple of bits during his free time at the burrow.

The twins were planning on taking Ron and Isaac up to the paddock to play more Quidditch. They had tried to get Percy to join in a few times, but he never accepted their invitation.

"I've just got to send off a letter to home," Isaac said, swallowing the last bit of his toast, "You want to borrow Hedwig to send your reply to Hermione as well?" he asked Ron.

After that, they watched Hedwig fly off as they marched back up the hill, their brooms propped on their shoulders.

The next few days until the Wednesday was spent in pretty much the same way.

Isaac, Ron, and the twins would practice Quidditch in their spare time when they weren't busy helping around The Burrow with their chores.

Mr Weasley kept bombarding Isaac with multiple questions about muggle life. More often than not Isaac was able to answer them. He had been fairly ecstatic when Isaac showed him the walkman.

Mrs Weasley had outright forbidden him from taking it apart and tinkering with it.

Ben popped into his dreams every other day, checking up on him and bringing some less than pg news about what work the others had been getting up to.

He seemed to be dropping hints about something but he told Isaac that he'd have to wait until he saw Toby to find out.

Mrs Weasley woke them all early the following Wednesday.

After a quick half a dozen bacon sandwiches each, they pulled on their coats and Mrs Weasley took a flower pot off the kitchen mantelpiece and peered inside.

"Were running low, Arthur," she sighed, "We'll have to buy some more today... ah well, guests first! After you, Isaac dear!"

She offered him the flower pot.

"Erm, what am I supposed to do with this?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at the glittering powder.

"He's never travelled by Floo powder," Ron said suddenly, "Sorry, Isaac, I forgot,"

"Never?" said Mr Weasley, "But how did you get to Diagon Alley to buy your school things last year?"

"Not _now_ , Arthur," said Mrs Weasley before he could start asking an endless stream of muggle questions, "Floo powder's really quick for travelling, dear, but if you've never used it before –"

"He'll be alright, mum," said Fred, "Isaac, watch us first,"

He took a pinch of the powder from the flower pot, stepped up to the fire, and threw it into the flames.

With a roar, the fire turned emerald green and rose higher than Fred, who stepped right into it, shouted, "Diagon Alley," and vanished.

"You must speak very clearly, dear," Mrs Weasley said as George repeated the process and was whipped out of sight, "And mind you get out at the right grate..."

"The right what?" he asked as he took his own pinch of Floo powder.

"Well, there are an awful lot of wizard fires to choose from, you know, but as long as you've spoken clearly,"

"He'll be fine, Molly, don't fuss," said Mr Weasley as Isaac stepped to the raised stones of the fireplace.

He threw in the powder, taking in all the advice being given to him, and opened his mouth to speak.

Immediately a large amount of hot ash blew into his face and he choked.

"D-Dia-gon Alley," he coughed.

It felt like he was being sucked down a giant plug hole. He seemed to be spinning very fast. He tried to open his eyes but the whirl of green flames made him feel sick. Something banged into his elbow and he tucked it in tightly.

He caught blurred glimpses of many fireplaces. His stomach was churning. He closed his eyes, wishing for it to be over, when suddenly he fell, face forward, onto cold stone.

He felt his glasses break and, feeling very dizzy indeed, pushed himself off the ground.

He was quite alone and couldn't help but tense up at the contents of the dimly lit store.

Skulls; withered hands; a glass jar containing many, many, eyes; a bloodstained pack of playing cards and an assortment of other things that would have fitted in with the numerous items held in the attic back at the Mansion were on display for all to see. He knew he was in a store from the price tags attached to each and every item on the shelves.

He had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to get anything from his school list here.

The street outside was not Diagon Alley or any part he recognised of Diagon Alley at least, but he decided that he'd try his luck there anyway.

He was about to leave the shop when two people appeared in front of the glass window.

He recognised one of them, Draco Malfoy. He didn't know that anyone else could have hair as pale as the blond.

With him, leading the way, was who could only be his father.

Remembering some of his discussions with Draco, Isaac decided that the best option would be to hide and so he hid in the large black cabinet to his left. Leaving the door open a crack to peer through.

Isaac listened with rapt attention as Malfoy senior instructed Draco not to touch anything, saying that he had already agreed to get him a racing broom later.

Draco muttered about how it would be pointless if he couldn't get on the Slytherin Quidditch team, using Isaac himself as a pressuring point and Isaac barely contained his snort of laughter.

He had seen Draco look down, away from his father's eyes when he had muttered his slurs against 'Harry Potter' so Isaac knew that he was putting this on.

Remembering the song that the hat gave last year about Slytherin being filled with cunning folk it was easy to see why Draco had been placed there.

The storekeeper had been an oily man, irritated even when Mr Malfoy said that he was only selling today.

Isaac listened with rapt attention about how Mr Malfoy was getting rid of a few items that might have been seen as _embarrassing_ to have with the new Muggle Protection Act being put forward by Mr Weasley.

Isaac felt his temper rise a little about the insults Mr Malfoy casually threw against the kind man who had housed him the past days.

Isaac waited until the Draco and his father had left, and the storekeeper had retreated back to the other room to leave the cabinet and the shop.

He emerged into a dingy alleyway that seemed to be made up entirely of shops devoted to the Dark Arts. The one he'd just left, Borgin and Burkes, looked the largest, but opposite that was a nasty window display of shrunken heads, and two doors down, a large cage was alive with gigantic black spiders.

It felt oddly relaxing to be here, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he got from the way two shabby-looking wizards were looking at him.

An old wooden sign christened the street as 'Knockturn Alley'.

He figured that he hadn't spoken clearly enough and started to think of what to do.

"Not lost are you, my dear," said a voice in his ear, making him jump.

An aged witch stood in front of him, holding a tray of what looked like whole human fingernails. She leered at him, showing mossy teeth. Isaac backed up a little.

"I'm fine, thanks," he said,

"Are you sure about that, dearie?" the witch said, pressing forward towards him. A dark glint in her eyes.

"He's sure," a deadly voice said from behind him and the witch backed up a little with a grimace.

Isaac turned around to look at who had spoken.

The person was close enough so that when he turned around all he could see was a white jumper.

"C'mon," Jeff said, grabbing Isaac by the shoulder and pulling him along the alley.

Before Isaac could ask how the hell Jeff was here, another familiar voice called out to him.

"ISAAC! What d'yeh think yer doin' down there?"

Hagrid shoved his way over to them, a large bag swung slightly from his hand.

"Hagrid! Jeff?" Isaac looked at the mismatched pair, "I was lost... Floo powder..."

Hagrid ushered Jeff and Isaac out of the alley into bright sunlight.

"Yer a mess!" Hagrid said gruffly, brushing soot off Isaac and nearly knocking him into a barrel of dragon dung, "Skulkin' around Knockturn Alley, I dunno – dodgy place, Isaac – don' want no one ter see yeh down there –"

"I realised _that,_ " said Isaac, ducking as Hagrid made to brush him off again, "I told you, I was lost,"

"What were you doing down there then?" Jeff interrupted. Isaac had forgotten that he was there for a moment.

" _I_ was lookin' fer Flesh-eatin' Slug Repellent," Hagrid growled.

He told them about the problem with the school cabbages as they walked down Diagon Alley.

Hagrid queried about Isaac's lack of reply to his letters and Isaac told him about Dobby.

"If I'd've known –" Hagrid growled, but what exactly he would have said was lost when yet another voice Isaac recognised called over.

"Isaac! Isaac! Over here!"

Isaac looked up and saw Hermione Granger standing at the top of the white flight of steps to Gringotts. She ran down to meet them, her bushy brown hair flying behind her.

Jeff growled a bit and squinted his eyes a little but Isaac elbowed him in the stomach.

It was still odd seeing him in his glamour.

"What happened to your glasses? Hello Hagrid..." she quailed a bit from the look on Jeff's face.

"Ignore him, he's pmsing," Isaac said, ignoring the glare and snarl from Jeff who went off to where Mas... Tim was standing chatting, with a couple by the door. Brain standing no too far away.

It took Hermione a few seconds to find her voice and in that time, Ron, Fred, George, Percy and Mr Weasley had come sprinting down the street.

"Isaac" Mr Weasley panted, "We hoped you'd only gone one grate too far..." he moped his glistening bald patch, "Molly's frantic – she's coming now,"

Isaac was swept away from the questions from the Weasley's when someone pulled him into a hug.

"You are filthy," Toby said with a slight laugh, letting him go again and wiping more soot from his back and sides, "Seriously, did you not think to have a bath before coming here?"

He took the offered brush from Mrs Weasley who had come galloping over, her handbag swinging wildly in one hand and Ginny clinging to the other.

"Oh, Isaac – oh, my dear – you could have been anywhere – " gasping for breath she started apologising to Toby for losing him.

"Eh, it's fine," Toby said, trying to wave aside the apologies from a red-faced Mrs Weasley, "He's fine, we're good, we're good,"

He was looking more and more awkward by the moment.

Thankfully, Mrs Weasley turned her attention to thanking Hagrid for finding him before he left.

Toby led Isaac, Ron, and Hermione back up the steps towards Gringotts. As he did so, Isaac told them about how he saw the Malfoys in Borgin and Burkes.

"Did Lucius Malfoy buy anything?" Mr Weasley said sharply from behind them. He had been talking with Fred and George about sending the two of them to get potion ingredients after they were finished in the bank and bookshops before they inevitably wandered to the joke shops.

"No, he was selling," Isaac told him.

"So he's worried," said Mr Weasley in grim satisfaction, "Oh, I'd love to get Lucius Malfoy for something, who are you?" he asked Toby, having been to caught up with the twins and the news regarding Lucius Malfoy to notice him.

Toby, who had been telling Isaac that he had already gotten out some cash for him turned to face Mr Weasley, "Oh, Toby, Isaac's brother," he said as they neared Tim, Brian, Jeff and the couple that they were talking to, who had to be Hermione's parents.

"But you're _Muggles_!" said Mr Weasley excitedly. Jeff let out a sigh of annoyance but was silenced by a quick glance from Brian, "We must have a drink. What's that you've got there? Oh, you're changing Muggle money. Molly look!" he pointed excitedly at the ten-pound notes in Mr Granger's hand.

"Meet you guys back here," Ron said to Hermione and Isaac as he and his family went into the catacombs under the bank. By the looks of Toby's hair, he'd gone to the vault instead of using the withdrawal option at the tills. And the green flush to Tim's face meant that he had gone as well.

Isaac spent some time catching up with Hermione and Toby as they waited for the Weasleys. Mr and Mrs Granger were chatting idly to Tim, who was grateful to have others feeling as out of place as he was even if it was for different reasons.

A few minutes later the Weasleys came back up from the vaults and they split up for a bit.

Percy muttered about needing a new quill and sauntered off; Fred and George went off with Lee Jordan, a friend from Hogwarts; Mrs Weasley took Ginny robe shopping; Mr Weasley insisted on taking Mr and Mrs Granger to The Leaky Cauldron and Tim tagged along since he really _hated_ those Gringotts carts.

That left Toby taking Isaac, Ron, and Hermione to do their shopping with Brian and Jeff tagging along. Isaac was still wondering how, and why, Jeff had been allowed to tag along with them but he decided that he'd ask later.

"So, guess what's new," Toby said, a spring in his step.

"What?" Isaac, Ron, and Hermione asked warily. Jeff was smiling and, to Isaac, it was mildly disconcerting to see that much emotion on his face.

"Smile, E.J's guide dog," he added on for Ron and Hermione, "Had no snipping done,"

Isaac shared a quick glance with Ron and Hermione. Both looked as confused as he was.

"Translation," Jeff said with a sardonic grin, "Smile is now a daddy-dog that looks like a novelty lamp-stand,"

"Smile had a puppy!" Isaac gasped. While Ron had a faintly interested expression and Hermione looked more excited and let out an aw.

Toby told them a little more about what had been happening at the Mansion, namely _someone_ (E.J) having to neuter Smile, Sally naming the little puppy 'Eris', L.J getting up to a little mischief and making a note to tell Ben how Isaac was doing.

They stopped to get their potion ingredients first before taking a break and getting a few ice-creams from Fortescue's that they happily ate on their way. Ron went pink in the face when Isaac forked over a small handful of galleons to pay for the ice-creams but ate in silence so he didn't have to say anything.

Jeff finally spoke again, asking about what the Quidditch robes in the Quidditch supplies store was and ended up with a very one-sided conversation with Ron who explained a whole bunch of things about Quidditch to, a rapidly losing interest, Jeff.

Hermione dragged them off to get parchment, quills, and ink next before they made a quick stop in 'Gambol and Japes' where they bumped into the twins, who were buying new dungbombs and restocking their supply of Filibuster Fireworks.

Jeff kindly, after a pointed look from Brian, asked to borrow a few galleons so that he could get a few things to try out against L.J when they got back.

After bumping into Percy in a tiny junk store they made their way to Flourish and Blotts to meet up with everyone else.

Outside the shop was a large advert outside for a book signing by Gilderoy Lockhart.

Hermione immediately started gushing about meeting the man who had written over half the booklist and began fixing her clothes.

Jeff, however, let out a snarl. He ignored the slight glance from Brian and took a deep breath.

Toby had told him in private when they were looking around the shops that Slendy had allowed Jeff to come along, as long as he kept his temper and didn't get into any unnecessary fights. He had also needed some time out of the Mansion since he and Liu had clashed a few times.

Liu wanted to try and fix what had happened between them and Jeff was adamant that Liu being alive didn't change a thing in their situation. He wasn't changing. He wasn't going to go back to the Jeff he used to be no matter how hard Liu tried to fix things.

They had chilled a bit, but Slendy had still decided to see how Jeff would handle being in the Wizarding world.

The crowd inside seemed mostly made up of witches around Mrs Weasley's age. A harassed-looking wizard was stood at the door, trying to calm and quell the large crowd gathering inside.

Isaac, Ron, Hermione, Toby, and Brian squeezed inside, not trying to disturb the other patrons.

Jeff just walked right in, ignoring the glares he received from everyone.

Inside they joined Mrs Weasley after grabbing a copy of 'Break with a Banshee' each. Tim, the Grangers and Mr Weasley were off to the side, still idly chatting about things in the muggle world.

Gilderoy Lockhart slowly came into view. He was seated at a table surrounded by large pictures of his own face, each of them winking and flashing a dazzling smile at them.

Jeff let out another small growl.

It was no secret that he hated pretentious assholes.

But, unfortunately for Jeff, Slendy had a rule against killing celebrities since their deaths would be too public and looked into too closely.

A short, irritable-looking man was dancing around taking photographs with a large black camera that produced puffs of purple smoke with every blinding flash.

"Out of the way there," he snarled at Ron, "This is for the _Daily Prophet_ ,"

"Big deal," said Ron, rubbing his foot where the photographer had stood on it.

Gilderoy Lockhart heard him. He looked up. He saw Ron – then he saw Isaac. He stared.

Then jumped to his feet and positively shouted, "It _can't_ be Harry Potter?"

The crowd parted, whispering excitedly.

Lockhart dived forward,

But before he could seize Isaac's arm, Jeff latched onto his wrist.

"Let me go at..."

"Think you've got the wrong guy there, bud," Jeff cut him off. His voice low as he tightened his grip on Lockhart's wrist so much that Lockhart's hand started shaking.

The shop was silent. The toothy smile was gone from Lockhart's face now. He looked weak-chinned and weedy without it.

"Jeff," Tim said and Jeff stopped tightening his grip on Lockhart's arm.

He released the man's arm and walked over to where Tim was standing. A satisfied gleam in his eyes

Lockhart shook this off with little success and looked around to try and find Isaac again, but Toby had stepped in front of him with a fiery look in his eyes.

Lockhart quailed again and retreated back to behind the desk, feebly calling for the next person with an awkward smile on his face.

Toby and Isaac separated from the queue which had started muttering to themselves, a few casting glances at the pair, and they bought the rest of the items on the school list while they waited for everyone else to finish.

A few minutes later, and a few successful signings, Lockhart stood to make an announcement.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," he said, his toothy smile back in full force as he waved for silence, "I believe that the time is perfect for me to make a little announcement that I've been sitting on for quite some time now!

What a wonderful day it must have been, for the many children leaving for Hogwarts soon to come to Diagon Alley today and find me signing for my new autobiography, ' _Magical Me_ ', but little did they know...

That they would be getting the real, magical me.

YES! Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to announce today that I, Gilderoy Lockhart, have taken up the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"

This was met with tumultuous applause from nearly all the shop.

Jeff had let out another growl, masked by the applause.

"Why are you groaning?" Isaac sulked a bit, "I'm going to have to put up with the git for a year,"

Not long after that Ron and Hermione came from the line, their arms filled with copies of the books Isaac had just bought. Ron's were a bit shabbier than Hermione's and when Isaac offered to get him a few of the better ones Ron turned pink again and muttered that it was fine.

They then spent some time perusing the lesser filled aisles of the bookstore when Ginny had gotten her books. They were looking at books about the accidental discoveries in the fields of magic when;

"Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter,"

They turned around and came face to face with Draco Malfoy.

He gave the slightest of winks to Isaac and he figured that this was just a show for someone else.

"Malfoy," Isaac said, returning to the emotionless voice he used whenever he was annoyed.

" _Famous_ Harry Potter," he sneered though it looked like that he was trying not to laugh a little, "Can't even go into a bookstore without making a scene,"

"Leave him alone, he didn't want all that," Ginny said, surprising Isaac. It was the first time that she had spoken in front of him. She was glaring at Draco.

"Potter, you've got yourself a _girlfriend_ ," Draco drawled in response when a silver-snake handled cane landed on his shoulder.

"Now, now, Draco, play nice," Lucius Malfoy drawled in colder tones than his son.

"Ah, there you are," Mr Weasley said, coming round a shelf with Brian, "It's madness here, let's go -"

"Well, well, Weasley Senior," Lucius Malfoy sneered.

"Lucius," said Mr Weasley, nodding coldly.

It seemed like a contest between Mr Weasley and Mr Malfoy to see who could make the idlest insult to the other.

"The company you keep, Weasley," Lucius hissed after a bit when Mr and Mrs Granger came looking for their daughter and were now watching the scene before them apprehensively, "and I thought your family could sink no lower-"

"Mind the step," Brian said.

And before any of them could register what had happened, Lucius Malfoy was stumbling backwards. Knocking over a few stacks of books as he did so.

Brian moved his outstretched hand to brush a few bits of dust from his arm.

Lucius Malfoy glared venomously at Brian, who cocked his head as if to say 'how cute', before calling to his son and departing.

A harassed-looking shop assistant hurried over and corrected the fallen books with a wave of his wand.

Mr Weasley led the rest of them out onto the street where Mrs Weasley demanded to know what had happened.

"Malfoy missed a step before... Brian? Brian could warn him," Mr Weasley said, with a nod and a smile to the silent party member.

"How many words?" Jeff asked them in a low tone when they were walking back to The Leaky Cauldron.

"Three," Isaac told him.

"Jesus, he pissed him off that much," Jeff said, getting a few chuckles from Isaac, Ron, Hermione and the twins.

At The Leaky Cauldron the Grangers bid their goodbye's along with Jeff, he had a _'flight_ ' to catch back to America after all with Brian.

Tim told Mrs Weasley that he had booked a room for himself and Toby at a local Inn nearby so that they could see Isaac off and help out getting everyone to the train since they had been kind enough to house Isaac for a bit, though they would be driving back.

Toby and Tim left for where they had parked after watching Isaac and the Weasley's depart in the fireplace.

Tim had to keep a hold on Toby's collar so that the twitching pyromaniac didn't dive into the flames as well.

The next day at the Burrow, the morning mail heralded another speech from Mrs Weasley about why she doesn't want any of her children wandering around that place.

"See!" she said, waving the article at them.

The body of a witch had been found in Diagon Alley, her throat slit.

"And you wonder why I want none of you anywhere near that place," she continued when Tim took the Prophet to examine.

While Mrs Weasley muttered about how lucky Isaac was, gesturing out the window about how close to the killer he could have been and how the killer of his Aunts was still out there.

She jumped when Toby knocked at the window.

"TIM! TIM! TIM! LOOK AT THESE!" he said excitedly, his neck twitching every few seconds as he held up a gnome for Tim to see.

Tim rolled his eyes when the gnome clamped down on Toby's wrist and returned to the Daily Prophet.

There was a picture with the article that showed the witch before she had been killed.

She was incredibly old, her leering smile full of mossy teeth didn't paint a pretty picture.

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End notes.

And we're done.

Chapter 16! holy cow, I'm gonna have fun with book 2.

So, I hope that you enjoyed. Sorry if the ending seemed a little abrupt but it's already the morning of the next day and I've got college to sleep for.

In regards to last weeks chapter, I did get the version from 'DP' so I'm swapping those out with an extra apology about it being late when I upload this one and I do have some news about the EXTRAS story.

The next update for that is nearly finished.

And I bet you can't guess what's happening in that one, it is year 2 related.

So, yeah, a little HP, a little CP, I do hope you like where I'm going with this story and I have some news.

I know that it is ages away, but I've started making plans for when Isaac (Harry) snaps.

I've got things finalised in my head and written down so that when I get to that chapter I should be ready to go.

So, the changes I made this time around, like them? Hate them? Want me to burn for disgracing the beloved works of J.K Rowling? Let me know.

I did like writing the bit with Lucius and Brian, that was fun and the way I imagined Brian wiping his shoulder after was like in Death's entrance on Supernatural when he drops the guy in the street.

So, anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you in the next one.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – Still no idea.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13. No idea if that's right, but it's what I found.


	17. Chapter 17, Back to Hogwarts

Chapter 17, Back to Hogwarts.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks

if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$Word$ - Parseltongue.

 **-PLEASE READ THE AUTHOR NOTES!-**

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from.

Author's note.

Chapter 17, let's go.

I hit over 10,000 views on this story and I'm ecstatic.

So, I'd just finished the Basilisk themed EXTRAS chapter when I found out and I've decided to do something special to commemorate 10,000 views.

I will write another EXTRAS chapter, but, YOU (the readers) are going to decide what I write.

I know that that's how I do the EXTRAS anyway, but this is going to be whatever the hell you want me to write.

If it's something I have never written stylistically, then I will look into how to do so.

If it's a topic I would normally avoid, I will dive right into it.

If it's something that I've said I would never do, I will do it.

So, some ideas;

1, a ship-centric chapter.

Doesn't have to be one I've sailed in this fic, you can suggest which two characters I do it with.

2, something entirely based around one specific scene or character.

3, something that has little to do with how the fic will go, like a one-off with another franchise.

Literally ANYTHING!

Leave your suggestions in the reviews or message my account with your suggestion.

Which ever one catches my eye the most, or is suggested the most will be used.

There's over 100 people following this story so I'm expecting a good few ideas. I'll probably do a thing like this for every 10,000 views it gets added.

Anyway, as per usual, the reviews.

DarkRavie;

Yep, you're still here,

Glad you like it, and again, any suggestions for something to do?

TheMarpasChappers;

Your review does not fit on the page, I need to zoom out to read it all in one going.

Yeah, unfortunately, or fortunately, the 'Creepgate' is just for comedic purposes. Though actually having one, I would never unlock the thing. I'd be killed pretty much on sight for the amount of onion based things I've done to Jeff.

I googled the phrase you said and it came up with 'The bankrupt vulture is circling'. I think it means that there's a vulture that specifically targets broke people or that's how it comes across in English.

I also have a couple of German phrases that I use fairly often, those being

"Zwei Dumme, Ein Gedanke,"

and

"Danke Dummkopf,"

I like using the second one the most.

And the list, always like the list,

1,

I think the slugs are flesh-eating, not the repellent. But both present an interesting opportunity.

The chair, I haven't forgotten about this chair. It probably would have helped and I shudder to think about what Grossman could accomplish if he was a wizard.

2,

Unfortunately, it's going to be until the end of the Second year before Isaac actually meets Eris.

I'm definitely going to have fun with my little Demon-Dog.

3,

Hehehe, I do hope that people managed to put 2 and 2 together and not end up with 75.

Yep, Jeff killed the witch.

In my head, Jeff shows his more... emotive side through actions.

Take for example the scene with L.J back in chapter 7 after the 'delicate butterfly' quote. He didn't respond with an insult back, he just threw another knife.

Or from the second chapter in EXTRAS where E.J remembered the times that Jeff shoved Toby into the infirmary.

Or, that's at least how I think he would act.

I also think that he would feel completely fine with walking down Knockturn Alley and maybe taking a nap on a bench.

God help whoever wakes him...

Anyway, I can't really reprimand you for staying up so late since I'm the reason why and I pretty much do the same when I get too into a thing.

Glad that you thought the chapter was awesome, I hope you enjoy this one.

Guest, Mick;

Did I, checking now.

…

Yep, I messed up a little.

Thank you for pointing that out, you weren't a bother.

Sometimes me and 'DP' miss things so it's handy if anyone that thinks we missed something or made a mistake mentions it then I can fix it.

Thank you. :-D

Right, that's all the reviews I got,

'DP' anything to say, passing remarks, opinion on the weather in USA, what your favourite cheese is, anything?

 _Well weather is cold since I live in Wisconsin, USA. We had a small stretch of days that were well below 0 degrees Fahrenheit. And since I live in Wisconsin, which is known as the Dairy State, I do like cheese. My favorites are mozzarella and gouda. Also thank you Guest Mick for catching something that we had missed. I hope you all have a lovely day (or night, depending on where you are) and we shall see all you lovely readers in the next chapter._

Well, that answers that question, gouda to know.

Anyway, I've gone on for probably too long again,

So, chapter 17,

I hope ye' enjoy,

SteamGeek01

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The Burrow.

The end of the holidays came around faster than anyone could have guessed.

Toby came to see them each day, Tim and Brian normally opting to 'see the sights nearby' but came round fairly often.

Since Slenderman had put a small ban on Isaac using magical items until he was of legal wizarding age Toby, Brian, and Tim hadn't seen him on the broomstick until now.

They were sitting on a fallen log-turned bench watching the skirmish between Isaac and Fred against George and Ron.

Tim let out a sigh and stretched out his arms.

"He's back to that school tomorrow," he said, nudging Toby who was following Isaac's broom as he turned in the air.

"Mhm," Toby said, "I know,"

Tim had brought up his mistrust of the place a few times before. Toby could see where he was coming from, but he didn't really see any reason to look a little further into the place.

They were interrupted when Brian held out a bag of fudge between the two.

"You're right, not the time," Tim said with a sigh as he threw away his cigarette butt and took a wrapped square.

The setting sun had them leaving back to the house for supper, Mrs Weasley insisted on having them all over since it was the last night.

Supper passed without any hassle.

Tim chatted patiently with Mr Weasley about airplanes.

The twins, Toby, Ron and Isaac talked about what sort of stuff was going to be going on in the second year.

Ginny was sat between Brian and Percy. None of them speaking much apart from asking for the gravy boat.

The only problem came when Mrs Weasley had been about to.

Toby had helped carry things through to the kitchen, it was as much Mrs Weasley would allow him to do. When Toby had casually leant against the kitchen counter when saying that it was nothing.

Unfortunately, he had leant against the recently cleared oven hob where Mrs Weasley had had a pot of custard being kept heated for desert.

Mrs Weasley's gasp of shock as Toby kept chatting benignly to her had everyone else looking over.

It was the thud of Tim's head hitting the desk that had Toby stop talking and ask what the problem was.

Mr Weasley guided Toby over to a large basin where cold water was held and he gave him a tub of cream for the angry red welt that had formed on the upper of his forearm.

A small cough from Brian resulted in a sigh from Tim as he handed over a tenner.

"You bet on that?" Fred asked.

"Yep, tells you how often this happens," Tim said as he replaced his wallet back in his pocket.

"How did he not realise what was happening?" Percy asked, squinting at Toby's back.

"He doesn't feel pain," Isaac said.

"C.I.P.A," Toby called to them.

After a few moments of confusion from them, he spoke again.

"It's the abbreviation for what I've got. I don't feel pain, heat, cold, I don't sweat," he listed a few things, "... and those... cows under neurological treatment for stupidity make bets for the next time I hurt myself and don't realise,"

"Brian had burning, I had stabbing himself with something, L.J had him getting a cold," Tim gave a few examples before anyone could work out what the abbreviation was.

The rest of the evening passed without further injury to Toby.

Fred and George rounded off the evening with a display of Filibuster fireworks; they filled the kitchen with red and blue stars that bounced from ceiling to wall for at least half an hour.

Toby had watched the display with wide eyes and, in his excitement, failed to notice that the marshmallow he was toasting had caught fire even as he took a bite of it.

Another sigh from Tim resulted in another loss of a ten.

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It had taken a long while to get started next morning. They had gotten up at rooster-crow and Toby had walked up ahead of Brian and Tim since they were both heavy sleepers and hated early mornings.

He had arrived to Mrs Weasley dashing about in a bad mood as she looked for spare socks and quills.

He wisely kept out of the way as people collided on the stairs, half dressed with bits of toast in his hands.

Spotting an opening, he darted up the stairs, flattening himself against the wall as he hummed the theme to Mission Impossible as he darted up to the room where Isaac was staying.

"Hectic day," he said, letting himself in and ignoring the yelp from Ron who hurried to pull his trousers up.

After it sounded like the stairs were clear Toby hurried Isaac's trunk down, stopping to let a wayward twin, who looked like he was still half asleep pass, just as Brian rolled into the drive. Tim was staying behind to sort out paying for the motel where they had been staying.

It had nothing to do with the fact that he couldn't wake up for more than five seconds.

Brian stepped out, tossing four empty cups of coffee into the bin as he helped Mr Weasley place Ginny's trunk in their car.

Brian and Toby were going to be taking Isaac and Ron with, to Ron's sleepy annoyance, Percy.

Brian nodded in agreeing to keep Mr Weasley's secret about the fact that he had used magic to expand the boot of the car slightly so that they could fit the trunks in without hassle. All he hoped was that it didn't void their insurance deposit so they could get that back.

When they were, at last, all in the cars they set off.

Toby was singing along to a song on the radio as he tried to get Isaac and Ron to sing the backing vocals. Percy kept quiet as he read a book.

They had gotten about five minutes away from the Burrow when a shining white weasel twisted through the air and landed in the middle of the car.

Brian shifted between glaring at the white animal and the road ahead as it spoke.

"Few of ours forgot some things," Mr Weasley's voice came from the weasel as Toby waved a hand through it's middle, "We'll catch up at the station," with that it disappeared and they looked at Percy for an explanation.

"Messenger patronus," he said before returning to his book.

After a few more minutes Toby was back to singing with the radio as they reached the motorway.

Brian let out a low growl at the early morning traffic and they reached the station with about half an hour to spare.

Toby ran out to get trolleys for them as Brian parked the car.

Percy briskly strode through the barrier, smoothing his hair and denying the mild blush in his cheeks.

"Right, come on," Toby said, moving to the side of Isaac and keeping pace as they walked towards the barrier.

CRASH!

The trolley hit the barrier and bounced backwards. Only Brian's quick hand had kept Ron's from hitting into Isaac and Toby's back before he picked up Toby and Isaac.

"What in the blazes d'you think you're doing?" a nearby guard said as he strode over to them.

"Leg ticked. Hit the trolley," Toby said as he rubbed dust from his legs.

Brian, who had given Ron Hedwig's cage, walked over and replaced Isaac's trunk onto the trolley. He leant casually against the barrier, hitting it with an elbow a couple of times before looking at Toby and shaking his head.

"Why can't we get through?" Isaac asked Ron in low tones as Toby rolled up his sleeves and checked himself.

"I dunno-" Ron said as he handed Isaac Hedwig.

At quarter to eleven, the rest of the Weasley's arrived.

Mrs Weasley was red in the face from running inside though she paled slightly when she heard that the barrier wasn't allowing access.

After checking for herself, in which her arm came to solid metal, she conversed with Mr Weasley about what to do.

After muttering about how he hadn't thought that they'd need to use the 'Knight Bus', whatever that was, he had offered to fly the kids there in the car but Mrs Weasley vetoed that idea, "I don't care that it turns invisible, NO," he remembered that they had Hedwig with them and they sent a letter to Hogwarts with her.

At Eleven Mrs Weasley started panicking a little since the train was leaving and Brian messaged Tim that they'd be a little late.

"No need to tell me that," he said, walking up to them. The faint smell of smoke clinging to him had Mrs Weasley turn her nose up slightly but she remained silent.

"How'd you get here?" Fred asked, breaking from his debate with George whether or not they should put Ever-Expanding Jello in the Prefect's bathroom or some Wet-start fireworks instead.

"I took a bus," Tim said as he asked Brian what the problem was.

Brian gestured over his head at the barrier and shook his head with a click of his tongue.

"You send Hedwig off to the school?" he asked, rubbing his brow.

At a nod from Brian, he declared that there's no point standing here on empty stomachs and tried to get them to sit down at a nearby burger joint as they waited for the reply.

"But what if someone comes through?" Mrs Weasley said, biting her finger and looking at the barrier, as if willing someone to come through.

In response to this Brian leant against the barrier and nodded at them.

Mrs Weasley's paranoia that they wouldn't make it to the school was ignored as Tim and Toby carried over a few trays of burgers to the tables that they had claimed.

After a sitting in relative silence for another half hour, Brain came over. Hedwig was perched on his shoulder.

"Did someone come through?" Mrs Weasley jumped up and asked.

Brian shook his head, instead offering them the letter Hedwig had brought.

Mrs Weasley snatched it away from him and he went to go get a coffee.

"Professor McGonagall says that she's coming down with a portkey," she said with a sigh of relief.

She clutched the letter to her chest and sat down when Mr Weasley pulled on her arm.

During the wait for Professor McGonagall, and now that Mrs Weasley's fears of them not making it to school were subdued, talk between them grew in more relaxed tones.

When Professor McGonagall made her way to them Brian stood up and offered her his seat.

"Thank you," she said before waving away Mrs Weasley's thanks for coming to collect them.

"I'm the deputy head, it's my job," she told her flatly before taking the cup of offered tea from Brian, "I take it you're Mr Roger's guardians?" she asked Tim and Brian.

"Nope, that's Toby," Tim said, fishing in the bottom of the packet of crisps he had, "We're just damage-control," he fixed her with a small smile that couldn't be seen as friendly or defensive, something he was rather good at.

Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow at the remark, but before she could ask who Toby was, Toby spoke.

"Is it true you can turn into a cat?" he asked, leaning forward.

Professor McGonagall turned to face the teen as his tick caused him to shake his can slightly.

"Yes," she said with a slight frown as she raised the cup to her lips.

The stream of questions from Toby about what animals you could turn into lasted for a full minute and left Tim pinching the bridge of his nose.

Professor McGonagall entertained him while Brian went to collect his sandwich order.

Meanwhile, Isaac was wondering what was going on on the train.

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Hogwarts Express.

Hermione Granger sat alone in her compartment, reading one of the new books assigned by the school.

'Maybe they missed the train,' she thought, refusing to let the idea that her friends had abandoned her enter her mind.

A knock at the door had her looking up.

Her face formed into a small scowl at who was there.

Draco Malfoy had walked past her compartment twice now, both times he had been accompanied by the hulking brutes that were Crabbe and Goyle, but this time he was alone.

"Potter or Weasley not show?" he asked, his breathing slow and controlled.

"Not yet, I'll say that you said hi," Hermione said cooly.

"I was planning on that myself," he said and glanced up and down the corridor, "Did you hear that the barrier closed itself, no one can figure out why though there's a chance a few got trapped on the other side. The Weasley's have terrible luck with that muggle car Mr Weasley owns,"

Hermione watched as Draco left, sliding the door closed behind him as he walked away towards the compartments dominated by the Slytherins.

Hermione turned back to her book, but she was thinking too hard about what Malfoy had said, which made it difficult for her to read.

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Kings Cross.

"Right," Professor McGonagall said, standing up, "Thank you for the tea but we best be off,"

"Thank you again for this Professor, if we couldn't have gotten hold of someone, I'll never know-" Mrs Weasley said, wringing her hand.

Professor McGonagall led them to an empty coat room and locked the door behind them.

Mrs Weasley was too busy fussing over her children to notice the tense posture of Tim and Brian as they scanned every corner of the room.

Toby gave Isaac one last hug and told him to keep out of trouble as Professor McGonagall waved her wand over the trunks and sent them off to Hogsmeade station ahead of them.

"Right, gather round, one hand on the rope please," she said as she produced a length of knotted rope from within her handbag.

"Take care bud," Tim said as he fixed the collar of his own coat.

Isaac smiled and nodded at them as a pulling sensation tugged at his naval and the room started spinning away from them.

Toby watched in a mix awe and mild fear as the Weasley children plus Isaac disappeared with Professor McGonagall.

"Y-know Tim, I'm starting to see your point a bit," he said, zipping up his hoodie and scoffing the last of his biscuits.

Tim nodded as he eyed the spot before extending a hand to Mr and Mrs Weasley.

"Thanks for housing him," he said as Mr Weasley clasped his hand, "There's not a lot of kids around his age where we live, so, you know,"

"Not at all, not at all. It was a pleasure," Mr Weasley said as Mrs Weasley took Tims hand and shook it as well.

Tim watched as they left before turning to Brian and...

"Oh, for fu..." he cut himself off as a couple with two young children walked past them, "Where'd he go?" he said through clenched teeth.

Brian raised an eyebrow and held up the postcard that Toby had snagged from a stand nearby.

Tim looked at the picture which had been focused on The London Eye before letting out a noise that was somewhere between a growl and a sigh and calling Ben to tell him to keep an eye on Toby.

The two of them walked back to the car when Ben message to say that he had eyes on Toby and was following him as he made his way to the Thames.

They reached the Eye before Toby did and after spending an hour and a half waiting for him they called Ben to find out where he was.

#"He's gotten distracted,"# Ben said over the phone.

Tim let out another growl and asked where he was.

#"Where you think?"# Ben laughed over the phone.

Another fifteen minutes later had Tim dragging Toby out of the Cartoon Museum, his bags trailing on the ground after him.

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Hogsmeade Station.

Isaac's knees buckled, as did everyone else except Professor McGonagall.

"First time by portkey?" she asked, an amused smile on her lips.

"I prefer the train," Isaac grumbled and she did a double take to find where the new voice had come from.

"Yes, well, let's hope that the issue with the barrier is resolved," Professor McGonagall said as she waved her wand over them all and cleared their clothes of any dirt that had gathered.

An awkward silence hung around them since none of them knew what exactly to say to Professor McGonagall.

That didn't stop the twins though.

For the walk to the carriages that would take them to the school, they took it in turns asking her for the 'juicy insider gossip' of Hogwarts in the holidays.

She didn't answer them, just looking at them with a half smile of exasperation at their questions.

When they reached the carriages she excused herself to go to Hogsmeade for some business she had to deal with but told them that Professor Sprout would be waiting to collect them.

She also warned the Weasley twins about preparing any sort of pranks for their classmates.

While the twins pulled identical faces of fake shock at being accused of even thinking about pranking anyone (Before term started, one night of peace at least), Isaac approaching the carriages hesitantly.

There was no horse pulling it.

Well; not an _ordinary_ horse, that is.

If there was any flesh on their skeletal frames then it was hidden well amidst their black coats. Milky white eyes turned to face him and it flicked it's head, shaking it's vast, leathery black wings as it waited.

"C'mon," Ron said, walking to the carriages.

"Erm," Isaac said, following him.

"Yeah, I know, Fred and George told me," Ron said nonchalantly as he climbed in.

Isaac shook his head as he followed Ron into the carriage, facing away from the weird horse-thing.

He shook his head again and turned his collar up to the wind as the twins climbed inside them.

After they helped Ginny in, the carriage started and they sat in silence for a few more moments as the carriage began trundling towards the castle.

"I... spy with my little eye, T," Fred said, looking around.

Everyone turned to look at him before joining in with trying to guess.

True to her word, Professor Sprout was waiting at the castle steps to bring them inside. She was still wearing her work robes and, by the smell of dragon dung, had been in the Greenhouses recently.

Instead of taking them to their dormitories, or into the great hall, she took them to one of the larger classrooms on the ground floor.

The room was primarily used for larger classes and inside were a few other groups of people that the barrier hadn't allowed access to and Professor Flitwick.

"Right, in you go, in you go," Professor Sprout ushered.

Once the Weasley brood, plus Isaac, were inside she closed the door.

"Right, yes I think that's the last," Professor Flitwick squeaked from where he sat at the Teacher's desk, "Well, as you all know, the barrier blocked itself off for some reason or another today so you're all here a little ahead of schedule, now..."

He was cut off as Peeves flew through the wall, knocking over a few stacks of books in the process.

"O-ho-ho," he cackled as Professor Flitwick let out a sigh, "It's true then, the barrier's blocked and broke,"

Flitwick waved his wand in the direction of the poltergeist and what looked like a swarm of pins started swarming around Peeves.

Peeves started swatting at them as he flew away, mumbling curses at the small Professor as he did so.

"Yes, well, moving on," Professor Flitwick said as he returned the books to where they had been originally, "The barrier stopped working so you are all here early, you may go to your dormitories or the library, or you may want to spend time catching up with any classmates that missed the train like yourselves. However, whatever you do, you must be in the entrance hall, fully robed, yes, by the time the others arrive,"

He then dismissed them all, except for the three first years and Ginny who he would explain what would happen.

The twins hung back to talk with Professor Flitwick and Ron and Isaac made for the door.

"I'll go get my wizards chess set and meet you in the Library? He asked as Isaac looked at his watch.

"Yeah, glad we got those burgers before we left," Isaac said as they split at the staircase. Ron going to the dormitories where their trunks would be and Isaac towards the Library.

Ron Weasley walked up the shifting stairs towards the dormitory.

He ducked behind a tapestry that would take him on a short-cut to the corridor where the fat lady was and he bumped into someone.

"Oof, sorry," he said, unable to see the person properly in the dark.

"Not at all, I perhaps should have kept my wand lit for a second longer," the voice said with a chuckle and Ron gasped.

"Sorry Professor Dumbledore, I..." Ron gasped as he realised who he was talking too.

"No worries, no worries," he said with another chuckle, "Though perhaps you can help me with something,"

"What Professor?" Ron said.

Ron could hear something shift from the darkness in front of him, then...

"Imperio!"

"Now then, tell me what you know about Harry Potter's family,"

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Isaac Rogers walked along the corridor, away from Ron and towards the Library.

He waved to a few of the portraits as he passed them an nodded at some of the ghosts he saw.

Madam Pince looked up from the sheet of parchment she was examining when he entered.

"No food, or drinks outside of sealable containers," she said curtly, watching him as he walked over to one of the tables in the middle of the room.

"Yes, Maam," Isaac said as he placed his coat over the back of a chair. He looked at the doors to see if Ron was coming through and sat for a while before getting up and browsing through the many rows of books that made up the library.

He was looking at the higher sections of the bookshelves as he rounded a corner, just as someone else walked round as well.

The two came to a stop barely inches from each other.

"Oh, sorry," Isaac said as he took an automatic step back from the other boy.

He didn't say anything in reply, instead, he opted for looking at Isaac in a quizzical and judging manner.

"No problem," the dark-skinned boy said after a moment, "You must be Rogers,"

He was wearing a dark green shirt that bordered on a dull emerald under a neat black vest. The upper two buttons were undone and he was holding a book that, from what Isaac could read on the back, magical salt-water plants based in Italy.

"Yeah, that's me, I'm Isaac," he said, holding out his hand.

"Zabini, Blaise," he said, taking Isaac's hand after a moment, "Draco's mentioned you a few times,"

Isaac held the same polite smile he had given when he offered his hand, "Should I be worried?"

Blaise shook his head after a few moments.

"Better things after that detention," Blaise said, walking alongside Isaac.

"I'd imagine so," Isaac said as they sat back down at the table.

"What was that thing in the forest, running idea's that it was a wraith?" Blaise asked as he set down his book and flicked through its pages.

"Quirrell," Isaac said, "With Voldemort stuck on the back of his head," he added and Blaise's hand jerked, nearly knocking the book off the table as he hissed at Isaac.

"It's just a name," Isaac said as he drummed out a small beat on the table surface.

"Still-" Blaise said as he found his page again.

Silence settled as neither spoke further.

"Was it really Quirrell?" Blaise asked after a few moments.

"Yep, plus one class seven possessor prick," Isaac grumbled.

Blaise smirked, "Who ya gonna call?"

"I'd rather salt and burn the body," Isaac said with a smile.

Blaise snorted, "I'll man the flashlight,"

Isaac reached over the table, "Finally, someone else who understands," he said as Blaise shook his hand.

"Really, who's the other?" Blaise asked.

"Dean Thomas," Isaac said.

"Figures," Blaise said with a nod, "What did you say to Malfoy on the train to get him so rattled last year?"

"Hmm, oh," Isaac smirked before dropping all emotion from his face, "This is one small planet," he started but Blaise started laughing loud enough to get Madam Pince to shush him.

"Really, _really_ ," Blaise said through hushed laughter.

"Yeah," Isaac said with a grin.

Footsteps behind them heralded the arrival of Ron.

"Hey man," Ron said, shaking his head like a dog clearing water from its ears.

"Hey Ron," Isaac said.

"Weasley," Zabini said cooly.

"Zabini," Ron said flatly as he sat down and flipped open the chessboard and started arranging the pieces with Isaac.

Ron and Zabini seemed quite content with ignoring each other as Isaac played Ron.

None of them spoke for the first five minutes, until,

"Rook to D5," Zabini said as Isaac tried to think about what move to make next.

Both of them turned to face him.

Ron looked like he was trying to find something to say when Isaac moved on Blaise's suggestion.

"Oh! Check," Isaac said.

"Wha-" Ron said, his head snapping back to the board, "No, hey! You can't do that,"

"He can, Weasley," Blaise said with a faint sneer and drawl, "He needs all the help he can get. Plus, you're getting Mate in three anyway,"

Ron looked confusedly at the board before his eyes widened as he found that Blaise was correct.

"Alright then, if you're so good, let's go," Ron said, matching the small sneer and shifting the board.

Blaise lazily waved his wand and muttered under his breath, summoning a bookmark and closing the book.

"Well then, Weasley," Blaise said with another smirk, "Let's play, we've got some time before we need to go back to hating each other's houses,"

Ron gave his own and mixed up two pawns behind his back.

"I'm going to get a book," Isaac said, standing up as the match began.

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Dumbledore's Office.

Albus Dumbledore paced in front of his desk, his thoughts abstract as he tried to connect the pieces.

Running into the second youngest Weasley child had been a total coincidence as he was making his way down the corridors.

He wondered for a moment if he had maybe acted rashly in his use of the imperius curse on the boy, but he was young. Chances are that no one would expect the child to have been under the influence of the aforementioned unforgivable curse and the memory charm he had placed on the boy would ensure that no one would know.

What he had found, however, was as equally frustrating as it may prove insightful.

He had heard snatches from the usual gossip trails that the Teaching staff left in regards to the boy's family but they had been whispers of overheard conversations at best.

What he had gleaned from the young Weasley, however, cemented some of what he knew.

He lives somewhere in The U.S.A

He lives with someone he considered his 'Older Brother'.

He and this 'Older Brother' lives with many others; and he now knows most, if not all, the names of everyone there. There were two there with the same name and were only referred to by their nicknames but he could always find them by association.

And this Thalmann, who he had only met once and would be contempt with keeping it that way, seemed to be the boss or Guardian for them all.

He sat down in the ornately carved chair that stood behind his desk and steepled his fingers.

He was not a young man, but he was nowhere near dying either.

He could play the long game.

He could play the long game indeed.

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St Otterpole, the day before leaving for Hogwarts.

Fred and George walked through the streets, laughing with a third.

"So, you two are away till ze summer again?" the third asked, his satchel bag bouncing off his leg as he walked.

Christopher was a half-blood that lived in the village, his Mother was a muggle from the village but his Father was a wizard from France. He was two years older than the twins and his family liked to holiday in England for a change from living in France where he attended Beauxbatons.

"Yeah, back to Hogwarts," Fred said, dropping his voice as a few pedestrians walked past them.

"Aah, I will maybe see ze castle in eet'z glory un day," Christopher said, tugging at the collar of his vest, "Oh! Zhat reminds me, pardon,"

He fumbled with the straps on his bag.

"Ever since you mentioned l'ami du petit frère, I have meant to loan you zhese,"

He held out two books and a few sheets of paper.

On one was a man with skin of ghostly blue, and many tubes coming out of a facemask that shone a translucent blue, holding the world in his hands.

The other seemed to show the same figure, though his blue skin had been left colourless and a bucket of blood had been emptied on his head.

"You mentioned ze names of his famille und I zhought you were 'aving a joke," Christopher said.

"Why?" the twins asked.

"I 'ave underlined a few," Christopher said, "Zhey might be worth a read,"

The night before leaving for Hogwarts.

"So, what do you thinks so special about these books?" George asked.

Fred stuck his head up from behind the bed, his arm reaching under for the hidden parchments of writing they had.

They would keep these parchments hidden under a loose floorboard, away from their Mother, for a good reason.

It wasn't a well-kept secret that they didn't exactly fancy going to work for the Ministry like their Father did, or Percy planned to.

A long-standing dream had been to open a joke shop of their own one day and they had been looking at things in their free time, which was whenever they weren't in class or playing Quidditch, for what products they could sell.

"Dunno George," Fred said, straining to reach the planned recipe for their latest innovation, 'Canary Custards'.

"Will you leave them a moment, c'mere," George said, flicking through the pages of the first book.

"Listen, they're horror stories, alright," Fred said, sitting up with their charms and transfiguration notes on the biscuit, "We'll read them later, I mean..."

He stood up and walked over to his twin's bed, taking the book and holding it up.

"How bad can things called 'Creepypastas' be?"

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End notes.

Ooh, things are picking up a bit.

If I keep pushing things forward as much as I'm doing then I'll have to change a few things with the story early.

So, yeah, the end is here.

For this chapter anyway.

I'm pushing a little more evil Dumbles, bringing a few more things up in CP terms and whatever am I going to do if the Weasley's car didn't go feral when they go to Aragog's nest...

You'll have to wait and find out.

'Insert evil cackle here somehow'

Ok, you know what, reader, go to youtube; look up evil cackle and play it when you read that part.

Ok, I'm running out of things to say.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you enjoy any others that I put out.

Till the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – Still no idea.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13. No idea if that's right, but it's what I found.

If you couldn't tell where the books came from then maybe look up some of the more famous Creepypasta centric youtube channels.


	18. Chapter 18, 'Bang-Bang'

Chapter 18, .  
"Word" – Speech.  
'Word' – Thought.  
"Word" – Slender Speech.  
#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.  
~Word~ - Written words.  
$Word$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.  
Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.  
I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from.

Author's note.

Chapter 18, and I'm feeling good.

So, I did post that I would be making a chapter for EXTRAS based on reviewer suggestions.  
As as the moment of writing this there's only one review that's suggesting something I'm going to wait until this chapter goes up to start on it.

But, for now, there is another chapter to write, and oh boy, how to write Lockhart...

'throws every egotistical thing I have ever thought into pot'

'boils for 15 mins'

Chants; "Ego uti probabiliter wring hic translate"

'Out pops Kenneth Branagh in Lockhart costume'

Yay, that's sorted, now back to the story.

But first the reviews.

DarkRavie;  
Glad you like it, I do have some ideas in my head for what to do on that front.  
It'll probably take some time fully write out that part of the story since I'm trying to stay in character for as many people as I can while changing parts of the story.

I'm not going to be able to keep Isaac (Harry) as in character since there's a large part of his life that's been changed but for everyone else I'm trying my best.

Sweet Smilie;

Me pregunto qué te gustaría que escriba?

Sí, creo que lo sé. Creo que me divertiría escribiendo un capítulo de fecha o relación para ellos. Espero que hayas disfrutado la historia hasta ahora y lo siento si lo que escribí aquí es un poco difícil de entender ya que estoy usando Google translate para escribir esto.

In English;

I wonder what you would like me to write?

Yeah, I think I know. I think I'd have fun writing a date or relationship chapter for them.  
I hope you've been enjoying the story so far and I'm sorry if what I've wrote here is a little hard to understand since I'm using google translate to write this.

RCRC36;

Huh, any relation to R2-D2?  
Thank you for the review, glad you like the story.

TheMarpasChappers;

Yay, Marpas is back.

I would be firmly dead if Jeff got a hold of me.

I'm gonna have to start using those phrases, it's fun when no one knows what you're talking about so you can tell them whatever you want and they'd have to go with it.

Grossman as a wizard, that'd just be... wait, how old was he when he went to the boarding school? Hold on, I gotta check a thing.  
No, he was about seven. If he'd been around eleven then that'd have sent me into a tailspin about what I could do with that.

Glad that you like the way I write them, it was one of the biggest concerns since I started.

The list, yay;

1,  
Yeah, Toby's gonna be looking a little more into the magical world after second year, it might not be right away since I'd imagine that since Dumbledore was hushing things up (That's canon) Toby and the other's wouldn't find out till later on when Isaac accidentally makes reference to it.  
Many do see him as laid back, but, I do have something that I'll be adding in at some point that will make his more serious side more understandable.  
Toby... cross-dressing...

'sigh'

Why do you give me the best ideas for things to write? I'm gonna have to queue another EXTRAS chapter at the least now.

2,  
Yeah, Magical world, things might not be as shocking to them. I feel that I got the reactions pretty good though.

3,  
I do like that idea.  
I'd probably have it for a little while, i.e. The tent in Goblet and Hallows or Moody's trunk in Goblet.  
It is an idea that I think I could probably do something with, and I'll probably do at least one thing with it.  
Writing that, an idea popped in my head that I'm gonna try something with.

4,  
This is something that I've been thinking about.  
I'd given the patronus some thought, but the animagus not so much.  
I think he'll definitely have a different patronus, and I do have a good idea on what it might be.  
But you'll have to wait until book 3 based events to find out.

5,  
I do feel that Hogwarts would have some kind of sentience to it, maybe not enough to actively fight against anyone, but definitely enough that there'd be something she could do.

6,  
Yeah, I'd actually put some thought into this.

See, Mrs Zabini is a Black-Widow. She finds someone, kills them off and takes the money.  
A good idea, in my head, is that one of the more Muggle-savvy Purebloods made some investments in muggle companies and would decide that keeping up with the popular things in Muggle society wouldn't have been that bad an idea.  
Maybe the one she has now, or a past one when Blaise was growing up, but I feel like Supernatural has the ability to transcend and racial barriers.

Thank you for reading and I'm glad you liked it.

Right, that's all the reviews I've gotten so far.

Over to my trusted Beta 'DP', whatcha gotta say?

Hello everyone and welcome to another chapter. I hope you all had a good week and enjoy this chapter.

Awesome,

One last thing, and please, give feedback on this.

Would anyone object if I started to go further into bringing the more horror or creepy parts of this world into the Harry Potter side of things?  
Like I make things darker and slide further into the CP side of the story while at Hogwarts.

I'd really like feedback on this before I start next chapter and I feel like people would like the story more if I focused a little more on the CP stuff.

Either PM (Private Message) me or leave a review with your opinion, but I'd really like some feedback on this idea before I do anything.

I was initially planning on making things a little darker around mid-way through third-year, but would anyone object if I did it a little earlier? I might do it a bit in this chapter, but feedback before the next one would be great.

Right, that's pretty much all I can think of, back to the story.

Till the next one,

SteamGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

Ron and Isaac descended from Gryffindor tower after Professor McGonagall's voice had echoed around the school announcing that they were to gather in the Great Hall for the sorting ceremony.

Ron tugged his tie loose a bit as they descended the steps as the first lot of students arrived in the entrance hall.

"Isaac! Ron!" a shout came from a bunch of second-years were Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas had jumped down from a carriage.

Ron and Isaac made their way over to their fellow Gryffindor second-years and subjected themselves to the streams of questions about what had happened to the barrier.

The twins were already having fun saying that Percy had broken it since he had been the last to go through.

Someone else called their names from behind them and as they turned around a large amount of bushy hair obscured their faces.

"Hey Hermione," Isaac laughed as he returned the hug she had given the two.

"Herminny – can't – breev," Ron exaggerated with choking noises as Hermione laughed and let go of them.

"Did the barrier really close itself off?" she asked them as they made their way into the Great Hall.

The Hall was soon filled with all except the new batch of first-years and Ron was a bit fidgety about his sister's sorting.

His nervousness was soon ignored in favour of moaning about how long it was taking for the feast to start.

Eventually, Professor Flitwick came and placed the stool, upon which sat the Sorting Hat, in the space between the Teacher's table and the rest of them and retreated to his seat.

A few moments later the doors of the Great Hall swung open and Professor McGonagall led the first-years into the hall.

Ginny was easily recognisable from her flaming hair. She was standing, clearly quite nervous, next to a girl with dirty-blonde hair that looked like she was caught in a daydream.

Professor McGonagall undid the scroll of parchment and began reading out the names.

Creevey, Colin, became the first Gryffindor. The boy sat down amidst the applauding Gryffindors and Professor McGonagall continued.

The dreamy-eyed girl, Luna Lovegood, got sorted into Ravenclaw and Ron's leg started bumping up and down as Ginny's name got closer and closer to being called.

Ginny was the last to be sorted, her pale face seemed as white as the candles overhead.

The hat wasted no time in sorting her.

"GRYFFINDOR!" it declared to applause from the school.

Ron let out a sigh of relief and Ginny sat across from them, next to the twins, and Professor McGonagall folded the parchment away and removed the stool and Hat from the hall. Placing them in a small side chamber she returned to her seat and tapped her glass with a fork to call for attention.

Professor Dumbledore stood up, beaming with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Welcome, welcome one and all," he said jovially, "To our newcomers and our returners. Another year awaits us all. But first, the words many of us are waiting to hear, Tuck in!"

And with a wave of his hands the once empty plates in front of them filled with food, and with a cheer, people started piling their plates with everything in reach.

Chat soon turned into what happened over the holidays.

Eventually, all the food was eaten and Professor Dumbledore stood back up.

"Now that we are all sufficiently fed and watered, there are a few start of year announcements to make.

Unlike last year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is now in use again, so there are no dangers there like last.

We have a new hand on our teaching staff this year, please give a warm welcome to Gilderoy Lockhart! Who has agreed to fill the Defence Against the Dark Arts post,"

This was met to a great round of applause, mostly from the women of Hogwarts, though the Teachers clapped politely and looked a little off put by the man. Lockhart beamed widely, his teeth as white as the purest snow on a glacier despite having just eaten.

Isaac let out a small groan that nobody seemed to hear. The man looked as insufferable as he had in Diagon Alley.

"Now, as I understand," Dumbledore continued once the clapping subsided, "There was an issue with the barrier to the platform this year. Reports from the Station staff say that the issue has been fixed, though they are still working out why it closed and have assured me that there should be no problems in the foreseeable future,

Now, before you all faint where you sit, I believe that it is time for you all to go to bed. Off you pop," he dismissed them with a small wave of his hand before turning to talk to Professor McGonagall.

Percy went off to gather the first-years and Ron, Hermione, and Isaac made their way through the crowds of students towards Gryffindor Tower.

"So," Seamus asked when they finally reached the tower, "What happened with the barrier?"

"Percy broke it," came the unison reply from the twins, who had come through the portrait hole behind them.

The Gryffindors that heard this joined in with the laughing while they all made their way to their respective dormitories.

They bid Hermione goodnight and settled for bed themselves.

Isaac lay on his bed with Ron as everyone else fixed up their beds. After the games of chess against Blaise in the Library, many of them ending in a draw, they had gone to the Tower early so that they didn't have to sort their stuff out after the feast.

"He wasn't that bad a player," Ron said off-handedly.

"No he wasn't, better than me anyway," Isaac said as he drew the curtains around his bed to change.

Isaac heard Ron's grunt of agreement through a yawn and the creaking of bedsprings told him that Ron had probably crawled under the covers to try and sleep.

The identical sounds from around the room told him that everyone else was so he decided to as well.

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The Ark.

Ben pulled himself free of the T.V.

He had spent the night in cyberspace, keeping track of a few people, and he was in need of a break.

"Busy night?" Teer asked from where he was lounging on the couch.

"Just surveillance," Ben muttered as he stood up and walked through to the kitchen.

"On who?" Teer called from the living room as Ben dumped some bread in the toaster.

"Some schmucks, that Jeff, Masky, and E.J are stalking," Ben said, rummaging in the cupboards for some spread.

After buttering and spreading the jam on the toast he plopped down on the couch opposite Teer and bit into the slices.

"How's Isaac?" Teer asked.

Ben swallowed the bite before answering, "Dunno, he didn't have the Gameboy on. How was France, by the way?"

Teer let out a chuckle.

"I see why Kage likes wine so much. It's worth drinking just to see the vineyards,"

Ben nodded and took another bite of his toast.

Helen descended the stairs a few minutes later. He pressed a quick kiss to the top of Teer's head as he placed his notebook on the coffee table and made his way to the kitchen.

He returned a few moments later, coffee in hand, and sat down next to Teer before flipping open the notebook and taking a pencil out from his shirt pocket and filling the air with precise and practiced scratches.

Ben shook his hands free of any crumbs before stretching and hoisting himself back into the T.V

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Hogwarts.

The first day of Hogwarts started as any other would.

Isaac and Ron descended to the Great Hall to find Hermione already there. She had Voyages with Vampires propped up on a milk jug.

Isaac and Ron sat down on either side of her, Isaac scooping some bacon onto his plate and grabbing a few waffles.

"Morning," Neville said as he joined them, sitting across from them and scooping some porridge into a bowl, "Post's due any minute – I think Gran's sending on a few things I forgot,"

Isaac had just started on his waffles when, sure enough, there was a rushing sound and a hundred or so owls streamed into the Hall.

One that was flying rather oddly caught his eye.

Partly because it was flying towards them.

Isaac grabbed Hermione's book and moved it out of the way as Errol flopped down onto the table, a wing knocking over a milk jug and splashing where the book had just been.

"Errol!" Ron said, pulling the bedraggled owl off of the table.

"Are you sure it's still alive?" Hermione said, poking Errol with an unused spoon.

"Yeah, he's looked worse," Ron said, opening the sodden letter Errol had been carrying that had landed in the milk jug.

"What's it say?" Isaac asked as he tore apart some bacon.

"Mum's just checking that everything was fine," Ron said as he dumped Errol onto his lap so he could eat, "Can I borrow Hedwig to send the reply?"

"Yeah, sure," Isaac told him as he watched the owls in the air.

To his surprise, Hedwig flew in.

She landed in front of them, nicked a bit of Isaac's bacon and flew away...

Leaving a red letter in front of Isaac.

Isaac picked it up, turning it over.

He turned to Ron, but he and Seamus were looking at the envelope in fear.

"What... did you do... to get a howler?" Seamus asked.

"A what?" Isaac looked between him and the envelope which had begun to smoke at the edges.

"You'd better open it," Neville said sympathetically.

All of Gryffindor table was looking his way now so he figured that he should just open the damn thing.

"HEY ISAAC!" L.J's voice exploded into the hall, filling the room with his mildly raspy tones.

"DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN GET TALKING LETTERS? I DIDN'T, I DON'T EVEN HAVE TO WRITE OUT WHAT I WANT TO SAY, IT DOES IT AUTOMATICALLY FROM WHAT I SAY!"

Bang. Bang.

Isaac's forehead hit the table.

"SO I HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG THESE THINGS RECORD FOR, OR IF IT'LL WORK BUT... WAIT, HOOOOLD ON, I WANNA TO TRY SOMETHING!"

Isaac was struggling not to laugh along with quite a lot of the table.

The card went silent for a few moments, just hovering in front of Isaac. Then music started playing through the card and Isaac resumed hitting his head on the table.

"DID IT WORK? I HAVE NO IDEA IF IT DID OR NOT BUT RICK ASTLEY SHOULD HAVE PLAYED SO YOU'LL HAVE TO TELL ME IN A LETTER. DO YOU THINK THERE'S LETTERS THAT ALLOW YOU TO TALK SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH EACH OTHER BECAUSE THAT'D BE AWESOME!

ANY WAY, THINGS ARE A BIT DULL HERE. ERIS IS STILL BEING HOUSE TRAINED AND SMILE HATES HAVING TO WEAR THAT CONE, BUT I MADE IT LOOK LIKE A POPPY AND THAT SEEMS TO HAVE CHEERED HIM UP. HE HID MY SLIPPERS IN THE BACKYARD TO SAY THANKS!

ANYWAY, LET ME KNOW HOW THE LETTER WENT!

The letter then burst into flames, erasing any part of the letter that had once been there.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Isaac's head hit the table amidst the rumbles of laughter before the students broke off into their separate conversations.

"You have to be the luckiest sunnuva gun to ever receive a howler," Seamus Finnegan said to a grinning Isaac who was rubbing his forehead.

Professor McGonagall came round with the timetables not long after that and they spent the rest of breakfast chatting before double Herbology with the Hufflepuffs.

As they neared the greenhouses they saw the rest of the class standing outside.

Evidently, Professor Sprout was not here.

They had just reached them when Professor Sprout came striding across the lawn, a couple of empty bags of manure in her arms. She wasn't alone.

Walking alongside her, golden hair bouncing in its waves underneath a turquoise hat with gold trimmings and matching robes, was Lockhart.

"Oh, hello there," he said, beaming around the students, "Just been showing Professor Sprout the right way to maintain a Whomping Willow! But I don't want you running away with the idea that I'm better at Herbology than she is! I just happen to have met several of these exotic plants on my travels..."

"Greenhouse 3 today chaps!" said Professor Sprout said, sounding disgruntled, and not at all like her usual cheery self.

The murmur of interest amongst the students was understandable. They had only worked in Greenhouse 1 all of last year, but Greenhouse 3 held some of the more interesting and dangerous plants.

As they all filed in Lockhart's arms shot out and held onto Isaac.

"Harry! I've been wanting a word – you don't mind if he's a couple of minutes late, do you, Professor Sprout?"

Judging by the look on her face, she did object. But Lockhart said, "That's the ticket," and shut the greenhouse door on her before she could say anything.

"Harry," Lockhart said as he pulled Isaac so he was walking around the front of the greenhouse with him, "Harry, Harry, Harry,"

"Isaac," Isaac said but it fell on deaf ears.

"Well, I believe that we got off on the wrong foot," Lockhart said as Isaac shrugged to try and get the hand off his shoulder, "That photographer that day hardly got off a good picture of us, and that ruffian that assaulted me didn't help matters in the slightest,"

Isaac stopped walking, hoping that Lockhart was too wrapped up in himself to notice, but Lockhart dragged him forward still.

"But, you know, we're not so different, you and I," Lockhart said after pulling Isaac alongside him again, "Yes, I know, you're probably thinking 'It's alright for him to say that, _he's_ an internationally famous wizard' but, there is truth there," he said waving his finger in what he thought was a wise manner.

Isaac thought that it made him look even more egotistical and he would have loved to knock his ass on the ground, but he restrained himself.

"Yes, I mean a few people have heard of you because of that business with He Who Must Not Be Named," he glanced at the scar on Isaac's head, not seeing the glare that was being fixed on him.

"I know, I know, it's not quite as good as winning Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile-Award five times as I have, but it's a start, Harry, it's a start,"

He gave Isaac a hearty wink and strode off.

Isaac mimed pulling the pin on a grenade and shoving it up the man's ass before walking into the greenhouse.

The Mandrake lesson had been fairly interesting, it certainly took Isaac's mind off the flamboyant Professor. Until they had been joined by Hufflepuff Justin Finch-Fletchley, who had brought Lockhart back into the front of Isaac's mind once again and he felt the impulse to tear out each and every one of the man's pearly whites with a pair of pliers.

After the class they were all rather dirty and everyone took a quick trip to their common rooms to wash away the earth and muck before Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall.

The task of turning a beetle into a button was harder than he had expected since all his knowledge of transfiguration seemed to have evaporated over the holiday.

All that happened to the beetle was that it ran around the desk and nearly jumped off a lot.

"What've we got in the afternoon?" Harry asked as they sat down to eat lunch.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts," Hermione said at once.

"Why," Ron said as he took Hermione's timetable from her, "Have you outlined all of Lockhart's lessons in little hearts,"

Hermione, blushing as red as the tomatoes that lay in front of them, snatched the timetable back and stuffed it in her bag.

Throughout lunch Isaac felt like something was off, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

They ate their lunch as normal. Chatted as normal. Watched some of the people around them as normal. So what was making him feel on edge?

They finished and decided that they'd spend the rest of lunch in the courtyard. As Isaac stood up, he saw it.

About ten metres down the table, someone was watching him.

His mind could just make the connection from the boy's appearance to the first-year Creevey that had been sorted alongside Ginny.

The boy had been watching him all lunch, barely touching his food, and thumbing the camera that hung from his neck.

Isaac kept chatting with Ron as he watched the boy stand up and start following them out.

"I'll catch up with you guys in a moment, think there's some gum on my shoe," Isaac said and he broke off from them.

Ron and Hermione looked a little confused as Isaac went the opposite way of them, towards the charms classrooms.

Isaac kept making quick glances over his shoulder as he watched the small boy follow him. He ducked through a hidden passage that led to the corridor on the other side of the classrooms.

The thing about this passage was that the portrait on the other side shone a little light down the corridor since the frame didn't cover the hole properly. It gave whoever used it tunnel vision since they couldn't see any of the little cubby holes in the sides since the light blocked them.

Ducking into one of them, Isaac pulled his cloak around him so that he practically melded into the shadows.

He heard the portrait behind him creak open and he held his breath.

The breathing of the little boy got closer with every step and Isaac peered blearily at the passage. He had taken his glasses off so they didn't reflect any light.

He drew even further against the wall as the boy passed him. He waited until the other portrait opened and closed before breathing again and moving back the way he had come.

"What was that about?" Ron asked when he got back to the courtyard. Hermione was reading Wandering with Werewolves.

"Had some gum on my shoe," Isaac said as he sat down, half behind a pillar so he was hidden but could see the doors he had just come through.

"Yeah, you could have wiped it on one of the stones out here," Ron said as he wrapped some spello-tape around a crack in his wand. It was getting pretty old.

"No, I mean I had a tail," Isaac said.

"What, did someone spike your pumpkin juice?" Ron said with a snicker.

"No, I," Isaac let out another sigh, "I mean someone was following me,"

"What? Who?" Ron and Hermione asked.

"Creevey, that first-year that got sorted with Ginny. First to go to Gryffindor," Isaac told them.

"But why would he be following you?" Hermione asked sceptically.

"Muggle camera, little out of date, but definitely a muggle one. So, let's say his parents are both muggles, what would you do if you wanted to learn about an entire world before sending your kid into it all alone?" he asked Hermione as he leant further behind the pillar to hide from Lockhart as the man strode through the courtyard.

Quite a few broke into embarrassed giggles as he waved to them and flashed the toothy smile.

"Probably go to a book shop and read a bit about it's... Oh," Hermione said, looking up from her book.

"What?" Ron said.

"Remember how I knew who Isaac was on the train in our first-year?" Hermione said to him, not taking her eyes off Lockhart.

Since Ron did not, she explained it to him.

"Oh, you mean he's probably got a book on you mate?" Ron said to Isaac.

"Yes Ron," Isaac sighed as the bell rang and they headed off to Defence.

When they got there Isaac piled up the books in front of him high enough so that he didn't have to look at the actual man on their covers.

Lockhart attempted to walk impressively down the stairs, listing his many ego-boosting awards as he did so.

When he called out the register, Isaac's contempt for the man grew further.

"Harry, seems like they've got your name wrong here! You'll have to go talk to Professor McGonagall to get that fixed, don't know why it's down as 'Isaac' on this, but oh well," he said with a hearty chuckle. Ron looked a little worried at the growl that escaped Isaac.

Lockhart's class was...

No, it did not deserve to be called a class.

It was ego boosting for the man and he bloody well knew it.

First, he gave them out a little quiz.

A quiz. On himself.

Not to do with anything that they covered last year. Nothing on what they already knew from their books, which he probably only assigned them to get so he could fill his own pockets with more galleons than he probably deserved.

The entire quiz was,

'What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favourite colour?'

'What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?'

All the way to,

'When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday and what would his ideal gift be?'

Ron shared part of Isaac's dislike at the quiz, but he put down answers that could have been right.

Isaac could not wait to see the man's face when he handed his in.

"Not a lot of you put your names," Lockhart said cheekily as he flicked through them, "Tut, tut – Hardly any of you remembered that my favourite colour is lilac. I say so in Year with a Yeti, make sure to read your sources correctly for this class. And em... oh... er,"

Isaac couldn't help the small smile that came on his lips as Lockhart most likely came to his quiz sheet.

The man let out a nervous chuckle.

"Now that's, heh, that is, erm. Moving on," he said, putting the quizzes down and standing up.

"What did you do?" Seamus said, leaning across to Isaac's desk.

"Fresh-Blood red, to not be spit-roasted over a blazing fire surrounded by starving cannibals, somehow not been crushed under the weight of his own ego," Isaac listed off the first three of his answers.

Seamus went a little red in the face from containing his laughter.

He couldn't help himself though when Lockhart started what he supposed was meant to be a dramatic speech about what was on the desk. When he unveiled the shaking cage hidden under the cloth to be housing a bunch of 'Freshly caught Cornish Pixies' Seamus let out a snort of laughter.

Lockhart seemed to take offense to not being taken seriously and let them loose in the class.

Isaac made a grab at Neville's foot as a bunch of the pixies hoisted him up and hung him from the chandelier but the boy was lifted higher than he could reach.

The bell rang and everyone bolted from the room. Lockhart stayed just long enough so that he could tell Hermione, Ron, and Isaac to pop them back in their cage.

"Can you believe him?" roared Ron over the din that the Pixies were making.

"He probably just wanted to give us some hands-on experience,"

Isaac hid the growl that meant he wanted to get his hands on the man's neck and throttle him. Before smashing a book into Pixie that was trying to bite his face.

Hermione began stunning the Pixies with an immobilising spell and it took them about ten minutes to catch and cage all the Pixies.

Isaac feigned bending down to tie his shoes while Hermione and Ron argued about whether or not Lockhart had any idea on what he was doing. They were too wrapped up in their argument to notice Isaac place a bag of brightly coloured sweets on Lockhart's desk and write a quick and fancy note with a quill he had found on the floor.

Thankfully that had been the final class of the day and the three of them returned to the Gryffindor common room to relax before dinner.

"Hey guys," Dean said as they sat down in the common room.

Ron and Hermione said hello back whilst Isaac grunted. Hermione went off to change her books whilst Ron and Isaac dropped into chairs next to Dean and Seamus.

They sat in silence for a few moments.

"So Isaac," Dean said, "You're locked in a room. You've got a gun with two bullets. In the room with you is Lockhart, Snape, and the guy who killed your Aunt, what do...

"Shoot Lockhart in both his eyes, pistol-whip Snape and let the guy who killed my Aunt adopt me," Isaac said without hesitation.

He was thankful that he had his head on the table so none of them could see the all too cheery smirk on his face.

"We hear something about Lockhart and punishment?" the twins said, coming over and stealing the final two chairs.

"Yeah, git's about as pleasant to be around as a pile of mud with a superiority complex," Seamus said.

They told the twins about the disaster of a lesson they had had.

"Well, I think that calls for a volley of Dung-Bombs in his quarters," Fred said.

"Don't," Isaac said, pushing his glasses on his head as he rubbed his eyes.

"Why, even just with the fact he's being a prick about your name calls for it," George said.

"Because it'd just be insult to injury at this point, I'll let you get next time," Isaac said with a smirk.

"What'd you do?" the twins said with Cheshire grins.

"Left a little gift from L.J," Isaac told them.

Fred and George shared a quick glance and a nod.

"Say, Isaac, L.J wouldn't..."

"Happen to own 'Laughing..."

"Jester', the prank service,"

"Would he?" they finished.

"Yep," Isaac said, "Took you long enough to ask,"

Later at dinner, Isaac looked over to where Lockhart was sitting at the Teacher's table. A happy feeling settled in his chest as he saw Lockhart looking pale. Quite pale indeed.

"He must've eaten the whole bag in one go," Isaac said in half masked glee as he sat down next to Ron.

"What will that do?" Ron said, squinting up at the Professor.

Lockhart seemed to be putting on his best so to keep up his persona of incredibility.

It wasn't quite working though. His head swayed from side to side a little and whenever he tried to talk to someone he had to pause and hold the back of his hand to his mouth.

"Well, indigestion at the least," Isaac said, spooning mashed potatoes onto his plate.

"And at the most?" Ron said hesitantly.

"He's gonna be praying to the porcelain god tonight," Isaac said, pouring gravy onto the plate.

As he spoke Lockhart stood up, waving excuses to the other staff members, before rushing in a nearly dignified manner from the hall.

Based on the fact that he was about as pale as his perfect teeth, Isaac doubted that the man would be able to reach a bathroom in time.

Later that night.

Isaac had just fallen asleep.

He had turned the Gameboy on in hopes that Ben wasn't too busy.

"So Specs, missing us already?" Ben said with an impish grin as he appeared in front of Isaac.

"You wouldn't believe the day I've had," Isaac said as he gave Ben a hug.

"Ooh," Ben said, sucking air in through clenched teeth, "Bad day?"

Isaac groaned and told Ben about the day.

"Well then," Ben said, popping a couch into existence with a large bowl of popcorn and big T.V. to go with, "Sounds like you need a little de-stress,"

The T.V. started showing scenes from various horror movies with Lockhart's face stuck on the many, many, victims.

Isaac and Ben swapped stories of what the day entailed, Ben promising to pass on Isaac's thanks to Masky for teaching him how to tell when someone's following him and how to lose them.

Isaac started to drift off into a true sleep so Ben carefully dissolved the world he had made so Isaac could sleep peacefully before remotely turning off the Gameboy and returning to the Mansion.

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Georgia.

Jeff couldn't help but hum a song as he walked through the empty street.

He was bored.

There was really no other way to put it.

He drummed his fingers to the beat of the song as he kicked a can into an alley.

He breathed in the humid air and let out a sigh.

"I need a drink," he said as he carelessly meandered towards a little pub at the end of the street.

It was fairly late in the evening and the pub wasn't deserted, but it wasn't overly crowded.

He found his way to the bar with ease.

The barman looked up from the glass he was polishing to look at him.

"Gonna need to see some I.D kid," he said as he put the glass down, and placed his hands on the counter in front of Jeff and raised an eyebrow at the mousy-haired teen.

Jeff handed over a ten and asked for a coke, the barman didn't say anything but brought him the can and a glass.

"Ice?" he asked.

"Go for it," Jeff said as the man placed his change on the counter.

The man went back to cleaning used glasses and Jeff looked around the bar, pretending to watch the game on the T.V.

Over in the little cubby that led to the bathrooms stood two people.

One was a girl that kept rubbing the nook of her arm and looked like she was just dying to go home, and go to sleep.

But, unfortunately for Jeff, he had already picked out his target and he couldn't change now.

The man leered at the skimpily dressed girl in front of him and to her friends that were not so subtly watching at the table they had. They too looked in dire need of some sleep but Jeff merely crushed up the can to vent his frustration about having to let such lovely targets go.

The man shook hands with the girl and Jeff could just see the top of the small packets he handed her before rubbing his own nose and snatching the bundle of notes from the girl and sending her on her way with a hand to her rear.

The man returned to the bar for one last drink and handed over one of the crumpled notes from the bunch he had gotten from the girl.

Jeff got another can of coke whilst the man finished his drink and left before he had finished.

Jeff waited behind the light cast at a bus stop for the man to leave.

When he did, Jeff followed a good pace back, keeping himself mostly out of sight as the man walked arrogantly down the street.

He could smell the man's putrid stench from here.

He kept back and hidden as the man catcalled at a bunch of call girls on a corner before going towards a shutter gate and unlocking the door.

Jeff counted to ten in his head before following after him and using a copied key that he had snatched from another tenant.

Jeff walked up the ragged and water stained stairs.

He couldn't help the reverie that was dredged up from when he would travel town to town, state to state, constantly moving and living in hovels like this.

Then he had gotten into a fight with a tall, suited, faceless man and that little routine of kill, move, kill, move, had gotten thrown out the window.

Jeff came to the second to the top floor and followed the path he had memorised to the man's room.

The door was rotting and it looked like one good kick would knock it down.

As much as Jeff wanted to test that theory out, he didn't want to give away his position to the drug dealer inside more.

He tried the door.

Locked.

With a sigh he jammed in the pick and wrench that Isaac had gotten him for Christmas.

It had been a useful thing to have which was the only reason he took it with him for his jobs.

Hearing the click of the lock coming undone, he twisted the wrench round and opened the door quietly.  
The sound of a barely working T.V. told him that the man was lounging in the living room, probably with another beer in hand.

Jeff walked with care as he came round the corner and found the man where he would be.

In a ragged and probably diseased chair, nearly half empty can of beer in hand, the same game of American Football on the slightly cracked screen.

On the table sat the roll of cash and what looked like half a bag of flour dumped into a ziplock bag.

Jeff fingered the knife in his pocket.

Then another thought came to him.

He walked back to behind the dresser and rummaged in his pockets.

He had snatched some heavy duty sleeping pills from some drug store on his way to the bar for L.J.

The two of them had reached a truce of sorts on Slendy's orders.

L.J had agreed to hold off on all onion based pranks for the next two months if Jeff would pick him up some sleeping pills while he was out, a mixture of weak to heavy since he wanted to try some things.

He would just grab another packet on his way back as he popped one out and carefully walked up behind the guy and drop the pill into his can.

Hearing the slight sizzle Jeff was glad the man hadn't drunk it all and he moved back to the dresser.

Not too long after, the man took another hearty swig from the can after yelling at the screen.

The man drained the lot, pill included, and threw the can at the screen.

Jeff waited a few more minutes and the man fell into the seat, rough snores emitting from his body.

Jeff stood up, went to the kitchen and found a dirty chopping board.

Giving it a quick wipe, he took it through and poured a small amount of the white powder in the ziplock bag onto it and used a nearby razor to separate it into lines.

He then blew three of them away and took another small scoop and placed it on a discarded receipt.

Walking over to the sleeping man, Jeff truly felt like he was smiling. Despite the ever-present carving on his face.

"You know, my boss, Slendy," Jeff told the unconscious man, "Doesn't let any of us use this stuff, or any drugs really. Says that he'll lock us in the basement till we're clean if we do. And a month or two extra to be sure,"

Jeff bent forward till he was about a couple of inches from the man's face.

He put the powder coated receipt on the arm of the chair and pried open the man's eyes.

"Did you know there's this idea that you can tell when someone's watching you in your sleep?" Jeff asked and breathed heavily into his eyes till they watered.

He let one of them close and held up the receipt to the man.

"You know, all this time pedalling this shit out to partying frat punks and painted whores, you've never had a chance to try it for yourself, have you?" he said softly.

Jeff closed the other eye and held the man's mouth closed so he was forced to breathe through his nose.

Jeff carefully tilted the receipt towards the man's nose and with every breath more and more of the powder was drawn into his system.

Course some of it was blown away every time he exhaled so Jeff had to refill the receipt seven or more times till the man's hands started to shake a little.

"Ohh," Jeff said in mock sympathy, "And I was just starting to truly enjoy myself,"

Jeff held the powder filled receipt up to the man's nose one last time before flinging it over his shoulder and leaving the man to collapse to the floor as the seizures started to wrack his body.

Jeff was about to leave when he spotted the roll of cash on the table.

He debated taking it for a second before snatching the roll of the table and pocketing it.

He had just turned to leave when he heard the click of the door opening and closing.

He flattened himself against the wall, hand gripping the hilt of his knife.

"Dev, man, you get the cash from those sluts, or do I gotta go break a few fingers?" a voice called out from the entrance and Jeff could hear the approaching footsteps of the man's roommate.

He wasn't supposed to be back until an hour later, though Jeff wasn't complaining.

"Dev, man, you pass out drunk again?" a wide-eyed and spacy looking, long-haired, greaseball asked as he walked into the room.

When he fully in front of Jeff he smashed into the back of the man's head with the hilt of the knife and sent the man forward.

His head caught the edge of the table and he fell to the ground, out cold as a small stream of blood started to ooze from under the man's filthy hair.

Jeff let out a sigh, "Loose carpets," he said, tearing up part of the carpet from where it joined into the corridor, "Such a trip hazard, you should talk to your super about that,"

Jeff walked down the street.

Laughing caught his attention and out from an alley came the group of girls who his latest kill had dealt too.

"Hey cutie," the chick who bought the drugs said, pressing herself on Jeff.

Alcohol reeked her breath and her eyes were bloodshot with pupils that took up all of the iris.

"So, dude, like, you want to party?" she asked in a slurred flirt as she pressed herself against him harder.

"Sorry," Jeff said, snatching the girl's hands before they wandered further, "Junkie sluts ain't my thing," Jeff pushed her off him with and continued walking down the street.

Now as he walked he was tossing the purse he had lifted from her.

"I got your pills," Jeff said, tossing the boxes at L.J as he walked past.

"Well don't you smell like a one-night-stand, have some fun?" L.J asked as he caught the boxes thrown his way.

"Junkie chicks don't know physical space," Jeff said with a growl before stalking upstairs to change.

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Hogwarts.

Isaac spent the next few days carefully dodging Lockhart.

Whenever the flamboyant man walked down a corridor Isaac seemed to disappear faster than you could say 'Bugger'.

Almost harder to avoid was first-year Colin Creevey.

Isaac was able to avoid him for the better parts of the day, but it was almost as if he had memorised Isaac's timetable.

At least Colin knew to call him Isaac.

He would slip up and call him Harry by accident if he saw Isaac when he wasn't actively looking for him.

Isaac couldn't really get mad at the kid, it was just annoying.

Lockhart, on the other hand, was still as obnoxious as ever.

It was now Saturday and Isaac had been looking forward to a nice, long, lie in.

That plan was shaken to pieces when Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, shook him awake before the crack of dawn.

"Explain why I shouldn't kill you," Isaac muttered sleepily, American accent in full force, as he tried to roll back over and go back to sleep.

"Because I spent the whole... wait, what? Never mind, listen. I spent the whole summer devising new Quidditch plans,"

Isaac groaned and heaved himself out of the bed and, after changing, followed Wood to the Quidditch stadium.

Colin, for god knows why, was up too and probably as hyper as Isaac was tired.

The boy had taken a picture of one of the times that Lockhart had tried to give his 'wisdom' to Isaac and Colin had gotten the picture developed in the potion that enchanted the picture so its inhabitants were animated.

Isaac was proud of his picture self's desire to stay hidden, he was hiding himself behind the frame while Lockhart tugged helplessly on his arm.

Colin tagged along with Isaac, getting a brief rundown on what Quidditch was as they made their way through the halls.

The rest of the team was already out on the pitch, looking as tired as he was, and only Wood looked remotely awake.

Colin went off to the stands somewhere and Wood began his first practice run.

Things were going well, until the Slytherins turned up.

Wood tried to get them to back off but Marcus Flint, the Slytherin Captain, provided a note from Professor Snape that said they could have access to the pitch in order to train their new Seeker.

Draco stepped out from behind the other players.

Isaac gave a brief, and quick, wink at Draco. Who returned it hidden behind a sneer.

Isaac had gotten a note from Draco yesterday, how he had gotten it to him he'd never know. He had put his hands in his pockets and BAM! There it was.

Draco had asked Isaac if they could meet to talk Halloween night as most of the school would be going to sleep early from overeating at the feast. He suggested meeting at one of the classrooms on the third floor, Charms side, and had told him what routes to avoid to dodge Filch.

At that point Ron and Hermione made their way down and Isaac inwardly cringed.

Draco was surrounded by some of the highers in the Slytherin dorms; he wouldn't be able to pull any punches he threw, physical or verbal, if he was to prove that he could keep his place on the team.

Isaac was right.

When Hermione had tried to defend the Gryffindor team, when Flint bragged about them having the latest racing brooms, Draco had to step forward and 'put her in her place' since the brooms really had been gifts from his Father.

The slur he threw, Isaac had no clue about it, but the results were undeniably bad.

The twins threw themselves at Draco, but they were blocked by Flint, and Ron tried to curse him.

The curse backfired, the crack in Ron's wand had grown so that the end was threatening to fall off if bumped into something and Ron was sent flying backwards.

A few moments later, Ron started belching large slugs.

Isaac and Hermione took one of Ron's arms each and, after pushing Colin out of the way, took him to Hagrid.

They were delayed a few moments by Lockhart leaving Hagrid's cabin and it took all of Isaac's restraint under the stress of the situation to not levitate some of the rabbit droppings onto Lockhart's golden hair.

Hagrid, it turns out, had no idea how to cure it besides of letting Ron burp them all out.

While waiting for him to do so, Hagrid showed them the pumpkins he had been growing for the Halloween dinner. He also told them about how Ginny, Ron's little sister, had been walking round near his hut.

Hagrid suggested that they give her a heads up about how dangerous the Forest can be before she wandered in.

While they were there, Ron explained what the slur that Draco spat at Hermione was.

Isaac was in a little bit of bother.

One one hand, the explanation that Ron gave him made him want to hit Malfoy round the head as a wake-up call.

On the other, he knew that Draco wouldn't have been allowed to back down or settle for a mediocre insult because of the present company but he couldn't tell Ron or Hermione that.

With what had happened, Ron would have gone off on a rant about how Slytherins were evil and that Isaac must have something wrong in his head if he thought otherwise.

Hermione might have been more understanding, but the slight glisten of unshed tears in her eyes told him that she would probably be hurt by Isaac trying to defend Malfoy.

So Isaac opted for the middle ground of looking disgruntled by his dilemma and his friends took it as he was pissed at Malfoy as well.

As the three of them made their way back to the Castle, Professor McGonagall was waiting on the steps.

"Mr Weasley," she said and the three of them frize from her tone, "While it may have been admirable to defend your friend, there is still a rule about cursing and hexing fellow students,"

"But Professor," Hermione said.

"No buts, Mrs Granger," Professor McGonagall said, "The rules are rules. Mr Malfoy is currently in a meeting with Professor Snape about his actions and I should think that you are smart enough Mrs Granger to know that ones birth has nothing to do with talent. Your own skills in class prove everything that vile insult means wrong," she fixed Hermione with a rare smile and Hermione couldn't help but smile back.

Ron had hoped in that moment that Professor McGonagall had forgotten about his detention but, alas, she had not.

Ron's groan at having to aid Filch in cleaning the trophies in the awards room the old fashioned way was cut off by another round of slugs from Ron's stomach.

Professor McGonagall waved her wand and sent the slugs away before conjuring a bag for Ron to throw up any more slugs into.

Halloween, that year, had been fairly interesting.

The first thing of interest, was that it was the five hundredth Death-Day for Sir Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, and he had invited Ron, Hermione, and Isaac to the event after they listened with mild sympathy to his woe about being, yet again, denied to join the Headless-Hunt.

And so, mildly disappointed that they wouldn't be able to see the magnificent feast with the rumoured dancing skeleton entertainment, the three of them made their way down to the room cleared for Sir Nick's Death-Day party.

Isaac though that the mixing of many centuries worth of ghosts from many different eras was fairly interesting.

The mix of different language styles was fun to listen to.

A wizard from Shakespearean times got into an argument with a witch from the dawn of the age of steam and the period insults thrown had Isaac entertained for some time.

The charm of the room had dropped at the meeting of Peeves who had heard Hermione suggesting that they avoid one of the Hogwarts ghosts, Moaning Myrtle, and immediately called her over to insult her.

When Sir Nick had tried to give his speech to that everyone for coming, Sir Patrick and the other representatives of the Headless-Hunt kept interrupting him and they figured that no one would notice if they left for some food that they could eat.

On the way back, something Isaac heard had them stop in the middle of the corridor.

$"Rip... tear... kill..."$ the disembodied voice said.

"Did you hear that?" Isaac whispered to Ron and Hermione.

"No,", "Hear what?" they asked.

Isaac shushed them as he followed where the voice was coming from.

How could the voice be coming from their side then be above them in a matter of seconds? They should be able to see it. And why couldn't Ron or Hermione hear it?

$"... sooo hungry... for so long..."$ the voice continued.

Isaac followed it along, adrenaline filling his bones and excitement tingling in the air around him.

At the sound of the voice talking about kills and blood Isaac started to get the feeling that maybe rushing into this wasn't the best idea and he slowed down as he rounded the corridor to where it should be.

There, hanging from the wall and as stiff as a stone statue, was Mrs Norris.

Filch's cat was either dead or frozen and Isaac knew that being found there wouldn't be that good an idea.

"C'mon, move!" Isaac said as he pushed Ron and Hermione back down the corridor.

"Why, what's..." Ron started but Isaac cut him off.

"We don't want to be found here, MOVE!" he said forcibly shoving Ron a little harder as the sounds of students leaving the Great Hall filled the air.

They just managed to make it back to a side corridor that allowed them to blend in with the others as they passed, making it seem like they had just come from the Death-Day party.

The eventual gasps of horror filled the air and Malfoy's voice called out over them all.

"Enemies of the heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"

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Author notes.

It's a little late as of writing this, time-wise, and I want to get it sent off to DP so I can upload on time.

Thank you all for reading, I've made a start on the 10,000 view special for EXTRAS but there is still time to suggest something for me to write.

Anyway, feedback on the question I asked in the top notes would still be great and I know that it ended a little suddenly here, but like I said, I want to get this off to DP so I can upload on time.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'll be working on the special whenever I'm not trying to keep up with this story, which is often since I've got the attention span of a... oh look, a shiny thing.

But anyway, thank you for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter,

Till the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H. Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.  
Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.  
Sally – Kiki H.  
Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows. Puppeteer – Still no idea.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.  
Kagekao – GingaAkam.  
Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13. No idea if that's right, but it's what I found.


	19. Chapter 19, The Attacks Begin,

Chapter 19, The Attacks Begin.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$Word$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from.

Author's note.

Chapter 19, feeling good with this,

Unlike Mrs Norris but that comes in later.

Anyway, as of starting this chapter, I've not gotten any feedback on whether you would like me to go a little darker with what I write so I'm just gonna take it as I normally would for now.

Anyway, not really got much to say here, so to the reviews.

DarkRavie;

Glad you like it, I'm gonna have to start making a note of how many times you leave a review, seems I can't go a chapter without you leaving a review, Hi again.

Sweet Smilie;

Ok, thank you for leaving the review.

I also dislike Lockhart with a passion, I do think that I will be giving him a worse fate than just losing his memory.

The scene with Isaac giving the response of shooting Lockhart, hitting Snape, and going with Toby has been one of the scenes I planned out early on.

The meeting with Draco will be solved in this chapter, they were going to meet after the feast.

Ginny does have the diary, the slur about not being able to afford decent books was a part of the insults thrown between Mr Malfoy and Mr Weasley.

Yeah, I'm really upset that I didn't include Toby in that scene now. I might fix that this chapter.

The twins... yeah, they'll definitely be getting closer to the Creepypastas.

Cross-Dressing Toby, I'm definitely going to at least reference that. I actually really like the idea of it being a prank by L.J.

Glad to know that you are ok with me answering in English, it does make it a little easier to reply.

Review

Alright, that's all I got from the reviews,

Customary Beta check-in, DP, how are you?

Hello everyone! I am doing great. I hope you are all doing well. Have a wonderful day (or evening) lovely readers.

Wonderful, always nice to check in with you.

Right, so another little thing,

It's definitely a long way away, but I'm writing another EXTRAS chapter after the 10k milestone chapter. In it, I'll be taking HP canon and throwing it out the window. I'm going to be taking complete and total control of the narrative and I'm gonna have fun with this.

Anyway, like I said, I'm starting it after the 10k milestone so it's a far while off from now.

Right then, to the chapter,

Till the next one,

SteamGeek01,

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)** Hogwarts.

Malfoy's shouts attracted the attention of Filch, the old caretaker wheezed his way through the crowd to the clearing ahead.

Everyone was silent enough so that his whisper of Mrs Norris' name carried over them all.

"My cat, my cat," his voice was growing closer to a shriek now, "WHO HAS MURDERED MY CAT!"

Many of the students shuffled backwards at the shout and started to clear a path for the approaching professors.

Professor Dumbledore swept past Isaac, Hermione, and Ron followed closely by Professors McGonagall and Snape.

Snape's eyes lingered on the three of them for a moment as he passed but the man said nothing.

Professor Dumbledore's dismissal of them all sent the crowds of students back to their dormitories.

Isaac, Ron, and Hermione had maybe gotten several paces away when,

"Potter! Weasley! Granger!" Snape called dangerously low to them as he made his way to them.

The three of them stopped and turned to face the professor who had reached them.

None of them said anything as the rest of the student body moved past them.

"Follow," Snape said and he led them to, cue a sigh from Isaac, Lockhart's office where the teachers and Filch were.

Dumbledore's eyes flicked upwards from examining the frozen cat for a moment before returning to Mrs Norris. Lockhart was moving behind him, making comments about things he had faced in the past. Professor McGonagall was stood at the side and looking confused at why Snape had brought the three of them.

Filch was sobbing a little into a well-used handkerchief. His sobs turned into hiccups as he looked at the three students.

"Was- was it them?" he asked between half sobs, "I'll kill ye! I'LL KILL YE!"

"Argus!" Professor Dumbledore said quickly before Filch could take a step forward.

"She is not dead, she has been petrified," Dumbledore said, walking around from the table towards them, "But how, I cannot say,"

Ignoring Lockhart's exclamation of 'Ah! I thought so,' everyone turned to look at the three students now.

Dumbledore waved Filch's accusations that the three of them had done it and, as he looked at them, Isaac got that feeling of being X-rayed again.

"No second-year could have done this. It would have taken Dark Magic of the most advanced to petrify Mrs Norris," at this Filch descended into a chair and dry sobs racked his body.

"I asked Professor Snape to retrieve you three, as both he and I, noticed that you were not present at the feast," Dumbledore said softly.

Isaac, Ron, and Hermione launched into an explanation of how they were at Sir Nick's Deathday Party.

"Aah, yes, five hundred years, a milestone worthy of such an occasion," Dumbledore said with a soft chuckle, "And you didn't see anything?"

Ron and Hermione both looked at Isaac.

"No Professor," Isaac said, "We had just left and joined everyone else already in the hall," Snape took their glances as an indicator that something was amiss.

"I suggest, Headmaster, that Potter is not being entirely truthful," Snape said with a vindictive smile, "It might be a good idea if he were deprived of certain privileges until he is ready to be more truthful. I personally feel that he should be pulled from the Gryffindor Quidditch team until he feels ready to share more,"

"Really, Severus," Professor McGonagall said sharply, "The cat was not beaten over the head with a broomstick, what reason is there to hold Rogers accountable?"

Stronger men would fail under the glares that Professor McGonagall could produce and Severus shut up from the one that had been sent his way.

"Innocent until proven guilty, as they say," Professor Dumbledore said, returning to examine the cat.

"Who's Rogers?" Lockhart asked from the sides where he had just polished a little dirty patch from one of the numerous portraits of himself in the room, "Don't tell me that you're getting one of your own student's name wrong, Minnie," he said with a roguish wink and chuckle, "Tell you what, _I'll_ fix the issue with Potter's name for you and start to prepare the Mandrake Curative draught for you. Must've done it a hundred times now..."

"I do believe that _I_ am the resident Potions Master," Snape said with a growl and a glare that he normally reserved for Isaac.

"Wha- Oh, yes, of course," Lockhart said, losing a little steam, "Then I'll just go and fix the register for you the now, Professor McGonagall," another wink and smile later and he walked out of the room, clapping Isaac on the shoulder as he went past.

The last of Isaac's restraint of the day went into not breaking Lockhart's arm.

One of the candles on the overhead chandelier tilted over from its socket slightly. Hot wax started dripping down onto one of the portraits. This went unnoticed by all as Dumbledore dismissed Isaac, Ron, and Hermione back to their dormitory.

As they ascended the stairs Isaac asked if he should have told them about the voice.

"I don't think so," Hermione said, "Even in the Wizarding World, hearing things isn't a good sign,"

They didn't talk further than that as they reached the portrait.

"What is the Chamber of Secrets anyway?" Isaac asked Ron as they entered the common room.

"Dunno, think I remember Bill telling me something about it, but other than that..."

They came to the meeting of a fairly large group of students surrounding Fred and George.

Over the past couple of days leading up to Halloween, they had been talking about telling a few horror stories on Halloween Night.

"Aah, there he is," Fred said upon spotting Isaac.

"Yep. Now Ladies and Gentlemen..."

"Over the summer, Isaac came..."

"To stay with us for..."

"A while. During that time..."

"He mentioned, in passing, a..."

"Certain 'in-joke' that they..."

"Had over in America to..."

"Do with everyone's names. But..."

Isaac felt a slight sinking feeling start in his stomach.

"When we told a friend..."

"About it, and their names..."

"He looked at us as if..."

"We were having a joke..."

"When we told him that..."

"We weren't, he loaned us..."

"Some books with horror stories," they finished in unison and Isaac felt his stomach contract slightly.

"Isaac, pick a number," George said, "A number between one and nine,"

Isaac looked warily between the two of them as Fred started shuffling through a series of pads of parchment.

With a sigh, Isaac answered "Eight," and Fred flicked through to that page.

The giggle from Fred that had George looking over worried Isaac a little.

"Of course, take a guess on which one it was," Fred said to his twin, showing him the parchment labeled '8'.

"Well, go figure," George said as he took the parchment from Fred.

"Anyway," Fred said, putting the rest down, "Turns out, that pretty much everyone has heard our usual Horror Stories that we'd tell around All Hallows Eve, so, we've branched out to the Muggle world for these,"

That statement brought a few ripples of laughter from the gathered crowd.

"Oh, you can laugh, but a couple of these had us up all night," Fred grumbled as George dimmed the lights.

"Right then, picked by Isaac Rogers, the Creepypasta," Isaac's breath hitched, "... to start us off...

Ticci Toby,"

"The long road home seemed to go on and on..." George started.

By the end, many people looked frightened and many were shooting glances at Isaac.

"Yes," Isaac said when the story was finished and many were looking his way, "My brother shares his name with a fictional horror character, as do a few others back home,"

"Who else?" a fourth-year asked from somewhere in the room.

"Yeah, there any other namesakes in there?" a fifth-year girl asked the twins.

"Oh yeah, got a bunch of them," George said with an eerie grin.

Isaac made his way through them to the dormitory at that point, saying he was tired and had heard them all already.

He undressed and changed in the privacy of his curtained bed and, after turning on the Gameboy, tried to sleep with the feeling of mild nausea in his stomach.

He had known some of what happened, Toby had told him about his Sister, and he had mentioned killing his asshole Father in passing.

But he had felt that looking up the story, or any of their stories, in fact, would have been too much like invading their privacy.

A tapping at the window snapped his mind off his attempt at sleep.

A barn owl was standing outside, a note in its beak.

Isaac opened the window, gave the owl one of Hedwig's treats, and took the note.

~Slytherin Dormitory on temp lockdown.~

~Change to 4th Nov at 11 pm to meet up?~

~Apology in advance for what I said to Granger and tonight, had to keep up appearances.~

~Draco.~

Isaac read the note before quickly writing his reply on a scrap piece of parchment and sending it off with the owl.

He climbed back into the bed and resumed trying to sleep.

"Hey bud," Ben said once Isaac, finally, drifted off, "Something happen?"

Isaac had talked to Ben yesterday night, and they normally stuck to the routine of weekly check-ins.

"Yeah," Isaac sighed as he released Ben from his hug, "Well..."

Isaac told him about hearing the voice, then about the message written in blood.

"Well, that's not good," Ben said as he morphed the dream to show Isaac's memory, "I'll ask Slendy about it, but I don't think that he'll concern himself much over it. He hasn't mentioned any 'snaps' that have to do with 'Hoggy',"

Isaac nodded as the dream changed to another familiar landscape; a field of tall grass that at one point had reached up to his knees. A lone oak tree with long branches stood in the middle.

Isaac and Ben settled on one of the lower hanging branches and talked about what the message could mean.

"Well... A place called the 'Chamber of Secrets' probably ain't anything good. Might hold a bunch of blackmail or other stuff like that," Ben guessed as they watched clouds roll overhead through the limbs and leaves.

"'Enemies of the Heir, Beware,'" Isaac said the end of the message.

They spent a good few minutes discussing what it could be.

"You ok?" Ben asked.

Ben had mentioned asking Toby and the others a couple of times and whenever Toby's name had been mentioned Isaac would look, guiltily, at the ground.

"The... The Weasley twins did a horror reading since it's Halloween night over here," Isaac said.

"Ok," Ben said, wondering what could have been so bad.

"They had done horror stories from the Wizarding world before, but this time they... had some stories from our world,"

"Ok, and?" Ben said.

" _Our_ world," Isaac said again.

Comprehension dawned on Ben's face as he got what Isaac meant.

A few days after his first birthday at the Mansion, Isaac had started watching the 'Marble Hornets' box set that Troy had given him.

Masky had thought that Isaac would have liked to see how some things were done in regards to setting up their 'Legends' and had decided that a good place to start would have been there.

By the time that 'Masky' had started showing up on the screen Isaac stopped watching.

The next day he had apologised to Masky about not asking him first before watching it.

Masky had told him that he had asked Troy to bring it down so that Isaac could learn a little more about their world and that the story wasn't what had happened in his life to bring him there.

That last one had been a little bit of a lie.

There were some events from the show that _had_ happened, but you could probably count those on one hand.

Masky had sat with him a couple of times and he never told Isaac why he had left for an impromptu smoke break after the 'Skully' mask had shown on the screen.

'Skully' would have been Slendy's third Proxy.

Jeannette, her real name, had been Tim's life long friend since childhood and later girlfriend.

They were both to become Proxies, but when the time for their snapping came, Jeannette hadn't retained any shred of her humanity.

She was completely lost and Slendy had to kill her.

Jeannette was all but a memory but those that knew about her figured that Masky still had the 'Skully' mask somewhere in his room. Probably locked in a box with the pictures from back when he and Jeannette were together.

But, despite being told by a few there that they didn't care or mind if he learned the origin stories out there for them, Isaac had still seen looking them up as an invasion of their privacy and he hadn't looked any of them up.

"Who's was it?" Ben asked Isaac, changing the dream back to the raft in the calm, silent, and warm so Ben didn't panic, ocean.

"Toby's," Isaac said as the two of them lay down next to each other.

Ben closed his eyes, furrowed his brow, and let out a slight groan.

The two of them lay there in silence for a few moments before Ben spoke again.

"He won't mind," Ben said softly to Isaac, "He's told you about Lyra, he's mentioned that his Father was a prick and he killed him, the rest is just little details,"

Isaac nodded before moving a little closer to Ben and started to drift off.

He let out a soft chuckle.

"It's kinda funny isn't it?" Isaac said, looking up at the glittering stars.

"What is?" Ben asked.

"A kid with a not-so-nice home life gets stalked by this unknown figure until he kills one of his abusive legal guardians by stabbing them with a bunch of knives," Isaac summed up the events that had brought him to the Mansion.

"Yeah?" Ben said mildly confused.

"It's like Toby's story. Teen with a not-so-happy home life gets stalked by this unknown entity until he kills his abusive guardian by stabbing him a bunch of times with a knife," he summed up.

Ben laughed at the similarities.

"And both saw their stalker for the first time under a streetlight late at night, you just happened to be up a tree instead of in your bedr..." he trailed off.

Isaac's face had fallen and Ben apologised for bringing up his old life too much.

"It's fine," Isaac said, relaxing and breathing in time to the slow and calm waves that splashed on the side of the raft.

"Tell you what, I'll send you something tomorrow that might cheer you up a bit," Ben said, sitting up on an elbow to face Isaac, "Don't recommend opening it in public since you'll probably laugh like a madman,"

Isaac snorted with sleepy laughter as he drifted off once more to a true sleep.

Ben didn't drop the dream as he normally did at that point. Instead he lay there with Isaac for a few moments.

After a while Isaac started shivering and shaking and Ben wondered what could be happening.

Ben returned Isaac back to his own dream and found himself facing the screen of the Gameboy.

It was a pitch-black sight that met him since Isaac normally kept it in a drawer so Ben carefully reached out of the screen and pushed the drawer open.

Listening very carefully for any noise in the room, he climbed out of the Gameboy.

"Woah, dusty," he said as he carefully hoisted himself to sit on the drawers.

He shivered slightly, from both the cold and the sensation of crawling out of a screen way to small for someone to have climbed out normally.

Thankful he was about as normal as... a ghost that was trapped in a videogame for years before being freed to the internet by someone playing his game.

He looked around the room.

He could see the appeal, a bit dusty like he said, but the place seemed cosy.

Or it would if it wasn't cold with a draught pushing round.

Ben looked at Isaac's bed and found that Isaac had fallen asleep on top of the covers, glasses on and all.

Ben smiled to himself as he carefully moved Isaac under the covers and took the glasses off the boy's head and put them on the chest of drawers by the bed.

The opening of a door made Ben drop and scoot under Isaac's bed.

In walked four people, by what Ben could tell from his position under the bed.

Ben waited with baited breath as they each changed and continued to talk as they tried to sleep.

Ben fought every urge to start drumming his fingers and bang his head off the floor as he waited for them all to sleep.

After what felt like hours (thirty minutes) everyone was silent and Ben quietly crawled out from under the bed.

He quickly checked to see that they were all asleep before patting Isaac on the shoulder.

"Night Specs," he said softly.

"Night Ben," Isaac said in his sleep as his head leant to where Ben had touched his shoulder.

Ben carefully climbed back into the Gameboy, pulled the drawer closed, which took extra effort since the Gameboy kept sliding a little as he tried to pull it closed, and left as he turned the Gameboy off remotely.

When Ben got back to the Mansion the living room was deserted.

As he climbed out and stretched his arms a wave of static washed over him.

" **I thought that I placed a ban on going to Hogwarts,"** Slenderman said as he appeared in the corner of the room.

'Shit,' Ben said before telling Slendy what happened.

" **Refrain from going there on unnecessary trips,"** Slendy said, **"And no. I haven't detected any 'snaps' that may occur around Hogwarts, Isaac or others,"**

Ben nodded in relief of not being punished and walked up to his room to find something for Isaac.

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Over the next few days things at Hogwarts were tense.

Somehow the news that Isaac, Ron, and Hermione had been called to see the Headmaster on the night of the attack had made its way round, though quite a bit of the student body was concerned at the fire that had broken out in Lockhart's office.

The candle on the chandelier had fallen and lit one of the many portraits of Lockhart.

Lockhart himself had barely managed to contain the fire to his room and, to the irk of quite a few, the homework tasks that he had been marking had been lost in the fire.

On the flipside the homeworks that he would have been assigning the next few days were lost as well so they called it a win-win.

At Potions Isaac had been made to stay behind and scrub Flobber-worms off the desks.

By the time he finished it was halfway through lunch.

As he walked to the Hall he passed Justin Finch-Fletchley, the Hufflepuff that had joined them in the first Herbology lesson.

Isaac had waved and opened his mouth to say hello, but Justin hurried away once he caught sight of him.

After a hurried lunch Isaac found Ron in the library who was finishing his History of Magic Essay.

He borrowed Ron's tape measure to check how long his own essay was and told him about meeting Justin in the corridor.

"Somehow the word got out that the three of us were called to Dumbledore immediately after Mrs Norris got petrified or something. Dunno why you care, I thought he was a bit of an idiot. The way he kept going on about Lockhart..." Ron's words dissolved into grumbles.

A short while later Hermione came back.

Turns out that all the searching in the Library she had been doing was to try and find a copy of _Hogwarts: A history_ to read up on the tale of 'The Chamber of Secrets', but every copy had been rented out by other students.

When the bell sounded the three of them made their way to History of Magic.

Professor Binns droned on and on every class and seemed to somehow be able to make even wars against goblins, vampires, and trolls sound dull and boring.

Professor Binns was also the only ghost staff member. He had fallen asleep one day in the staff room, gotten up to teach his class, and left his body behind.

The class was about as interested as always, which was to say a few were asleep, a few were gossipping quietly and a few were playing games of hangman on spare parchment.

This lesson, however, Hermione interrupted Professor Binns.

After arguing with him for a bit, he relented and told them the tale of The Chamber of Secrets.

Isaac listened to the tale of the Founders, how an argument between Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin resulted in Slytherin leaving, and how Slytherin was rumoured to have hidden a secret chamber in the school containing a monster that only his Heir could control.

After the students tried to argue for the existence of the chamber Professor Binns shut them down and returned to the usual, dull, _dull_ , lesson.

After that, and a very brief meeting with Colin Creevey, they somehow found themselves back in the corridor where Mrs Norris had been found.

Isaac looked around for signs of what could have happened, finding two mild burn marks on the floor.

"Look at this," Hermione said, walking to a window where there was a small piece of the pane missing.

A few spiders were climbing over each other in attempts to get out through the hole. A thin trail of web dangling to the floor made it look like they had all climbed up the same web to reach the window.

"Never seen spiders act like that before," Isaac said, crouching down to look at the last spider climb out.

He turned to ask Ron what he thought about it, but Ron was backed away from the pane.

"I-Don't-Like-Spiders," he said tensley when asked about it.

"Really? I never knew that," Hermione said, "But we use them in Potions?"

"I don't mind them when they're dead," Ron said, a little snappy, "Alright, if you must know, when I was three, I accidentally broke Fred's toy broom – and he turned my teddy bear into a spider,"

Hermione and Isaac couldn't help the little snorts of laughter that escaped them.

Isaac shrugged apologetically at Ron before looking back at the floor, getting back to the reason that they had stopped their in the first place.

"Remember all that water on the floor?" Isaac asked, looking at the small change in colour from the patch of floor to the dirtier floor they had walked down to get there.

"Flich must have mopped it up," Hermione said, looking at the door on the wall where the water seemed to have came from.

Ron made to go through the door, his hand had just reached the brass door handle when he let go of it like he had been burned. The blush on his face was furious.

"What happened?" Hermione asked, taking Ron's hand to check it over.

"Can't go in there," Ron said gruffly, drawing Hermione's attention to the door and, subsequently, the sign on the door, "Girl's bathroom,"

Hermione let go of Ron's hand, looking exasperated, and motioned for them to follow.

"Oh, come on," she said, pushing the door open.

"You go, we'll wait here," Isaac said, standing next to Ron.

"It's Moaning Myrtle's place, no one ever goes in here," Hermione said with a shake of her head.

"Hermione, let's play 'What will people think?' The topic is, 'A girl leaving a bathroom with two boys who shouldn't be in there'," Isaac said as he turned to look out the window.

In the reflection he could see Hermione turn into the bathroom and he could imagine the blush on both their faces.

From the open door they could hear Hermione start talking with Moaning Myrtle. While Hermione asked her if she had seen anything the night that Mrs Norris was attacked Percy came up the stairs onto the corridor.

"Ron, Isaac?" he said, looking accusingly between the two, "What are you doing here?"

"Waiting for Hermione," Isaac said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder towards the toilet.

"And you couldn't think of a better place to wait?" Percy said, "Look at where you are, what will people think? Coming back here while everyone's at dinner,"

"Would you have preferred if we waited inside the bathroom with Hermione?" Isaac said sarcastically and Percy strode away, the back of his neck quite red.

A sob came from the open door, followed by a quick splashing, which meant that Myrtle had probably gone off again.

"Well that was almost cheerful, by her standards anyway," Hermione said as they walked out and headed to the Great Hall to eat.

As they sat in the common room later that night, doing their Charms homework, talk turned into whispered discussions on who the 'Heir of Slytherin' could be.

"Let's think," Ron said in a mock-puzzled voice, "Who do we know who thinks all Muggle-borns are scum and would want them out of Hogwarts?"

"If you're talking about Malfoy," Hermione said dejectedly, it wasn't the first time Ron had brought up the idea,"

Isaac tuned out the whispered argument between them as he checked the date to mark his homework.

4th November.

With a start he remembered that he was meeting Draco later that night.

He focused back on Hermione and Ron's conversation and they had moved on to how they would find out if he knew anything.

"... and dangerous. Very dangerous. Not to mention that we'd be breaking about fifty school rules," Hermione said.

"What?" Isaac said and the two of them took that as to mean 'what is it?' not 'What did I miss?'

"Polyjuice Potion," Hermione said.

"What?" Ron and Isaac both said this time.

"Professor Snape mentioned it in class last week," Hermione said before explaining what it did, all the while casting wary glances to where Percy was stood.

"Sounds a bit dodgy," Ron said, unsure if it would work.

"It'll work," Hermione assured him, "The only problem is getting the book. It's called _Moste_

 _Potente Potions_ . It's in the restricted section,"

Isaac shared a look with Ron.

The restricted section held the more dangerous or advanced knowledge that seventh and sixth-years, _maybe_ a fifth-year, would use when studying. For a second-year though...

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Runic.

Owen wiped down the surface of the front desk as he waited for another customer.

The bell that they had on the door clanged and his eyes flicked up to see a middle aged man walk through.

Owen's face screwed up as he looked at the man's apparel.

It was a little more retro than most would have been wearing. The pants were flared slightly and the shirt hung a little loose off his frame. A brown leather jacket was donned over the top of this and his shoes clacked against the tiled floor as he walked. A red pin that looked like some sort of bird with the American flag at its base was on the man's lapel glinted slightly in the light.

"Hi, welcome to Runic, can I help you?" Owen said, storing the cloth away and hovering a hand over the till.

"Erm, yes, but not to eat," the man said with a polite and friendly smile, "You see, I'm looking for someone. A child. His post box was listed as the one in the mail office down the street. We need to go over some paperwork with him or his guardians," the man said, "We tried getting in contact over the summer, but for some reason there was no response,"

Owen nodded at the man, his hand creeping closer to the telephone.

"We also tried getting in touch with the school he goes to, but the governor's over yonder are trying to wrap us up in so much legal tape, it's like a web," he joked, placing the folder down on the table so he could wipe his hands.

"Right, yeah," Owen said warily, "Listen, what's the kid's name?"

Owen didn't trust the man right now. A middle aged guy looking for a kid did raise one or two alarm bells.

"Harry Potter," the man said, opening the manilla folder and taking out a picture that he, unbeknownst to Owen, had been supplied to him by his British Equivalent that had handled the information pertaining to the child when his adoption was notified to the British Magical Government, "Though I am unaware if he prefers Isaac Rogers,"

Owen looked at the picture of who was, most definitely, Toby's little brother. The picture must have been taken shortly before he had come to the USA since he looked around eight and had the same messy, uncared for, look about him.

"Let me make a call," Owen said, gesturing for the guy to take a seat at a booth and wait.

"Thank you," he said, re-sealing the folder, "Could I maybe get a bowl of fries, skipped lunch?"

Owen nodded as he waited for the phone to stop ringing and the man took up a seat in the furthest booth, one that was quite good for privacy.

#"What?"# Jeff's grumpy voice came through.

"Jeff, is Toby there?" Owen asked.

#"Yeah, why?"#

"There's a guy here, asking about Isaac," Owen told him.

#"Hold on,"#

Owen tapped his foot as he heard Jeff calling to someone else in the room.

#"Yo-O,"# Toby's voice came through the speaker.

"Hey man, this guy's turned up asking about your little brother, called him 'Harry Potter'," Owen told him.

The line was silent for a moment.

#"Describe him, and what does he want?" Toby said.

Owen was a little shocked since he hadn't heard Toby sound so serious before. He told Toby about what the man had said to him.

#"Tell him that we'll be there soon,"# and with that the call was over.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)** The Ark.

Toby tugged the zip up on his hoodie a little further.

"Well then, looks like I'll be holding a guy you gut down earlier than we thought," Jeff said, his features shifting into his glamoured form.

Toby didn't say anything in response to that, merely walking to where Masky, now Tim, was standing at the door.

"We don't know what this guy wants," Tim said to Jeff as they neared the town, "Let's see what he wants, then we'll decide if we need Slendy to grab Isaac,"

They entered Runic and Owen nodded at the man sitting with his back to them, a bowl of fries in front of him as he read a paper that had been left behind.

"Hello," Tim said, tapping the man's shoulder to get his attention.

"Aah! Yes, hello, you must be here about... Is it Rogers or Potter?" the man said.

"Rogers," Toby said as Tim and Jeff sat down on either side of him at the table.

"Right, yes, that's cleared that up nicely," the man said, taking a pen from his pocket and underlining 'Rogers, Isaac' on the file, scribbling out 'Potter, Harry', "You must be... Toby?" he asked after looking back at the paper.

"That's me," Toby said. On his left Jeff hadn't lost the look of a cat about to pounce on a mouse as he looked at the man.

"Right, yes," the man said as he flipped through a few other pages, "Yes, well, we tried to send a letter about this during the summer, but we never heard back or even received notice that it reached you,"

"Mail thief," Jeff said as he tore some empty packets of salt on the table.

"Well, that would do it," the man trailed off, "Before we start, could you maybe write out what colour the pin on my lapel is?" he said, handing them three scraps of paper and a pen each.

After getting their replies, blue from each of them, he introduced himself.

"My name is Ethan Jackson, I'm a Silent for M.A.C.U.S.A, the American Magical Government," he told them, offering his hand to Toby.

Tim also shook his hand out of politeness but Jeff just nodded.

"Right, well, we tried getting in touch with you earlier this year to go over some things relating to the use of magic whilst at home and some other things," Jackson said shuffling through the folder.

"But, like you said, if you had a mail thief then you wouldn't have gotten them..."

"What is there to go over?" Tim asked, pulling out his wallet and getting some notes to pay for drinks for him, Toby, and Jeff.

Jackson went over how the laws regarding the use of magic was slightly different than the ones in the UK. He went over the 'trace' that every country used, since it was the easiest option, but how M.A.C.U.S.A used it a little differently.

He had to stop every so often when someone passed and he didn't want to have to to the lapel badge test on everyone that passed.

The trace would report whenever the person cast magic, that part stayed the same throughout all variations, but they knew that it would detect _any_ magic cast in the user's general area.

He paused for a moment as Toby saluted.

The main difference with the American version of the trace than the British one was that it recorded the amount of no-maj's in the nearby area when magic was cast as well as the basic lay of the land.

If the chances of a no-maj seeing the display was high enough then an investigation would be opened.

Other than that, Jackson went over some basic forms that confirmed that Isaac was being educated at Hogwarts and that his guardian knew the basics of the magic world, he also went over a little American Wizarding History for them.

He also gave them a couple of leaflets that explained what he had just gone over with them

"Right, think that's about everything," Jackson said, dipping the last of his fries in the BBQ sauce he had gotten with them, "Unless you got any other questions?"

"Yeah, one or two," Toby said, sitting forward a bit, "You know how... Isaac used to be Harry?" at the man's nod Toby continued, "Well, we've got the basic story in that... He-Who went after his family as a kid, but we were wondering if there was anything else?"

"Well... you know about the skirmish that the brits got into with his forces, Death Eaters? Well I guess that's about as much as people really know. Save for that business with his Godfather,"

"He has a Godfather?" Toby asked.

"Had," Jackson said, "Haven't heard the proper story, but the man was apparently a Death Eater himself, rumours are that he's the one that sent the big-guy after the Potter's in the first place. Afterwards, another family friend apparently tracked him down. Trying to avenge the Potter's deaths or something like that and Black, the Godfather, killed him. Blew him up taking a good chunk of the street with him and thirteen civies. Black ended up in Azkaban, Wizard Alcatraz pretty much,"

Tim subtly kicked Jeff in the leg to get the impressed look off his face.

"I don't know the whole thing though, the fighting never really spread beyond UK borders and I was a little busy studying to become a Silent at the time," he took the final drink of his glass.

"Right, well, thanks for being able to see me," Jackson said, offering his hand again to the same result.

"No problem," Tim said, pulling on his jacket.

"You ever hear back about that nasty business with his Aunt's death?" Jackson asked as he brushed himself down.

"Still looking, last I heard. Treat going out with Isaac like the killer's right alongside us sometimes," Toby said.

"Well, any problems arise with legal guff just send a letter," Jackson said, standing up and pulling his own coat on, "Don't think there should be any, but can't hurt to be prepared," he gave Tim a card that had his name on it and his desk title.

"That'll update by itself if I ever get a new title," Jackson said before bidding them farewell and leaving.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)** Hogwarts.

Isaac finished his Charms homework and said he was going to have an early night before heading to the dormitory.

He sat reading until some of the others came up and then faked being asleep until it was about fifteen minutes to Eleven.

Isaac carefully left the bed, pulled on his hoodie and draped his Father's invisibility cloak over his shoulders so that no one could see him.

The Fat-Lady was asleep in her frame as Isaac made his way down the corridors towards the Charms corridor.

He made it there at Eleven and found that Draco had yet to turn up.

Isaac stood in a corner of the room, still cloaked and waited.

Draco pushed the door open not too long later, barely a minute or two.

He heard him let out a sigh as he took a chair.

"You took your time," Isaac said and Draco leapt out of the chair.

Isaac smirked at him, the cloak folded into his hoodie pocket. It could be surprisingly compact at times.

"How long were you?" Draco said, calming himself.

"Minute or two," Isaac said, taking the chair next to Draco.

Silence settled between the two of them.

"I'm sorry for what I called Granger on the Quidditch pitch," Draco said, even in the dim light from the moon coming through the window, Isaac could see the slight blush, "And for what I said in the corridor on Halloween. I was in the presence of those who have been raised to think and believe that they are inherently better than everyone since both their parents are from 'pure' magical families,"

"I know, Slytherin mask and all that," Isaac said with a wave of his hand.

Draco nodded and neither of them spoke for a moment.

"So how was your summer?" Isaac asked, trying to break the ice.

"Good, good, I attended a few social events with Mother and Father. Practised to get onto the Slytherin Quidditch team,"

"Well done, by the way," Isaac said as Draco paused for breath.

"Thanks," Draco gave him a small smile.

The rest of Draco's summer activities summed up the usual boredom that one would find themselves with when waiting for the school to start.

"What about you?" Draco said, offering a bottle of something called 'Butterbeer'.

"Well, you know those cards where it's like 'Buy six coffee's and get a seventh free' type things? Well, I'm thinking about getting one except for times kidnapped,"

Draco was glad that he hadn't taken a sip of his own Butterbeer yet since he would have most likely spat it out.

"Seriously?" he asked.

"Yep. Dude turned out to be Jeff's amnesiac brother, trying to find him, when he got his memories back," Isaac said, taking a sip of the Butter-Beer, "Got a free pizza from the guy while we waited for Jeff to turn up,"

"Well, could have been worse," Draco said after a moment and taking a drink, "Which one was Jeff? The one in the flannel jacket, or the one in the yellow hoodie?"

"The guy in the white hoodie that nearly broke Lockhart's wrist," Isaac said with a fond smile at the memory.

"Remind me to never get on his bad side," Draco said, turning the bottle in hand.

"I don't think there's any other side to him than the bad side," Isaac said, taking another swig, "This stuff is really sugary,"

"And your breakfast's are not?" Draco asked innocently.

"... Touche," Isaac said after a moment.

"Don't suppose you've heard the rumours around you, then?" Draco said.

"Let me take a stab in the dark," Isaac said, "People think I'm... Slytherin's Heir?" he said, miming out a stab at Draco who let out a snort of laughter.

"Arrow meet bullseye," Draco said.

"Complete and utter shite," Isaac grumbled, "All they're going off of is the fact that me,

Ron, and Hermione were away at Sir Nick's Deathday Party instead of the Hall,"

"You went to a Deathday Party?" Draco asked in surprise.

"Yeah, bit odd, if you're thinking of going to one take your own food," Isaac said with a grimace as he remembered the mouldy and rotten food that had been set out, "While we're on the topic, what do you know about the Chamber, anyway?"

"Not much," Draco said with a shrug, "All my Father told me was that the last time the Chamber was opened was about fifty years ago. Activity stopped when someone died after about a quarter of the school was petrified. He said that someone was given a trial for the incidents, but they were let go from lack of evidence,"

Isaac twirled the bottle on the desk as he mulled over what Draco said.

"Anything else?" Isaac asked, "Rumours maybe?"

"Other than you might be the next Dark-Lord, out to kill Muggleborns left and right, not really, apart from usual gossip," Draco said, drinking the last of his bottle.

"So what's new in the gossip chain?" Isaac said, getting a little bored of all the talk of the Chamber.

They spent a good part of the next half hour just chatting about the little things in Hogwarts.

Draco caught sight of the clock on the wall.

"Getting late, we have Astronomy tomorrow as well," he said, picking up the bottles.

Isaac let out a sigh of how tired he would be tomorrow.

"Blaise mentioned how he had met you in the Library back in September," Draco said as they walked down the corridor. The invisibility cloak still in Isaac's pocket.

"Yeah, he gave Ron a fairly good run in Chess," Isaac said, scanning every shadowy corner for movement as they passed.

"I know, he mentioned, right before complaining that he's run out of challenges in the Slytherin dorm," Draco said.

"If you can get Weasley and Granger into the Library next Tuesday he'll be there and will try to get another match out of Weasley," Draco said as they came to a corridor that split their paths.

"You'll be there, won't you?" Isaac said with a slight narrow of his eyes.

"Yes, most likely," Draco nodded.

"Just try to keep the slurs to yourself and I don't think that there will be a problem," Isaac said as he kept glancing around.

"Library is the unofficial Truce-Zone," Draco told him, "The seniors couldn't care less about the House differences and Madam Pince'll throw anyone out that causes trouble so it became a no-conflict zone,"

Isaac mulled that over before saying night to Draco and walking back up to Gryffindor Tower.

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Gryffindor Tower, November first.

Isaac woke a little later than everyone else, thankful that it was the weekend.

A scratching on the window got his attention from rolling over to maybe sleep a little more.

Hedwig was at the window with what looked like a few wads of paper.

With a groan Isaac got out of the bed and walked over to open the window.

Hedwig flew in and landed on his pillow.

Isaac sat down on the bed, tucking his legs in on himself to guard against the cold, and took the papers from Hedwig, who hopped up onto his shoulder and nipped his ear affectionately.

The papers were an essay done by a student studying Psychology.

Isaac frowned as he wondered why Ben would think he would find these interesting.

He skimmed through the pages, barely understanding some of the terminology involved.

He was about to put the papers away when a name caught his eye.

~...V. Dursley...~

Isaac read over the paragraph.

~Some of the more recent examples include the case in which V. Dursley believed that 'Merlin' was going to clear him of the child abuse charges against him for the treatment of his orphaned nephew.~

~The man was later institutionalised after reports of the man muttering about 'Magical Freaks' for his brief incarceration at the prison before an incident around the start of July where he believed a little girl in a torn, and bloody, pink night-dress attacked him and, after a guard took him to the medical wing, mutilated himself; removing and destroying his pancreas and liver and claiming he had been attacked by an eyeless demon.~

Isaac read a little more on the section that mentioned his Uncle before he skimmed to the sources at the end and found that the student had gotten is notes on his Uncle from a study from a Psychology hospital where his Uncle was being held.

Ben was right, the laughter that escaped him would have had many people questioning his mental state.

He flopped back down on the bed, smiling maniacally. Hedwig hooted indignantly at the movement and leaped onto the bed, preening the duvet into a comfy position for her.

By the sounds of it, Sally and E.J had paid his _dear_ Uncle a visit in Prison. Jack not leaving empty handed from what the report said.

The smile dropped off his face and he sat bolt upright.

It was mid July that he had accidentally eaten the pancreas that was meant for E.J and... if he had been taken to the Mansion in February...

He started to feel a little queasy.

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End Notes.

Hey there.

So, that's chapter 19 done, the twentieth if you include the prologue.

I feel like this is coming along nicely, I'm maybe ending this a little earlier than I would, but I want to get back to the milestone chapter so I'm giving myself some time to get work done on it.

I do feel that I'm slower to write when I have to go through what the book has already gone through so I am trying to avoid just copying it all out as much as I can; giving a summary of the events that happened instead of typing it out.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Again, I'm asking for feedback to the question I asked in the Author notes last chapter so can I please get something back there.

Till the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable. Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – Still no idea.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13. No idea if that's right, but it's what I found.

If you have a favourite that hasn't appeared then mention them in a review or message me and I'll look them up and probably write a scene for them.


	20. Chapter 20, The Prep to Potion

Chapter 20, The Prep to Potion.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks

if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$Word$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from.

Author's note.

Chapter 20, technically 21 but I'm not counting the prologue.

So, little things first that I maybe didn't cover last Author note.

I have no idea how M.A.C.U.S.A handles underage magic, but I'm assuming that it's pretty much the same way that it's handled in the U.K with the Trace, but a little different.

I have no idea how much M.A.C.U.S.A differs with jobs, so I'm fairly sure that I'm going to be a bit off with the 'Silent' thing. Plus I wanted to make more geeky jokes in the future.

Another thing that's happened is that I can't read the new reviews on Fanfiction.

I get the email saying that there's new ones, the site tells me there's more to read, but there are still only the first 69 reviews there. So if I miss a review I can only apologise and hope that this thing is fixed soon.

And it's fixed next morning, I can answer the reviews, woohoo.

DarkRavie;

Hey again, you're still here. Glad that you like it.

Have any thoughts other than that to share?

549;

Welcome to the fic. Glad that you like it.

I do know what I am doing with Sirius, don't worry. But, you'll have to wait to find out.

RCRC36;

Glad that you like it. Got any thoughts to share?

Silver-Tongue;

YES!

This is a review I can work with.

Ok, thank you for identifying weak points. Thank you.

W.P 1,

Too much like the original character.

Ok, I had actually thought about this in the past. I had meant to mention it in an Author note, but I never got round to it. The reason that Isaac (Harry) is so like the original character when at Hogwarts or in public is because he knows that he can't draw attention to the fact that he lives with, and has been raised with, some of the most infamous serial killers of the modern world.

I have been planning to make him more like the CP version of him I have planned as the story progresses, starting with year 2 actually with his patience being worn dangerously thin by Lockhart at times.

W.P 2,

Not enough Creepypasta.

That I can easily fix, I was asking readers if I should make it darker and I'm going to take that as a 'yes, make it darker' so thank you, I will be adding more CP based things into the fic. And possibly making the HP side of things darker as well.

Glad that I could introduce you to other Creepypastas that you haven't heard of.

I'm actually talking a little about that later on near the end of this chapter. Explaining my decisions with Toby and Isaac (Harry).

Glad you like how I've been writing them, it was a worry for me.

No, you did not upset me, I was hoping to get some constructive feedback like this at some point other than a bland statement of someone's opinion. You took the time to give me something that may help me, so I thank you.

Yes, I understood you. I know that some of my readers do not have English as their first language so I try to make the story as Google translation friendly as possible.

Right, that's all the reviews for now.

DP, anything happening at your end of the world?

Welcome back everyone! How are you SteamGeek? Not much is happening with me. I did join a roller derby team and am excited to play. I hope you all are doing well. Enjoy the chapter.

I'm good. Congrats on the Roller Derby team. Hope you do well.

Right then. Back to your regularly scheduled Fanfic.

Till the next one,

SteamGeek01.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Seattle.

The man panted heavily as he charged down the back alley.

His fast and uneven breathing the only sound in his ears aside from the roars of passing cars.

He was so preoccupied with running that he collided head-first into the wire-mesh fence.

"FUCK!" he growled through clenched teeth as he held his head. A warm and wet sensation told him that he was bleeding. He looked at the fence and saw a large body of water behind it.

A pier with a light on lay a good forty odd metres away.

If he climbed the fence and got there...

"Kekeke!" laughter rung from somewhere behind him.

Scrambling to his feet, the man grabbed an old and discarded brick that lay on the ground and turned around.

The dingy and dirty alley behind him was empty and he was sure that he hadn't heard the clattering that meant one of the fire escapes hadn't been used.

His breathing started to slow down.

Maybe the thing had passed him. Maybe he had lost it. Maybe he had managed to...

"Kekeke!"

He felt his blood freeze as the laughter taunted him again.

Now that he could hear the sounds of around him better, he could figure out where it was coming from.

Above.

Slowly, he turned his face to the walls of the buildings above him.

He let out a sigh of relief as his shoulders slumped down a little, but he didn't let go of the brick. It's cold, rough-stone, surface was a small sign of comfort with the knowledge that he at least had something to protect himself with.

A light came on overhead as somebody turned on their flood-light and he was blinded.

"Gyah!" he said as he stumbled backwards into the fence again.

A rush of air above him had him squinting up at the light.

"Kekeke!"

The light overhead was briefly obscured as a figure leapt from the wall it lay on onto its neighbour.

The man's eyes followed the... the... the thing as it crawled down the wall as if it was some sort of lizard.

Any idea that this was just some clever street performer of some sort of parkour enthusiast as the thing stood up straight. Still on the wall.

The thing was standing as straight as a board but he was still horizontal on the wall. It's back towards the ground and its head tilted far back so it was looking upside down at him.

The thing sighed, it's luminous mask shone clearly across from him.

The mask freaked him out a little.

When he had first met the thing it had been like one of those masks that were printed on his drama sheets back in school. The thing had titled it's head and asked him something in some foreign language. When he had gotten angry that the guy wasn't taking the hint that he didn't speak whatever language he was talking in, and told him to piss off, the mask had changed.

Instead of half a white smiley-face. It had turned to a jagged grin on the white side and at that point it had started chasing him.

Now, the twenty-something year old man was looking at the thing on the wall. It's face back to the white smiley-face.

"あなたは私を退屈し始めている," the thing said. (1)

"Listen, man, I don't know what you're saying," he said in desperation, "You want cash? I got money," he pulled out his wallet and threw it on the ground in front of the thing, "Take it! Just, please, let me go!" he pleaded.

All the while he had talked, the thing was saying the same thing over, and over, again.

"退屈な," (2)

The thing looked at the worn leather wallet on the ground.

Quicker than he could have thought, his arm bent at an odd angle behind his back and snatched up the wallet.

The thing rifled through the pouches until it had taken all the notes from the man.

It threw the wallet back at him before darting up the wall and over the ledge that led to the roof.

The man's legs gave out and the brick clattered away from him and he slouched forward to reach his wallet with trembling hands.

He stood up, his breathing ragged as he fell back onto the fence.

"Th... than... Thank you, God," he gasped into the air as tears began to run down his face, "Thank you,"

"神はブログの猫の写真を賑わせています。あとでもう一度試してみてください," (3)

The man felt something grab his head and he was pulled up off his feet and into the air.

The thing was back, it's mask the jagged grin, and it was holding him about two feet in the air.

Before he had any time to struggle or beg something slashed sharply across his throat and any words were caught in the torrent of blood that flooded his front and neck.

He started to cough, choking more and more on the blood, when claws slashed into his front and back; causing him to gasp and inhale more of his blood.

The last thing he knew was the rush of air as he was tossed into the water behind him and the warmth of his blood was lost in the cold, stinging, salt water that swallowed him whole.

The next day, a young couple went to the pier to see if they could catch anything. They had met when fishing so they made it a tradition to go to the pier once a week on the day they met.

Since it was the first day of the New-Year they needed the peace and quiet while their heads, and other parts of their bodies, healed from last night's activities.

The blood-curdling scream had the taller of the two rush over to his boyfriend to hold him as they both looked down at the eviscerated, grey, and bloated corpse that bobbed in the water.

The current pushing it against the pillar that held up the middle of the pier.

Kagekao sighed as he watched the body of his latest kill splash into the water.

He flicked through the notes he had gotten from the man.

His mask changed back to it's white-smiley face as he realised he had enough to get another bottle of wine.

Yes, he had about eleven un-opened ones back at the little apartment he was squatting at.

But he had two Rosé, two Sauvignon Blanc, two Chardonnay, two Syrah, two Pinot Noir, but only one Merlot.

With a sigh, and after stretching out each and every one of his double-jointed limbs, he flipped off the fence and landed as gracefully as a cat.

A soft clapping, almost jittery, echoed down the alley.

"こんにちは?" Kagekao said, "Hello?" (Same word here)

"Some kill," a voice said and Kagekao relaxed.

"血の画家," Kagekao said, "Helen," (4)

Helen walked out from the shadows.

"So, what brings you to be at here?" Kagekao said.

"We..." another voice said and Kagekao nearly spun round and sliced at the speaker, "... were on our way to this lovely little party going on in the forest nearby," The Puppeteer said, "... and we happened to see your little game of tag,"

The Puppeteer hoisted himself up to sit on one of the large dumpsters that was pushed against the wall.

"We figured 'What the hell,' and wanted to see if you wanted to join in?" Helen said, shifting the rucksack on his back, "I'm going to get a refill on some of my paints and two lookouts are better than one. 'Specially if that one keeps staring at my ass when he's supposed to be keeping an eye out," he grumbled the last.

"If you don't want me to stare, don't look so sexy when you get the blood," Teer said, planting a kiss on the side of Helen's head.

"He may or may not have already had a few," Helen said as Teer swayed a little where he sat.

The next day, the police were spread thin with the dealing of drunken wanders and the two cases where someone was found dead from the night before.

One drowned on his own blood in the lake, the other drained of half his blood and hung upside down in the forest.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Hogwarts.

Since the mess that was the now dubbed, by Isaac, 'Pixie Cluster-fuck' Lockhart hadn't brought any more live creatures to class.

Isaac thought that he deserved a fucking medal for not killing the man with his own intestines.

Lockhart's preferred method of teaching was to read his books to the class and, quite often, re-enact some scenes.

He would call upon students to aid him in his acting.

And often that was Isaac.

That was how Isaac at the front of the classroom, arms raised half-heartedly, pretending to be a werewolf.

The only convincing part of his performance was that the fact when he was told to growl it really did sound like he wanted to tear into Lockhart's flesh.

He did. Only with a knife or the axe that Toby had given him and not with his teeth.

The main reason that Isaac was tolerating Lockhart right now was so that they could get him in a good enough mood so that he would sign the permission slip so Hermione could get the book to brew the Polyjuice Potion.

Thankfully they got the slip and now Hermione was looking up the ingredients to make the potion.

"You owe me a life debt," Isaac growled as they sat down in the library, "If I ask you to kill someone, you bring me their head and kidneys on a platter!"

Hermione snorted in laughter as she flicked through the pages, looking for the potion.

Soon, she had all the ingredients down on a spare piece of parchment and was going through them to see which ones they would have trouble getting.

"Right," Hermione said, looking over the list, "Powdered Bicorn horn, Boomslang skin, I don't see how we'll be able to get those. Everything else is in the student store cupboard and..."

She cut off, stuffing the list in her bag along with the book in a rushed calm.

"Evening, Weasley," Blaise Zabini said as he approached the table, Draco Malfoy a step or two behind him, "Fancy another game of Chess?"

Draco nodded curtly as he reached the table, standing behind Blaise until he knew that they were going to sit down.

"Why do you want to play me, surely Malfoy would be your pick," Ron said with a locked jaw.

"I've both played, and beaten, Draco more times that I care to remember," Blaise said, ignoring the scowl shot his way from Draco, "... and you're a good player,"

"Just play him, Ron," Isaac said, "You're not going to do the Charms Essay till later and me n' Hermione need to make a start on the Transfiguration one," he pushed the chair opposite Ron out with his foot.

"Thank you," Blaise said as he sat down and placed a Chess board on the table. Draco took the seat opposite Isaac.

Ron sent Isaac a bewildered look but huffed, "As long as he doesn't say anything," he said with a point at Draco before he picked one of Blaise's outstretched hands.

His mood got a little better as he began to set up the white pieces.

Draco hadn't said anything and he pulled out a nearly completed Potions Essay and started writing.

Isaac took out his own, barely started, Transfiguration Essay and dipped his quill in the ink, giving Draco a brief wink as he did so.

He wasn't sure that Draco saw it, but the small smile and return wink told him otherwise.

With Blaise and Ron muttering Chess moves under their breath on one side, Hermione mouthing the words she read from the book in front of her as she wrote, and Draco's facial features making minuscule movements as he wrote out the actions in making a Hiccup cure the evening passed in an almost friendly way.

It would have been better if Ron hadn't shot the two Slytherins small glares whenever they moved faster than they normally would, but Isaac supposed that that was as good as Ron would be for the session.

By the end, and three draws between the two of them, Ron, Isaac, and Hermione made their way back up to Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom.

Hermione had pointed out that since no one used it, because of Myrtle and the fact the message had been scrawled outside, then no one would notice them.

"Still don't see why you're so nice to them all of a sudden," Ron said as they sat down in a corner of the room.

"Because if I'm going to be stuck in a castle with them, for the next five odd years, I'd rather not spend it quarreling over stupid things like what colour your tie is," Isaac said, setting his bag down next to him, "Plus, it wasn't that bad,"

Ron grumbled in agreement before taking out his Charms Essay and writing the topic at the start of the parchment.

"Well, what do we need for the potion?" he asked between scratches of the quill.

"Everything we need is in the student store cupboard," Hermione said, fidgeting with the corner of the chair, "Except the Boomslang skin and Bicorn Horn,"

"That sounds like something that'd be in Snape's private store," Ron said, putting down his quill.

"Let me worry about that," Isaac said, taking the list from Hermione and writing down the difficult to grab ingredients.

"And how are you planning to get them?" Hermione asked.

"Well, I have a cunning plan," Isaac said.

Said cunning plan turned out to be waiting until Dinner the next day and sneaking into the store under his Father's old Invisibility Cloak.

"Ok, now what?" he said, giving the bags of ingredients to Hermione.

"Well, we've got everything we need," Hermione said, scratching out the last two items on the list, "... except for the bits of who we'll turn into,"

"What?" Ron and Isaac said.

"I'm not drinking anything that's got Crabbe's toenails in it," Ron said, looking a little green

"We don't have to worry about that part til the end, it's the final bit you add," Hermione said, taking out the book and looking through the steps.

"I don't know if this is a good idea," Ron said, looking at the book.

"Well, you could have said that before I got those," Isaac sighed, pointing to the bag of potion ingredients.

"Well, if you are going to chicken out, fine," Hermione said. There were bright pink patches on her cheeks, " _I_ don't want to break rules, you know. _I_ think that threatening Muggle-borns is far worse than brewing a difficult potion. But if you don't want to find out if it's Malfoy, I'll go back to Madam Pince and return the book,"

Isaac and Ron stared at Hermione for a moment.

"I never thought I'd see the day when you'd be encouraging us to break the rule," Ron said.

"Didn't even have to offer the cookies," Isaac said with a grin.

After waving down Ron's surprise, and subsequent annoyance, at the metaphorical cookies they asked Hermione how long the potion would take to brew.

Ron was a little shocked at the fact that it would take about a month, but there wasn't any other way.

Isaac thought that he could trust what Draco said, but he could have been lying.

Going as Crabbe and Goyle and talking to him, they were more likely to get an honest answer if he hadn't already.

Ron said that it would be simpler if Isaac just knocked him off his broom tomorrow.

Isaac laughed a bit, "This match is gonna be fun,"

He wasn't worried about the fact that the Slytherin team had faster brooms than them, Wood had been training them as hard as ever.

Isaac was looking forward to this match.

The next day.

'FUCK THIS! FUCK THIS! FUCK THIS! FUCK YOU! FUCK THIS FUCKING BLUDGER!' he thought angrily as he dodged beam after beam in the flood trench that circled the pitch.

A thud behind him and gasp told him that Malfoy had hit something, but he couldn't turn back or the rogue bludger chasing him would smash him to pieces.

The snitch exited the trench and Isaac gave chase. Urging his broom to go faster.

A whistle to his right was all the warning he got before the bludger smashed into his arm. He could feel the bone break as he clutched his arm to his chest.

He turned his eyes back to the snitch in front of him, determination flooding him, and he shot forward.

He reached forward with his left arm and could have roared in victory as he felt the small, golden, ball beat its wings helplessly against his closed fist.

Since he was only using his legs to keep himself on the broom he couldn't change his course and he thudded onto the sand below, just under the Gryffindor goals.

His arm flared in pain and he struggled to not pass out.

When he opened his eyes the first thing he saw was a pair of overly white teeth beaming down at him.

"Ohhh. Fuck off," he groaned.

"Doesn't know what he's saying," Lockhart said cheerily, and obnoxiously loud, to the anxious crowd of Gryffindors around him, "Not to worry Harry, I'll fix your arm right up!"

A clicking sounded somewhere above him.

"Don't want a photo of this, Colin," Isaac growled and a few stepped back from him. The American twinge in his voice emphasised his frustration.

"He really should go to the Hospital Wing, Professor," a sweaty Oliver Wood said.

Behind him, and through a thicket of legs, Isaac could see the Weasley twins wrestling the bludger into the crate.

Lockhart scoffed at Wood before pointing his wand at Isaac's arm.

A flash of pale blue light hit Isaac's arm and it felt like it was... deflating?

He looked at his arm and felt the distinct feeling of wanting to throttle Lockhart until the man's stupid face was blue.

Where his arm should have been was what looked like a pink and fleshy tube with five growths at the end.

The sound of someone vomiting somewhere behind him covered a few of the frantic clicks of Colin's camera.

Lockhart hadn't healed or fixed Isaac's bones. He had removed them.

Madam Pomfrey wasn't pleased.

While she muttered angrily about incompetent teachers she tossed Isaac a pair of pyjamas and said that he would have to spend the night.

Ron helped Isaac change behind the curtains while Hermione waited on the other side.

Ron and Hermione stayed with him for the next hour, Ron only leaving at Isaac's request for him to go and get the letter he would have been sending home tonight so that he could finish it.

Or rather, one of them finish it while Isaac told them what to write.

Hermione watched as Ron left the infirmary.

"Isaac," she said softly, "Is there something going on between you and Malfoy?"

Isaac nearly spat out the drink of water he had to wash away the taste of the Skele-gro.

"W-What?" he asked.

"Well," she said awkwardly, "Please don't hate me for this, but in the library I saw the smile between the two of you, and the ones you kept sending each other, when you thought no one was looking," she looked close to tears.

Isaac would have laughed, but he felt that that would have been too much for her.

"No, Hermione, No," he said softly, reaching over with his functioning arm and patting her shoulder, "You remember that detention in First-year? When we went into the Forest?"

She nodded, unshed tears still in her eyes.

"Well, me and Draco managed to sort things out," Isaac told her a fairly edited version of what happened, leaving out the parts about the glamour and Draco's Father.

"So, when he didn't say anything or insult me in the library..."

"It was because he knew I would get pissed off at him," Isaac said, "Plus the Library is this neutral ground where no one says or does anything since the upper years need the quiet to study and will hex anyone that disturbs it,"

Hermione laughed a bit, asking what Draco is like when he doesn't have to act like a pompous ass and if he had told Ron.

"He's still a little pompous, but he's more relaxed," Isaac said, "And no, I haven't told Ron. Yet. Trying to find out how to and not light his rage,"

Ron's temper was a quick thing that needed little stoking and he wasn't sure how he would react to finding out that Isaac and Draco were friends as well. Especially since everything that Draco had said about Ron's family in public.

At that point the red-head came back with the letter and Hermione helped Isaac finish it.

By the time that the rest of the Quidditch team arrived to celebrate the victory Madam Pomfrey was closing the Hospital wing to visitors and chased them away, saying that he had thirty-three bones to regrow.

She did allow them to leave a couple of pastry cakes and a bottle of Butter-beer that he could have in the morning so she cast a stasis charm over them so they wouldn't spoil overnight.

He was in the middle of quite a pleasant dream which involved a blond man with large white teeth that looked vaguely familiar being chopped into pieces and, while still screaming, being served to E.J and Smile who were sitting at a fancy table in an upper-class restaurant. Top hats and waistcoats included on the two.

He was just wondering how Smile was able to hold the knife and fork when he woke up.

His arm felt like it was full of splinters and he thought that it had been a sharp twinge from the re-growing bones that had woken him.

Until he felt something place a pleasantly cool and damp sponge his head.

With a surprised yelp, he sat up, knocking whoever it was over in the process.

Through the darkness, a pair of large, tennis-ball eyes stared at him.

" _Dobby?_ " Isaac said, "What are you doing here?"

"Harry Potter came back to school," Dobby said sadly.

Whatever he said next was drowned out by Isaac's groan as he his forehead. From both the pain in his arm and his irk at Dobby.

That was until his sleep addled brain picked up on something Dobby said.

"Wait, hang on," Isaac said, "How did you know I missed the train?"

Dobby's silence spoke volumes as Isaac pushed the sponge away.

"You stopped me and Ron getting on the train?" It was more a statement that a question.

"Dobby only did it to protect Harry Potter," another sigh, "Dobby hid and watched for Harry Potter," sigh, " and sealed the gateway. Dobby had to iron his hands afterward,"

He held up ten long, bandaged, fingers. Isaac felt a small pang of pity for him, but that was overridden by his frustration right now.

"But, Dobby didn't care, sir," Dobby continued, hopping onto the bed and crouching so he was level with Isaac's eyes, " Dobby thought that Harry Potter," sigh, " was safe and never did Dobby think that Harry Potter," sigh, " would find another way. Dobby was so shocked that Harry Potter," sigh," was back at Hogwarts, he let his Master's dinner burn! Such a flogging Dobby never had, sir,"

"Dobby," Isaac said, very annoyed now, "You'd better clear off before my bones grow back or I might strangle you,"

"Dobby is used to death threats, sir," Dobby told him with a weak smile, "Dobby gets them five times a day, sir,"

He blew his nose on the corner of the filthy pillowcase that was draped around him. He looked so pathetic that Isaac couldn't help the pangs of pity that overrode his frustration.

"Why d'you wear that thing, Dobby?" he asked curiously.

"Tis a sign of a house-elf's enslavement, sir," Dobby said, pulling it a little away from him, "Dobby can only go free if his Master's present him with clothes, sir,"

Dobby looked at Isaac with newfound determination.

"Harry Potter _must_ go home! Dobby thought that his bludger..."

"Your Bludger!" Isaac barely contained his shout, "That thing nearly killed me!"

"Not kill you, sir!" Dobby said, patting Isaac's arm awkwardly, "Never kill you, sir! Dobby wants to _save_ Harry Potter's life,"

"And how does bludgeoning me to death with a bludger do that?" Isaac asked, 'Wait, is that how they got the name?'

"Better home and injured than here with the Chamber opening and history repeating itself, sir," Dobby said.

"Wait," Isaac snapped his head to Dobby, "What do you mean 'History repeating itself'?"

Dobby gasped and clasped his mouth, "I shouldn't have said that,"

Dobby tried to make a move to get away, but Isaac was quicker and grabbed the front of the pillowcase.

"Dobby, what did you mean?" but before he could finish, footsteps echoed out from the hallway and Dobby disappeared with a snap of his fingers. Leaving Isaac waving his hand in the air in frustration.

The footsteps got closer so Isaac Quickly lay back down.

A small group of people, led by Madam Pomfrey directing them where to put someone.

Professor McGonagall's worried voice carried over to where Isaac lay as she asked Albus about what happened to the boy they had brought in.

Isaac opened his eyes a crack and his breath hitched.

Two beds over, Colin Creevey was frozen stiff. His hands raised to his face which was screwed up in a final expression of shock and fear.

Isaac just managed to focus back to what they were saying to hear that Professor Dumbledore had found him with a small bunch of bananas when he was on his way for a drink of cocoa. They assumed that Colin was on his way to try and see Isaac.

Since wherever Colin went, he took his camera too, they decided to check his camera to see if he had gotten a picture of his attacker.

As they opened the camera to retrieve the film an acrid smell of burning plastic filled the air.

The words that stuck with Isaac was the final words from Dumbledore before he left.

"It appears that the Chamber has been opened, once again,"

When he told Ron and Hermione this the next day when he was cleared by Madam Pomfrey they were once again in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

Hermione had began brewing the potion and it looked like, to them, whoever was behind them last time was back.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Sproul State Forest, Pennsylvania.

"Keith, Run! RUN!" Alan shouted to his friend that was just a few steps away.

They didn't know what it was.

They didn't care.

All they knew was that... whatever it was was behind them and they had to run!

Brambles and thicket cut into their legs, stray stones threatened to trip them, and low-hanging branches were ducked under as they ran.

After forcing their way through yet another bush they found themselves in a small clearing.

"L-look!" Keith panted, grabbing Alan and pointing to a break in the trees that gave way to a road.

"C-c'mon," Alan said.

The two of them barely managed to take a step when Keith screamed out in agony.

Alan turned to face him, taking a step back and nearly tripping.

Shoved through Keith's chest was a black spear-like object.

Just as he made to grab Keith, the thing curled and Keith was dragged back, his voice growing in pitch as he screamed out against whatever had taken him. His body banging against the trees they had passed, resulting in cracks and more cries of pain.

The only evidence that he had been there was the scuff marks caused by his heels when he was taken and the spatter of blood that Alan realised was sprayed onto him as well as the dirt, stone, and trees.

He barely spared a prayer for his friend as he ran towards the opening in the trees.

He tripped over himself as he burst out onto the road.

He gritted his teeth and winced at the skin that was torn from his hands against the rough surface before pushing himself up before half running, half limping, his way down the road. Praying that someone came, and soon.

He had gotten maybe sixty, seventy, metres down the road when he stopped.

By the side of the road, someone was lying in the run-off trench.

He crashed to his knees, causing more damage to the punished tissue and muscle.

"H-Hey man," he shook the man's shoulders to try and wake him, "Y-you gotta help me! We gotta get outta here!"

The man groaned and pushed himself up.

"We gotta go!" Alan said, pulling the man to his feet.

The man shoved back against Alan and he landed roughly on his back. His head hitting the road and his vision blacked out slightly and white flashes sparked in his eyes.

"The hell, man?" Alan cried out in pain.

A shadow passed over him and when he looked up he came face to face with a figure wearing a yellow hoodie with a black balaclava that had the features of a blood-red frowny face imprinted on it.

His breath came up short as he looked at the man he had found, expecting help against this newcomer.

The man he had found was facing him now, the sun reflecting off his porcelain white mask.

The eye holes and lips were painted a deep black that seemed to absorb all and any light that hit it.

"N-n-no," Alan started to sob, "N-no, please, _please_ ,"

Any whimpers were cut out as the masked man brought a heavy stone down on his leg, shattering the bone beyond repair and sending shards tearing the insides apart and through the skin.

The action was repeated for the other knee and Alan was dragged back into the forest. His cries of pain mingling with his pleads for his life.

When they were inside the tree line a car zoomed past.

Alan watched in despair as the roofless car sped past, music blaring louder than he thought the car's speakers possible and some drunk moron standing up in the middle.

His begging resumed when the masked and hooded figure hoisted him up between the two.

The pain his body was in was getting unbearable and he thought that he was bearing through the worst.

He was wrong.

Their combined strength shoved a sharpened, low, branch through his back and they dropped him.

His blood-curdling yell echoed through the forest as his entire body weight was held by the branch, tearing him apart.

His head was grabbed and forced back to the tree by the hooded person while the masked man turned the rock in hand.

Before Alan had any time to react he brought it fast, sharp, and fatal, onto his mouth.

Alan's last memories were of the intense pain that shattered his jaw to what most likely could have been dust as the stone lodged itself in the back of his throat.

After a loud squelching noise, the stone fell, revealing that everything below the man's upper lip to the bottom of his neck had been smashed open. The spinal column was just visible as blood streamed and flooded the mans now lifeless body.

The masked man sighed.

"It's more fun when they scream," he said as he shoved his mask up and lit a cigarette.

His companion nodded and pulled his hood forward as their boss 'ported in.

" **Thank you for dealing with the other,"** Slenderman said, his clothes bearing no evidence to the brutal tearing apart of Keith's body, **"Hoodie?"**

The hooded figure nodded.

" **Would you mind making sure the old cave opening in Wisconsin is still closed before returning home?"**

Hoodie nodded again before making his way to the Slender-port point that lay deeper in the forest.

"Hey, boss," Masky said after watching Hoodie walk away, "Can I ask you something?"

" **Of course,"**

"All those years ago, when Isaac first came here, why did you pick Toby to be his guardian instead of one of us, or someone more mature?"

It had been something that had been on his mind ever since the night that Isaac had been brought to them, malnourished and more broken than a child should have been.

" **Toby would have settled into the role of an elder brother, regardless of who his guardian was,"** Slenderman said, **"... and Toby was the one to find him and bring him here. He recognised that he was putting an enormous amount of faith in his belief that Isaac was abnormal when brought him here,"**

" **Do you remember how Toby began telling me why he thought Isaac should stay?"**

"Yeah, sorta, he started... right at the beginning," Masky said. Normally whenever Toby was asked to explain something he would start right at the point that he was asked about.

In that case, he should have started at the bit where Isaac stabbed his Aunt without touching the knives.

But no, he started right at the very beginning.

He wanted to give them the entire story.

" **It was also beneficial to him,"** Slenderman continued, **"Since he took up the role of being Isaac's guardian he has matured. Not b** **y a** **lot,"** Slenderman added at Masky's snort, **"But he certainly has grown up a little,"**

There was no denying that Toby would always be the crazy, pyromaniacal, hatchet-wielding psychopath that he was. But Masky had to admit that there had been fewer fights about Toby's immaturity since it all.

"I get it," Masky said, throwing away the butt of the cigarette, "There's probably more to it than that, but I ge... and he's gone,"

Slenderman had 'ported away while he had been talking.

He tugged his mask back down onto his face and spared one last glance at the newest feature on the tree.

"Chin up, man," he said with a grin, "Not like it's the end of the world, just yours,"

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

And that's a wrap folks.

Right, so, let me say a quick thing.

The way I write the death scenes in this are entirely my own works and are not based on any real-life events that have happened.

I will admit to Keith's death being a little like something out of Aliens, but that's because I finished watching the Kill Count for the movie while writing this and Bishop's death stuck with me.

Anyway, that's pretty much it from me.

I hope that you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope that I can keep up with my writing schedule until this fic ends.

Anyway, Till the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – Still no idea.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13. No idea if that's right, but it's what I found.

If you have a favourite, or any, Creepypasta that hasn't been mentioned in this fic then send me a message, or leave a review, and I'll see about adding them in at some point.

Kagekao Translations;

1,- "You are starting to bore me,"

2,- "Boring,"

3,- "God is blogging pictures of cats. Try again later,"

4,- "Blood Painter,"


	21. Chapter 21, Things get worse

Chapter 21, Things get Worse.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$Word$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from.

Author's note.

21, This year's lasting a little longer than the last one isn't it.

So, where did we leave off...

Kagekao killin' and drinkin' with Teer and Helen; Masky, Hoodie, and Slendy having some fun in Pennsylvania and Hogwarts has suffered its second attack.

Well, at least things are going to get better for Isaac and... wait, hold on.

What?

You mean it... it gets worse?

Ok, scratch that, things get worse for Isaac.

Anyway, since I'm going to keep up with the idea of doing a CP based chapter. I'd better go through my method of choosing who to write and where they make the kill.

Online random generators.

Pretty simple, I know, but if I ever write a kill scene that's fairly close to an irl situation then I'd rather have this here so I can say that it's complete coincidence.

Also, the story has hit 15,000 views.

I'm back on the broken record wagon again, but thank you all for sticking with this story.

So, as per usual, onto the reviews.

Sweet smilie;

Yes, the M.A.C.U.S.A pin is different colours for people who know about magic and people who don't.

For Lockhart, I am going to start planning his downfall soon so I can have fun with it when I get there.

I will keep a note of being impaled on glass, that does sound fun to write.

Yep, I am starting to go a little more into the CP side of Isaac and I want to see what I can do with pyrotechnics.

Yeah, I'm going to stick with writing a CP scene at the start and ending on another one at the end.

I do have some sort of idea what I'm going to do with Draco and Blaise, but It'll most likely take time to work out.

Dobby... Dobby is a little annoying, yeah. But I am going to keep with his story arc in this book at least. I might change bits later on if I have him pop up again, but I'm sticking to the book for this year at least.

I feel like I'm making Isaac a little too patient. I think it's time for The Apprentice of Laughing Jack to kick it up a notch.

DarkRavie;

Glad you like it.

Again, any other thoughts?

Matt;

Welcome to the story.

Yeah, I'm having a little too much fun whenever I write a death scene. But yeah, if they get reincarnated they'll most definitely avoid forests.

TheMarpasChappers;

MARPASSSSS!

Was getting worried there.

I have thought about Grossman from L.J's origin and I do think that it would be interesting to do something there.

Maybe in the future.

Yay, a new list,

1, Lockhart's death.

I have started planning, going to have a mindmap ready for when I write that chapter. Might dedicate a whole chapter to it, I don't know.

2, Mandrakes.

I might know of one plant based Creepypasta, I'd have to find and check.

3, Colin.

Yes, Colin is such a fanboy.

I think that Colin might be the biggest fan of the Isaac Rogers Creepypasta story when I write it.

Now that is a question that I'm not going to touch with a ten-foot pole.

4, Ages.

The way I sort of imagine things is that they still sort of aged for a while, maybe three or four years at most if they were still alive, but their glamours can shift a few years between them so that one that was about seventeen could look about thirteen to twenty-two. Jeff could have passed for a legal age and gotten a fake I.D from Ben, but I don't think that he's much of a drinker. Plus he was on a job.

TheMarpasChappers... again;

A double, I am very honoured.

Lockhart is, unfortunately for Isaac, is going to live till the summer at least.

"Aww,"

"Oh be quiet, Isaac, I'm writing a few pieces for his comeuppance later. Also how did you get here, I closed the portal?"

"Gotta go!"

"ISAAC!"

"He's gone, and I need to see how he got the portal open,"

Anyway, where was I?

Ah, yes, Lockhart lives till the end of the school year.

L.J I feel like would be interested in knowing how to remove bones without breaking the skin, yeah, but I think he wouldn't use it often since he would want to cause pain as he removed each and every bone.

The list 2, Electric Boogaloo.

1, Christmas.

I... I can see him doing that, but he's a little too young to be buying wine so maybe in the future. And you answer that right as soon as I finish writing that, I should read the entire review first next time.

I am pretty sure that the Black's would have a torture chamber so I'll keep that in mind for the future.

2, Isaac the Werewolf.

You are the main drive behind EXTRAS right now. Why are these such good concepts? Fenrir would be a newborn puppy compared to a Creep-Werewolf.

…

…

…

I need to write an EXTRAS chapter as soon as possible, that image is just too cute.

3, Polyjuice.

…

…

…

ANOTHER EXTRAS CHAPTER!

'sighs'

I need to make a list for these. Why, why, why...

"Delilah!"

"PISS OFF L.J!"

Anyway, why are your ideas so good? Can you be my EXTRAS idea generator from now on, saves me a whole load of trouble.

Alright, anything else I need to talk about...

No, can't think of anything, so that means it's time to check in with 'DP',

So, anything exciting happen in 'Merica?

Not much is really going on here that I know of. Have a wonderful day readers, and see you all in the next chapter.

My response.

Right then, back to the fic.

Till the next one,

SteamGeek01.

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Christlicher Garten, Berlin.

The man watched the two girls wander around the gardens, chatting to each other absent-mindedly as they wandered through the botanical gardens.

He gripped the worn and stained hunting knife in his hand till it shook.

His eyes zeroed in on the smaller of the two as she made some excuse to her friend about the toilet and hurried off, back towards the faculties.

Her friend, however, waved her off and slowly walked deeper into the forest.

The man let out a low and dark chuckle, "Kleiner Hirsch, kleiner Hirsch. Besser fang an zu rennen weil dein Ende nah ist," (1)

The man lumbered towards the girl.

Just as he got nearer someone approached her.

He quickly slid behind a tree to avoid the brown-haired teen seeing him as he talked to the girl.

From the sounds of his accent, the kid must have been an American tourist.

"Yeah, um" the teen said, "Hi, I'm looking for my friend? He's about this tall, brown hair...

and you don't speak English, do you?"

The girl covered her mouth with the back of her hand as she laughed before saying, in broken English, that she hadn't seen his friend and suggested that he try the tea house over by Chinesischer Garten.

The teen thanked her, parts of him moved sporadically as he spoke and walked away.

The man muttered a curse at the teen for delaying his kill before moving round from behind the tree.

A hand was clamped over his mouth and before he could make a noise in confusion something was forced along his throat and he was choking on his blood, coughing up large amounts onto the person's hand.

"Nacht, Nacht," a voice growled in his ear as he dropped down to the ground. Dead.(2)

The figure cracked his neck, running a hand over the scar on his neck before kicking and rolling the person into a ditch hidden by bushes and dumping a bunch of leaves over the puddle of blood on the ground.

"Well, well, that went well," Toby said roughly between bites on a bar of dark chocolate.

"Dude's dead," the figure grunted, "Let's blow this joint,"

"C'mon, Sully," Toby said, waving a second bar of chocolate under his nose, "Just coz the job's done, don't mean the fun's done too,"

Sully snatched the bar of chocolate from Toby and threw it into the undergrowth.

Toby had gotten better around Liu; though his method for dealing with his other personality, Sully, could have been better.

It turns out that the demon had been suppressing the 'Sully' personality when possessing Liu and had taken its name.

Liu had taken some time to get used to the fact that a Sully could still be in control of his body sometimes, but Sully had pretty bluntly stated that he didn't give a rat's ass about whether Liu stayed in control for most of the time as long as he got out every so often.

Everyone did have to admit that Sully was pretty handy to have around whenever dealing with a demon problem. He harbored an extreme vengeance for them from being locked up by the demon that had possessed Liu and having his name taken by the thing.

"What do you suggest we do?" Sully grumbled as Toby fell into step next to him.

"Well... we are in Germany, land of chocolate confection, might as well try the shops,"

Toby said, scrunching up the wrapper and throwing it into a bin as they passed the tea house.

After wandering towards a street market Sully started to stumble and he was walking like he was a little drunk.

Toby quickly found a bench for them to sit down at until the change had happened and Liu was back.

After waiting for the small headache to go away the two of them meandered amongst the many vendors, grabbing a couple of salted pretzels to eat as they walked.

Liu, Toby had decided, was better company for shopping than Sully as they stopped at a shop so Liu could buy an emerald green scarf that caught his eye.

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Hogwarts.

Isaac Rogers sat alone in the library. Ron and Hermione had stopped on their way to check the potion.

Lately, things at Hogwarts were not going well.

His week had started off fairly amusing to him when Hedwig had brought him a small parcel and two accompanying letters from the Mansion.

The first letter was from Toby, wanting to know that he was alright and warning him against doing anything stupid.

Ben had snatched the letter away and wrote in ~Without us!~

The rest of the letter was his usual fix of getting a little bit of what's been going on back home regarding their 'Jobs'.

Tim and Brian had helped decorate a tree, Ben had 'fixed' a few people's computer systems, and 'L.J' had fallen out of a tree while climbing and 'nearly' crashed into the gardening shed.

The other letter merely said,

~Give them hell~

He had been confused about that letter until he opened the aforementioned parcel.

It turned out to be a hunting knife delivered from Jeff, who had said that if something was going around attacking students then he'd better take a good chunk out of it that could feed E.J for a week.

The knife had been shoved deep into his bag until he could stuff it into his trunk in Gryffindor Tower.

He had felt that the knife would most likely have been taken away from him if anyone found out about it.

He had started carrying around the throwing knives again, though. They were small in size and weren't that different from the knives that they used in Potions so he felt like he could get away there.

The week had gotten progressively worse.

When Professor McGonagall came round with the sheet for who was staying at Hogwarts over the Christmas holidays there was a definite decrease in those staying than those that had last year.

Thankfully, for their plan, Malfoy was staying at Hogwarts for Christmas so they could carry out their plan into action then.

Things had even been decent in Potions, the only thing that went wrong was Goyle spilling his Swelling Solution over onto the desk and his hands inflated to the size of those foam fingers that you see at sporting events.

Snape's eyes lingered on Isaac throughout the lesson but he didn't say anything. Isaac suspected that Snape thought he had something to do with the missing ingredients from his cupboard.

The point that marked the downturn of the week had been the announcement that a dueling club was going to be established.

Rumours went from it being held by Professor Snape, who was notorious for having a fascination with the Dark Arts, to Professor Flitwick who had been a dueling champion in his youth.

"As long as it's not..." Isaac said on the day before groaning loudly.

Lockhart sauntered into the room wearing robes of deep plum.

Snape wasn't far behind him in his usual all black attire.

Isaac nearly left the club then and there but the doors had snapped shut behind them and Lockhart was now standing on a platform in the middle of the room.

What had followed had been another mess on Lockhart's behalf.

After a demonstration, which involved Isaac barely containing his cheer when Snape sent Lockhart flying off the stage and landing hard on his ass, they had been set up in pairs.

Snape had reached them before Lockhart and Isaac found himself paired against Draco

while Ron was paired with Seamus and Hermione a heavy-jawed Slytherin.

A quick nod and smile and each other knew that they weren't going to cast the disarm spell that Snape had shown.

Instead both of them used different play hexes.

Isaac was hit with one that acted like getting a rug pulled out from under our feet while Draco was met with a tickling curse.

Snape glared at Isaac as he went around fixing any damage caused during the duel.

Ron's wand seemed to be reaching it's breaking point as it somehow caused a cloud of green smoke to hang over them as he supported an ashen faced Seamus as he apologised for whatever his wand had done.

Hermione's partner had her in a headlock, their wands forgotten on the floor, and Isaac rushed to Hermione's aid. He easily removed the Slytherin from Hermione, adding pressure to a sensitive point in the inner arm got rid of the hold on Hermione fairly easily.

After Snape managed damage control of the many unprepared students, while Lockhart flitted around with next to useless advice, they chose a pair of students to demonstrate how to block a spell.

Snape shot down the use of Neville and his partner Justin and brought Isaac and Draco to the stadium instead.

Everyone crowded around as, to their knowledge, the chosen pair had an intense rivalry.

Lockhart bungled an attempt at showing Isaac how to block a spell, dropping his wand and eliciting more growls from Isaac for the continued use of his old name.

Isaac turned back to face Malfoy and resigned himself to whatever the hell that he was going to cast.

Isaac gave Malfoy a look that said, "Really," when a long, black, snake shot out of the end of his wand and landed roughly on the floor.

Lockhart shoved past him to get to the snake before Professor Snape, declaring that he would get rid of it.

Lockhart ended up causing the snake to fly ten feet into the air and land harshly on the ground in front of Justin.

The snake reared to attack Justin when Isaac shouted out, $"OI! Piss off, leave him alone,"$ The snake turned to face him before slumping back into an unmoving coil on the floor.

Snape cast a spell that disintegrated the snake while Isaac turned with a smile to see if Justin was alright.

Justin looked terrified.

He shouted at Isaac before storming out of the hall amidst the mutterings that had started.

Isaac watched his retreating back confusedly while Ron and Hermione pulled him back to Gryffindor Tower, away from the looks that many were giving him.

He was a little confused about how scared they were when Ron started asking him about how he never told them that he was a 'Parselmouth'

"Eh?" Isaac said, "A what?"

"You know, a Parseltongue," Ron said.

"Saying the same thing again doesn't answer the question," Isaac said.

"It means you can talk to snakes," Hermione said.

"Oh," said Isaac, wondering why Ron didn't just say that, "Yeah. L.J has a mamba that he called Lucille for a good few years, I ended up chatting with him and he told me that his name was Kalakuta,"

Ron let out a mirthless laugh while Hermione looked extremely worried.

"Oh so what?" Isaac said, throwing his hands out at his sides, "I bet a bunch of people can do it, what's so bad about..."

"They can't!" Ron said, "It's not a very common gift. Isaac, this is bad,"

"What's bad?" Isaac said, starting to get annoyed, "If I hadn't told the snake not to attack Justin then..."

"Oh, that's what you said," Ron said.

"Yeah, what else would I... wait what?" Isaac asked, "You were there, what do you mean that you couldn't hear me?"

"I heard you speaking Parseltongue," said Ron, "Snake language. No wonder Justin freaked, it sounded like you were egging it on, or something. It was really creepy,"

"I... but... it's another language?" Isaac said, letting his arms drop to his sides, "Huh. I always thought that I could just understand them, but I was speaking English,"

"What does it matter _how_ I stopped Justin joining the Headless-Hunt, as long as that he's still _alive_ ?"

"Isaac, it matters," Hermione said, finally speaking, "Because being able to speak to serpents was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol for Slytherin house is a serpent,"

Isaac stared at her.

"Exactly," said Ron, "And now the school's going to think that you're his great-great-great-great-grandson or something,"

"But I..." Isaac said, thinking back to what the sorting hat had said in first-year, 'You could be great in Slytherin...'

"I'm not," Isaac said.

"You'll find that hard to prove," said Hermione, "He lived about a thousand years ago. For all we know, you could be,"

And that was when the week had officially reached rock bottom.

And that was how Isaac Rogers found himself alone in the Hogwarts library, sitting at a table by himself with a potions book open in front of him, while hushed whispers floated amongst the other students as they cast wary glances his way.

Isaac ignored them and tried to focus on the potions book in front of him.

"It's odd being alone," Isaac jumped a little, "Isn't it?"

A girl with platinum blonde hair and large eyes sat across from him.

He wondered how he hadn't heard her sitting down or walking over, shoes on stone tended to make noise.

"But when you're alone, you feel safe," the girl continued, "But that's a false safe. Like a night-light,"

She looked around the library, ignoring the many 'What are you doing?' looks she had gotten.

"It's better when you've got those you can call friend with you,"

And with that, she left. Humming a tune that Isaac couldn't quite place but was sure he had heard somewhere.

Isaac's head followed her as she walked out of the library. He noticed that, for some reason, she wasn't wearing any shoes.

Isaac shook his head, wondering what the hell had just happened, before turning back to the book with a sigh and scribbling a few properties of common potion ingredients.

The next day had Isaac finding out just how wrong he had been when he had thought that it had gotten as bad as it could get.

At Hermione's prompting he had gone to seek out Justin since their Herbology periods were now a free class since Professor Sprout needed to keep a closer eye on the mandrakes that were needed for the petrification cure.

He had a couple of letters to send home so he could do that while he was out as well.

Isaac descended the stairs into the empty corridor, thumbing the throwing knife that he had hidden on him.

He stopped at the end of the corridor.

He had no idea where the Hufflepuff dormitories were, and he had no idea what Justin would be doing.

He decided to go post his letter first.

After that he headed back inside, making his way towards the library.

In the distance as he made his way back from the Owlery, he heard a distant yelp from the direction of Hagrid's hut.

Isaac imagined that Hagrid had probably gotten chomped by some creature or another.

The trip to the library yielded no results for Justin, but there was a group of Hufflepuffs there so he went over to ask them where he was.

He had just reached the bookshelves next to them when he caught what they were saying.

"So, anyway," a stout boy said, "I told Justin to hide up in our dormitory. I mean, if Potter..."

"Rogers," came the instinctive reply from a few that sat there and Isaac stifled a snort by stuffing his fist in his mouth.

"Whatever!" the boy snapped, "Point is that he's marked him down as his next victim. He's probably been on his list since he told him that he was Muggle-born. Justin actually _told_ him that he was down for Eton. That's not the sort of thing that you bandy about when Slytherin's heir is on the loose,"

"You definitely think that it's him then, Ernie?" a pig-tailed girl asked.

"Hannah, he's a Parselmouth. Everyone knows that's the mark of a dark wizard. Have you ever heard a decent one who could talk to snakes?"

"Look at Creevey," Ernie went on, "He was taking those pictures when Potter..."

"Rogers,"

"Whatever! Point is that Colin got him riled up by taking those photos of him lying in the mud with a broken arm. And not even a day later Creevey's attacked!"

"He always seems so nice, though," Hannah said.

"What about Filch's cat then?" another boy said.

Ernie stalled for a moment.

"Filch is a squib," he said, " Go for an easy target,"

Isaac had had enough and walked around.

"Hello," he said, unable to help the small smile on his face as they jumped, "I want to talk to Justin, have you seen him?"

The Hufflepuffs looked like their worst fears had been confirmed.

"What do you want with him?" Ernie asked, his voice quavering slightly.

"Well after being reliably informed that I somehow spoke another language, I always thought that I was speaking English but I could understand them, I thought that Justin, and from the sounds of things a few others, might have the wrong idea about what happened at the dueling club," Isaac said as he watched Ernie pale a little.

"We were there, we saw what happened," Ernie said defiantly.

"So you saw me stop the snake from attacking Justin, good, now could you tell me where he is?" Isaac asked.

"We saw you chasing the snake towards Justin, egging it on in Parseltongue," Ernie said, a little colour returning to his cheeks.

"Do you know what I said to the snake?" Isaac asked, getting a little annoyed.

"Does it matter?" Ernie said.

"I said, 'OI! Piss off and leave him alone,' why would I want to attack Justin?" Isaac said. The Hufflepuffs exchanged glances at each other.

"I've heard that you hated those Muggle relatives of yours, and I'll have... you..." Ernie trailed off as Hannah grabbed his arm, eyes wide as she looked at him.

Isaac hadn't said a thing.

Any light in his eyes was gone and they looked unfocused and glassy.

"If you had met them then you would think the same," Isaac said softly, "I don't care about'blood-status' or whatever bullshit that useless guff is,"

"Besides, if I was going to kill anyone it'd be more likely to be Lockhart," Isaac added on, almost too casually.

"Going after those that can stop you then?" Ernie said accusingly, puffing his chest.

"No. He's an annoying as all fuck moron with an ego I could use to climb to the freaking moon," Isaac said and one or two Hufflepuffs looked like they had bit back a laugh.

"ATTACK!" a loud yell echoed down the corridors, "ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK!

NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATTAAAACK!"

Ernie looked at Isaac. Glaring with all his might.

Snape's glare was better.

"Who'd you attack this time, Potter?"

Isaac glared back.

His was more effective as every Hufflepuff leant back and Ernie took a step away from him.

"I've been here talking to you, dumbfuck, how can it be me?" Isaac said.

Isaac blinked, Jeff's vocab was rubbing off on him.

A few moments later, Peeves zoomed past the library door.

" _Rogers a rotter, oh what have you done_ ..." the rest of the song was cut off as he sped past as Madam Pince brandished her wand at the poltergeist.

"Who did you attack Potter?" Ernie said again, pointing at him.

"No one," Isaac snarled, "But keep calling me 'Potter' and that might change in a moment," his hand was shaking slightly and he ignored the tingling feeling in his fingertips.

A tense standoff lasted for a moment where neither said anything.

"Mr Rogers," Professor McGonagall said softly. Isaac wasn't sure when she had turned up, "The Headmaster would like to have a word,"

Isaac turned and walked to where she was standing, sticking his hands in his pockets.

"I know you're guilty, Potter," Ernie called after them and continued glaring, despite the stern look that Professor McGonagall gave him.

A brightly wrapped red and gold sweet flew past them and hit Ernie between the eyes.

Isaac was paused at the door, not looking back and arm outstretched.

He didn't glance back.

Just dropped his arm, sliding it back into his pocket, straightened his head and waited for Professor McGonagall to lead the way.

Ernie stooped down and picked up the sweet, muttering a magic detection spell that came up with nothing, unwrapped and ate it.

Isaac followed Professor Mcgonagall as she led him along to a large griffin statue.

She ushered Isaac to stand at the base of the statue.

"Mr Rogers," she said, looking at him sternly through the glasses fixed on her nose, "A point from Gryffindor for throwing items at a fellow student," Isaac blinked and shrugged facially.

"Sherbert Lemon," she said and the griffon statue rotated as a stairwell roses from the ground.

When he was out of sight, she relaxed and smiled.

"Two points to Gryffindor for bloody good aim," she muttered before walking away.

Isaac balanced himself as the staircase came to a halt in front of a door with a griffin shaped door knocker made of brass.

Isaac gripped the base of the brass knocker and banged it against the door four times.

The door opened slowly and Isaac walked inside.

Professor Dumbledore's office was empty, numerous objects to which Isaac had no idea as to their intention, whirred and clinked on a table.

Two large bookcases were wrapped along the curved wall behind what must have been the Professor's desk.

Almost every space of the wall and domed ceiling of the space in which Isaac now stood was covered in the sleeping portraits of who must have been the previous headmasters and headmistress' of Hogwarts.

Isaac looked around the room and paused when he found the sorting hat, walking over to where is sat on another large shelving unit.

"Bee in your bonnet, Rogers?" the hat asked as it came to life as Isaac stopped at the bottom of the bookcase.

"No – well, not to be a bother, but,"

"You've been wondering if I put you in the right house," said the hat smartly, "Yes... you would have been difficult to place. But I stand by what I said last year-" Isaac relaxed a little, "- you _would_ have done well in Slytherin,"

And with that the hat was silent once more.

"Maybe," Isaac said softly.

A strangled noise had him spinning to face the desk.

His hand was halfway to the throwing knife tucked inside his belt and under his shirt when he saw where the noise came from.

What looked like an old feather duster, in an even more decrepit state than even Errol, was some bird swaying softly on a golden perch.

Isaac looked at the sickly looking bird, wondering whether to put it out of its misery when it burst into flames.

Isaac took a step back, watching the flames consume the bird until there was nothing but ash and old feathers around where it had stood.

The office door opened and Professor Dumbledore walked in, looking sombre.

"Professor," Isaac said as he closed the door, "Your bird kinda, sorta, blew up,"

To his surprise Professor Dumbledore smiled.

"Did he, I've been telling him to get a move on for days now," he chuckled softly, placing a hand on Isaac's back as he guided him to the stand.

"Fawkes," Dumbledore said and Isaac let out a cough that masked a chuckle, "Is a phoenix,

Isaac, they burn when it is time for them to die. And they are reborn from the ashes,"

He pointed at where a tiny, wrinkled, bird poked its head out from the ashes. It was quite as ugly as the old one and a small pile of ash was stuck on it's head and beak, making a small mound that moved with him.

"It's a shame you had to see him on a burning day," Dumbledore said, sitting down as Isaac sat across the desk from him, "Normally he's quite magnificent, as a phoenix is. They can carry immensely heavy loads, their tears have healing powers, and they make extremely _faithful_ pets,"

Before either of them could say another thing, Hagrid came bursting in, waving a dead rooster around in a massive hand.

"It wasn' him Professor,"

It took a minute to calm Hagrid down, he was shouting over them saying that he had seen Isaac walking back from the Owlery and go straight into the library.

After Professor Dumbledore said that he didn't believe that Isaac was to blame Hagrid awkwardly excused himself to wait outside.

Isaac was thankful that Professor Dumbledore believed him and asked whether anything was bothering him.

Isaac told him "No," and Professor Dumbledore let him leave so that he could go for lunch.

Isaac felt better after talking to Professor Dumbledore as he walked down to the Great Hall, joining Ron and Hermione where they sat.

As he sat he finally gave in to the tingling feeling in his fingertips and when he examined them he found them a dull shine. Like he had burnt them slightly on something.

He shook them to get rid of the feeling as he picked up his knife and fork, cutting into a baked potato that lay in front of him.

Professor Dumbledore and Hagrid came walking through the entrance hall not too long after, Hagrid leaving with the dead rooster and heading towards his house.

Ernie Macmillan left lunch halfway through and he didn't show up to classes later.

People panicked at hearing this and quite a few sent accusing glances and stares at Isaac but Ernie's friends confirmed that he was just excused by Madam Pomfrey since he was sick.

He did turned up at dinner looking very peaky.

Fred and George noted the blank, but oddly satisfied, look that Isaac had as he watched Ernie leave the hall and made a point to ask him what he did at dinner since everyone was leaving for afternoon classes.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

The Mansion.

Hedwig rolled into the room, spinning and tucking her wings in so she could get through the window with ease.

Toby caught the letter addressed to him and Ben, since Ben kept stealing the letter to add onto it while he was writing Isaac had started addressing it to the both of them.

To L.J's surprise a second letter was dropped on him as he walked past.

He picked it up from the ground, not having to bend over due to his incredibly long arms, and read as he walked up the stairs.

He had just finished the main body of the letter and burst out in a sprint to his room.

He slammed the door closed and re-opened it before racing into his carnival.

"PREP LAB ONE! I'VE GOT A WAR TO SUPPLY!" he shouted to the child-zombie hoard as he slowed down to a walk, the carnival whirring into life as discorded songs played through speakers and rides shuddered into tweaky action.

The carnival seemed to come alive with the feeling of Laughing Jack's excitement.

A large bunch of them raced off to prep L.J's favoured room for when he reached it.

Laughing Jack's mind was abuzz with ideas.

'Acid in apples, and poison in peppermints,' he thought gleefully, 'Bear Traps and razor-blades and sharpened spears standing,'

"Watch as the Geezer's heart stops under shredding," he sang as he flung open the doors, "These are a few of my favourite things,"

Kalakuta hisses softly from a the table in which he was sat.

Jack shoved the operating tables aside and pulled a rope dangling in the middle of the room.

Fire roared in ovens with openings shaped like fanged maws and lights flickered, a few bursting, and blinked into life.

"Time to put those venom sacs to work Calculator," Kalakuta hissed as Jack pulled a drawer longer than it should have been from under the table and pulled out a dusty tome.

Laughing Jack let out a low, raspy, chuckle as he trailed a long finger down the content list.

"Thank you, Sammy," he said to a zombie-child that handed him an inventory list.

"Bugger, I'm out of sulfur chloride pentafluoride," Jack said, tapping the list with a finger, "Running low on dyes too,"

Jack pushed the drawer back in.

"Be right back, need to go shopping," he called to the hoards that rushed around as he jogged to a closer door out of the carnival.

As he got closer to the door a memory popped into his mind as he watched an old playmate that was missing his arm run past.

Toby had just gotten the weekly letter from Isaac.

He had been fine until he reached the end of the letter.

"The hell happened to his handwriting?" he joked as he read the last pieces.

Toby's good mood had lasted about ten seconds as he read before yelling, "I gotta go kill a dick," and taking the stairs two at a time.

"What happened?" Masky asked as Ben picked up the letter.

Ben sighed, casting a quick glance at Jeff, "Remember that egotistical douche that nearly had his wrist broke by Jeff?"

Masky nodded.

"Well, thanks to him, Isaac's in the hospital wing having all the bones in his right arm re-grown,"

Jeff stood up, cracked his knuckles and shoulders.

"If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go help Toby kill a dick,"

" **No you are not,"** Slenderman said, stopping Jeff from leaving, **"Unfortunately, Lockhart is a celebrity in that world. He is off limits,"**

"You're gonna let him off scot free?" Ben asked as he held up the letter.

" **What makes you think that Isaac will drop what happened?"** Slenderman asked, turning to face the young ghost, **"I'd say that Lockhart is going to regret the action dearly by the time that school is done,"**

With that he 'ported away.

Looking back on the situation, Toby had been forced to deal with his anger by chopping liberal amounts of wood. They still hadn't run out.

He paused for a moment, looking at the inventory list that he had pocketed.

A shark-like grin formed and he tapped a small line that had been added on on the end.

He still had one left, and he knew what he was going to do with it.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Hogwarts.

The double attack on Justin and Nearly-Headless Nick, The Gryffindor ghost, as they later found out had turned what had been nervousness into panic.

If whatever was petrifying the students could get the ghosts, then what was it capable of and who could stop it.

Ron thought that if there was one good thing that could have possibly came from all this it was that they got to classes quicker because everyone seemed to dart out of the way whenever Isaac walked down a corridor.

Fred and George were having great fun in all this.

They believed that Isaac was innocent and had fun terrorising the other students because of their stupidity.

They kept ambushing Isaac on his way to class, calling out loudly things like,

"Make way for the heir of Slytherin!"

"Seriously evil wizard coming through!"

"Make way, he's off to the chamber for a cup of tea with his fanged serpent,"

And of course,

"Sod off, Perce," whenever the elder Weasley told them to stop it.

"Now then, we need to make you look like a real villain," Fred said one day as they found Isaac on his way back from Charms.

"How about a nice black and white top-hat?" George said.

"Or, maybe a white mask with black eyes and lips?"

"Or, a black feather shoulder pad?"

"Or, what if we..."

"You guys have gotten _way_ too into those stories," Isaac cut them off and George gasped and tried to ward him off with a large clove of garlic.

By the time that the holidays came Hogwarts was pretty much deserted.

Crabbe and Goyle, as they always did what Draco did, had signed up to stay which made things easier for them when the time came.

Christmas day started earlier than they would have liked with Hermione bursting into the dormitory.

She had been up for an hour and she was confident that the potion was ready.

That had snapped the boys out of their stupor long enough for them to realise that there was a small mound of presents on the foot of their beds.

Isaac managed to convince Hermione to go to her room and bring her presents up so that they could all open them together and in the time that she was gone Ron and Isaac got changed as well.

Isaac quickly shoved a box from L.J under the bed.

He had a good feeling that he knew what was inside and he was thankful for the occasion since he could hide his mischievous grin under the Christmas excitement.

Hermione came back as Isaac opened a gift from Sally, letting out a snort of laughter at the book on how to do sleight-of-hand magic tricks.

Hermione watched eagerly as the two of them opened her presents and placed the box of treacle fudge from Hagrid in front of the fireplace for Isaac.

After opening next to all their gifts, Isaac managed to rope them into saving a couple to open later when they had a break from the inevitable fun they were going to do.

They had planned to take the polyjuice potion later after dinner where most people would be too tired to notice if 'Crabbe and Goyle' were acting differently.

Later on, as they watched the twins get chased by Percy after he found out that they had charmed his prefect badge to say 'Pinhead', they discussed how they were going to get Crabbe and Goyle out of the way for their plan.

Hermione thankfully, because Isaac did not want to fight them even if he could take them both out, supplied the answer.

She had filled two cupcakes with a sleeping draught and that left Isaac and Ron waiting outside the Great Hall for the two greedy Slytherins to finish.

Isaac cast the hovering charm they learned in first-year to levitate the cupcakes into their view as they left the hall and the two of them scoffed them down.

"How thick can you get?" Ron said through a huff of laughter as the two Slytherins keeled over unconscious.

After dragging the two of them into a supply closet and yanking out some of their hairs they rushed to Hermione already at Moaning Myrtle's bathroom to take the potion.

Isaac would rather deal with being locked in a room with a pissed off Jeff than take that potion again.

It felt like there was live snakes in his stomach and his skin bubbled like hot wax as his features changed to those of Vincent Crabbe.

He took off his glasses since he no longer needed them and did a double take as Gregory Goyle exited the bathstall that Ron had run into in case that he was sick.

'Never letting the guys back home find out about this. No way, no how,' he thought as he loosened the necklace that Toby had given him and put it in his pocket.

His neck, well Crabbe's, felt oddly bare without it he had been wearing it for so long.

Ron was busy examining himself in the mirror Isaac went to check on Hermione.

"I- I don't think I'm able to go," the higher than Isaac would have thought for someone like Millicent Bulstrode, the Slytherin that Hermione had been paired with in the dueling club and had subsequently left a hair on Hermione during the headlock.

After arguing for a minute of their precious sixty that they had before the potion wore off they left her in the stall and headed toward the dungeons where the Slytherin common room was.

After spending a good half hour lost, not getting any help from a Ravenclaw prefect that stiffly ignored their request for help, and coming across Ron's brother Percy, Draco finally made an appearance and led the way to the Slytherin common rooms.

It was very green, more subtle with the colour palette than the Gryffindor common room was and Isaac honestly felt that the place was rather calming. Ornamental snakes without beginning or end decorated the room, their heads and tails lost in the marble that made up the bases of the structures and chandeliers overhead cast off a light glow that made the room feel like it was saturated with power, yet welcoming.

The endeavour with the potion was pretty much pointless since even as Crabbe and Goyle Malfoy said nothing different than what he had told Isaac.

Isaac was in two minds about this since it meant that Draco did consider him close enough to be honest and truthful with him.

They had left when Ron's hair had started turning red again, feigning going to get a potion for Crabbe's stomach since they had used the excuse for him overeating whenever Malfoy got too close to insulting the Weasleys and a Muggleborn and Ron reacted.

When they got back the potion had worn off completely and they stumbled over the now too-long robes that they wore.

What they returned to was shocking.

Moaning Myrtle.

 _Moaning_ Myrtle.

Was laughing hysterically.

She urged for them to take a look and Isaac felt like his eyebrows were going to rise off of his head at the sight.

Hermione was covered head to foot in fur.

Large whiskers were sprouted on her cheeks and her eyes had turned yellow.

She howled that it had been a cat's hair, not Bulstrode's own hair, and that the potion was for human transformation only.

Isaac had made an involuntary twitch to his knife at this but caught himself in time.

'It's Hermione, not him,' he repeated in his head as Ron snickered at Hermione's tail.

Moaning Myrtle followed them for a good portion to the hospital wing. She had turned around and left when Isaac snapped, "And how exactly good does it feel to be pick on? You know what it's like on the other end of the stick, so maybe shut up or go away!"

Meanwhile Hermione slapped Ron slightly when he had tried to stroke her like a cat. The small claws on her hands left a couple of scratches.

Myrtle sobered up a little at that and left them while the took Hermione to Madam Pomfrey.

Isaac gave the excuse that it had been a hair-raising potion gone wrong and that seemed to keep her happy as she sent them away, saying that it was late at night.

Isaac argued that there was still at least two hours until curfew and asked that if they could maybe bring the last of Hermione's gifts to the hospital wing for her to open.

Maybe it was the Christmas cheer, or perhaps the matron was too tired to care, but she let them gather the rest of Hermione's gifts from their dorm and brought them down to her.

After their allotted hour was up Isaac and Ron took the gifts up to the common room.

After spending a couple of minutes lamenting the lack of learning anything from Malfoy they spent the rest of the evening toying with their new gifts.

Ron was immersed in a book on famous Quidditch matches while Isaac read through and practiced a few tricks from the book that Sally had sent him.

While ron was preoccupied with his book Isaac quickly went upstairs and dug out the box from L.J.

He opened it carefully, looking through the many items within.

His eyes settled on a bottle tucked into a corner with a few pictures labeled with black cornered sticky notes and he decided that it was perfect.

The pictures showed the 'claimed result' that the bottle would give and the other pair the actual result.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)** **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Lockhart's office.

Gilderoy Lockhart signed off the next fan letter with a flourish as a snowy owl flew in through the window.

"Latecomers," he chortled as he saw the scarlet envelope, "Ooh, a lover perhaps," he amused himself as he opened the red envelope.

"SO WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO... WAIT, IS IT WRITING BY ITSELF? OH THAT'S COOL!"

Lockhart dived under the desk at the loud explosion from the letter.

His mind panicking as he thought of who could possibly have sent him a _howler_ !

An overly jealous witch? No, the voice was male, but he didn't rule out the jealous luster theory yet.

His blood ran cold as he thought that it could have possibly been someone in relation to one of the witches or wizards that he had claimed their achievements as his own.

"IT'S CALLED A HOWLER, YOU USE IT TO GET A MESSAGE ACROSS IN THE CLEAREST FORMAT POSSIBLE!" a raspy voice that he thought he had heard before joined into the fray.

"REALLY? WHO YOU SENDING THIS TO?" the first voice asked. Younger than the second.

"THE DICKHEAD THAT REMOVED THE BONES FROM ISAAC'S ARM!"

Lockhart's head hit the desk in his rush to look at the letter.

"REALLY? WELL THEN," a throat was cleared.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY COMMON SENSE IN THAT OVER-INFLATED HEAD OF

YOURS, YOU BLONDE EGOMANIAC!"

"WHY THE FUCKING HELL DID YOU THINK THAT YOU WERE THE PROPERLY QUALIFIED ONE TO HEAL BONES WHEN THE REPORTS FROM MANY STUDENTS SAY THAT YOU'D PROBABLY FAIL AT USING A FUCKING TOASTER?"

Lockhart had no idea what a 'toaster' was but felt insulted all the same.

While this was going on he didn't see the snowy owl fly in and drop a parcel onto the pile of unopened letters.

"NOT TO MENTION HIS BLATANT DISREGARD FOR LAWS CONCERNING THOSE IN THE WITNESS PROTECTION ACT!" the raspy voice added.

"OH YEAH. SPEAKING OF THAT," Lockhart shuddered as the voice dropped to a deathly silent whisper, "If I get any more wind of the fact that you're obsession with my little brother is still going on, then I'll personally see to it that you find out just how enjoyable spending the rest of your life in a wheelchair can be!"

Lockhart paled considerably at the harsh and cold tones that the letter gave before it burst into flames.

Lockhart slipped in his hurried attempt to get up, landing harshly on the ground and seeing stars.

The howler had set fire to the reply letters that he had written and by the time that he remembered the charm to extinguish fire more than half of them had been engulfed in the flames.

He felt his jaw drop pitifully at the sight of the useless reply letters that he would have to re-write.

He sat down and buried his face in his hands on the desk.

This thump caused the unopened letters to shift and the parcel slid down and hit him in the side of his head.

"Oh! What's this?" he said to himself and his portrait selfs as he picked up the parcel.

~My dashing protector,~

Lockhart felt his lips pick up into a smile at the addressing of himself.

~I know that this might do nothing to pay back the deeds that you have done for me,~ ~But I must strive for any chance,~

Lockhart felt his chest rise importantly as he read the rest.

~I enclose a gift of unique origin,~

~In the bottle, you will find the answer to any problem that you may have in relation to your hair. I know that it is flawless by nature, but I worry that one day a jealous...~

Many scratched out words for bitch, slut, and idiot later...

~... individual might try and ruin your image,~

~I know that you could fight them off with broken arms and with your wand taken, but I worry nonetheless,~

~Forever in your debt, my dear,~

~Sara Crogiers,~ (3)

Attached to the letter was a picture of a young woman with a large, messy, knotted and tangled hair do.

This picture was labeled 'Before'.

The other was labeled 'After'.

The same young woman stood there with a lustful look in her eyes. Her hair fell gracefully, silky, and a shine that seemed to match the cleanliness that the hair radiated.

Lockhart tore through the rest of the packaging with vigour and came across the glass bottle with a creamy paste on the inside.

He held the bottle to his chest.

Taking in the security that there was someone out there that knew his struggle.

Image was important after all and, based on the results shown in her picture, he would use the potion for the welcoming of the students back after the holidays.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Moscow, Russia.

The young woman stared blankly at the screen in front of her.

She snorted in laughter before sending her cousin an email back, asking about the joke email she had received, before turning off her laptop and picking up the duffel bag by the door.

She was about to go on a weekend hunting trip with her fiancé to celebrate the engagement since it was a bank holiday on the monday and they would get an extra day to themselves.

By the time that they got to the site it was rather cold and she huddled in the warmth of the small campervan they had rented and secured it was already nighttime and she was a little wary of the way that shadows seemed to move by themselves amongst the trees.

Her fiancé told her to stop worrying and pressed a warm mug of cocoa and whiskey into her hands.

After the drinks, and the first of what was to be many intimate sessions over the weekend, they settled down in the bed next to him as he reached up and turned the light off.

In the flare of the light as her eyes adjusted she could have sworn that she saw something peeking in.

The next day her to-be-husband was excited at the paw prints that he found outside the campervan and said that this place must be good for hunting.

The day passed without any of them spotting a single woodland creature, just the occasional bird, and making many, increasingly awful, innuendos and puns based on what they could see.

She was grateful for this since she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched by something.

The second day passed in pretty much the same way.

Waiting in the cold undergrowth, making idiotic jokes, without seeing a single living thing besides each other.

The feeling of being watched grew greater and there were times when she felt like something was breathing down her neck.

Her husband joked and said that she was just antsy, laughing away her concerns.

They got worse later that night when she awoke to a demonic grin above her, scratching deep marks in the window and shaking the campervan till it felt like it was going to tip over.

She leapt from bed, her fiancé missing.

She made it to the kitchen just as another violent shake rocked the campervan, throwing everything in the kitchen to the floor. Food spilled all over the floor and her feet were torn by the cutlery on the floor.

She was about to reach the phone when a claw smacked it away.

She backed into the wall as a large, almost the size of a bear, hound dragged itself onto the counter. It's black as night fur clashing with the blood coloured fur of its underside.

From the beast's jaw copious amounts of thick drool escaped it's grin. A grin filled with human teeth.

The lights flickered on and off and the campervan shook with every move the thing made.

She backed further into the wall, pulling in on herself as far as she could to try any feeble attempt at protecting herself.

The beast jumped down from the table, whispers filling the air.

"..."

They were too quiet to hear over the pounding blood in her ears. The campervan felt like it was spinning.

"S...r...d ...he ...r..."

She could feel the very edge of the things breath as it got closer.

She felt like she was being pulled backwards by hooks rope stuck to random parts of her back. The biggest tug coming from the base of her skull.

"Spre...d... the... w...rd..."

The thing was almost upon her. It's foul breath stagnating the air she breathed.

"Spread the word," the voices reached a climax as the very tips of hair brushed against her trembling body.

She threw her head back and screamed.

The lights stopped shaking.

The campervan stopped spinning.

She looked up.

The small kitchen was clean, barely a speck that from the cleaning that she had done earlier marred the place.

The cutlery was back in the drawers.

The light's were bright, almost too bright.

She took off running.

She followed the road that they had taken to get to the grounds, ignoring the burning sensation in her feet that came from both the cold and the sharp stones underfoot.

They had passed a forest services outpost a few miles back.

If she could get there she could get help.

She ran right into something.

She cried out as the thing, which was barely knee height, sent her sprawling in the snow and stone covered road.

Cuts dug into her face, her nightwear torn revealing the pale body underneath.

A low whine, apologetic in tone, met her ears and she spun on the ground to come face to face with a pale cream husky.

Her heart skipped a beat and her breathing stopped as she thought back to the thing that had attacked her.

But had she been attacked?

The kitchen was fine.

Nothing was out of place.

Her fiancé had probably stepped out to relieve himself as the toilet in there was too small for him.

And how could some hellhound have gotten in anyway? They didn't exist.

It was probably a nightmare from the paranoia in the woods and that stupid email that her cousin had sent her.

The husky nuzzled her bleeding face, licking the tender parts in soft kisses.

She babbled to the dog in soft russian. Talking about how silly she was for getting worked up over a nightmare, how cute that he was, and how worried her fiancé must be.

The dog licked the wounds and she batted it's head away but it kept going back.

After pushing with a little more force the dog let out an unearthly growl and swatted at her face with a paw, cleaving more skin away and revealing the bloodied bone of her skull.

Her panic resumed tenfold now as the thing grew outward, it's bones making loud cracks as it grew into the hound from before.

It's fur shone from the two-tone difference, standing out starkly against the pale snow.

He shrieks were cut off as the thing leapt on top of her and forced her to the ground, clawing and biting her until nothing but pained whimpers could be heard.

When she realised that the thing was going for the kill as it reared back onto it's hind legs; and it stopped.

She thought that something had spooked it when it grabbed her foot in it's maw and started dragging her into the trees.

Stones, snow, and twigs scratched and tore the exposed flesh and bone as she tried to claw for anything to use to aid her.

Her pleas and cries for help restarted, but they were intermingled with pained yelling until with a loud crack and next to unbearable agony the thing bit clean through her leg. Her foot came free from her body and the thing snapped it up with a few powerful bites.

It then resumed the dragging, this time with an arm, as her body soon succumbed to the agony... the unending agony, from blood loss; claw marks; bites as deep as stab wounds; and dismemberment.

Over the night fresh snow fell onto the ground and covered any evidence that either had been there.

Save for one patch that stood out clearly from where she had laid as the thing tore into her. That was where most of the blood had pooled.

Her body was found three days later by a search and rescue, at this point a search and recover what we can, party.

The dogs immediately fell onto their legs, flattening their stomachs as flat to the ground as they could, and whined loudly.

The entire of her ribcage was exposed, organs strewn over three square metres from where she lay.

The authorities claimed it to be a bear attack on the poor woman.

Her fiancé had gone to the outpost that she had been trying to reach the night she disappeared. The attendee told them the same story that the man had given him.

One rather unfortunate investigator found what remained of part of her intestines as it fell from the tree and landed with a splatter on him.

He had stepped outside to take a leak.

Heard a scream in the distance and by the time that he got back there was more screaming and had made a beeline for the outpost.

The police investigating released him on the grounds that he was distinctly distressed and that there was no way a normal man could tear apart the young lady with the forces that she had.

Another unlucky tech analyst had the pleasure of going through her emails and search history to check if there had been any death threats or if something had been looked up lately that could have been used to kill her.

He snorted at the email from the deceased's younger cousin.

As if those ghost-chain emails actually did anything other than put you at risk of malware.

He spun quickly in his chair as something wafted across the back of his neck.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Guess who's done.

Yep, that's the end and I do hope that you enjoyed this chapter.

I'm possibly having a little too much fun writing the kill scenes at the start and end.

So yeah, as usual, I haven't based any of the Creepypasta based kill scenes off of anything other than my own imagination and knowledge of locations randomly spat at me.

Anyway, I hope that you've enjoyed this chapter, I really do.

I'm going to do something a little different next week and I think you'll like that as well.

But, for now, I am done, this chapter is done and I'm starting on the next tomorrow.

Also, I did notice that there's been a mistake in the CP owner bit and I'm fixing that tomorrow so if you got an update, sorry.

Thank you all for reading, and I hope to see you all again next week.

No, really.

Ben's hopping between the reader's laptops, phones, and whatever you might use and I'm watching you read this right now.

Yes you with the glasses sitting there.

Say hi to Slendy and Jeff for me,

they're behind you.

Just kidding. But hey, I'm a little bit of an ass sometimes.

Anyway, sorry that this was a little late, Fanfiction was down for me for a bit, dunno if it was for anyone else.

Till the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13. No idea if that's right, but it's what I found.

Translations, German.

\- "Little deer, little deer. Better start running because your end is near,"

\- "Night night,"

The name,

– It's an anagram of Isaac Rogers.


	22. Chapter 22, A little change

Chapter 22, A little change,

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks

if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$Word$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kills scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real life events.

Author's note.

LADIES, GENTLEMEN, FANS OF BOTH CREEPYPASTA AND HARRY POTTER I, STEAMGEEK01, AM A COMPLETE AND UTTER MORON!

You see, my dad asked if he could borrow the USB Stick that I keep this story on so he could get some pictures and I saved the story on a folder on my laptop.

I finished the chapter Wednesday night and saved it on the USB.

This morning I went to check on the story, opening the folder on my laptop and not the USB.

I thought I had lost everything from Isaac entering the great Hall in the second HP scene to the end Author notes.

I about punched a wall because of this, but I found this version and may or may not have danced around like a maniac to celebrate before making a cup of tea to calm me down.

… If there's anything that sums up how British I can get it is that sentence.

Maniacal dancing to calmly drinking tea in five seconds.

Anyway, here we are again.

Me writing and you reading.

Will this ever change.

I hope not, it's so fun writing this.

So, I noticed that I write things better if it's entirely my own idea and not having to copy out from scenes from the book. Also I've pretty much ditched the 'Year done through letters' idea that I started with.

But, I did notice that a few people would like it if I focussed a little more on the CP side of the story and I do hope that you've all been happy with the way I've added a CP based scene at the start and end of the chapters.

So this chapter is going to be a little different that what I've been doing lately.

I'm switching it around.

You'll be getting a bunch of CP scenes in the middle and having either 1 or two HP scenes at the end.

I hope you like this and if the response is good enough then I'll try to do more like that for the future years, skipping over the dull bits.

And since I most likely will write a bunch of things to do with murder taking place all across the globe I would like to stress again that I am using an online generator to randomly pick the countries and towns that I place the kills at or near. I'm not trying to recreate actual murders or incidents where death has occured but I'm going to keep saying this and maybe change the kill disclaimer at the start a little.

Another thing that I'd quickly like to mention is that I've made a decision regarding the EXTRAS chapter I was writing that was suggested to me.

I've put a lot of effort into what I was originally going to upload but it would have taken a long time to get there, and since I hadn't reached the main part of the chapter yet, I'm going to save that for a chapter for this story and write a new one for EXTRAS.

I'll probably talk a little more about it at the end since this is getting a little long for a note and I've got to get to the review responses.

DarkRavie;

Hello again.

I am glad you like it, I really am, however if you like you can put some more that just that.

I would like to hear more from you since you are a regular reader.

Maybe you've got an idea for an EXTRAS chapter. If so, then post it, or message me it.

WhiteWhisperingWind;

Glad you liked it.

Right, that's all those,

DP, anything new or an odd fact you want to share.

I feel like I'm talking in a therapy group whenever I do this, I wonder why?

Hello readers and welcome to the next chapter. And it does seem like group therapy… but is that really a bad thing? Lol.

Have a wonderful day readers.

My wonderful Beta people, now then, I'll hurry up and start this week's therapy session.

Also, would anyone be interested if I finally did something with my Tumblr account and used it to give you guys updates on the chapter as well as answer any questions on the fic that you might have?

Right then, without further delay, the chapter.

I'm going to apologise in advance for the butchering of any foreign languages in this chapter. I've probably messed up spectacularly and I can only say sorry.

Also there might be a little confusion as to what I'm doing in regards to the order of time, unless I specifically mention a date or time assume that it can happen anytime. I probably might jump around a little with when things are being set but it shouldn't get too confusing.

Hope you enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

Hermione was still in the Hospital wing by the time that the holidays ended.

Many people thought that she had been attacked and Madam Pomfrey was forced to put up curtains to block her from sight so that no one could see her with a furry face.

Of course, the thing that distracted many was the shriek that echoed down the halls on the day that the students were gathered in the Great Hall for the first dinner back.

Professors Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall rushed to investigate as the student body turned and murmured to amongst themselves.

"Banshee," Seamus Finnegan said quietly. He was looking a little pale.

"No, it couldn't be," Neville said, "Hogwarts is protected from things like that getting in, it wouldn't be possible,"

"First-year. Troll. I remember a bathroom getting decimated," Isaac said as he feigned looking at the sky in reverie.

Ron blushed a little.

"Well, considering how loud it was, I think I knew who it was this time," Isaac said, pouring some gravy onto his potatoes.

"Who d'you think let the banshee in?" Seamus asked.

"I don't think it was a banshee. I think it was Lockhart,"

Everyone shared a confused glance.

A few moments later, Professor McGonagall reappeared in the hall.

There was a smile on her face.

"Professor Lockhart received a shock and has gone to the Hospital wing for a calming draught," she told them all as she walked back to her seat, "That is all,"

Ron turned to Isaac.

"How did you know?" he asked him.

"I plead the fifth," Isaac replied, taking a drink of pumpkin juice through his smirk.

At that point Snape and Lockhart passed through the Entrance hall, heading towards the Hospital wing.

Lockhart had a towel wrapped firmly around his head.

Suddenly Peeves swooped down and yanked the towel away, revealing the Professor's hair, and a good portion of the Great hall burst out laughing.

Lockhart's hair wasn't it's usual bouncy, golden, waves.

Now it more or less looked like it had been turned into clumps of seaweed in shade, shape, and colour, as hit hung in messy clumps down his head.

Lockhart made a sort of whimper and bolted away.

Isaac had just turned to his food when two people sat either side of him.

The Twins.

"So, you seemed very..."

"Confident that the scream..."

"Was coming from Lockhart..."

"And then he turns up..."

"Looking like someone replaced..."

"His hair with seaweed. So what did you do?" they finished.

"Again," Isaac said, twirling his fork before stabbing a piece of carrot, "I plead the fifth,"

(x) Lockhart's Office, 15 minutes ago. (x)

Professor McGonagall cautiously opened the door and the three of them aimed their wands inside.

Professor Snape edged his way around the room, scanning every corner as Professor McGonagall mirrored his actions on the other side.

Professor Dumbledore walked through the middle of the room. His steps slow and steady as his wand was held perfectly straight at his side.

"No," soft whimpers came from the room where Lockhart stayed, "No, no, no, no, no,"

They reached the door to Lockhart's personal quarters and slowly pushed the door open. Through the door, they could see through to the en suite.

Lockhart was kneeling on the floor in front of the sink.

Snape glanced at McGonagall and Dumbledore as they moved round to enter the bathroom.

"Oh, for -!" Snape cut himself off as he let his wand arm drop to his side.

Lockhart was kneeling on the floor, clutching his hair, and gasping in horror in the state of his hair.

Beside him Professor McGonagall sighed.

"Well, I'll leave you two to sort this," she said before turning around and leaving.

Dumbledore entered the bathroom to try and calm Lockhart.

Through his babbles about what happened Snape caught the name, "Sara Crogiers," and turned his attention to the vast amount of letters on the man's desk.

He muttered a quick summoning charm and a letter flew out of the pile.

He pocketed the letter and turned to enter the bathroom as the Headmaster called him.

"Would you kindly take Gilderoy to the Hospital wing?" he asked Severus.

"Of course, Headmaster," Snape said through forced politeness as Lockhart wrapped his hair up in a towel.

Later after the feast.

Severus Snape sat at his desk, the letter he had taken from Lockhart's office was being twirled in his hands.

He unfolded it and read through.

'Male,' he thought as he looked at the vaguely familiar handwriting, 'Carries resentment, dislikes Lockhart immensely,' he drummed his fingers on the desk as he read through the letter.

He waved his wand over the name signed at the bottom.

The letters floated in the air between the parchment and his wand and started shuffling themselves into different positions.

He paused the automatic movement when a few that had rearranged themselves looked familiar.

He waved the remaining letters into position and leant back in his chair.

The next day's Potions class, Gryffindor and Slytherin, ended and he swept back through the room to his desk.

"Potter!" he snapped at the black-haired Gryffindor, "Stay behind," he said ominously.

His Weasley friend asked what he had done and Isaac shrugged, telling him to just go to lunch without him.

"Yes, Professor," the Gryffindor said as he approached the desk.

Snape drummed his fingers on the desk.

"Lockhart had quite the accident yesterday," he said, "He claims that he tried a 'hair-care' potion sent in by an admirer,"

"Ok," the Potter boy said.

"He is currently in the Hospital wing as Madam Pomfrey tries quite a few methods of removing magical enchantments," Professor Snape continued.

"As she would be,"

"I happen to have the letter sent to him," Snape said, pulling the letter out from a drawer and letting it unfold in front of him.

"Ok," the Potter boy said again, crossing his arms high behind his back, and Snape's lip curled.

"Let's say that I assigned a task so that you had to write a homework assignment," Snape said, standing up and walking round, "... on ways that someone's hair colour could be changed. Hypothetically, what would you do?" he finished, leaning close to the boy.

What happened next would have shocked the Professor slightly if he ever cared to admit it.

One second the boy was everything you would associate with Gryffindor.

Emotion riddled face, wears his heart on his sleeve, and leans away from the Potions Professor.

The next all emotion was removed. His face was completely blank and he straightened up, looking the Potions Professor right in the eyes.

"Well, if we were talking in hypotheticals, sir," the boy said with the faintest trace of a sneer, "Then I would start by writing to L.J. He runs his own mail-order prank supply service and would probably have a few fake hair-care products that would dye someone's hair a different colour,"

"Really," Snape said, he made no attempt to hide his sneer, "And what would your muggle housemate say if you needed to remove the effects of a product?"

"Well, still in hypotheticals, sir," the boy said, "I would guess that he'd say, 'Just wash the git's hair with warm water and soap,',"

Unbeknownst to the boy, Snape was trying an obscure and difficult branch of magic at that moment.

But his attempts at occlumency were not yielding any results.

All that was met, aside from the brief flashes of regular but a little eccentric people dining at a table, was flashes of static.

"I see," Snape said, cancelling his attempts, "Well then, begone with you, Potter,"

"Yes, sir," the boy said, turning, picking up his bag and walking to the door.

"Professor?" the boy paused at the door.

"What?" Snape snapped.

"Last year, in the Hospital wing, Professor Dumbledore told me something," the boy said as Snape sat back down in his chair, "He gave a reason for maybe why there might be... negative emotions between the two of us,"

Snape sneered.

"Did he?" he asked in mock intrigue.

"Yes, he said... that my Father saved your life," the boy said and Snape let out a low growl, "I wanted to know whether that was true or if there was more to the stor..."

"Your Father was a swine!" Snape spat, "Arrogant, strutting through the halls as if he owned the place. That incident only occured because one of your Father's friends decided to play a little trick on me. A trick that would have cost me my life, but your Father got cold feet the last minute and stopped it," he finished sneering at the boy.

The Potter boy hadn't moved from his position about five paces from the door. His expression still neutral.

"So, my Father was a bit of a bully and you were one of his repeated targets," the boy summed up and Snape felt a twinge of disappointment that he hadn't managed to rile the boy up, "However I think that it would be safe to say that you started just as many as he did. You're not one to let someone walk over you without putting up a fight,"

Snape had been about to rise from his chair at what the boy said, but the last two remarks stopped him.

The backhanded compliment, if you could call it that, was along the lines that he had heard from the first two years of students in Slytherin as they learned how a _true_ Slytherin could, and should, act.

The boy didn't say anything at Snape's silence, merely raising his eyebrows a fraction and turned to leave.

"You would have done well, in _Slytherin_ ," Snape said silkily and the boy paused just as he had opened the door.

Snape smirked to himself as he finally seemed to have gotten under the boy's skin.

"Funny," his smirk grew, "That's what the sorting hat said,"

Snape's smirk fell off his face as the boy left.

'Was he... No! His arrogant demeanour in class reeks that of a bone-headed Gryffindor...' Snape thought, but the recent memory of how the boy looked him in the eyes without fear and avoided outright saying that he had been the one to give Lockhart the trick hair-care product while practically admitting that he had done so.

Snape technically had a signed confession from his on his desk.

Snape turned to pick up the letter but found it missing.

"What?" he scanned the floor around his desk but found naught.

Snape looked at the door in which the boy had just left.

"Well played... Rogers," he said softly before preparing for his next lesson and sweeping out the doors.

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The Ark.

Laughing Jack smirked proudly as he read the letter and looked at the picture that Isaac had taken.

Isaac had snapped the picture when he had been visiting his bedridden friend in the school's Hospital wing with the camera that he had sent him with the 'care' package. It had been the lowest tech camera that any of them could get in short notice that was compact enough to work on the school's grounds.

In it it showed the pompous ass that Jeff and the others described sitting in a bed with his vibrant and horrid hair.

The picture was soon framed in Isaac's room.

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Casablanca, Morocco.

The man ran after his child through the crowded market fair.

"Ammar!" he called after his son in Arabic as the boy giggled and ran down a side street, "It is busy! Stay close!"

Ever since his son had made a new friend he seemed to get more and more troublesome.

The fact that he hadn't seen his son's new friend didn't help matters either, though the boy seemed to think that he was nice.

He had taught Ammar the basics of stranger danger quite young and had maybe thought that he overdid it there since his son would cling to him like he was a life preserver whenever they went to market normally.

Maybe this new friend, the Jack that laughs, would be a positive influence on him.

He would most like to meet this friend.

If anything, to at least tell him to stop teaching his son to play hide-and-seek in the back streets of busy markets.

"Ammar," he called out again, "If we miss the bus and we have to walk home, I'm going to make you dust the entire house!" he play called his son.

An odd tune met his ears.

The bustling background of the streets he had left behind seemed to dim themselves out as words filled the air.

"Round, and round, the mulberry bush," he could not tell what the words were, though he could tell that they were English from all those adverts on television and news stories but he had never learnt the language.

He could tell that they were lyrics though, but the name of the song was lost on him from lack of presence in his life.

"The Monkey chased the Weasel," the words were soon joined by eerie little chimes and he remembered the tune.

He realised that as he had been listening to the notes the song had restarted and he began humming along, singing the last few words in arabic as they came to a stop.

"Pop goes the Weasel,"

He let out a hearty chuckle.

"Ammar, time to go ho... O..." the words were caught in his throat.

There... lying at the bottom of a set of stairs...

Was his son, happily turning the crank on an old, but still quite colourful, box with a painted clown on the side.

This is not what made him gasp though.

Crouching behind his son was... was...

If he had been forced to put words to use to describe the... thing, then it would have been 'Nightmare Clown'.

The things arms were so long that they took up a good portion of the backstreet and were still raised to fit them comfortably.

The thing only seemed to dress in two colours, deep black and soft white.

The sleeves were stripes of those two colours and the thing's lower torso was wrapped in numerous white bandages. There were deep black circles that matched it's thick black lips on the pale white face that was covered slightly by black lockes that hung down to his neck and just tickled his shoulders.

Even it's eyes were pure white with deep black iris' that seemed to hide any trace of a pupil but still shone with a chaotic malevolence only matched by the smile that showed the bare minimum of any trace of teeth.

His son didn't seem to notice the thing and he was still unable to speak.

His son had already started turning the crank on the box again, already halfway through the second line of the song.

Words seemed to finally be trying to come out but they still came as gaspy vowels.

"Till POP, goes the Weasel," Ammar finished happily as he giggled, he didn't seem to have noticed his Father either.

As his son had gotten closer, and closer, to the end of the song the things hands had gotten so close to his child that they could have closed around his chest; and by the looks of the length of each finger his child would have been held in a complete circle.

Instead of picking up his child the thing quickly retracted one hand so that it was drawn across his son's chest with such a speed it seemed to claw the shirt to shreds and the other hand stretched out further than the arm should have even allowed and pinned him to the wall; his mouth covered by the hand.

It was oddly sweet tasting, but metallic.

In that moment he understood why it tasted metallic.

He was right to say that his son's shirt had been clawed to shreds because it had.

Blood poured through large gashes in the fabric and stained the street crimson.

The thing stood up, it's arm retracting back into itself as it stalked closer and closer to him.

It's smile was widening, revealing the jagged teeth that lay inside its mouth.

"Playtime... is... over," it said in fluent Arabic, whispering it in his ear, before it jammed something in his mouth and flung him into a wall.

He landed heavily on a small cluster of metal bins and the last thing he saw before passing out was the towering figure that had slain his son.

Later the man awoke in the back of an ambulance as paramedics tended to something just below his line of sight.

A thin white stick was poking out from something. Something stuck in his mouth based on the feeling of his teeth and lips.

The paramedics then pried open his jaw and he couldn't cry out due to the anaesthetic as two of his teeth, one from each row of his jaw, was pulled at until one gave way and his mouth came unstuck.

The feeling of warm, metallic, blood flooded his mouth and a few moments later the paramedics cut the object free from his mouth.

As they moved to place it in a tray he caught sight of the acid-green lollipop that was now stained red with his blood and had one of his teeth embedded on one side.

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Jakarta, Indonesia.

"Hey, Neng Geulis!" a heckler called from near his group of friends.(1)

The girl pointedly ignored their catcalls, fixed the travel-bag on her shoulder and marched on away from them.

"Gocap? Ge-er Jablay" the angry shout came as she turned the corner. (2 & 3)

She locked her jaw and continued on her way until a different kind of shouting filled the air.

Pain.

Pained cries from the group of overweight, drunken, men she had passed.

She stopped in the middle of the path, shady trees waved slightly in the breeze, as she debated what to do next.

"Bangsat! Banci!" shouts came from a little ways past the spot that the group had been standing. (4&5)

A few loud grunts and shouts came and then silence.

The only noise was leaves brushing against each other.

Curiosity took a hold of her and she walked slowly back towards where the men had been standing.

Not much surprise was given when they were no longer there.

There was a small siding that they seemed to have run down, if the knocked over box and smashed glass was any indication.

As she walked down the road a teenager in a clean white hoodie walked past her. Hazel hair hung gracefully out from under the hood that was pulled just over the top of his head.

For a moment he found herself lost in his soft, warm, blue eyes as he walked right past her.

She shook her head for a moment as she continued her way to the end of the siding.

She stopped as she stood in a puddle.

She quickly glanced down to see the state of her shoes and how dirty the puddle was.

All she could see was a small pool of deep crimson.

Her eyes followed the trail back to the source against her protests and she nearly vomited.

The guy who had cat-called her was impaled on a few dozen broken bottles of something blue that ran their own little puddle that mingled horribly with the blood. The man's chest had been torn to shreds and a large gash now occupied most of his neck.

Around him were the other three of his little group.

One with a probably lifted sign impaled through his jaw, slicing open his face, and the accompanying pole shoved through his chest, around where his lungs would be.

Another looked like they had been used as a chopping board there were so many gashes, cuts, tears, and lines decorating his body. Each criss-crossing with another. The way he was curled up created the image of a morbid ball of twine.

The last seemed to have the most normal a death, numerous stab wounds allowed for gaps through which blood had flowed in unstoppable streams.

She clasped her hand to her mouth to try and stem the flow of vomit that sloshed it's way from her stomach and onto the bloody puddle at her feet.

She staggered backwards, everything below her knee had been splashed red and stained by blood.

She bumped into something.

Something warm.

Something... laughing.

She spun around but was quickly grabbed from behind and forced back to the end of the siding.

Her cries were muffled by the flow of more vomit as the sight, and smell, filled her senses once again.

"Oh? What's the matter?" the voice asked in mock hurt, "Don't you _like_ my handiwork?"

Whoever it was forced her head up and pried open one of her eyes.

"See, they were just... so... ugly," whoever it was said, his voice a mockery of pity, "They were so ugly and... my heart went out to them. It really did,"

More laughter.

"So ugly, so I saved them. I made them _beautiful_! Just...

Like...

Me!"

And with that he spun her around.

Wide eyes met her own, black skin around them enhanced how startling white they were despite the bloodshot lines that branched from the sides of each eye.

"Aren't I beautiful?" he held her back at arms length while laughing.

The hoodie was no longer a pristine white, it was stained with so much red that the body underneath must be drenched.

Each inch of skin in sight was a bleached white, rough fingers dug into her shoulder blades.

Hair as black as coal flared every which way on his head, matted and weighed down in some places by blood.

And his face...

Two wide gashes forced a smile that revealed every last tooth and was riddled with saliva that seemed ready to fly.

He started to laugh again.

"What's wrong?" he ran his tongue along the scarred edges of his mouth, giving it a flick as it reached each side, "Aren't I beautiful? And now you will be too!"

Before she had time to scream a knife was pulled from his pocket and forced into her mouth.

Vertically.

The base and back of the blunt edge of the blade was pressing down on her tongue whilst the furthest part of the knife was forced in high enough to cleave the gap between her eyebrows.

She slumped backwards, dead before she landed on the piles of blood and her own vomit.

Jeff sighed and reached down, placing a boot on her neck, as he pulled the knife free.

"Kids these days," he said to himself as he made his way down the street, re-glamoured, "Nobody appreciates the hard work that goes into making art,"

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Singapore.

The man grimaced at the amount that he had had to hand over to the woman standing on the corner of the street before driving away.

The top of the roof of his car was down the nearly empty streets.

Soon he was back across the checkpoints and in Malaysia.

He pulled over at a stop-point a few miles after crossing and pulled on a mask to cover his face.

After he did that he slammed his foot on the accelerator and sped down the roads, the tarp he had in the back from camping that covered his stuff flapped in the wind.

Back in Singapore, unbeknownst to him, police were being handed a bunch of camping supplies in a large bag with his name on it. A large amount of clothing was missing though.

He couldn't help the manic grin as he sped down the roads, pushing the car he had stolen the few days prior to it's limits.

He did have to slow down to get onto the road that led to the bridge that spanned the Johor River but once the roads were straight again the accelerator was flat on the ground.

The tarp flew up and out of the car as he approached the bridge but he didn't care, he had plenty.

He turned to watch the tarp fly away and as he lowered his head to turn back to the road his vision was redirected to a figure wearing a mask with a red smiley face painted on in what looked like blood.

The figure was crouched on the boot of the car, one hand holding onto the back seat passenger headrest to balance themself.

In his panic he slammed the pedal down as far as it would go, urging the car mentally to go faster.

His eyes never left the figure in the back.

"You should watch the road," the figure shouted.

The man removed his mask, letting it fall away from them, before he himself jumped off the back of the car and out of sight.

He snapped his head back to the front windscreen just in time to see the brakelights of a lorry inches from his face as the left hand side of the bonnet ploughed into the back of them.

He was thrown as far from the seat as the belt would allow and he felt bones breaking as the car was raised in the crash.

His vision swam in front of him for a few moments.

Just long enough to register the fact that the car had been smashed into the fence on the bridge and the momentum carried the car over and off the bridge.

He was slammed back into his seat as the car hit the water below.

He was unconscious by the time that the car settled.

Dead as the car landed on the bottom of the riverbed.

A mile back down the road Helen Otis, The Bloody Painter, picked himself up as he slumped against a lampost.

He opened the now ruined jacket he had taken from the man and numerous shirts, trousers, underwear, and other assortments of clothes that had padded his fall landed on the ground.

He winced at the raw skin where his arms had taken a few hits as he protected his head.

Thankfully his mask was ok, that had survived just fine and he found it a few metres away.

In the far distance he could hear the general sounds of panic and he smirked to himself.

Before wincing with pain as he stood up. E.J was probably gonna keep him in the infirmary for a couple days.

He may have softened the blow with the now probably dead man's clothes but that didn't mean that it didn't hurt like hell to move.

He tucked his mask carefully into a pocket before making his way towards the treeline.

As he made his way through the trees he couldn't help but cast his thoughts to what he was going to do to for Valentines.

And what Pup was going to do.

This was one of the only days of the year that he got away with throwing his rules about PDA out the window and Helen couldn't think of a single reason to keep them.

He made his way back to the Mansion and, as he had thought, E.J sent him straight to the medbay.

But to his surprise, he was not the only one there.

Less of a surprise was who was there, and why they was there.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Hogwarts.

Isaac and Ron were walking back from the hospital wing as they heard an angry outburst from Filch somewhere above them.

Investigating it, they found that a large portion of the floor outside Moaning Myrtle's bathroom was flooded.

After sloshing through the water and finding Myrtle in hysterics they managed to calm her down enough for her to tell them what happened.

The story of how someone threw a book through her head led them to the small black book that was currently propped up against Isaac's bedpost.

Hermione had been released from the Hospital wing earlier that day and had been interested in hearing about the diary.

They had shown her the diary and she had pointed out that it was over fifty years old. Around about when the Chamber of Secrets had been opened last.

This meant that the student, T.M. Riddle going by the name on the inside, could have been there during it all.

But, as Isaac was quick to point out, the diary was empty. Each page was blank.

The few weeks after the holidays ended were attack free, many thought that the Heir was losing his nerve since everyone was on alert and not a single student went about on their own, and Professor Sprout was delighted at the growth progress that the mandrakes were having.

Ernie Macmillan still believed Isaac to be the one behind the attacks and seemed to gravitate a few other people that believed that to him and they would often talk in low tones about how to prove it.

The fact that Peeves now had a dance routine to go with his 'Rogers, a Rotter,' song didn't help things either.

"I am going to go full Winchester on his ass if he keeps it up!" Isaac growled in the common room as Peeves zoomed through, singing as he passed.

Ron and Hermione looked confused while across the room Dean Thomas snorted in laughter as he studied with Seamus Finnegan.

Lockhart seemed to have recovered from his little episode pretty quick, Madam Pomfrey finally finding a solution that worked with his 'Expert advice' he claimed.

They later overheard a fourth-year saying that all Madam Pomfrey had done was wash it with some muggle shampoo she had gotten from a store a few towns over.

Lockhart didn't seem to have changed over the holiday and was now claiming that it was his sole presence that was keeping the Heir from attacking anyone else.

"You were here since the start and they still happened," Isaac growled under his breath as Lockhart paraded around his classroom.

Lockhart looked around the room and tutted dramatically about how everyone was so down and glum.

He ended the class early so that he could go off and do something.

Isaac had a not-so-good feeling about this.

He needed to send a letter to E.J for something, and fast!

Isaac, Ron, and Hermione walked into the Great Hall the next day and Isaac stopped in his tracks.

The entire place looked like you had handed it to Sally and told her to decorate it for Valentines day.

The walls were covered in large pink flowers and heart shaped confetti rained down on the tables, vanishing and reappearing just to fall down again after a few moments.

Isaac groaned as his attention was unfortunately drawn to the man behind it all.

Lockhart was wearing robes in the same colour of the wall flowers and he had stood up to speak to all the students in the hall.

Isaac blew the confetti that had landed on his plate away and chose a potato to mash some butter and salt into. Vigorously.

He couldn't help but smirk as he looked along the teacher's table.

Professor McGonagall looked like a muscle was going in her cheek and Snape looked like someone had force-fed him large amounts of L.J's candy.

"Happy Valentines day!" Lockhart shouted and Isaac ground a few potatoes before chewing them.

Isaac ignored Lockhart until a dozen surly dwarves trooped into the hall, wearing golden wings and carrying harps.

He tried to drone out the rest of Lockhart's speech but he couldn't help but pay attention to see what would happen when he tried to drag other Teachers into the festivities.

"Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love-Potion! And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've met, you sly old dog,"

Professor Flitwick buried his face in his hands and Professor Snape looked like he would be ready to start taking advice from Jeff about how to properly torture someone.

Hedwig landed at the table not long after that, a couple of letters in one claw and a dead dormouse in the other.

"Clever girl," Isaac said happily as he fed her a bit of bacon for her troubles.

Isaac tore into the letter that bulged slightly and a small box fell out.

Isaac sent a quick prayer to E.J, snorting a few moments later at the thought of blessing a demon, before popping out two of the aspirin pills and dry-swallowed them since his goblet was now filled with confetti.

The other letter was from Toby, another reminder to keep safe, Ben taking the letter and writing his side of things, as well as any jobs they had been on.

L.J had also snagged the letter away and had asked what Isaac was planning next if Lockhart was still an ass.

Isaac had had to wait for Hedwig to return for this one, an owl that didn't fear a demonic hound was a good ally.

All day long dwarves kept barging into classes and delivering Valentines, in song.

As the Gryffindors made their way up the stairs towards Charms one of the Dwarfs shouted towards the group, "Oy, you, Isaac Rogers!"

"Fuuuuuck!" Isaac gritted as he sped up.

The Dwarf moved surprisingly fast, elbowing people in the shins to to move out of the way, "Stay still, I've got a musical-message for you!"

Isaac growled as he tried to get away and he had just turned back in time to see it grab onto his bag and pull to try and stop him.

His bag broke, his books falling and getting covered in ink from the smashed bottles.

At that point Draco and a few other Slytherins showed up.

Isaac bent down to quickly try and pick his things back up when the 'Cupid' started his song.

"What's going on here?" the familiar voice of Percy Weasley called over the racket as Isaac tried to get up but the Dwarf tripped him up by grabbing his legs and sitting on them.

"Right, here is your musical valentine," it said before clearing its throat.

" _His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,_

 _His hair is as dark as a blackboard,_

 _I wish he was mine, he's really divine,_

 _The hero who conquered the Dark Lord,"_

Harry would have gladly killed nearly everybody around him in that moment.

He valiantly tried to laugh along with the others as he picked up his things and Percy tried to disperse the crowd, some of which were crying with mirth.

At hearing Percy say Draco's name he glanced over to see him stoop and pick up a small black book, the one that they had found in Myrtle's bathroom.

It looked as though for a moment that he was going to toss it back to him, but there was still a fair fewSlytherin students about so he carefully mouthed, "After," at Isaac and slipped away before Percy got to him.

Ginny Weasley, who had been lining up with the other students in her year for a class had watched the book fall out of Isaac's bag and now watched Draco carry it away, looking between the two of them in horror.

After Charms Isaac excused himself for the bathroom before lunch and not to his surprise he found that Draco was barely a minute after him.

"Here," he said, handing him the diary.

"Thanks," Isaac said, flicking through it, "Hmm, thanks for cleaning it, thought it would have been soaked in ink," he added on, flicking through the pages and not finding a single one marred.

"Actually, I didn't clean it," Draco said, peering with him to look at the book, "Spilt some on it in class too, completely gone,"

"You took a look to see what I'd written and when there was nothing you tried to doodle on a page didn't you?" Isaac said.

"Yes," Draco admitted before leaving so that they would arrive separately at the hall.

Later that night, and after throwing leftover corks from inkwells at the twins for a bit, with incredible accuracy since he never missed them once, because they would not stop singing that bloody valentine, Isaac sat in bed with the book.

The pages were completely blank, as they had found it, which didn't make sense since Draco still had smudged fingers from the ink that the book had lay in when he gave it to him so why didn't the book?

To test his theory he got out an inkwell and quill from the bedside table next to him, dipped the quill in the ink, and let a drop of ink drop onto a random page in the book.

He watched as the page absorbed the ink, lasting for only a second before disappearing.

"Woah," Isaac said.

He dipped the quill in the ink again.

This time he drew an elegant spiral across the page, watching as it disappeared before he had barely finished.

~ _Hello?~_

Isaac froze.

He had been about to repeat the spiral when letters formed on the page, that too disappearing a few seconds later.

~Hello~

 _~So there is someone.~_

~Yes. Sorry. I didn't know that you could write to someone with the book~

~ _You are not writing to another.~_

 _~Just my memories.~_

Your memories?~

~ _Yes.~_

 _~You see, I wanted to preserve them and what I knew in ways more lasting than ink. This book could be scary to someone more close-minded and did not understand~_

Good thing too, someone tried to flush the book down a toilet~

~ _A very good thing I did this then,~_

 _~Tell me, how is Hogwarts? Better than my time, I hope, with the attacks and all,~_

There are attacks now~

~ _Within the school of Hogwarts, assuming that that is where you are at, or beyond it's barriers? I grew up in both.~_

Within the school. Someone has opened the Chamber of Secrets~

~ _Then it is very fortunate that you came by my book. I never got your name?~_

I never gave it, and neither did you~

~ _Where are my manners?~_

 _~Hello, my name is Tom Riddle. Who are you?~_

~Isaac Rogers~

~ _Hello Isaac, it is very fortunate that you came by my book if the Chamber has once again been opened.~_

What can you tell me about it? Do you know who was behind it last time?~

~ _When the Chamber was opened in my time many a Muggleborn was attacked, the Medical wing had to be expanded to fit them, but the attacks stopped around the time that that poor girl was killed.~_

No one here has been killed yet. Who did it last time? Could it be the same person?~

~ _No one has died yet. Since you do not know who is behind the attacks then there still might be time.~_

Time for what?~

~ _Another death. I fear that many would doubt what I would say if they knew the man that I caught in this time.~_

You caught the person behind them last time?~

~ _Yes, but he was let go since they couldn't prove anything~_

 _~I could tell you what I know, but I believe that showing you would be easier.~_

The pages of the book flipped on their own accord before Isaac could write a reply.

They stopped on a page and the date flashed quickly but Isaac didn't catch it.

He was too preoccupied on the small square growing in the middle of the pages.

He watched as it grew until it was about covering the pages.

Suddenly the room tilted and Isaac felt himself falling through air.

He landed on one of the corridors just a floor away from the Great Hall.

He shook his head a few times to clear the feeling of 'Oh god I'm gonna die' out of it.

A few metres away, just at the halfway point on one of the stairs, was someone watching a group whose bodies were blocking the torches and casting shadows on the wall.

Isaac looked around at the colour washed walls. They seemed to all be a dull green and grey in colour.

"Hello?" he called to the person on the stairs.

The person didn't move.

"Are... are you Tom Riddle?" Isaac asked as he got closer.

The group that Tom was watching came down the stairs, carrying a body covered by a sheet down with them.

"Tom?" a familiar voice called down.

"Professor Dumbledore," Tom said as he walked up the stairs to meet the Professor.

"Dumbledore?" Isaac said, following where Tom was going.

The Professor looked younger though still fairly old.

"Holy crap, how old is this guy?" Isaac asked himself.

Isaac realised that he had missed what they had been talking as Tom Riddle started walking away towards the dungeons.

Isaac hurried up to catch up with him due to his longer stride length.

It seemed that Riddle had gotten lost for a moment, until...

He quickly spun and made his way down a side corridor to a door that was opened a crack where a voice was coming from within.

"C'mon... gotta get yeh outta here... c'mon..."

The voice was familiar and Isaac tried to place where he had heard it when Tom threw the door open.

"Good evening, Rubeus," Tom said, pointing his wand at the larger than average student behind the door.

"Hagrid?" Isaac said in surprise as the two wizards in the talked.

Tom was trying to get Hagrid to move and Hagrid was backing to cover a box in the corner of the room.

Tom fired a spell at the box and something with lots of legs burst out and hurried away too fast for Isaac to get a good look at it.

Hagrid cried out and flung himself at Tom and Isaac was ejected from the memory, landing back on the bed, panting.

"Woah,"

(x) Earlier that day. (x)

Lockhart sat in his office as he opened letter after letter.

Some were from the forty-six that he had been sent this morning and a few were ones that had been sent in throughout the day.

"Hullo, what's this?" he said as a snowy owl brought in a package.

He chuckled as he opened the package to reveal an ornately wrapped cylinder.

He found that the cylinder had a screw-on lid and he pointed his wand at the container to remove the lid.

As the lid came free a large amount of frog-spawn exploded from the container, splattering over the portraits of Lockhart that squealed as their canvas' were drenched.

The frogspawn that hit the ceiling slowly fell down, covering Lockhart in the slimy goo and once it had all settled it looked like a very small bomb had gone off in his room.

Lockhart tried to not throw up as he wiped large amounts away from his eyes but couldn't keep it down when he saw his reflection in the full size mirror that hung on his door.

When rumours of how Lockhart had been late to his class after lunch that day reached Isaac he couldn't help the Grinch-esque smile that grew on his face.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Reno, Nevada.

"C'mon, get up," John laughed with his friends, cupping his hands to give them a vault over the fence.

"Dude, this is whack," Chris chuckled as he helped Mike and Sam down before reaching over and pulling John himself over.

"I know, and this is gotta be one of the dumbest forfeits ever," John said as he brushed the dirt off his jacket.

"See you guys tomorrow," Evan gleefully called over before they heard the slamming of a door and the start of an engine.

"Fuck you," Mike said, flipping off the wall.

"Let's just get this bullcrap over with," Sam muttered, picking up one of the duffle bags they had tossed over and trekking up the unkempt and overgrown path to the old manor house that lay in half ruin.

"So what's the deal with this dump?" John asked Chris as the rest of them picked up a bag and headed to the house.

"Forgot you guys ain't from around here," Chris laughed as he spun the bag onto his shoulder, "Well, story goes that Mr Ritters, the dude that owned this house, plus his wife and two kids, were the perfect idea of this upper-class family that wanted to do the best for their community,"

"The it turned out that Ritter was only doing it on the bare minimum to get up close and rub shoulders with a few bigwigs. Wasn't exactly the kinda guy to believe in monogamy either, used to be rumours that he fathered a good quarter of the school nearby,"

"Anyway, one day right, he gets fed up with his wife. Wants her to get all these surgeries done to give her a bit of a nicer," he mimed out the outline of a very curvy woman, "... but she says no and confronts him about sleeping around. They get into this big fight and the guy grabs a golf trophy and starts beating her around the head,"

"The kids hear this and start screaming. The dude's completely lost it at this point and kills the two of them too. Locks one in the basement and one in the attic,"

"The next day he takes the kid in the attic and throws him down the dumbwaiter, head first, and the kid's neck breaks. He takes the kid in the basement and forces the kid into the furnace that heats the house, slams the door shut, and lights the thing up on full,"

"Cops turn up about three days later and find the mess, and the guy had practiced his swan dive off the top floor and he's lying on the ground, all spread-eagle like, with his head cracked open,"

"So your usual murder house ghost story?" Mike said and Chris laughed again.

"And you can't have a good ghost story without booze," he said and pulled out a six-pack from his duffel bag.

The four of them ended up drinking and laughing for what felt like a good few hours.

"Uurgh, it's only been forty-five minutes, this fucking suuuucks!" Sam cried as he fell onto his back.

The other three of them laughed as he groaned, the fire they had started flickering softly in the room.

"C'mon," John said, getting to his feet, "We are in an old house, one that many have probably kept away from, right?"

"Pretty much," Chris said.

"Then there's gotta be some junk that we can pawn off somewhere in this dump," John said, pushing the door open and walking across the small foyer towards the stairs.

"I dunno man, probably been others that have already done that shit," Mike called after him before sighing, "I need to take a leak," he said and went off through the door too.

Sam replied in grumbles as he made popping noises in boredom.

Sam and Chris sat alone.

"Hehehe," laughter came from a room to the side and something small and fast ran past.

"Dude, you see that?" Chris asked Sam, sitting upright.

"See what?" Sam grumbled some more, "An old dump being old and dumpy?"

Chris didn't see the point in arguing with him since he was probably right. Probably.

"I'm gonna take a look anyway,"

"Scream like a pussy if you die," Sam said to his retreating back as he rummaged in a duffel bag for something to use as a pillow.

To his surprise he managed to fall asleep. He woke up an hour later when the fire died down and the sun started to set.

He shivered in the cold, looking around.

"If those cunts left me here..." he grumbled and stood up.

"Mike? Chris? John?" he shouted, "Where you pricks at?"

He tried to remember what room that Chris had gone to.

As he walked into the room he found that a good portion of the floor had fallen away, revealing the basement below where a flickering orange glow could be seen.

"Pricks fucked off to a warmer spot and left my ass to freeze," he growled and looked out over the wild garden overrun by weeds and time.

A pair of green eyes flashed at him from the grounds as a branch and a few bushes shifted.

He jumped a little at the suddenness of it, "Fucking cat,"

He found the stairs down to the basement where Chris's sleeping body was curled up by the furnace.

"Fuckin' A'hole," Sam muttered as he kicked a stone at Chris's body before looking at the fire.

"Fire's going down, asshat," he called to his sleeping friend before his eyes fell on the small piles of wood at its side.

"Oh, of course I'll keep your fire going, it'd be a pleasure to stay awake while your ass sleeps," he grumbled as he wrapped his hand in his jumper sleeve to open the grate door.

A burnt and bloody arm fell out and he collapsed on his back with a scream.

Mike's red and black face stared out at him through the flickering flames. His eyes were long gone and his skin seemed to hiss and pop with the escaping moisture.

He couldn't speak, only guttural grunts seemed able to escape him.

He shuffled over to Chris's sleeping body, shaking him to try and wake him up.

"C-k-k-c'mon man!" he grabbed his shoulders and shook him harder.

Chris's bloodied and crushed head rolled over to face him and he dropped him. Chris's head landed with a sickening thud.

He wasn't able to make grunts at this point, only sharp and increasingly frantic wheezes.

He scrambled to his feet, backing away from the sight of his two dead friends, and into a wall where something dug into his back.

A loud bang came from within.

"JOHN!" he said, grasping the handle that had been the thing digging into him, "Hold on buddy!"

He wrenched the door open and John fell out.

His neck and head at completely the wrong angle and blood spurting out his mouth.

"Hehehe," Sam spun at the laughter.

"WHO'S THERE YOU SICK FUCK?" he shouted at the room, creeping back towards the stairs.

"Plaaaay... Wiiiith... meeeee..." an eerie voice called out.

Small steps pattered out from the shadows.

A small girl holding a dirty brown bear and wearing a filthy pink gown ambled out from a corner.

"Play with me," she said softly, patting the bear's dirty head.

"Wha..?" Sam said as the girl slowly looked up at him.

"Play with me," she said emotionlessly.

Part of her head caved in and blood started pouring down her front.

"Play with me,"

Sam bolted up the stairs, falling and scrambling up the rotten planks to get away.

"What the fuck? What the fuck?" he panted to himself as he collided with the door to the main hall.

He was half-way across the foyer when the girl appeared again.

"Play with me," she commanded, somehow with even less emotion than before.

"Fuck... fuc..." Sam cried as he started backing up towards the stairs.

The girl flickered in and out, moving a few metres closer with every flicker.

"FUCK!" Sam screamed as he ran up the stairs.

Laughter echoed after him as he fell onto the landing.

He ran towards an open door, thinking to try either hiding or get something to start swinging with.

"C'mon! C'mon!" he said as he searched the room.

By the small fireplace he found an old, quite rusted, iron poker.

"Bingo," he said, turning it in hand.

He slowly crept from the room, ready to swing the poker at anything that moved.

"All right, freak," he called, not nearly as confident as he sounded, "Let's play, bitch,"

"Hehehe," the laughter came again.

He spun around and the little girl was at the end of a corridor that led to a small wing that ran parallel to the grounds.

The little girl dropped her bear and started running at full speed towards him.

He swung the poker with all his might but it passed right through her.

"Fuck," he said as the little girl tackled him.

They crashed into the bannister that stopped one from falling to the floor below, but years of weather and decay had rotted the wood and they crashed through it.

"FUCK!" he screamed as the girl disappeared again and he fell towards the ground.

The final thing he heard before hitting the ground, head first, was the little girls laughter.

"Thanks for playing," Sally said happily to the fallen boy, his head cracked open and a puddle of blood rapidly forming around his head like a morbid halo.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

St Paul, Minnesota.

The man looked down the table.

"Are these verified?" he asked his second.

"Yes sir," the man said with a slight bow of his head, "I had them checked with the best in the state. Well, the prior best in the state," he finished with a chuckle.

"Good," the man said. He picked up one of the pictures on the table.

It showed a brown-haired teenager holding a smaller, possibly nine or eight year-old, boy with messy black hair and glasses on his shoulders.

He looked over the other pictures. Some of which showed a solemn faced painter in france, a man in flannel talking to a man in a yellow hoodie, a blind man sitting on a bench in central park, a small girl swinging on the arm of the man in the yellow hoodie, the brown-haired teen from the first picture and another brown-haired, maybe dark-auburn, teen walking through a market in Germany.

The most curious one showed a screenshot of what looked like a small boy climbing out of a tv.

"How is the searches for them coming along?"

"Slow, sir, tracking them is hard and we believe that they have their own network system to allow for quick travel across borders, as well as access to high end forgers to create false identities,"

The man placed the picture back down.

"Who is this kid?" he asked, tapping the picture of the teen and small boy.

"We don't know anything solid yet, sir. But analysts say that the boy does match the description of a young child taken into protection after witnessing a brutal double murder in Surrey four years ago,"

"Does the murder..." he never got to finish.

"The boy's biological Aunt was stabbed numerous times, and her sister in law had two deep deep slices on her neck that the coroner reported to have been made by either axes or hatchets,"

The man leant back in his chair and picked up his tumbler of whiskey.

"What else do we know about him?"

"A child matching his features has been seen on three separate times in Kings Cross Station, London," the other man said, taking a seat next to the man, "All times are a match with a small increase that suggests a group of boarding students travelling to their schools,"

"Have a man there ready to try and either get him before the others, or trail them back to wherever they go," the boss ordered and his second made a note of that.

The boss massaged the side of his face as he looked out at the table's load of pictures, coroner reports, crime scene photos and police reports.

"If we are right about this then we might be onto one of the biggest organised crime syndicates of this age," he said, dropping his empty glass onto the table, "As well as opened a new branch of investigative affairs if these reports about the kid that can climb through computers and a dog that can drive people to suicide through paranoia are to be taken seriously,"

"Well..." the two men stood up, taking out their guns and aiming at the man that had walked in unnoticed, "I'd say that you'll be a little preoccupied to be playing whistleblower,"

He stepped forward.

A pair of translucent orange goggles sat on wild hair that peeked out from under a blue hood.

"Really?" the boss sneered, "Cos' it looks like you've just given us living proof in this matter," he pulled the trigger back on his gun and his second did the same.

"Yeah," the teen said, pulling his hood back and scratching his head. A pair of mismatched hatchets swung at his hip.

"See, I'm kinda not allowed to let you guys shove us into the light," he said, walking forward and leaning on the table, "So I'm kinda here to kill you,"

The two grown men laughed.

"Kid, we are at the top of a fifteenth floor of this building. Filled with other people and quite a few of them have guns of their own and itchy triggers. Our guns ain't got no silencers and what's the betting that people come a knocking?"

The boss pulled out a rope from under the table.

"Gimme your gun," he told his second.

"You're gonna let him tie you up,"

"Kinky," the teen cut him off and the man growled.

"And then you're gonna tell us everything you know,"

"You know," the teen sighed, "Normally I wouldn't have shown my face and just let you guys die in... I guess not peace. Agony, maybe. Anyway, I would have let you two schmucks die in agony without knowing what was going on, but you made a mistake,"

Faster than the two of them could react he swung one of the hatchets into the table and onto a picture that showed him and the black-haired boy.

"You threatened my little brother," he said, backing away.

The boss smirked.

"Is that supposed to scare us?" he asked mockingly.

"No, this is," he said, taking out a flip-phone.

"And what are you gonna do with that?" the second asked.

"This," the teen said, pressing the send button.

A few seconds later four explosions tore through the building and the floor lurched beneath them.

"And there go the meth-labs," the teen said as he crouched down.

The teen vaulted over the table, grabbed the hatchet and swung it at the guns the boss was holding before swinging the other into his face.

As his body crumpled to the floor his second tried to make a run to the door but the teen threw a hatchet and it caught him in the lower of his back.

"Gotta dash," he said to the paralysed man before standing on his hand and kicking the door open.

Flames immediately rushed to meet him and he was knocked back a little at the rush of air.

He pulled his facemask up, and goggles down, and he ducked under the orange tongues that licked the ceiling above.

He hurried down a few stairs, jumping past the landings and kicking a few runners back into the corridors where screams soon filled the air.

Before he could reach the seventh floor another explosion knocked out the stairs there and the resulting debris crashed the floors away till floor five.

"Fuck!" Toby swore as his plan to get out literally fell apart.

He rushed back up a few floors, kicking the same runner back into the fire he has passed on his way down, and barged his way onto a floor where no flames had reached yet but the air was heavy and thick with smoke.

Coughing violently he made his way to the windows.

The neighbouring building was a good jump away and he could drop from window ledge to window ledge to get down.

Before he could do that though the floor fell away and he was unable to stop himself rolling down onto the floor below.

Getting up he adjusted his goggles and facemask, it was getting hard to breathe, and threw a hatchet at the window above.

He ducked for a few moments as the fire roared with the access to more oxygen before running up the fallen floor that acted like a makeshift ramp with old, tacky, and filthy carpet.

He leapt through the window, pushing himself off the windowsill to get more momentum.

He crashed into the wall and missed the ledge.

He managed to grab the ledge below but that fell away and he landed heavily on garbage bags piled on top of a dumpster.

He rolled off the trash and landed harshly on the pavement below.

His vision swam as a wave of static built in his ears.

When he woke up, unsure of how much time had passed, he was immediately greeted with a slap to the back of the head.

"What made you think diving out a window nine floors up was a good idea?" E.J asked as he handed Toby a glass of water.

"Stairs were out," Toby said as he sat up.

"Fire escape?" E.J asked, throwing bitch-face his way.

"Other side of the building," Toby said as he downed the glass.

"Well you're staying here until your lungs get better from smoke inhalation," E.J said before moving over to berate Helen for jumping off a moving car going faster than ninety miles-per-hour.

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Hogwarts.

Isaac was annoyed and pissed.

Someone had broken into the boy's dormitory and ransacked the place.

Neville had rushed to tell them and when they got there they found shredded pillows, Isaac's belongings sent all over the place (He quickly kicked the wrapped hunting knife that Jeff had sent under the bed), books and clothes strewn across the floor and his bed in shambles.

Professor McGonagall had said that she would bring the matter up at the next faculty meeting, the next day, and asked him to check if anything was missing.

Something was, Riddle's diary.

If that was bad enough Lockhart got wind of it and kept Isaac back after class.

"Harry, Harry, Harry," he started, sitting opposite him on a desk.

Isaac felt his eye twinge a little and his fingers tingle.

"Heard about what happened, nasty thing but greatness does inspire envy," Lockhart went on, not seeing the glare that Isaac was trying to kill him with just by looking at him, "Well I have to take a little blame there, all my advice to you has probably had others thinking you're my junior apprentice," he laughed roguishly, "And while that may sound like a wonderful idea, you are too young to be running around, dealing with the horrors of the world,"

'I'd be the monster there, you fucktard of a wet sock,' Isaac thought venomously.

"And while you might think I'm taking you on as an apprentice, like I've said, you're too young to be seeing all that,"

Isaac could feel his emotions running away as he suppressed the urge to throttle Lockhart there and then. To help suppress this he gripped the edge of the table he was on tightly.

"Things will turn out for the better, my boy," Lockhart said, patting Isaac on the shoulder before steering him out of the room, "Things'll get better," and with that he shut the door on Isaac.

As Lockhart turned to go back to his office the small of something burnt caught his attention.

He followed the smell to the desk at which Isaac had sat, looking over its surface before deciding it was probably a candle.

If he had looked at the desk a little closer he would have found two small burn marks on the top of the desk with four more burns to go with them on the underside.

Isaac glared at the door Lockhart had shut before miming out grabbing him by the neck, breaking his neck, separating his head from his neck and shoving his head up his ass.

He turned to go find Ron and Hermione and found them standing there.

Hermione looked disapproving but couldn't help the small smile on her face and Ron just looked like he was holding back laughter.

"I need to send for more headache tablets," he said to them before Ron started laughing as they walked back to the common room.

As they sat down Hedwig came in and he gave her the next package to drop in Lockhart's office before taking his letter back home.

The next day the castle awoke to find out that Lockhart's classroom had to be temporarily cleared to get rid of the three-hundred crickets that had taken home in the room.

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The Ark.

The next couple of months at the Mansion passed fairly quickly.

Isaac's letters from Hogwarts kept them up with some of the goings on in that world.

He told them about his little jaunt into the memories of the book and they warned him to be wary of it. Something like that seemed like it would fit in with some stuff kept in the attic.

Isaac's letter a week later broke the news that someone had taken it. He and Ron had came back to the boy's dormitory ransacked and the diary was missing.

They agreed with Isaac's suspicion that it was probably taken by the person behind the attacks since the diary could shed light their way.

Isaac hadn't mentioned who the student that Riddle had apprehended was, he claimed not to recognise him.

His next few letters didn't change much; Slendy shot down L.J and Teer's requests to go and stir up a small storm at Hogwarts for the people trying to paint Isaac as the villain behind it all but that didn't stop L.J sending an extra package of things for Isaac to use.

Not much of importance happened and things seemed to be getting to a point where most of them could relax.

Then Isaac's next letter came.

Toby had opened it his usual cheery self, Ben and L.J leaning over to see what had been written, but his demeanor quickly changed.

"What's happened?" E.J asked, sensing the change in atmosphere.

"Hermione's been attacked," he told them.

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End chapter.

Yep, that's where I'm leaving it this week.

I've added a little since finding that I hadn't accidentally lost most of this chapter, but I'm sending it of to be Beta'd now.

I hope you've all enjoyed this chapter, it was fun thinking of scenarios for deaths.

Right, about the EXTRAS chapter.

I had started one chapter that I was going to use as the chapter but the way that I was writing it would have taken a really long time to finish and it would have taken longer than my longest chapter so far to finish.

So, I've placed that in a folder for later and started writing out a new chapter that gets to the main point of the chapter faster.

Also I will be holding off on writing another milestone chapter for a while, I might try and do one every 10,000 views I get on this story if I can but I've already got the next one after this planned in my head from an idea back when I was first figuring out what to do with this story.

I'll be starting it soon for you to read at 20,000 views but until then you'll have to wait.

The EXTRAS chapter will most likely be up either the same day as this or the day after.

But, until the next chapter, I hope you've enjoyed this one.

And I'll see you all in the next.

Till the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

If you have a favourite Creepypasta that has not appeared feel free to suggest them to me.

Translations.

I apologise for my butchering of the Malaysian language, I was going off of slang words.

(1) "Pretty girl,"

(2) "5000," I'm meaning this like he's trying to pay a prostitute

(3) "Over confident Whore / Bitch,"

(4) "Goddammit! / What the fuck!"

(5) "Chicken" / any number of homophobic insult.


	23. Chapter 23, To the Chamber

Chapter 23, To the Chamber,

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks

if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Right then,

Chapter 23, time to start bringing Book 2 to an end.

So, response to comments on having a bunch of CP stuff.

Right, so the incredibly late Milestone chapter should have gone up this week, did you enjoy it?

I know, it was very, _very_ , late but I did rewrite it a bunch of times so... Yeah, I have no proper excuse other than I'm lazy.

BUT, I have started early on the 20k Milestone chapter, this one should be much better and I think you'll all enjoy it a lot.

Also in this chapter I do change some things about the timing of events but it shouldn't be too bad, not much gets changed, just some timing with classes.

Anyway, as per, the review response;

WhiteWhisperingWind;

Glad you enjoyed it.

I'm going to take those suggestions, I really am. I was wondering what I could do next and I think that solves it.

I do have a few ideas on Creeps breaking into Hogwarts and I do have an idea for a scene in 'Prisoner'.

I hope this chapter meets your expectations.

Guest (Matt);

'Falls off chair laughing'

Yeah, shame about Hermione but Y'all knew it was coming.

Ok, everything good on your end 'DP'?

Everything is good on my end. I hope all of you wonderful readers have a great day, and see you all next chapter.

My day went ok. Got more biscuits.

Right then, time to wrap things up and get to the next story.

This is the chapter with the car rescue in the Forest, isn't it?

That should be fun... oh wait.

They don't have the car...

SteamGeek01.

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The Mansion.

Toby sat out on the small terrace that covered the porch around the back of the Mansion.

He took in a deep breathe and let the cool midday air wash over him.

He carefully laid back, positioning himself so that he didn't slide off the roof, and crossed his arms behind his head.

He quite liked coming out here when inside got too stuffy.

Other times he came out there was to get away from the noise or to simply relax.

He had had a rather busy day.

It had been time for the Mansion to move again. They had spent the day so far making sure that everything was still contained in the attic and tidying up since the movement of the Ark is like having an extremely localised earthquake go through the place.

He looked up at the sparse clouds above as he stretched out, wondering what his little brother was up to.

It had been a few hours since they had gotten the letter about Hermione being attacked and he was worried about what he was going to do.

Isaac could be a little more stubborn in situations where people he cared about were in trouble. E.J had to physically pick him up and throw him out the Medbay once when he was trying to reset Hoodie's shoulder and leg after a particularly nasty fall.

He was debating going back in when he heard the door underneath open.

He listened to soft footsteps move to around the edge and the following grunt and thud meant that someone had sat down on the steps that led off the patio.

A soft clatter of claws on wood could be heard a few seconds later which meant one of the dogs in the house had joined whoever it was down there.

"Hey, girl," Liu's voice drifted up as he picked up Eris and placed her on his lap.

Toby carefully slid around on the roof, making as little noise as possible.

"Hey," he said as he dropped his head down and Liu jumped.

"T-Toby!" he said after he got his breathing under control, "What... what are you doing?"

"Couldn't stand being inside right now," Toby said, letting one of his arms dangle off the edge, "Thinking... just wanted some fresh air,"

"Yeah, me too," Liu said as he resumed stroking Eris' midnight fur.

They sat in silence for a few moments.

"You been around the new town yet?" Liu asked.

"Little bit, didn't go far though," Toby said, playing with a bit of ivy dangling off the trellis under the roof.

"I saw this burger joint earlier," Liu said as he zipped his hoodie up a little to guard against the cold, "Wanna... come with and check it out later?"

Toby raised, or rather lowered, since his head was upside down right now, an eyebrow as he thought.

"Sure, you know what the place has?"

"Burgers, at least," Liu said, furrowing his brows as he tried to remember things about the place, "Saw a desert menu but I couldn't read what was on it,"

"Well, we'll find out, won't we?" Toby said with a smile.

A wave of static washed over them and Toby had to grab onto the roof to stop himself sliding off. Eris ran back inside to get away from the static, she and Smile were affected a little worse than they were sometimes.

" **Evening, I had thought that you two would be exploring the new town,"** Slenderman said as he appeared a little aways from the two.

"Too stuffy," Toby said as he re-adjusted himself, "What's up over the pond, Isaac ok?"

" **Well..."**

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Hogwarts.

Isaac sat, legs brought up to his chest, as he looked at the still body of Hermione. A bed over was the other student attacked but right now she wasn't a priority.

Hermione's body might as well have been made of stone she was that cold, the mirror that they had found her with sat on the table to her side.

Isaac closed his eyes to try and subdue the burning sensation inside. It seemed like only yesterday they had been in the Common room discussing class options for their third-year.

He had sat with Hermione while Ron did the last piece for his Charms Homework and he had ended up choosing one of the same things that they had each chosen.

Care of Magical Creatures for the one with Ron and Ancient Runes with Hermione.

True she had put her name down for all of them but they had had a laugh about it afterwards.

The laughter echoed in his ears a little as he pulled his legs closer to his body, holding tightly to his arms.

Ron was sitting beside him but they were both feeling very different things.

Ron was looking at Hermione with despair riddling his face as tears prickled the edges of his eyes.

Isaac was seething.

He gripped his arms tighter to stop them shaking as anger filled his mind. If he hadn't said anything about hearing the voice again barely half an hour ago, then she might not have been attacked. She had run off, saying that she had an idea and left before elaborating.

Isaac quickly glanced at the candle holder on the table to see if anything had fallen onto it to be causing the burning smell in the air.

He was quite confused when he saw that they were unlit.

Professor McGonagall came back a few moments later to take them back to Gryffindor tower, she had an announcement to make.

Isaac and Ron sat at the back of the room, next to the stairs to the boy's dormitory as she read out the new rules that were being implemented.

Isaac's mind throughout the speech was preoccupied on how to get to Hagrid and question him about what he had seen in the memory.

The restriction of having a teacher escort them from class to class and an even earlier curfew made this extremely tricky.

Professor McGonagall left and discussions about what had happened grew.

Lee Jordan, a good friend of the Weasley twins, started pointing out why they should chuck all the Slytherins out as none of them had been attacked and it was Slytherin's Monster that was doing all of this.

Percy Weasley was sitting a few chairs away from him in shock. According to the twins the other student that was attacked, Ravenclaw's Penelope Clearwater, was a prefect and he hadn't thought that they would be attacked.

"I think it's time to get my dad's cloak out again," Isaac said, turning and walking back up the stairs with Ron following shortly behind him.

When night fell Ron and Isaac carefully descended from the common room and out to the grounds. They had almost given away their position to Snape when Ron stubbed his foot and swore, but Isaac had clamped his hand over Ron's mouth to muffle it and Snape sneezed loudly at the same time.

They managed to make it to Hagrid's cabin without further interruption and when they knocked on the door Hagrid answered, pointing a large crossbow in their faces.

"Woah! Friendly fire!" Isaac cried as he pulled Ron down to avoid being shot.

"Under that cloak are ye, what are you doing here?" Hagrid asked as he stood aside to let them in.

"Yeah, listen Hagrid..." Isaac tried to get his attention as Hagrid mindlessly made them cups of tea, forgetting the tea bags, and when he made to put a fruitcake on the table a knocking at the door had him drop it to the floor.

"Quick," Isaac said quietly as he pulled the cloak over him and Ron before tugging him into the furthest corner in the room.

Hagrid quickly checked that they were hidden before opening the door.

Isaac and Ron's breathe's hitched a the sight of who was in the door.

Professor Dumbledore and a smaller, weak-chinned, portly man with a lime green bowler hat walked into the room.

"That's Cornelius Fudge!" Ron breathed to Isaac, "Minister for Magic, Dad's boss!" Isaac elbowed him to shut up.

"Good evening, Hagrid," Professor Dumbledore said as he stepped aside to let Fudge pass.

"Bad business, Hagrid," Fudge said in rather clipped tones, "Very bad business, Hagrid. Four attacks on Muggle-borns. Things have gone far enough. The Ministry's got to act,"

Isaac watched as Dumbledore and Fudge talked while Hagrid slowly backed into his chair.

When Fudge said something about taking Hagrid, Hagrid cut over him.

"Take me where?" he asked, his voice croaky with fear, "Not Az- Not Azkaban Prison!"

Before any of them could say another thing there was another knock at the door.

This time it was Isaac who got elbowed in the ribs when the door was opened and he hissed at the sight of Lucius Malfoy, Draco's Father!

The man had a cold and smug smile on his face as he stepped inside Hagrid's cabin.

"Already here, Fudge? Good, good," he drawled.

"What are you doin' here?" Hagrid growled, "Get outta my house!"

"Believe me, I have no... you call this a house?" Lucius wandered into the room, nearly bumping into Isaac and Ron but they backed further into the corner.

A few moments later Isaac felt his heart drop to his stomach.

Lucius had handed Dumbledore a piece of parchment and, from what he said, it was calling for his dismissal.

Hagrid and Fudge both argued against this but Lucius Malfoy shut them down, stating that the decision fell to the School Governors.

Fudge, recognising defeat deflated while Hagrid looked red in the face with fury.

Dumbledore calmed Hagrid down though, saying that if the Governors were calling for his dismissal then he would not argue.

Before he left Hagrid's house Isaac could have sworn that his eyes flicked to where he and Ron were hidden. His parting words to the group were, "You will also find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those that ask for it,"

Lucius Malfoy left after that, Dumbledore just behind him leaving Hagrid and Fudge.

"Yes, well, come along Hagrid," Fudge said meekly, turning his bowler hat in his hands as he spoke.

"If anyone ever wanter ter find out some _stuff_ , all they'd have ter do would be ter follow the _spiders_. Tha's all I'm sayin'," Hagrid said as he walked out ahead of Fudge.

As they walked away and the door closed they could hear Hagrid telling Fudge that someone would need to feed Fang while he was away.

Ron and Isaac pulled the cloak off them when they were a good distance away.

Ron started moaning about what they were going to do with Dumbledore having been taken away and Fang was scratching and howling at the door.

Isaac meanwhile was looking at something rather curious.

"Ron, I think I know what Hagrid wants us to do," Isaac said, standing away from the window where a line of spiders were scrambling through an open window.

"What?" Ron asked as Isaac carefully opened the door as to not let Fang out.

"Follow the spiders," Isaac said, hurrying round and finding the group of spiders that he had watched inside.

Ron tried to argue against it but Isaac persisted on, he wanted answers.

After half an hour of following the spiders through the forbidden forest, they came across more groups of spiders all heading in the same way as the group they had followed.

"Oh for fuck's sake, Ron!" Isaac snapped, turning around as Ron whimpered yet again at the spiders, "They are smaller than your fingernail," he said, holding up his thumb, "They can't do anything to you, nor can they hur-WAAGH"

Something wrapped itself around his legs and he was hoisted off the ground, a glance to his left showed Ron in the same predicament.

He pulled himself up and nearly dropped in shock.

He and Ron were being held up by incredibly tall things walking on six legs with another two holding them.

"S-shit," Isaac said, drawing it out as he saw Ron turn to face him, eyes bulging in terror.

The things carrying him were clicking to each other, sounds of distant clicking started to get louder as they were carried down into a hollow and he now understood why Ron found spiders so terrifying.

Spiders the size of cart horses were watching the two ones carrying him and Ron, their pincers clicking rapidly and eight eyes glinting in the clearings light.

Suddenly he and Ron were dropped and the one carrying Isaac hurried over to a large misty domed web in the middle of the hollow.

"Aragog! Aragog!" it cried through the clicking of its pincers.

A large rustling was heard from the middle of the dome and a spider the size of a small elephant emerged from within. Milky white eyes blinked wearily on its head and Isaac realised that it couldn't see

"What is it?" it asked, clicking his pincers rapidly.

"Men?" the spider clicked, the action was copied all around the grove.

"Is it Hagrid?" Aragog asked.

"Strangers," clicked the spider who had carried Ron.

"Kill them," clicked Aragog fretfully, "I was sleeping..."

"We're friends of Hagrid's!" Isaac shouted, causing new waves of clicking through around the grove.

"Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before," Aragog said slowly.

"Yeah, well, he's in trouble," Isaac said, standing up a little shakily, "There's been attacks at the school, they think Hagrid has something attacking the students. They've taken him to Azkaban,"

Aragog clicked his pincers furiously, all around the grove it was echoed like morbid and chilling applause.

"But that was years ago," Aragog said fretfully, "Years and years ago. They believed I was the monster in what they call the Chamber of secrets,"

"Are you?" Isaac asked, he could hear his heart in his ears.

"No," Aragog said slowly and Isaac let out a small sigh of relief, "I came from a distant land in the pocket of a traveller. Hagrid raised me, I never saw the world outside of the cupboard in which he kept me. They thought I was the one to kill the girl found in the bathroom.

When Hagrid was accused he brought me here, raised me in safety, even found a wife for me and you can see how our family has grown..."

Pincers clicked around the grove again.

"So, if you weren't the monster, then do you know what is?" Isaac asked and furious clicking erupted around them, Ron whimpered and moved closer to Isaac.

"We do not speak its name!" Aragog said sharply, "I remember pleading with Hagrid to let me leave when I felt it lurking around the castle,"

Isaac could feel how restless the many spiders around them were getting and figured that now was a good time to leave.

"Right, well, thanks," Isaac said, backing up with Ron a little, "We'll just go then,"

"Go? I think not..." Aragog said, "My children do not harm Hagrid on my command, but I cannot deny them fresh meat when it wanders so willingly into our domain. Especially after that beast from the year past killed their brothers and sisters,"

'Why do I get the feeling that they're talking about Smile?' Isaac thought as he looked around and saw that the spiders had blocked their way out.

"Please tell me you know a spell for this," Ron whimpered.

"Yeah, one," Isaac said, thinking back to the spells that Riddle had used to try and kill Aragog in the memory, "But it's not powerful enough for groups,"

"Where's Hermione when you need her?" Ron whimpered as a few spiders the size of Dobermans landed a few meters away.

Isaac took out his wand, training it on the nearest spider and took out the hunting knife that Jeff had sent. He had started carrying it around with him ever since Hermione was attacked.

A few spiders advanced, clicking their pincers menacingly, and Ron slumped against Isaac in a dead faint.

"Shit," Isaac gritted out through clenched teeth.

Just as he cast the spell at a spider that lunged a wave of static washed through the air.

Suddenly the spiders that were surrounding Isaac were thrown away, some torn in half, as inky black tentacles whipped around them.

 **"Don't. Attack. My. Proxy."** Slenderman said, appearing a step behind Isaac and throwing more spiders around the grove.

"What are you?" Aragog asked in a mildly pained voice, Isaac could still feel a few rings of static and he was used to this.

 **"Nothing you shall mention to others,"** Slenderman said, wrapping a tentacle around Isaac and Ron's waists, **"And if I find harm caused to him from any of your brood, then you'll die before you will see the light of the next moon,"**

With that Slenderman teleported them back to the forest at the edge of Hagrid's cabin.

 **"And why did you think that was a good idea?"** Slenderman asked, raising Isaac so they were face to face. He had set Ron down on the tree next to them.

"I didn't know they were going to kill me," Isaac said, feeling a little like an incredibly young child as he hung there in the air, "Hagrid was taken since the Ministry had to show that they were doing _something_ and Hagrid mentioned that if anyone wanted to learn the truth then they were to follow the spiders,"

Slenderman looked at him blankly.

 **"Did you at least have a plan to get out?"** he asked.

"If I can't get out then go down fighting and take as many with me as I can," Isaac said.

 **"Good boy,"** Slenderman said, placing him down and handing him the knife he had dropped, **"Your friend will be waking soon, I must go,"**

"Alright, see you," Isaac said as Slenderman turned and walked back into the forest, "Erm... could you, maybe, not mention this to Toby?" he asked hopefully.

Slenderman turned to face him, **"We'll see,"** was all he said before another wave of static passed and he was gone.

Isaac managed to shake Ron awake after that. He told him that he'd managed to convince Aragog to get them to stand down after he pointed out that if two students disappeared and were found dead in their hollow then the Ministry would exterminate the bunch of them.

Ron was all for asking the Ministry to get rid of the lot anyway as the two made their way back to Gryffindor Tower.

While they were walking back to the tower the ghost of the Fat Friar crossed their path and Isaac had an idea.

"Ron, remember how Aragog said that the girl died in the bathroom?" he said quietly, watching the Fat Friar wander through a wall.

"Yeah?" Ron said confusedly.

"Ron... what if she never left," Isaac said and Ron's eyes widened in the moonlight.

"Y-you don't mean... _Moaning Myrtle_!"

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The Ark.

Toby ended up sliding off the roof when Slenderman got to the part about spiders as big as they were.

He landed in a crumpled pile on the ground and Liu sprang forward and helped him up, offering his hand to pull Toby back to his feet.

"Thanks," Toby said before turning back to Slenderman, "Spiders... big as us?"

" **Yes,"** Slenderman said, **"I recall Sally asking if she can have one around the time that Isaac returned from his first-year,"**

"Oh yeah," Toby said as he recalled the moment, "Ok, he's alright though, right?"

" **Do you think I would let harm come to him when the grove decided that he and his friend were suitable snacks?"** Slenderman said and Toby made an odd choking noise, **"He is fine, just he'll most likely be a little tired tomorrow,"**

Toby let out a sigh of relief.

"I'm gonna have to send him a letter telling him not to go looking for the thing attacking them," he said, thinking about how much trouble his little brother would cause on his path.

" **A good idea,"** Slenderman said, **"And now I must go find Masky and Hoodie. I require their help in convincing an...** _ **old friend**_ **that he needs to take a break. He's becoming a little to reckless lately,"** and with that he disappeared.

"Right, I'm gonna go write that letter to be sent when 'Wig gets back, wanna head to that burger joint once... I'm... done?" he finished slowly.

He had turned back to face Liu and had found him in a fairly prominent state of blushing.

Looking down he realised that he had still to let go of his hand.

Letting go, though a little reluctantly, he mumbled going inside to write the letter again and grab his hoodie.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Hogwarts.

The next morning found Isaac back in Snape's classroom as they mixed a potion for curing hiccups.

He had been sorely tempted to throw a small amount of frogspawn slime at Malfoy for how he acted but settled for watching him with a satisfied smirk. Draco looked on edge ever since Isaac started dropping hints that he was the one sending all the tricks Lockhart's way and shut up.

Snape seemed to catch the smirk that Isaac wore and seemed oddly cold towards him that period.

As he was clearing his workspace his bottle of armadillo bile suddenly dropped off the edge of the table and shattered. Snape made him stay behind to clean it up.

"Lockhart seemed oddly interested in your owl this morning, Potter," Snape said idly as he scribbled on the homework of the fifth-years.

"Really, Sir, I hadn't noticed," Isaac said as he rinsed the rag he was using and thought back to Hedwig's visit that morning before she headed back to the Mansion.

"Yes, he even muttered something about recognising the owl as the one that brought him the soap that turned his hands that particularly revolting shade of yellow yesterday," Snape went on, his eyes never leaving the parchment in front of him.

Isaac stiffened a little as he wiped up the last of the bile.

"If _I_ were the one to be sending these... _delights_ ," Snape said silkily, "... his way then I'd take better care to avoid being caught,"

He said nothing after that and Isaac dumped the rag in the wash bin and left.

Ron was waiting in the Entrance Hall for him and they were just passed the doors to the Great Hall when Ernie MacMillan stepped in front of Isaac.

"I just want to say, Isaac, that I'm sorry I ever suspected you. I know you'd never attack Hermione Granger, and I..." he said but Isaac cut him off.

"Save it," he said with a wave of his hand, "I'd have suspected me too. Still a bit confused how I can know another language and not know I know another language... but hey," he finished with a shrug.

At that point Isaac noticed that Lockhart was not so subtly looking at him.

"We've got Herbology next, don't we?" Isaac asked, turning back to Ernie.

"Yeah, why?" Ernie asked as they walked back to their tables, Ernie sitting on the side closest to the Gryffindor table to keep talking with Isaac.

"Just checking," Isaac said before turning around and piling food on his plate.

A few minutes later Ernie spoke again.

"Is it just me, or is Lockhart glaring at you?" he asked, glancing up at the teacher's table.

"Yeah," Isaac said, turning to talk to him, "He thinks it's me that's been sending him that stuff this year,"

"Oh!" Ernie said, biting into his toast, "Are you..."

"Plead the fifth," Isaac said before Ernie could finish and he choked on his toast in laughter.

Later on in Herbology Isaac and Ron were joined by Ernie and Hannah, the girl that had defended Isaac that day in the library.

When the class was finishing up, putting the last of the Shrivelfig stalks in the compost heap, Isaac caught Ernie's arm.

"Do you think you could send something with a school owl for me?" he asked, rummaging in his bag.

"Sure, what?" Ernie asked hesitantly.

"Just this," Isaac said, opening the box and showing Ernie what was inside.

"Ok... why and to who?" he asked as Isaac replaced the lid and handed it to him.

"Do you really want to know, and Lockhart," Isaac said.

"So you _are_ the one sending Lockhart those things," Ernie said.

"Pl-ead the fifth," Isaac said, drawing out the 'L'.

Ernie smirked and nodded. If Isaac really was the one behind this, and the rumour of him living with one of the Gryffindor twins' prankster idols was to be believed, then he didn't want to get on the receiving end.

As Ernie walked away Ron gave a yelp as when he put his wand in his pocket a small billow of smoke started flowing from his pocket.

Isaac hurried over as Ron took the wand out of the pocket.

The crack in the wand's end had gotten so bad that it seemed like it was only the unicorn tail holding the end to the rest of the wand.

"Well... at least you didn't blow up," Isaac said to try and cheer Ron up.

 **(X) Scene change (X)**

Lockhart's office.

Lockhart had just finished taking the third-years to their next class and arrived back at his empty classroom, waiting for Snape to bring the fourth-years.

A tawny owl flew into the room, dropping a brown paper package tied up with string onto his desk.

He mumbled an incantation to lift the lid and levitated the object within out of the box.

"Enough is enough!" he said angrily as the door opened.

"Here they are, Lockhart, now if you'll..."

"Wait there Professor Snape, my tormentor has sent me yet another gift," Lockhart said testily, "Well I'm not falling for this one, no sirree!"

He marched over to the lit fireplace, despite Snape's protests, and dumped the cylindrical object on the burning logs.

"Now then," he said, turning with a flourish and stepping to the side of the fireplace, "Settle down..."

BANG

Snape's quick reflexes placed a protective barrier around the students as the object that Lockhart had tossed in the fire exploded.

A small fireball exited the fireplace, singeing the ground, and across in another wing of the castle, opposite Lockhart's classroom, Isaac watched the window with satisfaction as a quick flare of flames erupted from the end of the chimney.

Lockhart staggered to his feet, dazed from the bang.

"What?" he said meekly as he collapsed onto his chair.

"Professor, may I advise that in future, you do not throw muggle deodorants onto fireplaces," Snape said, amusement lacing his words.

"Yes, yes..." Lockhart said in his daze before addressing the class.

"Books out and read _Gadding with Yeti's_ I mean, _A year with Ghouls_ ," he fumbled the words as he climbed the railing to his office.

The rest of the day passed without incident.

Lockhart was getting as jumpy as Professor Quirrell had been last year now, and at the end of dinner that day some wonderful news was revealed.

The Mandrakes were ready for harvesting and they would soon be able to cure those that had been petrified.

This was met with cheers all across the hall, Isaac noticed that Draco wasn't celebrating but had a barely noticeable smile playing on his lips.

Isaac turned to his plate and noticed that Ron's little sister, Ginny, was sitting opposite them. She was wringing her hands in her lap and teetering backwards and forwards.

She also looked quite peaky.

"What's up?" Ron asked, helping himself to some more porridge.

Ginny didn't say anything, she just looked up and down the table looking extremely frightened.

"Spit it out," Ron said.

Isaac gave Ron a half glare before turning to Ginny and asking quietly if she was alright.

"I need to tell you something," she said quietly.

"What?" Isaac said with a small smile.

Before she could say anything Percy came over and shooed her away.

Ginny jumped up, looking immensely scared and nearly ran from the Hall.

"Why'd you send her off?" Ron asked exasperatedly as Percy sat down, "She was about to tell us something she'd seen,"

To Isaac's surprise, Percy went bright red.

"T-that's nothing," he said, looking rather uncomfortable.

They tried to get him to say what she had seen him doing, Isaac suggesting everything from solo ballet to re-creating the 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' musical scenes in full costume.

Not that they knew what it was so he told them it was a family-friendly comedy for all ages.

That night Ron, Isaac, Seamus, Dean, and Neville held a small party in their common room to celebrate.

Isaac suggested playing a game that L.J had sent him and the result was Ron and Seamus drowning themselves in the bathroom to try and rid the taste of extremely spicy chilli from their mouths while Isaac and Dean both wore grimaces of having the taste of very strong peppermint numb their senses.

Neville wore a happy smile since he had gotten the only strawberry flavoured sweet of the bunch.

The next day Lockhart was being his usual irritating and was mouthing off against Hagrid.

Isaac overheard him telling Professor McGonagall that he would bet his 'Order of Merlin' that the first words out of each and every one of those students would be " _It was Hagrid!"_

By the time that his class was finished Isaac had spent a good portion of it convincing Ron that they needed to ask Myrtle about anything she could have seen.

When the class ended and Lockhart led them to their next class Isaac's eye started to twitch from the internalised rage that he was processing.

Ron leant away from him, Dean doing the same on the other side, as Lockhart went on and on about how these security measures were pointless and how Hagrid was behind it all as they walked through the corridors.

A few others in the class noticed how angry he was getting and when Isaac took in a deep breathe their eyes grew wide and held their own breaths for what was about to happen.

"You know, Professor, I agree," Ron's and many others mouths dropped open in surprise, "These measures are pointless, and since the danger has passed then you don't really need to walk us to our next class,"

"Yes... I suppose you're right," Lockhart said, distracted as they waited for a class of Hufflepuffs to pass, "Well, you're only one corridor away, you can manage yourselves from here. I have to go prepare my next class..." he said more to himself as he walked away.

Isaac let out the rest of his breathe in a groan.

The rest of the class went on their way and Isaac dragged Ron as the two of them slowed down as they passed them and they were alone in Myrtle's corridor.

"Ok, quickly, come on," Isaac said, thankful that they had History of Magic next.

"Rogers! Weasley! What are you doing?"

Professor McGonagall had walked onto the corridor and her mouth was the thinnest of lines.

"We were- we were..." Ron stuttered and Isaac cut him off.

"We were going to see Hermione, Professor," Isaac said softly, not meeting her eye, "We haven't seen her for ages, Professor, and we were trying to sneak in and tell her that it's nearly over... and not to worry..."

Isaac and Ron thought that Professor McGonagall was going to explode.

"Of course," she said in a strangely croaky voice, "Of course, I realise that this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been... I quite understand. Yes, Rogers, you may visit Miss Granger. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission,"

Isaac smiled softly and as they walked out of the corridor they could hear Professor McGonagall blow her nose.

"That... was the best story you've ever came up with," Ron said as they walked to the Hospital wing. They had to now that Professor McGonagall knew they were out of class.

Madam Pomfrey sighed when she let them in, mentioning how it was pointless talking to a petrified person.

Isaac had to agree but there was still something comforting about seeing Hermione even if she was unaware they were there.

"I wonder if she _does_ know who did it?" Ron said sadly, looking at her rigid face.

While Ron was saying that Isaac noticed that there was something stuck in her hand.

Looking a little closer he found a piece of paper, torn from a book, was clenched in her fist.

He nudged Ron to get his attention and the two of them tried to get it out.

After five minutes of tugging at a corner and easing it out they got the parchment free.

Isaac flattened it on the table and the two of them left the Hospital wing as they read the paper.

~Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents.

This snake, which may reach gigantic size, and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad.

Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death.

Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it.~

Isaac and Ron looked at each other in shock and Isaac started pacing around the corridor.

"Ron... this is it!" Isaac said excitedly, "This is the monster in the Chamber, it's a Basilisk! That's why I can hear it, I speak Parseltongue," Isaac spun and faced Ron, "And nobody's been killed... because they never looked it in the eye!" he cried as he resumed his pacing, "Colin saw it through his camera, Justin saw it through Nearly-Headless Nick, Hermione and that prefect had a mirror because Hermione would have told anyone she met to check with them,"

"But what about Mrs Norris?" Ron asked and Isaac paused.

"Water. There was water on the floor and she saw its reflection," Isaac said, "A natural mirror, and... and,"

Isaac laughed a little as he hurried back to Ron and read the page again.

"Hagrid's roosters were killed, because if the heir didn't want the Basilisk dead before it could do its job," he said, tapping the paper, "And spiders flee, Aragog was pissing himself when this thing was around, it all fits!"

"C'mon, we've got to tell someone," Ron said, looking around for the staircase that would take them to the Teacher's lounge.

When they got there they found it empty but before they could decide to wait Professor McGonagall's voice echoed through the halls.

" _All students are to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers to the staff room. Immediately please,_ "

"Not another attack? Not now?" he said, turning to face Ron.

"C'mon," he said, dragging Ron and pulling him towards a rather ugly wardrobe full of the teacher's cloaks, "We'll hide in here, hear what's going on and then tell them what we know,"

He pulled the door closed and they waited a few moments until they heard the teachers walk in.

Through a crack they watched them. Some looked puzzled while others looked downright terrified.

Then Professor McGonagall arrived.

"It has happened. A student has been taken by the monster into the chamber itself,"

Professor Flitwick let out a squeal and Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth.

Snape seemed like he was trying to break the chair he was holding, "How can you be sure?" he asked.

"The Heir of Slytherin," Professor McGonagall said, "Left another message underneath the first, ~ _Her skeleton will lie, in the chamber forever_ ~"

Professor Flitwick burst into tears.

"Who is it?" Madam Hooch asked, sinking weak-kneed into a chair, "Which student?"

"Ginny Weasley," Professor McGonagall said and Isaac could feel Ron start to slump to the ground.

Isaac managed to hold him up as the Professor McGonagall continued speaking and then the door opened.

For one hopeful moment Isaac thought that Dumbledore had returned but that was replaced with the overwhelming urge to stab the man that was there.

"So sorry, dozed off, what have I missed?" Lockhart asked as he sauntered into the room.

Isaac was surprised to see that every single teacher was looking at him in the same sort of hatred that he normally suppressed every time he looked at the prick.

Snape stepped forward and for another gleaming moment Isaac thought that he was about to curse the man into oblivion.

"Just the man," Snape said curtly, Isaac frowned in disappointment, "The time for your moment has come at last. A girl has been taken, by the monster, into the Chamber,"

Lockhart blanched as the rest of the teachers started encouraging him to go after the monster.

Professor Sprout added on that Lockhart said that he knew where the entrance was and Isaac looked at him in surprise.

"Very well!" he said, "I'll just be in my office, getting... getting ready,"

And with that he left in a manner near a scramble to get out.

Once he was gone the teachers returned to figuring out what to do.

When they left to make sure that the students were all in their dorms Isaac and Ron left the wardrobe.

"She knew something," Isaac said, "That's why she was taken,"

"What are we going to do?" Ron asked, silent tears starting to run.

Isaac took in a shuddering breath, "We go to Lockhart," he said with a barely contained groan, "You heard Professor Sprout, he knows how to get into the Chamber and, even though he's half useless, he's going to try and get it. We can at least tell him what to face,"

With that they ran to Lockhart's office, thankfully not meeting anyone on the way there.

When they got there they found that the class room was empty and that his office door was open.

They ran through the classroom, Isaac quickly tossed something onto the teacher's desk, and through the office door.

Lockhart was shoving what seemed like every single piece of clothing into a suitcase, his portraits stacked against the desk.

"You're leaving?" Ron said and Lockhart spun, trying to cover the mess with his body, "But you're the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor!"

"A-G-Urm, yes," Lockhart stammered, "Urgent call, unavoidable, got to go,"

"What about my sister?" Ron demanded while Isaac briefly closed his eyes from the unwanted joy of having fucking called it right at the start of the year.

"Such a shame, really," Lockhart said.

"You're running," Isaac said venomously, "After everything you've done,"

"When I took the job there was nothing in the description about doing this!" Lockhart snapped.

"But what about all the stuff in your books?" Ron asked jerkily.

"My dear boy, use your sense!" Lockhart said exasperatedly, "My books wouldn't have sold nearly half as well if they didn't think I'd done all those things,"

Isaac's eyes fluttered at being right for a second time before saying, "You're a fraud! You've been taking the credit for the work from other witches and wizards, haven't you,"

"Harry, Harry," Isaac's fists clenched automatically, "You have no idea the amount of work I had to do for this. First I had to find them and then get them to tell me exactly what and how they did everything. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them, so they didn't go blabbing about what I'd done," he sighed, "If you want fame you've got to be prepared for a long, hard, slog,"

He pulled his wand out and aimed it at them.

"Sorry, boys, can't have you going off and blabbing about my secrets," Lockhart said in what Isaac thought was supposed to be a threatening voice.

Isaac gasped and pointed to something just past Lockhart's shoulder.

The teacher spun and found nothing.

When he turned back around all he saw was Isaac's first as it collided hard with his nose and a flash of something pale blue and green.

Lockhart landed, sprawling on the desk, and Ron looked mildly scared at Isaac.

"What?" Isaac said with a shrug, "He was going to attack us,"

"How'd you learn to punch like that?" Ron asked, looking at the feebly stirring Lockhart.

For some reason the parts of the man's eyebrows looked singed, curling as if from intense heat.

"I've been kidnapped twice," Isaac said holding up two fingers, "Why shouldn't I know how to punch a bitch?"

As Lockhart fell forward onto the ground Ron quickly snatched his wand and threw it out the window, Isaac and Ron then took out their own wands and trained them on him in turn.

"Now then," Isaac said, "We think we know what's in the Chamber, and if we're right, you're gonna help us beat it,"

Lockhart nodded as he whimpered, his mouth closed at last and he looked incredibly weak-chinned without his regularly toothy smile.

"After you," Ron said as he and Isaac moved out the way to let him out the door first.

The three of them made their way to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and found the ghost drifting around the ceiling.

"Oh! What do you want?" she asked testily, they hadn't seen her since Isaac had sent her packing when Hermione had that accident with the Polyjuice Potion.

"Well, we wanted to ask you something," Isaac said, playing a kind smile.

"What?" she asked, floating nearer to the ground.

"Well, we were wondering, how did you die?" Isaac asked carefully.

She looked like she had never been asked such a flattering question.

"Oooh, it was horrible," she said, "I was in here because Olive Hornby was teasing my about my glasses when I heard a boy come in. I knew he was a boy because he started speaking in this made up language.

I opened the door to tell him to go away and... I died," she finished softly, floating back towards the ceiling.

"Just like that?" Isaac asked, "Is there anything you remember?"

"All I remember is a pair of great, big, yellow eyes... staring at me from that sink," she said, pointing to an inconspicuous looking sink.

Isaac hurried over and examined the sink.

"It's never worked," Myrtle said, mildly amused as Isaac dropped to his knees to look at the pipes.

There, scratched into one of the pipes on the underside, was a small bronze snake.

"This is it," Isaac said softly, backing up a little, "This is the entrance,"

"Say something," Ron said, poking his wand into Lockhart's back so the man moved in front of him a little.

"What?" Isaac asked.

"Say something in Parseltongue," Ron prompted.

"Oh,"

It took him a few tries but he eventually managed to hiss out $"Open,"$ and the sinks slid away.

The bowl sunk into the floor and a grate covered it so that there was a small platform over a deep, dark, hole.

Isaac stepped away and Ron looked into the hole.

"Right, well then," Lockhart said in an attempt at a cheery tone before rushing, "You don't need me, I'll just be off!"

Before he could turn and run Isaac grabbed him by the arm, knocked his feet away, and tossed him into the pipe head first.

As Lockhart's shrieks grew fainter Isaac stepped back next to Ron with an immensely satisfied smirk.

"It's really quite dark down here," Lockhart's dull tones echoed up.

"At least we know we'll live," Isaac said cheerily before swinging his legs over the opening.

"Isaac?" Myrtle called from above her stall.

"Yeah?" Isaac said as he turned to face her.

"If you die down there, you're welcome to share my toilet,"

Isaac blinked for a moment and without saying anything he dropped down the pipe.

Slime and dirty water flecked his glasses as he slid down a seemingly endless tunnel as he descended faster and faster, hearing Ron sliding around the turns he himself had passed a few seconds ago.

A few seconds later he came to the end of the pipe and staggered a little as he landed.

Ron slid down and onto the floor not too long after and they once again kept their wands trained on Lockhart.

"Remember," Isaac said as he climbed through a hole in the wall to a cavern littered with the skulls of dead rats, "Any sign of movement and you close your eyes,"

Lockhart nodded like a small child and Ron looked grim.

A few metres into the cavern they came across what looked like the remains of a large, sixty foot, snake-skin.

Lockhart's knees gave out at that point and he collapsed on the floor.

Ron kicked him to get him up but Lockhart tackled him and snatched his wand away.

"Sorry boys, but the adventure ends here," he said, a demented look in his eyes, "I'll take a piece of this snake-skin up as proof that it is dead, but unfortunately I'll have to inform them that the cave was destroyed in the battle, and I was too busy protecting the two students that tragically lost their minds at the sight of poor Ginny's mangled corpse to drag more of the creature out,"

He turned the wand on Isaac.

In the scuffle where he had seized it the end had snapped off and was hanging limply off the end.

"You first, Potter," Isaac's hand steadily moved over to the hilt of the hunting knife that Jeff had sent, ready to throw it once he rolled away from the spell, "Say goodbye, to your memories,"

Lockhart screeched "Obliviate!" and the explosion from the wand sent him flying into the ceiling and crumpling onto the floor.

The ground started to shake and large rocks started falling down between Ron and Isaac.

Isaac dived away and covered his head as smaller rocks and dust rushed over him.

Coughing, he climbed to his feet and looked at the wall of rock that now trapped him in.

After shouting through to Ron, and hearing his reply, he started clearing a way out for them and Isaac delved further into the cavern.

He came to a door with many metal snakes and he tried Parseltongue again.

Another snake made its way around the perimeter of the door, knocking back the heads of the other snakes as it unlocked the door, and it swung open revealing a larger cavern.

Snakehead statues, forever in a position of rearing to attack, were evenly spaced along the hall and Isaac carefully made his way down into the partially flooded Chamber before he walked towards a large stone face at the end of the Chamber.

His eyes wandered over each statue as he passed, paranoia settling in a little as the light in the hall made their eyes seem like they were following him.

When he looked back at the face at the end he noticed a small figure lying on the ground, flaming red hair lying in tangles on the ground.

"Ginny!" he said urgently as he rushed forward.

When he reached her he found her as cold as Hermione but she could still move.

"No," Isaac said softly, reaching for her wrist, "No, no, no,"

'She doesn't deserve this, please,'

Isaac let out a sigh of relief when he felt her pulse beating away, slower than it should be but he was taking every victory he could right now.

"What the?" he said as he noticed that clasped under her arm was Riddle's diary.

How that got there he didn't know but he started to shake her shoulders to wake her when a soft voice called out.

"She won't wake,"

Isaac spun and leaning against one of the statues was Tom Riddle.

He didn't look solid, more pale and slightly transparent, but he was there and walking towards Isaac.

"Tom?" Isaac said, "But, how... never mind, we've gotta get out of here! There's a Basilisk and..." Isaac had reached into his pocket for his wand to try and levitate Ginny out but it was gone.

"Did you see where..." Isaac trailed off when he saw Tom turning it between his fingers, "Thanks," Isaac said as he held his hand out to take it from him.

Tom gave him a sly smile and backed away, closer to the face.

"It won't come unless it's called," Tom said, just as soft as before.

"Tom. Basilisk. Literal death-stare," Isaac went on, waving circles around his eyes as he did so, "Give me my wand,"

"You won't be needing it," Tom said.

Isaac blanked.

'Hiss,'

"You're the heir," Isaac said slowly and Riddle grimaced slightly.

"How'd you know?"

"You're standing in the middle of the Chamber of fucking Secrets, calm as a cucumber, and... no, wait... _cool_ as a cucumber, and you're keeping the only means of defence from a twelve-year-old,"

Riddle smirked.

"Rather clever for a Lion,"

"Rather real for a memory," Isaac retorted, "How are you doing that?"

Riddle smirked again, "You see, when poor little Ginny Weasley started writing in my book she was opening her soul to me," Riddle started pacing, sneering down at Ginny, "The more she wrote, the more her soul was bared to me. Over time, I was able to start feeding a little of my own soul back into her,"

As Riddle paced around them Isaac slowly lowered his hand to the hilt of the knife.

Something about Riddle was... familiar.

It made goosebumps prickle the base of his spine and set him on edge.

Riddle mistook his grimace for something else.

"Yes. It was Ginny Weasley who opened the Chamber. She was the one to set the Basilisk on the cat and those Mudbloods," Riddle said with a sneer.

"And all of this..."

"Was for nothing," Isaac cut him off, "All your ' _victims_ ' are being woken up as we speak. You've failed,"

At Isaac's taunt Riddle grew sourfaced.

Then he smirked again.

"And all of this," he said again, "Pales in comparison for what she was able to give me. Didn't I say? Killing Mudbloods became number two compared to what she told me.

How the famous 'Harry Potter' defeated Lord Voldemort. How he was sent to live with muggles not once, but twice, and how he now went by 'Isaac Rogers'. How she feared not being able to live up to her family's expectations. How she was afraid that everyone would look down at her for having second-hand clothes, second-hand books, second-hand _everything_.

How the 'famous' Isaac Rogers wouldn't like her,"

Riddle's sneer had grown uglier by the second until it was more a grimace of distaste.

"At first, I was kind. 'Kind Tom', the friend in your pocket to help you with everything. Then her entries got interesting,"

" _Dear Tom, I think I'm losing my memory. Dear Tom, there was an attack on the_ _caretaker's_ _cat and I can't remember what I was doing, but I woke up covered in red paint. Dear Tom, I think I'm going insane. Dear Tom, I think I'm the one attacking everyone!"_

Riddle laughed.

His laugh was high pitched and didn't suit him at all.

It sent icicles down his spine and something stirred in Isaac's memory.

"The power of the diary frightened her and she tried to get rid of it by flushing it in the girl's lavatory. And who should find it, but _you_ ," he narrowed his eyes at Isaac, "The very person I was longing to meet,"

"How? How did a mere infant, with no talent or power, defeat the greatest Lord to ever grace both the Wizarding and Muggle world?"

"Why do you care?" Isaac said. As they had been talking a dull pain was building in his scar and he couldn't help but feel a flicker of fear, "Voldemort was after your time,"

Riddle smiled.

For a second he looked like the handsome prefect that Isaac had met in the memory.

And then his eyes flashed red for just a second.

"Voldemort is my past, present, and future," he waved Isaac's wand and started to write out his name in the air.

~Tom~

~Marvolo~

~Riddle~

With another wave of Isaac's wand the letters rearranged themselves.

~I am~

~Lord Voldemort~

"You didn't think that I would keep my filthy _Muggle_ Father's name, would you? I! Whose veins run with the noble blood of Salazar Slytherin!"

"Half-Salazar, but go on," Isaac cut him off with a smirk.

Riddle's face turned into a grimace again before returning to the ice-cold smirk.

"I am The Heir of Slytherin! Greatest Wizard that this world shall ever know!"

"Most say that's Dumbledore but, again, go on,"

Riddle looked ready to throttle Isaac and for a moment there he was worried that he had over done it.

"Dumbledore has been driven out by the mere _memory_ of me!" Riddle spat.

"He's only gone when those who are loyal to him are as well," Isaac said, toeing the line once again.

A loud screech echoed around the Chamber and a burst of flames erupted from one of the statues.

A large, majestic, bird of gold and red plumage flew over their heads and dropped something at Isaac's feet.

"That," Riddle said amusedly, "Is the school sorting hat,"

The large bird landed on Isaac's shoulder. It was surprisingly light.

"And a Phoenix?" he said, sounding a little more impressed.

"Fawkes?" Isaac said.

"No matter," Riddle sneered, "This is what Dumbledore sends his _loyal_ supporter. An old hat, and a songbird,"

He locked eyes with Isaac.

"Let's see how Dumbledore's little tin soldier can match against the might of Slytherin's heir,"

He turned to face the statue and called out in Parseltongue.

The sound of stone on stone grinding filled the air as the mouth of the statue ground open.

A yelping hiss could be heard from within and Isaac backed away.

Just as he turned around he could see the tip of the Basilisks head protrude from out of the statue.

Riddle hissed in Parseltongue again and Isaac could almost hear the sneer on his voice.

"Parseltongue won't save you now, Potter. It only obeys me,"

Isaac started running to the door, Fawkes had flown off again and was probably circling overhead.

A loose stone caused Isaac to stumble and fall, sliding on the wet ground. As he started to get back up a large shadow loomed overhead and Isaac froze.

The Basilisk let out an ear-splitting hiss and large, wet, things fell down and drenched Isaac. Around him the water started to stain a deep red.

Risking it, Isaac turned around and looked at the Basilisk.

Fawkes was circling its head as the Basilisk made wild snaps trying to get him.

Fawkes dived, there was a slashing sound, and the Basilisk let out another loud hiss as more blood started pouring down its face and body.

The Basilisk got lucky with a swing and Fawkes was knocked into the shadows.

"Your bird may have blinded the Basilisk, but it can still smell you," Riddle snarled from the end of the Chamber.

"Piss off!" Isaac shouted back, he was getting sick of Riddle's jeering.

The Basilisk's head turned and, if it still had its eyes, looked straight at Isaac.

'... shit,' Isaac thought as he rolled out of the way of a biting lunge. The Basilisk crashed into two of the statues.

It coiled in a daze and while it was doing that, Isaac ran back over to where the hat lay on the ground.

He picked it up and jabbed it on his head.

'Hello, breaker, breaker, testing one – two – one – two,' Isaac thought desperately, 'Hello, anyone listening, assistance required. Can I get the 'Dummy's guide to killing Basilisk's' plea...'

"Ouch!" Isaac yelped in pain as the hat contracted and something heavy fell on his head, causing him to see stars.

He yanked the hat off and out slid the hilt of something.

He grabbed the silver hilt, large rubies gleaming on the end, and yanked it free; sending the hat flying through the air so it landed near Ginny.

What Isaac found himself holding was a sword, it's blade gleaming and sending reflections of light dancing around the room.

Isaac laughed a little as he looked at the sword before another loud hiss came from his left and he turned to see the Basilisk sliding towards him; its mouth open with large streams of saliva linking it's many curved fangs, some of which seemed to have something pale black dripping from them.

Isaac rolled again, the Basilisk hit the stone face and slid a little in the pool of water at its front.

Isaac brandished the sword, trying to keep steady on his feet, as the Snake turned to face him.

It made a slower lunge, learning from past mistakes, and Isaac swiped with the sword.

A deep cut appeared in its snout and it hissed loudly again.

Isaac had had to jump back to avoid its maw and now he was stuck in a corner, a statue blocked his left and the rightmost wall of the Chamber trapped him where he stood.

The Basilisk's body was spread, making a sort of triangle with Isaac at the top point, and its nostrils flared as it screeched and lunged again.

This time Isaac threw all his strength into forcing the blade through the roof of its mouth.

The latest hiss from the Basilisk seemed deafening as Isaac was partially inside its mouth.

A stabbing pain blossomed in his arm and he looked in horror as he saw that one of the Basilisk's fangs had pierced the skin.

As the Basilisk pulled away the fang broke off and Isaac wrenched it out of his arm.

He knew it was too late.

The white-hot pain was already spreading through his arm and his vision tilted slightly.

He watched numbly as the Basilisk swayed, hissing violently, before it crashed to the ground; upside down and dead.

Isaac staggered forward to where Ginny lay on the ground.

"Excruciating, isn't it?" Riddle sneered softly, "There is said to be no pain that can match that of a man dying from the venom of a Basilisk,"

Isaac gritted his teeth as he tried to stop the flow of tears when he couldn't help but imagine the faces of everyone when they had to be told that he had died. Alone, filthy, and painfully.

"Even Dumbledore's bird knows it's hopeless," Riddle said with a cruel snort of laughter.

Isaac hadn't noticed that Fawked had landed on his arm, pearly tears leaking from his eyes.

"Well done," Isaac said weakly as he tried to raise his other arm to stroke Fawkes feathers. It fell limply at his side, "You did great... I was too... slow?"

Isaac had been slurring his words as his vision blurred but now everything was starting to come back into focus. His strength was returning and the pain in his arm was growing fainter and fainter till he could barely feel it.

"No!" Riddle shouted, waving Isaac's wand and causing a bang that sent Fawkes flying again, "Pheonix tears, I forgot," Riddle said before leveling the wand directly between Isaac's eyes.

"I prefer it this way,"

Suddenly Isaac's wand was hurtling away from him, and there was a gash on the side of his hand.

Isaac was back on his feet, the hunting knife Jeff gave him turning in his hand.

"Me too," Isaac smirked before feigning left and slashing at the right of Riddle's face.

Riddle hissed in pain as Isaac cut from the lip to eyebrow, instead of bleeding red a substance like ink flowed from the cuts on his body.

Fawkes trill heralded yet another thing dropping on Isaac.

Riddle's diary.

The two of them looked at it for a second before Isaac kicked it to where he had dropped the fang of the Basilisk.

Before Riddle could get there he had slid and grabbed both.

"You know," Isaac said, turning both in his hands, "They say that there is said to be no pain that can match that of a man dying from the venom of a Basilisk," Isaac flipped the diary open to a random page.

"Wanna see for yourself?" Isaac asked before driving the fang into the book.

The same sort of inky substance poured from the book and Riddle gave an unearthly screech of pain before dropping to his knees. He was shaking violently as he gave another scream of pain before he vanished.

Isaac's wand dropped to the floor with a clatter.

A few steps away Ginny gave a soft gasp.

Isaac hurried over and crouched down next to her.

"Isaac?" she said blearily, as if waking from a deep sleep, "But I..."

She gasped when she saw the sight of the dead Basilisk.

She started sobbing and threw herself on Isaac.

"Erm..." Isaac mumbled, looking extremely uncomfortable before awkwardly patting her on the back.

She started sobbing her cries of how she had been the one behind it all, how she hadn't meant to, how Tom had made her.

"Ginny, it's all... Ginny, it's..." Isaac sighed as he couldn't get her to stop crying long enough to tell her it was alright so he rapped the top of her head lightly with the hilt of the knife.

"Ginny! It's alright," he said when she gasped and looked up at him. "I know, you slept through Riddle's monologuing," he laughed a little, but her lip was trembling again, "It's alright. It's just a memory now," Isaac said, helping her sit up.

He quickly retrieved his wand, re-sheathed the knife, placing the fang carefully in his pocket so that it wouldn't stab him by accident, and picked up the sword and diary before helping Ginny to her feet and half carrying her out of the Chamber.

Ron had managed to make a decent sized hole in the rocks and his cheers threatened to shake more rocks free when Isaac told him they had won.

He hugged Ginny close to him after helping her through.

Isaac scrambled through a few seconds later and looked round.

"Where's Lockhart?" he asked.

"Where'd the bird come from?" Ron asked in turn as Fawkes swooped gracefully through the hole and landed on Isaac's shoulder.

"He's Dumbledore's," Isaac said, stroking Fawkes wings as Fawkes picked a few pieces of grit from his hair, "Careful, you'll get your beak tangled in that mess. Where's Lockhart?" Isaac asked again as he brushed some of his hair out of his eyes.

He hadn't noticed it before but it had gotten really long over the year. Hermione had offered to cut it a couple of weeks ago but he had turned her down.

Toby cutting his hair and getting Masky to fix it had turned into a sort of tradition with them.

"Come see," Ron said with a snicker.

He led them to the room they had landed in and where Lockhart was currently sitting, humming merrily away, and waving side to side slightly.

"The spell backfired," Ron said, laughing a little more, "He's got no clue who he is,"

"Hello!" Lockhart said cheerily, "Is this your place? It's a bit dirty,"

Isaac resisted dropping to the floor and laughing. This was helped when he realised something.

The pipe that they had slid down was too dirty, grimy, and slimy to climb back up and there was no other way out of the Chamber.

Fawkes trilled and leapt to the opening of the pipe.

Isaac blinked as he remembered what Dumbledore had told him in his office and he turned to the others.

"Ok, here's what we're going to do," he said, "Ginny, hold onto Ron," Ginny hugged tighter to Ron, "Professor,"

Lockhart started when he realised that Isaac was talking to him when no one else answered.

"You grab onto Ron's robes as well," Lockhart nodded eagerly and grabbed big fistfuls of the trail of Ron's robes.

"Ron, grab onto me," Isaac said, linking arms with Ron and holding onto him, "Pull my arm out and I'll beat you round the head with it,"

Ron gave a snort of laughter that quickly turned into a slight shriek when Isaac grabbed hold on Fawkes tail feathers and Fawkes flew up the pipe.

The entrance was still open and they flew right out into Myrtle's bathroom. Myrtle seemed sad that she wouldn't get to share her toilet with Isaac.

After the entrance closed they trekked towards Professor McGonagall's office, trailing mud, grit, slime and in Isaac's case Blood along with them.

They reached McGonagall's office and Isaac knocked on the door and pushed it open.

A loud shriek came from within as Isaac was knocked to the side slightly as Mrs and Mr Weasley threw themselves at their youngest children.

Professor McGonagall was sitting at her desk and clutching her heart as she took in the state that Isaac was in.

Behind her, now accompanied by Fawkes as he had flown into the room, was Dumbledore.

He smiled benignly at Isaac as Fawkes landed gently on his shoulder.

Just as they had all entered the office Isaac suddenly found himself being smothered in a hug from Mrs Weasley.

"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?" she cried as Isaac turned red in the face from not being able to breathe.

"I think that's something we'd all like to know," Professor McGonagall said weakly as she conjured chairs for the new arrivals.

Isaac placed the sword, that he had tucked into his braces to keep it from falling while Fawkes had flown them out, on the desk before sitting down.

He took a deep breath and told them about what had happened that year.

Hearing the voice on Halloween.

Learning he was a Parseltongue ("Still confused how I know another language by instinct," he broke off before continuing)

How he and Ron had followed the spiders into the Forest, leaving out the part Slenderman played in getting them out and telling them what he had told Ron, how he had managed to convince them to let them go.

How they found the page on Hermione.

How they found out that Moaning Myrtle had been the girl who was killed last time.

About getting into the Chamber.

"Very well – so you found out where the entrance was, breaking around a hundred school rules along the way I might add, but how on earth did you get out of there alive?" Professor McGonagall gave Isaac a break so he could catch up on getting some breath.

He had told them all this in just three breathes after all.

Isaac then told them about Fawkes arrival, snickering yet again, and how the sorting hat had given him the sword.

He faltered slightly as he tried to think of how to tell them about Ginny being possessed by Riddle and turned to Dumbledore.

"What interests me is how Voldemort was able to bewitch Ginny when my sources tell me that he is currently residing in Albania?"

Isaac sighed as Dumbledore provided the answer and he presented them with the diary, telling them who it belonged to and how it had shown him the memory.

Dumbledore smiled serenely as he picked up the diary.

"Brilliant," he said softly, "Of course he was probably the most brilliant student that Hogwarts has ever seen. Very few people know that Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle," he told the bewildered Weasley's, "I taught him myself, over fifty years ago, after leaving he travelled far and wide... lost himself in the Darkest of Arts,"

He grew solemnly quiet.

"But Ginny," Mrs Weasley said, "What's our Ginny got to do with – with him?"

Ginny started sobbing about how she had been writing in the diary all year and how he had written back.

After letting Mr Weasley botch comforting her Professor Dumbledore told Mr and Mrs Weasley to take her to the hospital wing. He told them that Madam Pomfrey would see to her once she had finished making sure that all the students that had been petrified were returned to normal.

Ron let out a whoop at hearing that Hermione was alright and Dumbledore sent McGonagall to tell the kitchens to prepare for a feast.

This left just Isaac and Ron in the office with him.

"I seem to remember Professor McGonagall saying that you two have broken over one hundred school rules in this little adventure you have gotten yourselves in," Dumbledore said softly, "This is more than sufficient to call for your immediate dismissal from this school!"

Ron shared a wide-eyed look with Isaac, who looked a little shocked.

"However I think that shows there are times where we need to keep our mouths shut," Dumbledore said with a small smile, "And that this little achievement both warrants you two..."

"Three," Isaac said politely, "Three, sir, we wouldn't have been able to do any of this without Hermione, sir,"

Dumbledore smiled softly.

"You _three_ deserve Special Awards for Services to the School," Dumbledore said, "And I think two hundred points will round that off nicely," he said with a wink at the boys.

He then turned his attention to the one person who had been quiet throughout the ordeal, Lockhart.

Isaac then explained how Lockhart had exposed himself as a fraud, and how he had broken Ron's wand and how he had tried to erase their minds and caused the cave-in that trapped Isaac inside the Chamber.

He asked Ron to take Lockhart to the hospital wing too, so that he may have a word with Isaac alone.

Ron led Professor Lockhart out of the office and Dumbledore walked around from behind the desk to sit on its front.

"First of all, Isaac, I must thank you," he said quietly, "You must have shown me real loyalty in the Chamber. Nothing but that could have called Fawkes to you,"

He sighed, looking as old as Isaac had been rumoured him to be.

"So you met Tom Riddle, I imagine that he'd be fairly interested in you,"

Isaac paused for a moment.

"He did say that he was interested in me, sir, but he didn't go on more than that," Isaac told him, "But... there is something else, sir,"

"All ears, my boy," Dumbledore said softly.

"I... for most of this year people believed me to be the heir because I was a Parseltongue, but... _how_ am I a Parseltongue?" he asked the Headmaster.

Dumbledore nodded, his silvery beard and moustache bristling.

"I have only an idea," he said, "On the night that Voldemort came to your home, the night of his downfall, he marked you. We came upon this topic last year and I told you of how your Mother left the protection that saved you from Quirrell last year... well... I believe that the night her sacrifice protected you, it also forced something of Voldemort's own talent onto you,"

He sighed.

"I will not pretend to understand all that magic can do," Dumbledore said in earnest, "But, if you are doubting your place in the world, then I suggest that you take a closer look at that sword,"

Isaac walked to the desk and picked up the sword.

There, inscribed in the hilt, was a name.

~Godric Gryffindor~

Isaac's eyes widened at the founder's name inscribed across the hilt.

"Only a true Gryffindor could pull that from a hat," Dumbledore said before a small chuckle, "Never mind a rabbit, Mr Rogers,"

Isaac snorted in laughter as he placed the sword back down on the desk.

Suddenly the door was thrown open.

Lucius Malfoy stood there, his face twisted in fury.

And behind him... was Dobby!

"So," the blond man drawled, "You're back,"

Isaac stood aside to let Malfoy Senior walk to the desk as Dumbledore sat back down.

Isaac watched at the side while Dumbledore and Mr Malfoy talked.

While they were doing this Dobby was doing something odd.

He was pointing at between Mr Malfoy and the ruined diary with one hand and hitting himself on the head with the other.

Gears clicked in Isaac's head like clockwork and he nodded at Dobby to tell him that he got it and Dobby backed into a corner, wringing his ears as he did so.

"Well then, let us hope that... _Mr Rogers_ ," Isaac snapped back to the man as he heard his name, "Will always be around to save the day,"

"Don't worry, me and trouble are like moths to a flame, I will be," Isaac said and Mr Malfoy swept from the room, bashing Dobby forward with his cane as he did so.

Isaac watched them leave before turning to Professor Dumbledore while fumbling with his shoe.

"Can... can I give that back to Mr Malfoy, sir?" Isaac said as he fell below the desk as he tried to wrestle with his shoe and lost his balance.

"Of course," Dumbledore said as Isaac reappeared with his shoe and sock in hand, "But be quick, I think it'd be a shame if you got to the feast and those waffles you do so enjoy were all gone,"

Isaac grinned at the old man as he hopped out of the room as he put his shoe back on.

"Mr Malfoy!" he shouted as he ran round the corner of the corridor Lucius Malfoy was walking down, "You forgot this,"

He thrust the diary into his hands.

"Really?" the man sneered.

"Yes, _sir_ ," Isaac said, placing emphasis on the sir, "You slipped it into Ginny's cauldron that day in Diagon Alley,"

"Really?" Lucius said in mock interest, "Then why don't you prove it?"

"Prove you didn't," Isaac said and the man sneered.

He threw the diary at Dobby.

"You and your little friends better take care," the man said, emotionlessly, "You never know what trouble meddlesome kids can get into,"

"Don't forget the dog too," Isaac said with a smirk.

"It's a Muggle television reference, you wouldn't understand," Isaac said at the man's confused expression wit a wave of his hand.

Lucius Malfoy went very red in the face and strode away, not noticing Dobby open the diary at Isaac's prompting.

"Master has given Dobby a sock!" Dobby said in awe.

"What!" Lucius snapped, turning back around, "I neve..."

He froze when Isaac lifted the hem of his robe and revealed his bare foot in his trainer.

"You lost me my servant!" he shouted at Isaac, pulling the head of his cane free and revealing his wand.

He advanced on Isaac, wand outstretched, but Dobby leapt between them.

"You shall not harm Isaac Rogers!" Dobby said and with a snap of his fingers he sent Mr Malfoy flying backwards.

Malfoy glared furiously at the two before turning and thundering away.

"You got my name right," Isaac said cheerily when Dobby started trembling.

Dobby then threw himself at Isaac's knees, sobbing his thank you's.

"Hey, hey, Dobby!" Isaac said, picking the elf up and sitting him on a window ledge nearby, "Listen, if you want to show you're grateful, you can do something for me,"

"What, sir?" Dobby asked eagerly, "Anything, sir,"

"Never try and save my life again,"

Dobby smiled sheepishly.

Isaac arrived at the spontaneous feast an hour later, having scrubbed himself raw trying to clean himself, and in a fresh pair of jeans and a shirt.

The twins took one look at him and laughed.

"And you call us obsessed," they giggled as Isaac sat down.

"What? I live with them," Isaac said, pulling on the shirt, "Housemate privileges,"

The twins burst into laughter again as Isaac let the shirt fall down.

He gave a quick glance at the shirt.

Ben had sent it to him for Christmas.

On the shirt, going in a clockwise circle from the bottom corner, was him (Ben), Jeff, E.J, L.J, Slendy, and Toby.

His smile quickly turned into a little frown at the thought of how long he'd been away from them all and quickly dug into the nearest plate of waffles. He gave a small cackle when he cut one open and found melted chocolate chips.

"Isaac!" Neville said, looking at the door.

"Hrmmf?" Isaac said since he had half a waffle in his mouth.

"Hermione!" Neville said, pointing at the door.

"Hrmmf!"

Isaac and Ron spun to see Hermione standing there.

The two of them got up and run to her, meeting her halfway as Isaac and Ron pulled her into a group hug.

By the time they sat back down Hermione was beet red, though she quickly paled when she heard that as a school treat, all exams below OWL level had been cancelled.

Colour came back to her face when Professor McGonagall said that those that still wanted to do the tests, however, were welcome to see their heads of House about it.

The rest of the school year passed in a blur.

Save for the day that the Twins descended into the common room.

Fred had bright blue hair and George's was bright pink.

Isaac slowly walked between them, the headphones of his walkman around his neck.

 **(See Note at end)**

"Try and mess with my toothpaste again," Isaac said, pausing in the middle of the room and getting the attention of the twins, "And you'll give Bozo the clown a run for his money,"

Isaac then lifted the headphones around his ears and pressed play.

"OoooOooooOH!" sounded from the speakers of the Walkman.

"Oops!" Isaac said, plugging the headphones audio jack in properly.

Isaac calmly walked out of the room, O' Death playing his exit.

 **(X) Scene Change(X)**

Severus Snape had been tasked with clearing the remains of Lockhart's office before the end of the school year.

He paused when he noticed something gleam from in one of Lockhart's drawers in the teacher's desk.

It was an unopened box of Valentines Chocolates.

The box was small, barely enough to hold more than one or two mouthfuls, but Snape decided that the man wasn't going to miss them.

He pried open the cardboard lid and a large amount of glitter was thrown over him.

He opened his eyes and blew air out hard from his nose, sending a small torrent of glitter free, before he started sneezing. Glitter flying with every puff of air.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

Isaac rested his head against the window as the Hogwarts express chugged through the landscape.

"Oh! Before I forget," Isaac said, shifting through his pockets, "We moved places last month, new mail address," Isaac gave them a slip of paper each with the new address of the mailbox that Ben had set up for them.

As per usual, Toby, Brian, and Tim were waiting on the platform for him, just past the barrier.

What he hadn't expected was for Liu to be there too.

Toby watched Isaac exit the barrier.

He was surprised to see a disapproving look on his face like he had done something wrong.

Then Isaac remembered the letter that had come during the feast.

"In my defense," Isaac said as he pushed the trolley over, "I got the letter _after_ I'd already gone down there,"

Liu snorted in laughter as Toby pouted before grinning madly and scooping his little brother up in a sweeping hug.

"Next year, can we just... No?" Toby asked as he set Isaac down, "Just... if anything happens, can... just no,"

Isaac snorted in laughter as the Weasleys and Grangers came over for a quick chat.

Then the twins came through.

"Alright," Fred said, "You said you'd give us the stuff to fix this when we got back here," he said, gesturing to his blue hair.

"Course," Isaac said before patting down every pocket on him, flattening his hoodie pocket as well to show it was empty.

"I think I left it on the train," Isaac said and Fred and George groaned and ran back through the barrier.

Isaac then reached up into his hood and tossed Mr Weasley a bottle of the remover shampoo that L.J had designed to be the only thing that worked with his custom dye.

Mr Weasley winked and pocketed the bottle and waved them off as Tim started pointing out that they had a flight to catch.

"Oh! Heads up in advance," Toby said as he walked next to Liu, their hands just brushing against each other as they walked, "Slendy's got someone staying for a bit till they calm things down a bit,"

"Oh Christ, what now?" Isaac moaned as they vanished through a Slenderport to the Mansion.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

End notes.

Yep, I'm leaving it there.

I know who it is going to be, don't worry.

And I think you're gonna like him.

So, this wraps up Chamber and I think that this one has broken my record for words per chapter.

Also, that scene at the end there with the twins, guess which Anime I recently watched again?

Anyway.

I'm sorry to say, but I might have to take a break from writing this for a week so I can focus on college since I'm in the middle of 4 assignments right now and I need the time.

I'll still work on the EXTRAS chapters when I get a free moment, but there might not be a chapter for this one next week.

When I finish the assignments then I'm going to dive right back into this, and I'm going to be sliding it a little more into my own way when I start Prisoner, but this is just a heads up incase there isn't one next week.

Thank you all for reading, and I promise that I will have the 10k view milestone EXTRAS chapter up soon as well as the 20k view milestone chapter since I'm nearing that too.

Thank you all to those who have read this, thank you to all the reviewers.

All of you, thank you.

See you in the next one.

SteamGeek01.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

If you have a favourite Creepypasta that has not made an appearance then mention them to me and I'll see about getting them in.


	24. Chapter 24, Again really?

Chapter 24, Slendy's guest, comeupance, and... again, really?

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks

if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Right then.

Chapter 24, College can suck it!

Managed to get everything done on time so we're good there.

Right, I have little to say other than I hope that you enjoyed the EXTRAS chapter I posted.

I'm still apologising for it being incredibly late but I'd rather it be later than never.

The only thing I can think to add is that for those wanting chapters that are more based in the CP world then I suggest checking out the EXTRAS story I have for this.

If you wanted to see Isaac adopt the Basilisk then there's a chapter for that.

If you're wondering where Eris came from then go to it, seriously, it's the first chapter.

And I really don't have a lot to say with this note, so I guess straight into the reviews.

XXDD Smiles;

New URL, welcome to the story.

Glad you like it.

And do not worry, I already have the scene concerning Isaac turning Creep planned out in my head.

Lunarwolf11021;

I actually read his story not too long ago.

And I might be able to work him into either this chapter or next.

Matt (Guest);

Yeah, I remember getting a review from 'Neverland and Dreamshade' and the main point they made was that half of their dialogue to each other would just be sarcasm until everyone was screaming at them to get a room.

I am so stealing that name for Lucius.

But yeah, Dumbledore would have mentioned Isaac by name and plus he was a school governor.

I actually have read the story 'Harry by Proxy' it's one of my favourites and I can't wait till it's next chapter.

I actually planned a thing with the writer's URL, 'The Smiling Crow' for this chapter.

Fez8745;

Hey Fez, long time no see, last time you reviewed was chapter 6 if my memory is right.

I am starting to push the story further into my own realm soon.

But, if you're looking for more stuff that divulges from the Canon more then I suggest you check out the side-story I have for this fic. I'll probably have messaged you the story link before uploading this so if you didn't notice then I suggest checking your PM's.

DarkRavie;

Thanks, glad you like it.

WhiteWhisperingWind;

I don't want to know where your imagination went there...

Glad you like it, I've been meaning to do something glitter related with Snape at some point and that felt like a good way to start it.

Yeah, I've lost count how many times that time got away from me writing this fic and ended up getting around an hour sleep.

Sweet Smilie;

Yeah, Jeff and Slendy ain't coming through walls to get you.

Sally though... grab the salt and swing some iron.

Just wait. I promise that you will like what happened to Lockhart even better.

Things with Dumbledore will be changing, I'm starting to go my own way with the story.

I'm working on getting the shirt, I really want that shirt.

Check the EXTRAS after reading this...

Sweet Smilie;

Another one, ok.

Yeah, I really like protective Slendy and wish I had done more when writing the earlier chapters.

Roostertheking;

You have no idea how many times I think that I need to make it more Creepypasta based.

I know, but to explain a little,

While I do want to make it more CP based in the future, the overall stories will follow the HP canon for at least until Order.

The events and circumstances will change a little, but I honestly am open to all and any ideas of how to make it more CP based. It's my first time writing and I think I might have bitten off more than I can chew at times.

TheHollowClown;

First of all, cool name.

Second, I am trying my best to make this enjoyable.

Glad that you like this, hopefully I don't turn this into another clusterfuck like others.

Right then, that's all so far.

Unfortunately there is nothing from DP this week since they're busy dealing with something that happened at home,

Hope for the best DP,

Right then, back to the chapter.

Hope you enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

The Ark.

Isaac pulled his trunk along the forest floor as they ported back to America.

Masky was carrying Hedwig's cage as she flew overhead, enjoying being able to stretch her wings after the train ride.

Hoodie was walking alongside them, ever silent, and Toby and Liu were asking him what he had gotten up to.

Besides nearly dying again and fighting a Basilisk.

"Well, other than that, I did spend quite a bit of time getting back at Lockhart," Isaac said.

"Oh yeah, L.J left pretty abruptly the day you sent the letter and when we asked him about it all he said was, 'War, that's what's happening," Liu said.

"Yeah, take it that he didn't lay off you after that letter L.J had me send?" Toby said, kicking a loose stone.

"What letter?" Isaac asked.

"Can't remember. Red, wrote itself, apparently it spoke," Toby listed off what he could remember about it.

"You sent him a howler?" Isaac asked, laughing slightly.

"That's what he called it," Toby said with a snap of his fingers, "So, c'mon then, what did you do?"

Isaac grinned impishly.

"Well, to start, there was the bag of sweets from L.J. Moron scoffed the lot,"

Toby and Liu snorted in laughter.

"Then there was the seaweed hair dye,"

Toby and Liu nodded, "L.J showed us the picture, nicely done,"

"Thanks, after that, I think was the spring-loaded frogspawn,"

Liu and Toby snorted, bumping into each other a couple of times to avoid roots and stumps.

"Then... then was the four hundred crickets, they only found the first three hundred.

Then the puke-yellow staining hand soap.

Then I sent him a can of deodorant,"

Toby and Liu looked confusedly at him.

"What did that do?" Liu asked him.

"Blow up when he threw it on the fire in his room since he 'didn't want to fall prey to another trick',"

Toby gasped, clasping his hands over his heart and turning to face Isaac.

"My little pyro, already tricking people into blowing themselves up," he faked crying happily.

"You look like a proud Father at a football game," Liu snorted.

"That makes you the Mother," Toby shot back, dropping his charade.

Masky groaned, "Hurry up and get a room already," he told the two, lighting a cigarette in his mouth.

Toby and Liu shared a glance, a blush, and a snicker as Isaac went on.

"Yeah, then when we tried to get him to help us with the Chamber he revealed himself as a fraud, fucking called it," Isaac said.

"Language," Masky said a few paces away.

"Yeah, yeah, and then he tried to wipe mine and Ron's memories,"

Toby froze where he stood.

"He didn't get too, I decked him in the face before he could do anything," Isaac said quickly.

Toby relaxed a little and started walking again when Liu tugged on his arm, falling into step with their arms brushing as they walked.

"Then in the Chamber, he tried it again, but he had broken Ron's wand and it backfired on him. He's got no idea who he is," Isaac told them.

"He deserves more," Toby growled.

"We'll go throw eggs at his house later," Liu said, giving Toby's hand a squeeze.

"So what else did you get up too?" Liu asked Isaac, trying to get Toby's mind off Lockhart.

Isaac told them more about some things he learned in classes as they got closer to the Mansion.

"Oh, by the way, Toby told you that Slendy's got a guest round, right?" Masky asked, tossing the cigarette butt into a puddle.

Isaac nodded.

"Good, you know how we moved, right?"

"Yeah," Isaac said.

"Ok, yeah, that's pretty much what we had to tell you," Masky said as they walked up the steps to the porch.

The windows in the living room were blown out as golden string whipped each and every way. Small portions of the wall slid as they became separated and a few fell away completely.

Toby grabbed Isaac and Liu, pulling them down with him as Masky and Hoodie ran inside.

Toby dragged the two of them away from the door, round the other side of the stairs.

"Keep down!" Toby growled.

A minute later, and after a wave of static, Masky came back inside to say that it was safe to come in.

As he walked up the steps to the porch for a second time a shiver passed through him.

The inside was newly decorated with thin lines carved in the walls, spirals, and slashes from where The Puppeteer's strings had been thrown around.

 **"... causing fights. I don't care if you don't like it or not, you will not do anything to the two of them,"**

Isaac could hear Slenderman talking in the living room and he was curious to who the new guest would be.

"I'll keep my comments to myself then," a new voice spoke from the living room.

Toby placed a hand on his shoulder and walked in front of him.

When Isaac came round the corner there was someone leaning against the wall where the destroyed windows were.

He was rather tall, a dark grey pair of formal looking trousers went down his legs until they disappeared in ruffles at his calves where a pair of tall black boots hid the remainder of his legs.

A burgundy waistcoat with two lines of dark buttons covered a white shirt with the long sleeves rolled to his elbows. A ruffled cravat was undone slightly so it was more comfortable to wear.

A long black coat was slung over one of his arms holding a cream and black vertically striped top hat.

"Aah," the man said with interest dancing in his pale yellow eyes that were just covered by long, red, hair, that fell down to his shoulders, "So this is your newest Proxy,"

Isaac could see Toby tense a bit and across the room Masky's hand had dropped to where Isaac knew he normally had a hidden knife.

"Doesn't seem like anything special," the man said, standing up properly and throwing his coat over his shoulder, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm tired," and with that he walked up the stairs.

Toby relaxed a bit.

"Isaac, meet Jason," Toby said, taking the trunk and moving it next to the couch, "Maybe wait a bit before going up,"

 **(X) Scene change (X)**

Helen's room.

Helen sat facing an easel as the brush in his hand ghosted over a lined, but empty, canvas.

He leveled his head as he turned in the chair and found a tub of blue paint before mixing it with some white to lighten it.

After a few minutes of careful painting, a roar from a voice he knew well rose through the floor.

"YOU DARE THREATEN HIM!"

He closed his eyes at the angry tone of Teer's voice and began cleaning the brush to go onto the next part of the painting.

A few seconds later the sound of breaking glass echoed upwards and he placed the brush down.

He washed off the small board of paint in the basin of the room and replaced the brush in the tray that held others.

A wave of static passed and he sat down on the bed.

A few moments later arms slid around his waist and someone's head rested on his shoulder.

"Getting to you already?" Helen asked, covering Teer's arms with his own and tilting his head so it touched the side of Teer's own.

Teer's arms tightened around him and Helen sighed.

"You know he can't do anything," Helen said softly, "And I know you'd tear this place apart if he did try anything,"

"He will never harm you," Teer said, golden thread shimmering softly around the two of them, forming a sparse cocoon.

Helen relaxed into his hold.

"Let's get out of here for a bit," Helen suggested.

"What do you suggest?" Teer said, burying his face in the crook of Helen's neck.

"I have an idea,"

Teer reacted on reflex and the newcomer was flung across the room, just missing Helen's easel, and flattened against the wall.

Thread had already wrapped around each limb, pinning him in place, by the time they realised who it was.

Teer sighed and released the thread.

Laughing Jack fell to the ground with a thud.

"Know how to make a guy feel welcomed," he grumbled as he stood up.

"You weren't," Helen said, standing up and grabbing his coat from the back of the door, "What did you want?"

L.J huffed.

"Well if that's your attitude, then I'm not going to tell you," he said crossing his arms like a small child.

"You're going to anyway," Teer sighed, standing up and floated slightly to Helen.

"So get this," L.J said, "Remember that little war I supplied Isaac for? Against that ass of a teacher he had?"

"Yes," Helen said.

"Well..." L.J said with a malevolent grin, "Let's go pay him a visit,"

"Slendy has a ban on us killing anyone too important in that world," Teer pointed out.

"Who said anything about killing?" L.J said, "I see two demons and a very capable look out causing a little hell and driving him insane for the next... ooh... week? At the least,"

Helen shared a look with Teer.

A small smile grew on both of their faces.

"You know where to find him?" Teer asked, his eyes flared in excitement.

L.J nodded excitedly.

"Already got a door set up to take us there,"

"Well then, let's go?" Helen said. He had been cooped up for a few days and was looking forward to stretching his legs.

L.J smiled widely and moved past them to the door.

He closed his eyes in concentration for a moment and the door seemed to shimmer slightly.

When he opened it led out to the forest that housed his Carnival.

"Ladies first," he said, bowing out of the way for them to pass.

"Gentlemen just before," Helen said, rolling his eyes at the monochrome clown.

"Brains before beauty," Teer said, materialising just in front of him.

"So I'm better looking, glad we sorted that out," Helen said.

"Tied down, you definitely are," Teer said with a slight growl and Helen blushed.

"If I'm taking you two along with me on this then you keep the flirting off," L.J grumbled, closing the door behind them.

Half an hour later they were looking at a small house in a rather remote little village in Scotland.

"So, this is where he lives," Helen said.

It was almost a little photogenic cottage, if it hadn't been that the garden was overgrown and the cottage was starting to look a little run down.

Teer wrapped his arms around Helen again and the next moment they were up in a tree that stood not too far from the house.

"Little warning, next time," Helen said, nudging Teer in the ribs and shaking his head.

L.J popped in next to them and they watched as someone left the house.

"Now you be a good boy, Gilderoy, and I'll see you tomorrow," the bubbly looking little witch dressed in white said.

They watched her walk down and out the garden.

She stopped just outside the gate, looked up and down the street, and turned on the spot and vanished.

"Well then," Teer said, "I think we should go say hi,"

He disappeared with a small flash of his eyes and Helen and L.J could see him re-appear in the upstairs window.

He gave them a thumbs up and then moved away from the window.

Teer glided silently through the house.

It looked like the place had been child-proofed recently.

Padding was on every corner, there was a guardrail on the stairs, everything sharp had been removed.

He floated over the bannister and down to the sitting room.

There, in a chair, looking at a book that seemed to be all about teaching little children things like right and wrong, consequences, and being nice was a man with wavy golden hair.

Teer smiled to himself and felt something tapping on his shoulder.

He turned and saw L.J hanging upside down next to him, his legs having stretched and hooked on the bannister upstairs.

"Get the memories of what Isaac did!" L.J whispered and Teer sent out threads to the man.

He closed his eyes, trusting L.J to snap him out of it if something happened, and delved into the man's mind.

When he opened his eyes he was in a different kind of medium than the one he used to make sense of memories.

Normally he would find himself standing in a long corridor with doors on either side with scribblings on each and every panel about anything happening in that current memory. A window would be on the door for him to look in.

When he was looking for a specific memory he would just think about what he knew and the corridor would move around him until he found a door that gave him what he needed.

It was hard to explain why he liked doing things this way, but he preferred it.

This time though, he was in some sort of distorted version of the room Gilderoy was sat in. It shook slightly every so often like it was unstable and fritzing.

In the chair was something that better represented Gilderoy of how he was now.

A young child, around seven to ten, was sitting in the chair the actual Gilderoy was sitting in and looking at the book.

As he watched the young boy read he realised that there was a door that didn't belong in the room.

He sighed as he realised that he had landed inside one of the rooms instead of the corridor he normally landed in.

He rolled his eyes and walked through the door.

He nearly took a step back at what he saw.

The corridor was how it normally was.

Calm grey walls and doors that described events with windows to look in.

Then, probably about a week's worth of memory-doors down, the corridor twisted round and was even more distorted than the room he had just left.

The fritzing was more prominent and the writing on the doors was harder to read. The memories in the windows flashed in and out.

"Come on, please, please," a voice was begging and crying.

He turned and there was an adult version of Gilderoy, running down the corridor and opening and closing each door as he tried to find something.

"What did they do? Perhaps I missed something," Gilderoy said with despair and he fled back down the corridor.

Teer curiously watched and followed him, flying down the corridor and phasing himself so that he could not be seen.

The door that Gilderoy pulled open took Teer into a sort of cave.

"Sorry boys, but the adventure ends here,"

Teer watched as a past memory of Lockhart pointed a broken wand at tow grubby pre-teens.

One was ginger and the other, he realised, was Isaac.

Teer watched as the adult Gilderoy moved around the room, inspecting the two kids, while his past self threatened Isaac and his friend... Ron, Teer recalled after a moment.

The memory kept shifting, like a distorted video tearing.

Teer watched as the past Lockhart screeched a spell at the two boys and was sent flying across the room as the wand backfired.

"Nothing still!" the adult Gilderoy roared.

Teer watched as he moved to get out the door and smirked.

"Hello, Gilderoy," he said, phasing back in and floating down to where the adult Gilderoy had spun.

"Y-y-w-what are you?"

"I am... Memorium," Teer said, "Quite the predicament you've found yourself in," Teer looked around the room.

"C-can you help?" Gilderoy asked, looking so hopeful that Teer almost felt pity for him.

Almost.

"I'll see what I can do," Teer said. That part was true anyway, "I just need to check something,"

With that he phased out and watched Gilderoy plead to 'empty air' for him not to go.

Teer smirked as he went to find out what the spell the man had used against Isaac.

He drifted through the man's memories in a different medium he used for finding specific information.

This one was more like he was in the middle of a room with string connecting to glowing balls of light. String interconnected with others where the information crossed with each other.

Any information would be able to be read as if it was in a book within the light, words forming across the air around the ball for whatever he needed to find.

He found the strings that led to 'Spells' and sorted through them until he found one that matched what the man had used.

~Obliviate~

~Memory-Wiping spell~

~Erases the memory of the target upon successful casting~

"He tried to wipe his memory," Teer said, anger starting to lace his words.

He phased back into the corridor and the rooms shifted to ones where Gilderoy had cast the spell in the past.

Teer watched as he cast the spell on wizards and witches after interrogating them and recording each and everything they said with an auto-writing quill.

He then did a little further diving to find out what he did with the information.

"WOOHOO! Go Jeff!" he yelled as he watched the confrontation in the wizarding bookshop.

He walked back to the corridor and a door caught his eye.

He watched through the screen as a green-haired Gilderoy whimpered at his reflection. The scene changed and he was now watching him open a cylinder that propelled frog-spawn everywhere.

He made copies of these memories within himself for L.J.

After that he phased back to the door where he had trapped Gilderoy in the room with the memory of him being blown back by the exploding wand stuck on loop.

"Oh, please," Gilderoy said, dropping to his knees and begging him, "Please say you can help me?"

"I have seen your memories for myself," Teer said coldly, "Why do you think I would ever help a lying, cheating, egotistical, oaf like you?" Teer sneered.

He grabbed Gilderoy by the man's curly golden hair and roughly phased him to the room where the most recent memory of is life was being filled.

Teer threw the man to the ground in front of the chair.

"Do you know who I am?"

"M-Memorium?" Gilderoy gasped in pain and fear.

"No... I'm the Puppeteer," he said softly, wrapping golden string around his body so that they coiled like incredibly thin snakes.

Gilderoy began shaking and scrambled to get away from him.

"Shh," Teer said, just as soft, "Just let go... embrace the warm glow,"

He mentally smirked to himself as the string bound itself around Gilderoy's arms and legs, raising him up and binding his mouth shut by force.

Blood ran down Gilderoy's chin as the string sewed his mouth shut and forced his eyes open.

"I think... Yes, why not?" Teer cooed.

He closed his eyes and the room dissolved away.

Where they were now was completely devoid of light save for what could almost be called a screen surrounded by inky blackness.

Teer released Gilderoy and he dropped slightly before the shadows grabbed him and held him to the screen.

Gilderoy whimpered in terror as the shadows around him morphed to show his worst and darkest memories.

"Look," Teer snarled, grabbing his head and forcing him to look at the screen.

The screen was showing what Gilderoy's actual body was seeing at that moment.

"This... this is your punishment," Teer snarled.

"No," Gilderoy whimpered, the thread binding his mouth shut had disappeared with the ones holding him up.

The shadows wrapped around him, stretching his limbs backwards and forcing his body forward as if they were trying to rip them from their sockets.

"Watch," Teer instructed him, "Watch as the world around you goes by. Watch as their futile attempts to save you fail time and time again,"

"And if they do succeed in getting you back..." Teer said.

Golden string curled and coiled around Gilderoy again and pressed sharply into his skin and veins.

Teer disconnected Gilderoy's vocal cords before the man could scream out anymore.

"If they do succeed, then I'll kill the whole lot, put a knife in your hands and re-bind you here,"

He reconnected Gilderoy's vocal cords and the man began shouting himself hoarse as he watched his darkest memories appear around him.

Teer slowly floated backwards into the darkness as Gilderoy sobbed.

Helpless to do anything.

Helpless to do anything but cry.

To do anything but watch.

To watch the world go pass him by.

No one knowing that he was inside there. Watching it all.

Teer exited the man's mind.

He watched as the man-child in front of them was still reading.

"Is you blinking a yes that you're getting the memories?" L.J said.

Teer turned to him.

"I got them,"

"Really? That was quick, I just asked," L.J said.

"You have no idea how quickly things can go in there," Teer said.

"Right then, shall we begin or..."

"I've done worse than you can do to him when I was in there," Teer said, grabbing L.J and moving them back outside to where Helen was.

"What do you mean?" L.J said, retracting his legs back to their normal position.

Teer quickly showed them the memory of Gilderoy trying to erase Isaac and his friend's memory.

"Can we kill him now?" L.J snarled and Helen looked like he was ready to spill the git's blood as well.

"We're not killing him," Teer said.

"And why not?" L.J asked angrily.

"Because... then his punishment will end too soon," Teer said coyly.

"When the prat tried to wipe their minds, and got thrown on his ass for his trouble. Wait, hold on, I got another memory for you," Teer said.

He showed them the one of Isaac decking Gilderoy in the face.

"Ooh!" L.J said, "Do the ones with the pranks next," he said eagerly.

Teer sighed and showed them the memories of Lockhart going through each and every prank.

"I am so bragging about him," L.J said proudly.

Teer and Helen rolled their eyes.

"So why aren't we killing him?" Helen asked.

"Well, when the Memory-Charm backfired it didn't erase his mind. It split it," Teer said gleefully, "Like... the Gilderoy sitting there is a little child, not knowing a single thing, and the actual Gilderoy was running around in his head trying to find out how to get back.

He is now stuck watching the entire world pass him by, unable to do anything, and continuously having each and every one of his worst memories played in vivid detail until he dies," Teer finished, a vindictive look morphing his face.

"I think that's punishment enough," Helen said, placing his hand upon Teer's.

L.J sighed, "Shame, I was so looking forward to driving him insane,"

"Who says you can't drive someone insane?" Teer said, not taking his eyes off Helen as the sun peered out from behind a cloud, "Whole world full of people out there,"

L.J debated that for a few seconds.

Then he fell backwards out of the tree and disappeared in a whirl of black smoke.

"You know," Teer said, leaning in closer to Helen, "I meant what I said earlier,"

"And what was that?" Helen asked, his breath ghosting over Teer's lips.

"You are gorgeous tied down,"

Teer pushed Helen gently out of the tree and caught him in a net of his string.

Teer descended slowly towards a blushing Helen, eyes dancing.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

The Ark.

"... and no, still no sign of any dragons," Isaac said.

Ben groaned disappointedly and slouched back in the chair as Sally rocked in her seat as she asked Isaac more about what he got up to at Hogwarts.

Suddenly a puff of black smoke appeared above them and L.J landed in the middle of the living room.

"Isaac," L.J said, stepping down off the table, "Pretty well done," he nodded as he disappeared off to the kitchen.

Everyone there watched him leave, wondering what the hell he was talking about.

"I feel like I need to check whether or not that teacher you mentioned is alive or not," Masky said and Hoodie nodded.

"Do you have to?" Isaac moaned, "It's not that big of a loss,"

Masky rolled his eyes behind his mask and he and Hoodie went off to check on Jeff and E.J; Slenderman had them retrieving something for the attic.

"C'mon, let's get this stuff away then go get something to eat," Toby said, grabbing Hedwig's cage, "You haven't been to the new burger place yet,"

Ben helped Isaac carry the trunk up the stairs and after it was stowed safely in Isaac's room they met with the others to go out into town.

"So what does this place have?" Isaac asked as they walked out of the forest to a road into town.

"Burgers," Liu and Toby said.

"The BBQ burger is pretty good," Ben said, falling into step beside Isaac, "They got pretty good mild-spice chicken burgers too. Not too spicy, just enough for a small, but enjoyable, nip,"

Soon enough they were sat at a table for eight and Sally was looking at the menu with determination.

Isaac took Ben's recommendation of the BBQ burger.

"Good, isn't it?" Ben asked as Isaac chewed happily and nodded.

"Well, that was rude," everyone's heads spun to face the man that had sat down at the table.

Jason, in his glamoured form, had sat down in the empty chair at the end of the table and picked up a menu.

"Well, Jason, you seemed like you didn't want to be disturbed," Liu said, leaning over his plate as relish dripped from his burger.

"No harm in asking," Jason said, looking down at the menu.

"Well if you're anything like L.J then there's definite danger knocking on your door," Isaac said, wiping up some of the sauce from his burger with a chip.

"I like to think I have a little bit more class, but fair point," Jason said as he turned the menu over to look at the drinks.

"Hey! I take offense to that," L.J said, looking up from helping Sally with the game son the children's menu.

"Of course you do," Jason said condescendingly.

L.J narrowed his eyes.

"Overgrown Santa's elf,"

"Isn't there some children that need your help to float in Derry?" Jason shot back.

L.J growled and threw a few chips at Jason.

"Thank you," Jason said, catching the chips and eating them as he went to order his burger.

L.J growled again and returned to his own plate.

The rest of their early lunch passed without further comments from either L.J or Jason.

When they left to go back to the Mansion Isaac stayed a moment to go to the bathroom.

"I'll wait for him," Liu said to Toby.

As Isaac left the bathroom, shaking his hands to get the bits of water the paper towels missed off, an unfortunately familiar smelling cloth was shoved in his face and an arm wrapped around his waist and picked him up.

He tried to struggle but the fumes from the cloth pulled him into unconsciousness.

Liu checked his watch as he tapped his foot impatiently. It had been five minutes since Isaac went in.

He sighed and walked through to the back where the toilets were.

"Yo, Isaac, you alright?" he called into the empty room.

"Isaac?" he called again.

He turned to look back and saw the scuff marks on the ground and on the wall that led to a window, propped open.

"Oh shit!" Liu growled and ran out.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

?

Isaac shook his head as he tried to bring a hand up to rub part of his head that throbbed dully.

"What?" he moaned as he found his arm and chest tied to a chair.

He groaned and dropped his head so it hit the back of the chair.

"At least I get a chair this time," he mused to himself as he looked around the room.

He sighed as he had no idea where this place was and his glasses were missing again.

He sighed and started wriggling his arms to try and get the ropes off.

To his luck they started to rise and soon he would be able to get them up and over his shoulders.

Approaching steps had him sigh again and let the ropes drop back down slightly and he let his head fall, pretending to still be out.

The door opened and he could tell that someone was looking in.

A few seconds later the door closed again and the person walked away.

He glanced up and began struggling against the ropes again.

He lifted them up and over his head and began looking around the room after untying the knots on the rope.

He jumped up and pulled himself to a broken window just above his head.

Unfortunately there were bars on the outside and he couldn't get out that way.

There were a few large shards of glass lying on the floor.

He looked around the room and could just make out a window that was unblocked on the other side.

Before he could do anything he heard approaching footsteps so he quickly grabbed a piece of glass and sat back down on the chair, pulling the rope around him and leaning with them stuck against his back so that it looked like he was still tied up.

"The fuck J?" a female voice said, "You seriously abducted a little kid, what the hell were you thinking?"

'J', another girl going by the voice, was shouting back at the person who had just opened the door.

Someone in their late teens walked in.

She was wearing a dark green hoodie with cream fur lining and her long brown hair covered half her face.

"Damn it, Jane, you make it really hard to help you sometimes," she muttered to herself as she crouched down in front of Isaac and started pulling at the ropes.

Isaac lunged forward and pinned her to the ground, holding the shard of glass to her throat.

"Don't move... Gyah!" Isaac yelped as he was flipped onto his back and pinned down by her. The arm with the shard of glass pressed to the floor away from him.

"Word of advice," she said, her long hair brushing against his face.

Isaac squinted/glared upwards before his eyes widened in surprise.

"Don't try and pin someone if they're stronger than you," she said.

"I was hoping the glass at your throat would put you off," Isaac admitted, looking at where her left eye should have been.

"Yeah, I know," she said, rolling her only eye, "Pretty odd, but..."

Isaac kicked her off and scrambled back, standing up and grabbing another shard of glass.

"You got spirit kid, and I don't want to hurt you," she growled, standing up.

"Says the kidnapper's accomplice," Isaac sneered.

She laughed a little, "Now drop the glass,"

"You drop the knife," Isaac said.

Now it was her turn to look surprised, "How did you..."

"Hilt pressed into my side," Isaac said.

She shook her head.

"Like I got said, you got spirit kid, now put them down before your time runs out," she said taking out the hunters knife from her waistband.

"You have no idea," Isaac said, gripping the glass.

"What the!?" she yelped and Isaac turned to look at the hand she was focusing on.

"GYAAH!" he yelped as he dropped the pieces of glass and tried to shake off the blue and green flames that had erupted around his hands.

"NYAH!" he said, hopping around and waving his hands like a maniac.

"The fuck!?" she said again, jumping back from the fire-wielding boy.

The door crashed open again as 'J' burst in.

She was holding an even bigger knife than the other girl and her skin was the same sort of pale white that Jeff's was and she was wearing black makeup on her lips and around her eyes like a painted mask.

Her eyes were completely dark, not a single trace of white.

Isaac had managed to get the flames out by the time she came in and she was now looking around at them like they were crazy.

"Really, you let a little kid get the jump on you," Isaac could hear the sneer despite not being able to see it.

"Shut up," the other girl said, "The hell kind of kid did you snatch anyway?"

Isaac took the time that they were arguing to back away to the other side of the room, where the unblocked window was.

"I don't care," J said, long black hair falling past her ears as she spoke, "The kid can get us to Jeff, so he's going to take us to..."

Thud.

Thud.

The two girls looked towards the source and found Isaac hitting his head against the wall.

"Er... Kid?" the girl in the green hoodie said, looking weirdly and a little concerned at him.

Isaac let out a slightly hysterical laugh.

"Can I get my card stamped now, please?" he said, waving an imaginary card around in the air.

"The fuck is he on about?" the pale-faced girl asked the other.

The other merely shrugged.

"Less than a year and for the same person," Isaac laughed again.

He sighed and turned to face them.

"You got a phone?" he asked them, "Let me make a call for you,"

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

Liu had just finished telling them what had happened and Toby had started glaring daggers at Jason for what he had said.

"Humans," he said with a sigh, "More trouble than they're worth,"

"Hey," Liu said, placing a gentle hand on Toby's shoulder and making him look at him, "We'll get him back. And he does know how to handle himself, probably kicking their asses as we speak,"

Toby couldn't help the smile that played on his face as Ben climbed out the t.v.

"His phone's still in his room, he didn't take it with him," he said as he dropped to the floor.

Ben had just straightened up when he felt an incoming call to the number he had set up for himself.

He stuck his hand back in the t.v. and answered.

"Hello?" Ben asked, irritated at the interruption.

#Hey, Ben,# the familiar voice said.

"Isaac!" Ben said, getting their attention and playing the call to the room.

#Yeah, it's me,# Isaac said and Toby sighed in relief as he gripped Liu's hand, #Guess what happened?#

"You got kidnapped again?" Ben asked with a sigh of his own.

#Yep. And guess who they're looking for?#

"Who?" Ben asked.

#Same asshole as last time,#

Jeff, who had just gotten back with the painting of a malevolently smiling crow that Slendy had tasked him and E.J with nabbing, straightened up.

"What?" he sighed, "Who have I pissed off now?"

#You wouldn't happen to have a sister, would you?# Isaac asked and just before he finished someone shouted over him.

#I AM NOT HIS SISTER!# a female voice yelled through the speaker.

#No, you're not,# another female voice, a softer one, snickered through the speakers, #You're just his stalker girlfriend,#

The first female voice roared in anger and the sounds of the two chasing and spitting insults at each other filled the speakers.

#Yeah, we're just outside of town, meet at the bus stop?# Isaac asked through the speaker.

"See you there," Ben and Toby said as Liu started pulling on his coat.

A few minutes later Jeff, Toby, and Liu were walking towards the bus stop just outside of town with E.J, L.J, Hoodie, and Masky following them in the bushes, hidden in the trees.

True to his word, Isaac was sitting at the bus stop talking to someone with long brown hair.

On the other side of the bus stop was most likely the other girl, she was looking straight ahead and ignoring the other two.

"Hey guys," Isaac said, waving to them as they got nearer.

The girl with the brown hair turned to look at them and stood up.

"Toby?" she said, looking at the newcomers.

"Clockwork?" Toby said, tilting his head, "What are you..."

Before they could say anything else the other girl yelled and threw a knife at Jeff.

He caught it deftly and everyone got out of the way of the pair.

"Hello, Jeff," she said venomously.

Jeff looked confusedly at her, letting his glamour drop since there was no one else there.

"J-Jackie?" he asked hesitantly.

She roared again and darted forward.

"It was J-something," Jeff growled as he dodged swipe after swipe.

"You don't even remember my name," she said, fake hurt oozing with every word.

Jeff gave a growling sigh and took out his own knife to parry a blow from her.

"Excuse me, I've probably got a lot of people who want to kill me, it's hard to remember names,"

While they spat insults at each other everyone else had gathered around Liu, Toby, Isaac, and Clockwork.

"Been a while," Clockwork said, relaxing as she reclaimed her seat at the bus stop.

"Yeah," Toby said, "Listen, why'd you kidnap my little brother?"

Clockwork looked around everyone and her eyes fell back on Isaac.

"You know what, that actually explains a lot," she said, pointing to Isaac.

"What do you mean?" Masky asked, looking at her while Hoodie kept an eye on the dueling pair.

"Well, when Jane said that she was after Jeff, he started laughing and banged his head against the wall a bunch of times," she told them, "Not too bad at taking someone down as well," she added on.

Hoodie grunted to get their attention as the fight between the pair started escalating to the point that they were starting to draw blood from each other.

"What's the deal with her anyway?" Liu said, drawing attention to himself for the first time, "What's her beef with Jeff?"

"Well," Clockwork said, leaning back on her seat, "Jeff's the one that killed her family, trapped her inside her house and set it ablaze," Clockwork leaned to look past them and watched the two of them, "Jane's been hell-bent ever since,"

"Jane," Liu said, "Jane... Jane! Jane Arkensaw?"

"Yeah, how do you..." Liu left her hanging as he rushed away towards the pair, Hoodie sprinting over with him.

"LIU!" Toby shouted, making to go after him but Masky held him back.

"Let me..."

"Let them sort this out," Masky told him, "Jane is someone that Slendy's been wanting to meet with for a while now,"

"Why?" Isaac asked.

"She's someone who snapped but doesn't understand what the entire thing is," Masky told them.

Toby sighed heavily through his nose and sat down next to Isaac.

"Question," E.J said, walking to Isaac, "What happened to you?"

"I got chloroformed, again, and..."

"No, not that, why do you smell like burnt flesh?" E.J said, looking at him through his mask.

Isaac had kept his hands in his pockets the entire time since waving to them and hadn't taken them out since.

E.J grabbed Isaac's arms and pulled his hands out, looking at them with a sigh of concentration.

There were a few rippling burn marks on his hands, they weren't too bad or sore, but still twinged a little. They probably wouldn't scar.

"What happened?" Toby said, taking one of Isaac's hands and examining it himself.

"Oh yeah," Clockwork said, sitting up, "Toby, who the hell is your little brother, and why can he go Human Torch?"

Everyone looked between Clockwork and Isaac for an answer.

"When I was being held, I got out of the ropes, looked to find a way out, heard her coming up the stairs so I feigned being tied up,"

"Knocked me on my ass," Clockwork interjected.

"Then _she_ knocked _me_ on my ass,"

"He got up, still a little sore from that," she added, rubbing her back where Isaac had kneed her to get up.

Isaac stuck his tongue out at her and grinned cheesily.

"The I grabbed the glass again, moved back, a little bit of taunting later and my hands blow up," Isaac finished.

Masky sighed as he took over for E.J, his head had started to hurt, "I'll bring it up with Slender," he said, "He'll probably know what it is,"

A loud whistle broke through to them and they looked over to find Jeff and Jane unconscious on the ground.

"They knocked themselves out," Liu called over, laughter could be heard just under his, diminishing, self-control.

After Toby helped Liu carry Jeff, Hoodie helping Clockwork carry Jane, back to the Mansion E.J restrained Jeff and Jane on opposite ends of the infirmary.

After explaining everything to Slendy, and telling him about how his hands combusted, he said to let him talk to Jeff and Jane before they decided anything.

He also said that he would look into the matter of his hands but he did say that it was probably a reaction that his magic had to situations.

"Wait, Magic?" Clockwork asked from where she sat on the couch with Sally.

Masky sighed and started explaining about Isaac to her.

"Holy cow, dude that's awesome," she said, grinning at Isaac.

"Yeah, now if we could only get rid of the fact that he nearly dies at the end of each year it'd be perfect," Toby grumbled on the couch with Liu.

Before Clockwork could ask about that shouting erupted from the infirmary.

 **"Excuse me,"** Slenderman said and 'ported away.

Clockwork started going into the coughing fit and Masky got her a cup of water from the kitchen.

"Thank you," she croaked out as she gulped the water down, she coughed once more before clearing her throat and asking, "The hell was that?"

"Slendy-Sickness," Isaac said, "You get used to it,"

The sounds of Jeff and Jane shouting at each other faded away with another wave of static and Clockwork just managed to keep back another coughing fit while making a series of groans that caught in her throat.

"You," she coughed, "You still never answered the first part of my question," she said.

"What?" Toby asked.

"When did you get a little brother?" she asked him.

Toby sighed and leant back.

"Well, five years ago next February, I went to the UK for a hunt," Toby said, "Was in the mood for a little change from American scenery. Came across this horse of a human and her overgrown whale of a son berating her Nephew," he tilted his head towards Isaac who had gone emotionless, "Followed them for a few days, what I saw pissed me off even more, killed the Uncle's sister that was staying for a bit.

I was checking that no one could see inside and the other Aunt was coming up behind me, big kitchen knife in hand.

Isaac, real champ, sends every other knife in the rack flying into her back with magic," Toby said, a proud smile on his face, "He faints, I quite literally scare the piss out of his cousin, and bring him here," Toby said.

"Slendy had me become his legal guardian and we've been bringing him up 'proper' ever since," he said with quotation marks.

Clockwork laughed, "Well, things certainly got more exciting since we last saw each other,"

Toby chuckled his agreement.

"So, what else have you been up to since then?" Clockwork asked, taking the little plastic cup of fake tea from Sally, "Fun jobs, found someone?"

Liu, for some reason that Isaac couldn't figure out, sat up a little taller.

Toby smiled a bit and put his hand on top of Liu's.

"Oh, well done," Clockwork said, "He looks like a keeper,"

"Specs, you ok?" Ben asked, looking at Isaac.

"Yeah," Isaac said slowly, "Just processing,"

Toby smiled sheepishly, "Yeah, meant to tell you earlier but, you know, you got kidnapped again,"

"Again?" Clockwork said, doing a fake spit-take to amuse Sally, "Who kidnapped him the first time?"

"Technically, for the first time, me," Toby said.

"Me, well... the demon possessing me, for the second time," Liu said with a mild blush.

"Geez, and Jane makes three," Clockwork said, "Kid, get a loyalty card for this," she said to Isaac.

"Plan too," Isaac said.

A trilling hoot heralded Hedwig's arrival and she swooped down and started chapping at the window.

"What the?" Clockwork gasped as Sally bounced over to the window and opened it so Hedwig could hop in.

When she was in she flew over to Isaac and perched on his shoulder.

"Kid, if you have a black cat, a cauldron, and a broomstick I'm going to the nearest pub and getting plastered," Clockwork said.

"... I don't have the cat," Isaac said, stroking Hedwig's feathers.

Clockwork made a series of odd facial expressions as a soft pattering could be heard on the floor.

Something nudged Isaac's foot and he looked down to see what looked like a smaller, slightly less fluffy, version of Smile.

"Eris?" he asked Ben.

"Yep, pick her up, she likes sitting on people's laps," Ben told him.

Isaac carefully picked Eris up and placed her on his lap.

She nuzzled his hand as he started stroking the fur on her head.

"She seems... WAH!" Isaac yelped as a second head appeared.

Her fur changed like Smile's did, the white spot on her head changed to blood red, and both their mouths opened and they had the same sort of human-like smile as Smile had.

An odd sensation of fear and paranoia washed over him briefly before Eris jumped up on him and both heads started licking his face.

He blew a tongueless raspberry as he wiped Eris' spittle from his mouth and the second head disappeared and she settled back down on his lap, waiting for him to resume petting her.

"Yeah, she did that to all of us," Ben said, wiping a bit of spittle that Isaac had missed from the side of his head.

"Thanks," Isaac said, shaking his head with a groan, "What time is it?"

Toby checked his watch.

"My batteries' dead, who's got one that works?" he asked.

"Just after two," Masky said and Isaac groaned more.

"Uurgh," he said as his head his the back of the couch, "I hate time zones,"

"His school's in the UK and he's just got back," Toby supplied to a confused Clockwork, "Go have a nap, I'll wake you for dinner," he said to Isaac.

Isaac hummed a thank you and stumbled up the stairs, Hedwig flying back to his arm from the perch on the t.v. that she had flown to when Eris shifted forms.

Isaac made his way into his room and Hedwig flew to the stand by the window.

Isaac shuffled to the window and pulled the curtains closed to block out more of the light before pulling a pair of pyjamas out from his trunk and changing.

A knock on the door had him groaning and dropping the duvet that he had just lifted.

"Yo Specs, you asleep yet?" Ben asked through the door.

Isaac groaned again and opened the door, glaring at the living glitch slightly, "Have a guess,"

Ben smiled and held out something for Isaac to take.

Isaac took the card and read the writing on the front.

~ _Kidnapee Collector Card~_

Underneath that is smaller writing was.

~ _Every 6_ _th_ _kidnapping earns 2 free pizzas of kidnappee's choice!~_

 _~Courtesy of Laughing Jester Pranking Services~_

Isaac turned the card over and saw that the top three boxes had already been stamped.

He couldn't help the small smile that grew on his face.

Ben turned to leave but Isaac pulled him into a hug.

"Good to be home," he mumbled.

Ben rolled his eyes, smiling none the less, and returned the hug.

"Good to have you back, Specs," he said and left Isaac to rest until Dinner.

"Oh, by the way," Ben said, catching the door before Isaac could close it, "L.J said about getting you to drop by his Carnival at some point over the next couple of days. Said that he has someone for you to meet,"

Isaac grunted a reply and shut the door.

He sighed as he climbed into the bed.

As he drifted off to sleep his mind brought up the memory of another multi-headed dog that he had met.

He opened his eyes blearily.

'Could... Smile... Fluffy...' he was too tired to think properly and drifted off to sleep, waking a few hours later when Toby woke him for dinner.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

Jeff glared at Jane on the other side of the room.

Slendy had told the two of them that they would be staying there until they worked out how they were going to, at least, live in the Mansion together without trying to kill each other on a daily basis.

"You got rid of the mask I sent you," Jeff said.

Jane glared back.

"Tossed it the second that my face healed up," she growled, her body shaking in anger.

"Look, whether we like it or not, we're going to have to live together," Jeff ground out, "I ain't going to apologise for what I did..."

"Still doesn't change the fact that you did it!" Jane spat venomously.

"No, it doesn't," Jeff growled, "But Slendy ain't joking about leaving us locked in here until we reach a... what did he call it? Impasse, so, we're going to have to think of a way for this to work,"

"You dropping dead would be a good place to start," Jane suggested.

"Right after I rip your spine from your back," Jeff shot back.

A tense silence fell between the two of them again.

"I ain't going to apologise for what I did," Jeff said a few minutes later, "I wasn't right in the head and we can't change what happened, so," he shifted in his restraints, "How about, we don't speak to each other unless we really have to, we don't bug each other, we don't ask L.J to incessently annoy each other, and if we feel really pissed off at each other we go down to the sparring room and beat the crap out of each other?"

"We might as well move in there," Jane snarled.

"You got a better idea?" Jeff snapped.

"Yeah, me and Clock take off, ditch this sausage fest, and leave your rotting carcass on the ground," Jane said.

"Slendy ain't gonna let you do that," Jeff pointed out, "So, what's it going to be?"

Jane glared at Jeff while she thought.

"Fine, but unless there's a fucking decent ass reason, we can't turn down the sparring challenge,"

 **"You will keep it to as low as three a week,"** Slenderman said, re-appearing in the room, **"And it will not last longer than forty-five minutes at a time,"**

"Fine," Jeff and Jane said at the same time, eliciting another round of glares from the two of them.

 **"Glad we could sort this out,"** Slenderman said.

He opened the door and E.J came in to release the two of them.

 **"I've set you and Mrs Oullette rooms on the opposite side of the Mansion from where Jeff's is,"**

"Thank you," Jane said icily as she rubbed her wrists.

At that point something pink came flying into the room and dragged Jane out by the hand, babbling away too fast for any of them to understand.

 **"Jeff,"** Slenderman said warningly.

"What?" Jeff snarled, he was getting tired of this and he was hungry.

 **"Don't start anything,"** Slenderman said before 'porting away.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

End notes.

SURPRISE!

So, three new faces in this fic, I need to update the CP owner bit at the end.

Thank you all for reading, and it looks like there's going to be yet another new face next week.

Thank you all for reading, and I think that this is the shortest amount of time it has ever taken to complete a chapter.

As of writing and ending this chapter, it is Sunday the 11th.

It took me 2 days to write this, I knew it!

I do write better when it's my own ideas.

Right then, I'll probably finish the 20k EXTRAS chapter and get that ready to upload.

Till the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – I can't actually find the original author's name to put here and, from what I've read while trying to find it, not a lot of people seem to like Clockwork or her story. I'm not removing her from the story, I happen to think that her story isn't as bad as people make it out to be, and if you don't like that then maybe this fic isn't for you.

If you have a favourite Creepypasta that has not made an appearance then message me or leave their name in a review.


	25. Chapter 25, Carnival, Chords, and Cats

Chapter 25, Carnival, Chords, and Cats.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Right then.

Chapter 25, I am breezing through these.

Now if only I could do the same with College.

I finally remembered the login for my Tumblr account and I'm going to try and do something with it.

What I've been meaning to do for a while now is get back into learning how to draw little cartoon things like Chibi's and other things so what I'm going to do is once I have something to go up on the Tumblr that I want to share with you then I'll post the link for anyone who might be interested to go see it.

If I do start doing this then I know what I'm going to try drawing.

And yes, it's going to be little scenes from the fic.

Anything else that I need to say?

No, I think that's about it.

Right then, onto the reviews;

DarkRavie;

Glad that you like it.

ravenclawoutcast13;

New URL, hi, welcome.

Glad that you like the story.

Ok, more pastas for me to read, yay,

I've read 'Candlecove' so I can work that one in easily.

'Petscop' and 'Episode 23.5' not yet, but I'll look them up, thank you.

I have a side story called EXTRAS for this fic where I post things that and if I don't have the Slendy-Bros in this fic then there'll be a chapter for them there.

WhiteWhisperingWind;

Heyo, actually writing this piece 4 minutes after you posted, cool.

Yeah, I probably was thinking a very different thing with what you said. Isn't there a picture set that when Edward (I think his name is) asks Belle (I think) what he is it cuts to Alan Rickman saying 'Glittering Fairy Princess'?

Glad that you loved the chapter.

I might write a little more with Jason with Isaac this chapter, don't know what about yet, but I'll do it.

Never apologise for half-asleep logic, that's when the best ideas come out to play, like making smores with thermite.

What could possibly go wrong with that idea?

And I think I know what I'm going to have Toby do soon...

Sweet Smilie;

Yeah, always make sure that your victim is dead before burning.

I'm going to have to start planning how much changes in book 4 and 5 now, I'd better make sure that I do not disappoint.

I'm going to try and write more set-ups for Toby and Liu's sass battles, they're fun to write.

Really, being locked inside his own mind isn't punishment enough for Lockhart?

Fine, I'll add some more later, not going to do it now or in any of the soon to come chapters, but I'll do more to him later.

The MarpasChappers;

MARPAS!

You're not dead! Yay!

And plus... You are the 100th reviewer!

Yay, a milestone worthy of yet another EXTRAS chapter.

I've nearly finished the one for getting 20k views so this should be good.

I'm going to consolidate your three reviews into one massive one.

The long list;

1, Snape and Isaac.

I thought that I did well with that scene, it seems that I did.

... I think that I'll keep the answer to myself for now...

2, Creep Snape.

Oh god no, that would be terrifying, I'm running away now.

A creep Snape would definitely be interesting, but no, I don't think he will become one.

Maybe in an EXTRAS.

3, Creep FanGirl Ginny.

Ben would knock her away with her own detached limbs.

I take it you've read the latest EXTRAS chapter ;D

I think it'll be another EXTRAS chapter if I ever decide to do something with that idea.

4, Eris and Isaac.

I want to write more little derpy scenes with Iris, I imagine she's one of those dogs with a really derpy look on her face all the time.

Writing the scene with her and Isaac was fun.

5, Basilisk Venom and Pheonix Tears.

Hmm... I might have an idea, I will reveal it in due time.

6, L.J VS I.T.

Who would win between L.J and Pennywise?

That is a really good question.

Pennywise would get frustrated at the Mansion since no one there would be allowed to become his fear-snacks, beyond that... I dunno.

Isaac and Dragons.

'sighs'

He's not getting to keep the Dragon.

I know what he will do around that time, but he isn't keeping the dragon.

...

I'm going to have to cue another EXTRAS chapter now, aren't I?

7, Toby / Liu.

I may have tried to make a ship name and said out loud "Luby,"...

and then hit my head off my desk while laughing.

If it doesn't work well through the translations "Luby," sounds like something that's been covered in lube and is slippery.

'sighs again'

No matter how many people ask for it, I won't be writing anything overly sexual in this fic or EXTRAS. I'll hint at it at most, but I'm not writing any smut or a Lemon.

I might write an EXTRAS chapter where one or the other gets caught in a heavy make-out session, but I don't know, I've got enough on that list for now.

I take it that the 'shovel' talk is your version of the 'birds and the bees' talk.

8, Kidnappings.

If it hasn't become a thing by now then I am not writing enough scenes where Isaac somehow gets kidnapped.

Ok, that's all the reviews I got this week.

DP, my wonderful Beta, is still going through stuff so they are going to be back next week.

Well, I think that's about it, onto the chapter.

Hope you enjoy,

OH! and...

Lunarwolf11021... You have no idea how strong the urge to throw a few tennis balls at you was when I had to start writing their dialogue. I kinda gave up and ended up with a sore lump on my head from it hitting the desk.

Besides that, enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Hogwarts.

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office chair.

His fingers were steepled as he looked at The Sword of Godric Gryffindor that stood glinting in the cabinet on the far side of the room.

He narrowed his eyes as a cloud parted and a ruby in the hilt reflected the light into his eyes.

He sighed as he stirred the pensieve on his desk.

The memory of him holding an old, filthy, diary floated to the surface and he watched the image rotate as the fluid in the pensieve settled once again.

Blue eyes were cold and calculating as he elegantly wrote down his thoughts on a piece of parchment.

~ _Riddle / Voldemort_ ~

~ _Creates Diary_ ~

 _~Quirrell and Shade Voldemort~_

 _~Soul splitting?~_

He sat a little taller as he thought back to just glimpsing the dust-like form of Voldemort fleeing the chamber in Potter's first year.

"Horcruxes," he whispered softly, "Oh, Tom, what have you done?"

The quill dropped from his hand as a thought occurred to him.

Harry Potter's scar, his ability to speak Parseltongue, the boy mentioning that his scar had ached slightly before confronting Quirrell / Voldemort.

"He couldn't be," Dumbledore said quietly before picking up the quill, dipping it in the ink-pot, and writing.

~ _Horcruxes~_

 _~Diary Horcrux_

~ _Potter Horcrux~_

 _~Others?~_

He let the quill fall from his hand again as he realised the implications.

If Voldemort really had imparted a piece of his soul, perhaps unwillingly considering that he ordered Quirrell to kill the boy, then that would explain how Harry was a Parselmouth and why the scar ached when he was near Voldemort. It was the reaction between soul pieces.

Perhaps Voldemort had made more than just those two, the boy had his own personality and sense of being, after all, so the part in him must be rather small.

Dumbledore picked up the piece of parchment and folded it gently.

He walked around behind him to the bookcases that covered the alcove behind him and pulled out a nondescript book that looked like one of the numerous volumes that he had on the shelves.

This book, however, was merely an aged version of a Muggle telephone directory book that he had charmed so it blended in.

He placed the piece of parchment in the book, replaced it on the shelf, and sat back down.

Something tickled his chin and when he brought up a hand to wipe whatever it was away. He found a small, glistening, tear.

He looked at the small bead of water.

He had never intended for the boy to become a martyr.

A weapon, yes.

A soldier, loyal to him through the war and the years after, most definitely.

But a martyr...

He leaned back in his chair, showing the many years that aged his body.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

The Mansion

"GYAHH!" Isaac yelled as he jerked awake.

After a few moments of catching his breath, he rolled out of bed and knocked on the t.v.

"Thank you, Ben," he had asked Ben to help him get up since the timezones were still getting to him a bit.

#No Problem :D#

Isaac rolled his eyes at the pale yellow writing and smiley-face before he turned to his trunk and began clearing it out by piling stuff out onto the bed.

A clattering on the floor told him that Ben had crawled out.

"So, Specs, what you got planned for today?" Ben asked, picking up a few of Isaac's shirts and tossing them to him to be put away.

"Not much, probably get distracted from doing homework assignments by you to play games and..." Isaac said, closing the drawer for shirts, but Ben cut across him.

"What's this?" he asked, holding up a cloak of shimmering material.

Isaac stalled as he saw Ben holding his Father's invisibility cloak.

"It's... it... bring it here," Isaac said.

Ben brought the cloak to him and Isaac took it by the hood and let it fall to the ground.

"First Christmas at Hogwarts, I got a package. It didn't have the sender's name at the time but when I was in the Hospital wing after... you know, that shit with the Stone, Professor Dumbledore told me that he was the one to send it to me,"

"Ok, listen..." Ben started.

Toby and Masky had told them about what they thought of Hogwarts and it's Headmaster.

Something about talking to the man had put Masky off the aged wizard.

"It used to be my dads," Isaac said quietly.

Ben looked down at the shimmering cloak and he understood a little better at why Isaac would have kept it secret.

But what was so special about a cloak?

"Anyway, he said that it explained a lot about the things that my dad used to get up to at school," Isaac said, taking a step back.

Ben sat on the bed and watched curiously as Isaac put the cloak on with a jacket flip.

"Ok, you look stupid," Ben said as Isaac held out the edges of the cloak.

Isaac huffed dramatically, "Well if that's the case then I'll go,"

Ben was about to speak again when Isaac drew the cloak around him and vanished.

"Specs!" Ben gasped as he watched him disappear into thin air.

"Gyah!" Ben yelped as something flicked his nose.

"Specs?" Ben asked the seemingly empty room and the snickers from nowhere answered him.

Isaac took the cloak's hood off, his face about an inch from Ben's.

"Gyah!" Ben yelped again at the sudden reappearance.

"Cool, right?" Isaac asked, letting the cloak fall open and revealing himself properly.

Ben looked at Isaac for all of three seconds before scrambling under with him.

"Lemme see, lemme see," he said.

Isaac laughed and let the cloak fall around them and they moved in slightly dysfunctional tandem to the mirror on Isaac's desk.

"Woah," Ben said, picking up a game case and watching it hover in the air with his detached arm holding it up.

"This is seriously... Hrmpf!" Ben was cut off with Isaac clamping a hand over his mouth.

Masky had walked into the room, probably making sure that Isaac was up.

"Seriously, messy teen years already," he grumbled as he closed the door.

Isaac waited a few moments, "Ok, he's gone... Oi!"

Ben had gotten tired of waiting for Isaac to remove his hand and had licked it.

"Ew," Isaac said, wiping his hand on Ben's shirt.

"Says you," Ben said, "When was the last time you washed your hands?"

Isaac elbowed him gently in the stomach and Ben laughed.

"Ok, seriously, why did you not want anyone to know about this?" Ben asked him as Isaac folded the cloak back up and put it back in his trunk under last-years spell books.

"Because, aside from Slendy not letting anyone use my magic stuff, think about what would happen if Jeff, Toby, L.J, or Sally got a hold of this," Isaac said, pressing the books down to keep it hidden.

"Fair point," Ben admitted after a moment's contemplation at the chaos that would ensue as he picked up a pair of Isaac's trousers and threw them at him.

Isaac caught them, rolling his eyes, and tossed them into the drawers.

"You wanna play some games?" Ben said, nudging a few cases on the floor in front of the cabinet that held the t.v.

"Yeah, sure, just let me put these away," Isaac said, tossing a few bundles of socks and pants away.

Half an hour later they called a break so they could nab a late breakfast.

"Aah, there you are," L.J said as Isaac grabbed his toast.

"Hey," Isaac said, putting the toast on his plate and reaching for the jam.

He had just picked up the jar when L.J placed a hand on his shoulder and transported them to his Carnival.

Isaac went cross-eyed and wobbled slightly from the unexpected travel.

"C'mon, chop chop," L.J said, pushing Isaac forward a little.

"Ok, why?" Isaac asked him. He still had his plate with his toast and the jar of jam in hand.

L.J sighed, "I told Ben to tell you..."

L.J reached behind Isaac and pulled a chair into him so he was forced to sit.

"So, every so often, I get into a prank war with a few... friends," L.J said, "And I thought you might like to tag along this time,"

"Other creeps?" Isaac asked, still holding the jam and toast.

L.J nodded.

"I cleared this with Toby yesterday evening, and Masky," he said, "But, you do need to know a couple of things,"

"One, they can be a little... over the top," L.J said and Isaac snorted.

"And you can't be?" he asked.

"I know when to stop before someone really gets hurt," L.J said.

"So, they're a bit more... chaotic?" Isaac asked, trying to find the words.

"Yeah, that's one way to put it," L.J said, "I should mention that they won't be too bad, they'll know you're a proxy of Slendy so they won't try anything,"

"Ok," Isaac said, starting to get a little worried, "And why do you think I'd like to join?"

"After what you did with Lockhart, Teer got me his memories, I think..."

"But his memory was erased," Isaac interjected, "The wand backfired,"

"You'll have to talk to Teer about that," L.J said, "Turns out better than that happened, anyway, since you did such a good job with the blonde baboon, I think this will be right up your alley," L.J said, handing Isaac a butter knife so he could jam his, growing colder by the moment, toast.

"Ok, so what goes on?" Isaac asked, handing him the used knife.

"Well," L.J said, tossing the knife over his shoulder into a board that looked like the ones where someone strapped to it gets knives thrown at them, "Normally we just go with which of us three can pull off the most pranks but, with you, I think they'll accept teams this year,"

"Will we now?" a mildly comical voice, with a faint Irish twist, came from nowhere.

"Well, why not?" a softer, female, voice joined the first.

"Can he keep up with us though?" the first said.

"We'll leave that to Jackie to handle after we go," the second said.

Isaac heard L.J grunt at being called Jackie.

"Though I do wonder, whatever did the little Proxy do to get Slendy's attention?" the first asked.

"A murder most foul, perhaps?" the second offered, "Something strife with destruction,"

"Or perhaps a lost boy who wandered, and strayed from his elders?" the first said.

"Or perhaps he burnt his town down to embers?" the second guessed gleefully.

"Or you could ask me," Isaac said, finally finished with his toast.

"Nah, this is more fun," the female voice said.

"A story's always better at the start," the first said, "All to come,"

"And everything to be done," the second said.

Two figures, both a mix of bright and dark colouring, dropped down a few metres away from them.

Both their hair was coloured completely blue, though the female was brighter than the others.

Bells jangled on their boots and the flairings around their waists, the female also had bells attached to her hair that was done up in four bunches and tied with pink ribbons.

"Isaac," L.J said, "Meet Candy Pop,"

The male jester bowed, kicking a leg out and sweeping with his arm to over exaggerate his introduction.

"... and his sister, Candy Cane," L.J said and Candy Cane mirrored her brother's actions.

"So this is The Slendy-man's newest Proxy," Candy Cane said, stepping closer, "Quite a young one, at that,"

"True it is, it is true," Candy Pop said, walking over as well, "Though just why has Slendy taken an interest in you?"

"I'm just a Proxy until I snap," Isaac told them, "You want the full story or the quick one?"

The twin jesters looked at each other.

"Quick,"

"Full,"

They turned and glared at each other.

"You'll just pester him for the whole story later, Poppy," Cane said, "Might as well get it all now,"

"Toby found me at my relatives when I was eight," Isaac said, settling the argument before it began, "Didn't like the way they were treating me so he made them his target, killed my Uncle's sister and I killed my Aunt when she tried to attack Toby,"

"See, quicker makes better," Pop said.

"And patience makes perfection," Cane said, flicking her hair.

"That explains why I'm better,"

"Better at losing,"

"And you'd know all about losing, wouldn't you?"

Isaac looked at L.J with the silent question of 'Are they always like this?'

'Yes,' L.J mouthed back.

"Well I still got the toucan first," Cane shot back at something Pop had said.

Pop adopted a look of utter betrayal.

"How could you?"

"Easily," Cane said, "So, have we got a contest to start, or are we going to keep talking about how much of a Cumberworld Poppy is?"

"Let's just go over what happens," L.J said before their arguing could go any further, "That way we can both get prepping,"

"Fair enough," the twin Jesters said with matched shrugs.

"Right," L.J said, "Well, simply put, whichever of our two teams pull off the better prank over the next week wins,"

"Points for style," Pop said, striking a dramatic pose.

"Flair," Cane said, throwing a handful of glitter at Pop.

"And general chaos,"

"See, others do it too," Cane said as Isaac saluted.

Pop rolled his eyes.

"... and we take a picture of the aftermath to judge it by," L.J said.

"Well, now that that's been sorted," Pop said, "I'd better take this Rakefire away to start,"

Cane stuck her tongue out, "Slend's got Jason at the Ark for a while, hasn't he?"

"Yes, why?" L.J said.

"No reason," Cane said, rolling her shoulders and causing the bells on her hair and neckwear to rattle.

"You broke your hammer again, didn't you?" L.J asked her.

"His fault," Cane said, pointing at Pop.

"How is it my fault, you Gnashgab?" Pop said indignantly.

"You broke it knocking a boulder down in the Himalayas, you Stampcrab," Cane said before disappearing in a puff of pink smoke.

Cane rolled his eyes at his sister's theatrics.

"So how have things been since we last met?" he asked L.J, "Has the Muckspout bitten off more than he can chew yet?"

"Jeff is fine," L.J said, "I'd better get Isaac back soon,"

"Snatched him away without telling others?" Pop asked.

"No, they know that I was bringing him here and getting him into a prank war, just not that it involved you two," L.J said.

"Aah, and I guess that I need to make sure that that Triptaker doesn't pester the Toymaker to death,"

Cane disappeared in a puff of dark purple smoke.

"Well they seem fun," Isaac said.

"Actually, that was subdued for them," L.J said with a half pout, "Oh, someone's been asking for you,"

"Who?" Isaac asked as L.J disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

He reappeared a few seconds later with Kalakuta draped over his shoulders.

$"What doesss he want now, I wasss asssleep,"$ Kalakuta grumbled as he raised his flat head to stare around the room, $"Oh! Ssspeaker,"$

Kalakuta slid down L.J's arm and onto Isaac's waiting arm.

$"Hey Kal,"$ Isaac hissed as they started walking out, $"Everything alright?"$

$"Perfectly sssatisssfactory,"$ Kalakuta hissed, lazily sliding across onto Isaac's shoulders, $"Better ssstill if I wasss left to ressst,"$

When they got back Masky was waiting for them.

"Thought that we agreed on a heads up whenever they were coming round?" he asked L.J.

"Didn't know they were heading over," L.J said.

Isaac wandered to the kitchen, the toast hadn't been as filling as he had thought it would be.

$"Ssstay ssstill,"$ Kalakuta said.

$"Why?"$ Isaac hissed quietly.

Without warning Kalakuta lunged forward and off him, snatching a mouse that had somehow gotten inside in a powerful bite.

$"Gah!"$ Kalakuta said, spitting it back out, $"Metal and cloth,"$

Isaac watched the little mechanical mouse spindle away and out the door.

"Hey Specs, you back-a-ya-a-ya," Ben trailed off with a gasp as he saw Kalakuta.

"Hey Ben," Isaac said, turning slightly.

"I kinda forgot that he even existed," Ben said, moving carefully around the two to get to the fridge.

$"He sssmellsss funny,"$ Kalakuta said.

$"Funny?"$ Isaac asked as Ben shivered, $"Funny how?"$

$"He sssmellsss... off,"$ Kalakuta said and Isaac snorted.

"W-what did he say?" Ben asked.

"He said that you smell off," Isaac said.

Ben paused for a moment. He pulled his shirt collar up and sniffed a couple of times.

He let it fall with a shrug and grabbed a glass from the cupboard.

L.J popped Kalakuta back to his carnival an hour later after he and Isaac had finished their conversations.

Cane and Pop ended up coming back downstairs not long after that before they left.

"May the better pranksters win," Cane said as he and his sister departed.

Masky rubbed his forehead in anticipation for the week ahead.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

Chicago, Illinois.

The staff at the Harborside International Golf Center stared at the large mounds on their lawn.

They had sent for someone to come down to try and figure out how to undo them and the managers were talking to the police about finding out who had broken in and glued all their golfballs into foot wide spheres.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

Utah Sugarville.

Derek woke with a yawn as he pulled on his dressing gown and made his way downstairs.

After his morning coffee, he started preparing for his task ahead.

It was his niece's birthday tomorrow and he had been asked with making the cake for her.

He pulled everything out of the cupboards that he would need.

He looked over everything and found that the only thing that he was missing, funnily enough, was sugar.

He looked over at the clock and found that, as usual, it was another late morning start.

This worked in his favour since he would be able to go ask his neighbours to borrow their sugar and buy a bag for them back later.

To his surprise, not one of the houses on the street had any sugar. None at all.

He grumbled as he got into the car and drove to the supermarket.

He threw his hands up in resignation as he saw attendees sticking a quickly made poster out of cardboard and marker pens onto the store window.

~NO SUGAR~

~STOCKS EMPTY~

He sighed and dug his phone out of his pocket.

"Mark, yeah," he said as his brother answered, "I'm not gonna be able to make the cake,"

"No it ain't my fault, no one on the street has any sugar left and the store's empty too,"

"I know, complete bull,"

Meanwhile, at Laughing Jack's Carnival.

"Ok," Isaac panted, dumping the last bags onto the ground, "What the hell do we do with this now?" he asked, looking at the literal tonnes on sugar that took up the middle of the circus tent.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

Kalgoorlie, Australia.

The working staff of the Museum of the Goldfields looked around in disbelief.

Everything, phones, doors, door handles, lights, chairs, tables, beds, and the building itself was wrapped in bright, shiny, gold wrapping paper.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

Ankara, Turkey.

Security at the Cermodern Art Gallery was forced to close down early as they started rounding up the many turkeys that were running amok in the building.

A loud cry went up as they realised that each turkey had a number tied around their neck.

Five, thirteen, twenty, and twenty-two were missing, going by the numbers on the necks.

Meanwhile, at the Mansion.

"Masky?" Isaac shouted, kicking the door closed.

"What?" he shouted back from the living room.

"You asked for cotton candy, right?" Isaac asked, walking in.

"No, I asked where you were..."

"Well have some cotton candy," Isaac said, dumping two small, sealed, plastic buckets in front of him.

Sally squealed at the sight of the pink and blue coloured strands and Isaac tossed her a couple of buckets for herself.

"What the hell?" Masky asked, holding the tubs up.

"Just... sugar," Isaac said, "So much sugar," he groaned as he walked up the stairs, each hand holding around six more tubs of cotton candy.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

Inverness, Scotland.

James raised his arms exasperatedly as he saw the sign that the ice rink was closed.

"Hey, pal!" he shouted to a member of staff carrying a few bags out, "What's going on?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," the staff member grumbled as they dumped the bags in the bin and walked back inside.

Inside the local police was talking to the manager about how someone could have gotten in and replaced the ice with every possible flavour of ice-cream.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

Churchill, Canada.

Dean James sighed and pulled the curtains closed.

It had been a long day and he was looking forward to a nice night of rest in bed.

The next morning Dean, and around two hundred others, woke to find that the light that should have been coming through their curtains was being blocked by something.

He threw back the curtains, yelped, and leapt backwards as he stared at a blown-up face of Winston Churchill staring back at him.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

Santa Maria, Cape Verde.

The manager looked in confusion at the lobby of Casino Royal and into the games room where around six dozen inflatable Santa Claus' waved back at him with unblinking faces of frozen cheesy cheer.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

Hampstead, England.

Hermione Granger started as something banged against her window.

Seeing a white owl dip down a bit she hurried over and opened the window.

Hedwig flew in, carrying two buckets of pink and blue, and landed on the bed.

She shook her wings and Hermione picked up the tub and letter with her name on them.

She put the letter down and flipped open the note taped to the tub.

~Hey Hermione~

~Well, we might have made a bit much cotton candy by accident so I'm sending some off to you and Ron~

~Remember to brush :)~

Beside that was a small caricature of a toothbrush.

She smiled to herself as Hedwig shook herself off once more and took off out through the open window.

She looked at the clock hanging on her wall and went downstairs.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

Las Vegas, Nevada.

Police stations all over the town the city of sin and the surrounding area were flooded with calls in the early hours of the morning with people complaining of being hacked and broken into by unknown person(s).

The main reason of the many, many, people's irk was that every single speaker system in the town was playing the same song over, and over.

Elvis, Viva las Vegas.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

The Mansion.

Isaac sat with his head laid down on the living room table as he rested.

"Think I might skip next time," he said wearily to a still somehow energetic Laughing Jack.

"Oh, come on," L.J said, nudging him in the ribs, "It wasn't that bad. Plus we won," he said, holding the small dollar store trophy that they had bought for the occasion.

"Hooray," Isaac said sarcastically, "We won a trophy that cost two bucks, whoopee," he waved around in celebration.

Cane and Pop chuckled.

Candy Cane was leaning on her newly fixed hammer that she had gotten back from Jason earlier that day.

"I'll admit," Pop said, "He didn't do that bad,"

"No, he did not," Cane agreed, "I particularly liked the one where they painted the heads of Rushmore like their noses were running with snot,"

"And what did you do with all that sugar?" Pop asked them.

In return, L.J threw him five tubs of sealed cotton candy.

"I think we're just about through a tonne and a half of it," L.J said, thinking about the large piles in his tent.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

The Mansion.

Jeff groaned as he saw Jane walking down the hall.

He ducked back down the way he had just come and sped up.

He could tell that Jane had been getting ready for their second battle of the week and they had fought the day before.

He growled as he quickly ducked into a cupboard and waited for her to pass.

"Hey, Jane,"

Jeff inwardly growled and swore as Isaac stopped her just outside the door.

"What do you want?" Jane asked huffily.

"I just said hi," Isaac said.

'C'mon, get a move on,' Jeff urged silently.

"Is something wrong?" Isaac asked her.

'Bleeding heart saint, you'll be bleeding in more ways if you don't move it!' Jeff thought angrily.

"Where's Jeff?" Jane growled.

"How am I supposed to know, he left to go to town a couple of minutes ago," Isaac said and by the sound of things Jane had pushed past him before he had finished.

Isaac watched the window and when she had entered the forest he knocked on the cupboard.

"She's gone," he said as Jeff.

Jeff grunted his thanks and walked off.

Isaac managed to get him about half an hour's worth of rest before Jane came barging in through the door.

"JEFF!"

Jeff growled and rolled his eyes at having to fight her again already.

"Want me to bail you out again?"

Jeff turned and glared at Isaac, who had just walked halfway down the stairs.

He debated this all of one second and nodded sternly.

Isaac mimed strumming a guitar and walked back up the stairs quickly as Jeff nodded again and Jane came round the corner.

"There you are," she growled, "Battle room, now,"

"Can't, busy," Jeff said lazily, flicking through the channels.

"Doing what?" Jane asked, Jeff could feel the rage coming off her.

He inwardly smirked.

"Waiting for the kid," Jeff said, "We've got lessons,"

"Really?" Jane asked sceptically, "And what exactly are these lessons?"

"Guitar," Jeff and Isaac said at the same time. There was a guitar strung across Isaac's back and one in his hand.

Jane looked hotly between the two.

"I think a fight is a little more important than learning to pluck a few strings in an order," Jane said, glaring slightly at Isaac.

"In a fight between me and you, who would win?" Isaac asked, taking a step forward.

Jane scoffed, "Me,"

"In a fight between... me and Masky, who would win?" Isaac asked.

"Masky," Jane said, anger starting to tint her words.

"In a fight between me and Toby, or me and Hoodie, or me and L.J, or me and Sally, who would win?" he asked sarcastically, "Answer, not me, for the lot,"

"He agreed that he'd give me extra fighting lessons if he taught me guitar to, in his words, 'to make me somewhat tolerable to be round,'," Isaac said, "So yeah, fights are more important that guitar lessons,"

Jane looked furiously at the two of them before storming off.

Jeff scoffed at the retreating killer and turned to Isaac.

"You are either really selling the point, or..." he started but was cut off when Isaac tossed the guitar at him.

"God damn it, I'm actually starting to enjoy them," Isaac said, swinging his around from his back.

"Then I'm not working you hard enough," Jeff said with a mildly malevolent smirk.

"Back to the start, and copy," Jeff said as Isaac groaned.

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The Ark.

Isaac woke with a yawn and stretched his legs out.

He shook his head, hair poking his eyes as he brushed his fringe out of his face.

"Definitely need it cut," he said to himself as he pulled the longer strands down to just above his lip.

He let the strand go and pushed his hair back before swinging his legs out of the bed and pulling a shirt and jeans from the chest of drawers.

He stifled another yawn with the back of his hand as he walked down the stairs and through to the kitchen.

He slid a couple of slices of bread into the toaster and rummaged through the cupboard for some spread.

He drummed out a small beat against the jar of jam as he had taken.

He spread some smears of jam onto the toast and wandered through to the living room to sit down and eat.

"Alright, Proxy," Jason said, sitting on the couch adjacent to him, "You're going to help me,"

Isaac looked at him, toast halfway to his mouth, and sighed.

He put the toast back down on the plate.

"What do you need?" he asked, wondering if any time this week he'd be able to have his toast without being interrupted.

At least he was able to put the jam on this time.

"I need to find liquorice," Jason said.

"Liquorice?" Isaac said, "L.J likes it, for some reason, try him,"

"No, already asked him," Jason said, "He says that he didn't take him,"

"Well, good luck finding your liquorice," Isaac said, raising the toast again to take a bite.

"You're going to help me find him," Jason said and Isaac dropped the toast back to his plate.

"Wait," he said, sitting up a bit, "Wait, are you saying 'him' like a person, or 'em, like, shortened 'them'?"

"Him," Jason said, a little annoyed, "I'm saying, him,"

Isaac groaned and placed his plate on the table.

"Ok, who's Liquorice?" Isaac asked the Toymaker.

"Liquorice is my constant companion," Jason told him, "My eyes and ears for wherever I go,"

"Alright, what does he look like?"

"Like this," Jason said, holding up a red wind-up mouse, "Though as black as shadows,"

Isaac looked at the wind-up mouse intently.

"Ok, I think I've seen him before," Isaac said.

"Yes, that mamba of Laughing Jack's tried to eat him," Jason said darkly.

"Want me to ask Kalakuta if he tried to eat him again?" Isaac asked but Jason shook his head.

"The serpent has not been in the Mansion again since the first day the Jesters were here," Jason said, thinking about Cane and Pop, "I tasked him with observing the nearby town, _that_ is where he has disappeared," he said, the red wind-up mouse scurrying around his arm.

"So you need my help finding a mouse in the town next door?" Isaac asked.

"Essentially," Jason said.

Isaac sighed, picked up his toast, and walked through to the kitchen, "Give me a moment,"

He walked back with a piece in his mouth and another on a piece of kitchen roll.

"Ok," he said, muffled slightly by the toast, "'et's go,"

Isaac had finished his second piece of toast by the time that the two of them reached the town.

"Alright, where do you think Liquorice will be?" Isaac asked the glamoured creep.

Jason's hair had been pulled back in a ponytail that hung down to between his shoulder blades and his cream waistcoat was open underneath a plain black jacket.

'Still weird seeing them in glamours,' Isaac thought as Jason spoke.

"I had him learning the lay of the land around here, it helps to know where things are if you need to hide," Jason said, looking around the town for any sign of him, "Around the East side of town, that's where he was looking last,"

Isaac turned down a street that led that way, a stray alley cat crossed their path, as Jason paused and looked around the tops of buildings.

"He might have gotten stuck somewhere above?" Jason mused.

"Or down a drain?" Isaac suggested, crouching down next to a grate on the side of the road.

Jason stayed silent to this but shook his head.

"Liquorice would not fall prey to such an accident," he said, "I make my toys _very_ durable,"

"Handy," Isaac said, "How long has he been missing?"

"Little over a day now," Jason supplied, "And no, we aren't missing one another by ending up where the other was last. My toys _always_ find their way back to me,"

"Good to know," Isaac said as he walked down the street, "Locked inside a building?"

"Possibly," Jason said as another cat darted past them, "Lots of cats about," he said, watching yet another run out.

While Jason wasn't focusing on the cat, Isaac was looking at its back leg.

While it's fur was matted with dirt from living rough, there were flecks and smears of something else.

Something red.

"I think I found him," Isaac said and started walking off towards where the cats had run from.

Jason made a hum of intrigue and started following him.

They came around a corner and ended in a dingy little side alley, a few upturned trash cans, old boxes in varying stages of decay from the weather, and a few remnants that showed that the cats lived there often.

An odd yowling was coming from one of the boxes, one that had a fair amount of blood slowly pouring out in a tiny trickle.

Isaac slowly crouched down to look inside.

A heavily coated, mangy, filthy, cat rolled slightly on it's back, blood steadily trickling from its mouth.

"Oh?" Jason said with interest, watching the cat roll around in pain.

The cat let out a long, odd, mewling noise and started coughing large amounts of hair, blood, spit, and other things from it's stomach.

The largest of the mess splattered against the wall of the box and the cat lay still, dead.

Though the cat itself was dead, it's chest still moved as something else forced it's way out.

A small black wind-up mouse wriggled out from the feline's maw and scurried into Jason's outstretched hand.

"Liquorice," Jason said coyly, "Here I was all worried and you're just playing around," he took a handkerchief out from his breast pocket and started wiping him down.

Liquorice made a series of small squeaks and Jason chuckled.

Isaac clapped his hands.

"Right well, I'm heading back," he said and turned to leave.

"Just one moment," Jason said, standing back up, "There was a reason that I asked you to help, and not another,"

Isaac closed his eyes as he let out a soft sigh and turned to face Jason.

"What?" he asked the Toymaker.

"How is it that you became a Proxy to the Slenderman?" Jason slowly walked towards him.

"What... interested him enough to mark you aside from the mindless cattle that walks on this ground?" he slowly dropped his glamour.

"Why, just... why?" Jason asked, stopping about two steps from Isaac.

Isaac looked up at the towering figure.

"I'm a Proxy till I snap," he said, looking up at the yellow eyes, "If you want the full story, then ask him," Isaac turned and walked out.

"Who said I was done with you?" Jason said slowly.

Isaac stopped just before the opening to the street.

"Who said I was answering any more of your questions?"

Jason snarled.

"Tell you what, how about you answer a question of mine, and I'll answer yours?" Isaac asked, innocent curiosity on his face.

"Fine," Jason agreed.

"What did you do to piss off Teer?" Isaac asked, "The first day I was here his string nearly tore a hole in the house because of something you said,"

Jason dropped all emotion from his face.

"You wouldn't understand," he said.

"Then put it simply," Isaac said.

Jason glared at him.

"Simply, he is with the wrong kind of being," Jason said, "You humans are so... fleeting. Your lives are a blink in comparison to the length of our lives," He looked down at Isaac, "Your Puppeteer is neglecting that fact,"

"Now," Jason said, taking another step closer to Isaac, "What makes you so special?"

Isaac smiled.

"Like I said, ask Slendy," Isaac turned and left.

"It would be wise not to anger me," Jason said, his hands turning black with decay.

Isaac stopped again, just outside the alley.

"And what are you going to do?" he half turned so that Jason could just see his eye, "You can't attack me, Slendy, L.J, and Toby wouldn't take kindly to that, and... you just... don't scare me,"

"Really?" Jason said, advancing further.

"Yeah, after you fight a sixty-foot Basilisk, things tend to get put into perspective," Isaac said as he started walking away.

Jason watched as the young Proxy walked away.

"Basilisk?" he said curiously to Liquorice, who was perched on his shoulder, "Could he be?" Jason smirked mischievously.

Isaac got back to the Mansion and tossed his coat on the rack.

"Where've you been?" Masky asked from the couch as a game of football, the American version, was being played on the screen that he was watching with Hoodie, Jeff, E.J, and Clockwork.

"Jason lost his mouse," Isaac said, "Found it killing a stray cat,"

Masky nodded and returned to the game.

Isaac walked off and up the stairs, laughing a bit when Clock, Masky, and Jeff shouted at the screen because the referee was an idiot.

The rest of the day passed as normal as it would pass.

The only thing that made a difference to what was going on was that Jason left late in the evening.

Things had died down after he had 'over indulged' with his work and Slendy felt comfortable in letting him go.

Sally was probably the closest to being sad to see him go, Jason hadn't been able to resist her bubbly demeanour and had been strung along into fixing all of her toys and making a few outfits for Charlie.

No one could help but be drawn in by Sally's friendly attitude and, going by the grin that Isaac saw once or twice, she was well aware of that fact.

Isaac awoke in pretty much the same fashion that he had the day before, though this time his foot hit something on the bed.

In his tire after training with Hoodie last night, he could almost be as bad as Jeff got with the guitar lessons, he had slid down so that he was fully enveloped by the covers on his bed.

He crawled back to the top of his bed and searched for his glasses.

"What the?" Isaac said softly.

He had put his glasses on and there, sitting near the bottom of the bed, was a small box with a blue bow tied around it.

He carefully picked up the box and carried it to his desk.

He thought for a moment before picking up two long pencils and using them to pull the ribbon off. If there was a thing he had picked up from growing up around L.J, it was that you take a little care in opening unknown boxes.

The ribbon came off with a little tugging and he pried the lid open with the pencils.

A note was folded on top of whatever was within the box.

Isaac picked it up and read the elegant, sloped, handwriting.

~ _Thank you for helping me find Liquorice~_

 _~His name is Fizz~_

 _~Do not wind him more than 4 times or he'll get overexcited and will not shut up!~_

Isaac looked down in the box and there, sat in a small padding made of torn pieces of newspaper, was a small deep midnight-blue wind-up mouse with little black eyes.

He carefully picked him up out of the box and, after a moment's hesitation, turned the key in his lower back four times.

The mouse shook a little before it started moving around Isaac's flattened hand, seemingly sniffing around.

It gave a couple of happy squeaks before scurrying up Isaac's arm, "Hey, that tickles!" before coming to a rest on his shoulders and wandering upon them.

"Don't get too comfy," Isaac said as Fizz settled on the top of his hair and nuzzled into the lockes, "I'm getting it cut today,"

Fizz squeaked happily nonetheless as Isaac carefully took off his pyjama shirt and changed.

Fizz crawled down into the pocket of the shirt that he pulled on and settled in, content within the cosy and comfy interior.

"Right," Toby said as Isaac made his way down and twirling the scissors with his finger, "Let's do this,"

Isaac nodded, pulling the long lockes lower to his lips, "Yeah, overdue as hell,"

Toby kicked a stool out into the middle of the kitchen and tossed Isaac a towel.

"Right then, lets... what the?"

Fizz had crawled out of his pocket at the towel being wrapped around Isaac's shoulders and was crawling on top of the towel to see what was going on.

"Oh," Isaac said, holding his hand up to let him crawl onto it, "Jason gave him to me, for thanks for finding Liquorice," he told Toby, "His name's Fizz,"

Toby crouched down and looked at the small wind-up mouse in Isaac's hand.

"He gave a kid, who has an owl, a mouse," Toby said, "Alright, I've done dumber," he said with a shrug before they started cutting down Isaac's hair to a manageable state.

"Well," Masky said, coming through to see how it had gone, "Better than last time,"

Isaac hummed his agreement, pulling a few hairs flat down onto his face that just came to above his eyebrows.

"Still an uneven mess though," Masky said, taking the scissors from Toby.

A few minutes later Isaac left the kitchen and headed back upstairs to shower to get any remaining hairs off him.

Masky sat back down on the couch next to a channel surfing Hoodie.

A few moments later Ben pulled himself free of the t.v.

"Move, you're blocking the screen," Masky said as Ben straightened up.

"Shocking," Ben said, "But I got a good reason to,"

"What?" Masky asked.

"Well," Ben said with a small grin, "You were talking about taking Specs out on a job, and I got a ping on something from Slendy's shopping list,"

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End Notes.

Right, that's it for this chapter.

And what am I doing next week, wouldn't you like to know.

But, that's a surprise for next week.

So, things are going well and I'm starting the next chapter as soon as possible.

Also, I finished this before naming the mouse Jason gave to Isaac so wherever his name is, there's a 'NAME' placeholder until I decide.

But anyway, I'm wrapping it up here.

I hope you've all enjoyed this week's chapter, and I hope you enjoy the next.

Sincerely,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

If any of these are wrong then please notify me of this so I can fix them.

If you have a favourite Creepypasta that has not made an appearance then message me or leave their name in a review.


	26. Chapter 26, Heist

Chapter 26, Heist.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kills scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real life events.

Author's note.

Right then.

Time for chapter 26.

And I think that the name of this chapter kinda gives away what I have planned.

So, a heist, can you guess what I'm going to do?

Anyway, I've probably not put up the 20k view special yet but it should be up soon.

Right, onto the reviews;

Lunarwolf11021;

I'm glad that I wrote them well, and it was a pretty good story to read nonetheless.

I do know what I'm doing with Sirius and Remus, don't worry about that.

Erm... that's a good question and I honestly have no idea. Maybe? I guess is all I can say.

DarkRavie;

Glad you like it.

Ok, there's 3 'Matt' named reviews so I'm going to treat them like one big review.

1, Tabu.

... It could work, I'd have to consult the internet to find out what the actual ship name is though.

And yes, I am reading 'Harry by Proxy', it was one that I found around the start of last year I think and I really cannot wait for the next chapter.

2, Jason wondering about Isaac.

I thought that that was easy to work out.

He was wondering about whether or not Isaac was a part of the 'Magical World' since he mentioned facing a Basilisk.

And you'll find out what Ben's found today. Or tonight, whenever you're reading this.

3, Slender's Bros.

I have thought about adding them to the story, it might be a little late on to add them, but I might have an idea on how I will.

Also, this will mean another EXTRAS chapter.

Seriously, if you haven't read them yet, go read them. It explains Eris' origins and has some more of the 'CP' based things that people would prefer me to write with a slightly darker Isaac (Harry).

In case there's another review.

Right, that's them all.

I have to apologise for this chapter being late, I was sick the day of upload and had to go to bed early to try and sleep it off.

Right then, I think that's everything, to the fic.

Thanks for reading and Enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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The Mansion.

Masky sat forward.

"You found something?" he asked, "What?"

Ben strolled back to the t.v. and placed his hand on the screen.

"Well, over the pond, there's been an odd string of deaths," the screen changed to show a bunch newspaper clippings from a variety of towns. Each one showed a large amount of recent deaths in the obituaries.

"Took me a while to find out if they were connected, but I found a link," Ben went on.

"And you think this would be a good one to take the kid on?" Jeff said, walking through from the kitchen.

"He's got a point," Masky said, "I ain't taking Isaac if something this bad is stirring shit up,"

"Just wait a moment," Ben said, "I ain't done yet,"

Ben sighed and turned back to the screen.

"The link, piss off," he said, pointing at Jeff, "Is that though each newspaper is a different town's local read, each person went to go see the same show being performed in their towns," the screen changed to show a pamphlet for the show.

Few days later, more than half of the people that attended the shows died from 'spontaneous myocardial rupturing' according to the coroner reports,"

"So they went to go see some dude playing piano, and a week later they've all snuffed it," Jeff said, looking at the pamphlet and the times shown.

"The Ivann sheet music?" Masky asked.

"Looks like it," Ben said, letting his hand drop from the screen.

"When's the next show?" Masky asked.

"Three days from now," Ben said, "Means that your ass is saved for finding Specs a B-Day gift,"

Hoodie, Jeff, and Masky turned and looked at him.

Ben sighed, "Am I seriously the only one who remembers?"

"His birthday's the day after tomorrow, right?" Masky asked.

"Yep," Ben said.

"Where's the next show?" Masky asked, scribbling on a pad of paper handed to him by Hoodie.

"Hampstead Theatre," Ben said, "His next show's on the 1st September, 8;30pm,"

"Gives me a deadline at least. Right, you go find out what you can about the player," he told Ben, who nodded and clambered back into the screen, "Make sure everything's good to go?" he asked Hoodie, who nodded likewise and tossed the remote to Jeff.

"Anyone asks, I'm scoping out a job," he told Jeff.

"Got it," Jeff said, walking back upstairs to his room.

A few minutes later he descended, zipping up a jacket since his hoodie was still being washed clean from his last kill.

"Jeff!" Jane said hotly, walking through from the living room.

"Masky told me to do something for a job he's got," Jeff said, walking right past her and pulling on a pair of combat boots before walking out the door.

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Later that day, at Dinner.

"You're serious?" Isaac asked.

Masky nodded.

"It should be a simple in-and-out," he said, "But if you want you can tag along,"

Isaac smiled and Masky started explaining what was going to happen.

"I spent the day scoping out the theatre where the guy is holding the music. We get in, get the sheet music, and get out," Masky simplified the entire thing, "Ben gets the alarms so the only problem will be the attending staff, but if you're up for it, you can come with,"

"What do I do?" Isaac asked eagerly.

"I'll go through with you tomorrow," Masky said, "What we'll do, when we'll do it, how we'll do it, and what we'll do if something goes pear-shaped,"

Isaac, to his credit, was somehow able to fall asleep that night despite his excitement at finally being allowed to join in with an active job.

In the past, if it was something small, he had been allowed to watch from a distance but this would be the first time that he would be allowed to help out.

The fact that they would be getting something for the Attic just made his excitement grow.

Until he realised that if he messed up with this then they probably wouldn't let him sit on in missions for a while and keep him at the Mansion.

So, his night consisted for feeling incredibly excited one moment, then lying stock still from nerves and staring at the ceiling.

'Merlin, this must be how Liu feels sometimes,' Isaac thought, turning over once again.

'Wait... Merlin?' Isaac's brow furrowed, 'Oh fuck, their dumb-ass swears are rubbing off,'

He groaned and furrowed his face into the pillow.

"Anxious?" Ben asked, phasing in next to him.

Isaac looked around.

His bed was now in the field of tall grass with a tall oak tree with long branches.

"What is this place?" Isaac asked Ben, "Always come here, but you said it's from me,"

Ben looked around and shrugged.

"Best I can tell, somewhere familiar," he said, "You really don't recognise it?"

Isaac frowned and shook his head.

"Oh well, you'll find out eventually, I guess," Ben said as he gave Isaac a boost up into the tree.

"Yeah, looks nice though," Isaac said, budging over to make room for Ben.

Ben hummed his agreement.

"Right, I know Masky's going to be going over the plan with you tomorrow," Ben said, swinging his legs idly, "So, for now, we relax,"

Ben clicked his fingers and the scene changed to the inside of a cinema.

"You wanna talk about what's got your nerves up?" Ben asked, sitting back on the seat as the comedy on the big screen started.

"Guess it's just the first-time nerves," Isaac said, kicking his feet up onto the seats in front to stop his leg shaking.

"You know," Ben sighed softly, "I'm going to need a jar to put coins in every time you set me up for stuff,"

Isaac huffed in laughter and elbowed Ben in his side.

After a while Isaac fell into a deeper sleep and Ben carefully dissolved the scape around them so as to not disturb or wake Isaac.

"You'll do great, Specs," Ben said as the last parts of Isaac faded away.

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The dining room. (It has the biggest table).

"Alright," Masky said, placing the papers in front of Isaac, "Here's the plan.

There's a late night showing of _'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,'_ and we're going to blend in as an Uncle and his visiting nephew,"

Isaac nodded to show he understood.

"From what we can tell, the music sheets are being held in a safe used to store important documents that people might pay extra for," Masky went on, showing Isaac a picture of the safe in what he assumed was the manager's office.

"Ben scrubs us from the footage, I go in and crack the safe, nab the sheet music, and we 'g-t-f-o',"

"What do I do?" Isaac asked eagerly.

"Since it's your first time we're using your excitement to disguise the fact that you're going to see the show with your favourite Uncle," Masky said, "But, honestly not much. You'll just be keeping an eye-out in case someone comes and might bust us,"

Isaac nodded.

He knew that he probably wasn't going to be given some big important job since it was his first time though he still felt like he could do something more.

"I'm depending on you to have my back in there, don't screw this up!"

Masky said gruffly as if reading his mind.

Isaac nodded once more, "Got it,"

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Hampstead. July 31st.

Adam Scott looked out over the crowds of people and he felt a dull throb from what was undoubtedly the beginning of a headache.

He wasn't even supposed to be working this shift anyway; Michael had taken the shift off after someone messed up with his car in the garage.

He shook his head and turned to face the newest people that had arrived at the till.

"Hi, how can I help you?" he asked the man in a flannel shirt under a green-grey jacket.

"Just here to see the show with my nephew," the man said with a friendly smile and placed a hand on the messy-haired teen next to him.

Adam couldn't help but smile back at the teen. He seemed to have perfected the look of looking just that little dorky but too happy for anyone to try and bring down.

"Enjoy the show," Adam said and the man slid him a tenner tip, "Lines move faster if you go in on the left,"

The man winked and Adam turned to help the next in line.

Tim turned away from the worker and kept a hand placed on Isaac's shoulder to keep him close by and not get swept away by the people moving in.

"I, erm... I gotta take a leak," Isaac said.

"Oh for... fine, er..." Tim said, looking for where the bathrooms were.

He smiled apologetically at a passing attendee for getting in their way as they made their way along the corridor.

Tim checked over his shoulder.

"Good work so far," he said to Isaac.

They checked that no one was coming before ducking up an employee only stairwell that led away from the stage and to the staff lounge and where the manager's office would be.

Tim tapped Isaac twice on the shoulder.

Isaac nodded and checked around the corner.

He nodded to Tim and they walked round the corridor and along to where the manager's office should be.

"Right," Tim said, coming to the locked door, "Let's see what you can remember,"

Isaac nodded and took out his lock pick, sitting cross-legged on the floor and easing the wrench and pick in.

Tim kept a watchful eye as Isaac prodded at the pins, pushing up on the wrench until...

'Click'

"Got it," Isaac said, keeping the pressure on the wrench so that the door opened and he let Tim in.

Isaac closed the door gently behind him, keeping an ear out for anyone coming along the corridor.

A door opened at the end of the hall and Isaac pressed himself against the door, hoping that they wouldn't see him.

"I just think that if Alice would _talk_ to Derek then she would understand what he meant," one person that Isaac couldn't see properly said, "I mean, she doesn't think things through half the time,"

"True," her friend said, "She doesn't half,"

Isaac held his breath as neither of them spotted him; they were too busy gossiping amongst themselves.

Isaac could hear the soft rustling of Tim inside the office.

He glanced down at his watch.

Tim had been in there for five minutes.

"What are you doing here?" a voice asked and Isaac started, "This place is of limits, staff only," a stocky guard asked, crossing his arms.

Isaac could hear Tim stop.

"I'm…here about the work experience," Isaac said, "I was told to wait here until…sorry, I'm useless with names, what's the manager's again?"

The guard relaxed a little.

"Nobody tells me anything," he sighed, "Jacobs," he introduced himself, "You'll be waiting for Petersons?"

"If that's his name," Isaac said, shaking the man's offered hand.

"Sorry about that," he said, "Get people coming up here all the time because they can't be bothered waiting for the line downstairs at the toilet to shorten and think they can get up at ours,"

Isaac laughed a little awkwardly, "Must be annoying?"

"It is," Jacob's said with a small laugh of his own before walking off.

"Nicely handled," Isaac started again as Tim opened the door.

Isaac shook off his surprise and the two of them headed back towards the stairs.

"So you're here for work experience?" a voice said and the two of them turned.

Another man came out of the staff-room.

"Yeah, you must be Peterson," Tim said, saving Isaac from talking, "Listen, sorry, but I got the address wrong.

Anthony Davis," Tim held his hand out, "Connor's Uncle,"

Peterson shook Tim's hand.

"No problem, no problem," Peterson said, "Since you're here, do you have time for a cuppa?"

Tim shook his head.

"No, sorry, got to get him to his meeting," he said, nudging his head towards Isaac.

"No worries, have a nice day," Peterson said, walking back to his office.

Tim smiled and guided Isaac back down the stairs.

They made it to the lobby and Tim sighed.

"We got a problem," he said.

"What happened?" Isaac asked.

"Music wasn't there. Records said that the guy came to collect it early. Ben's found out that the guy had been offered an extra show. C'mon," Tim said, "We got twenty minutes to nab it before the show begins,"

Tim led the way as they ran to the nearest Slender port. Tim slammed his hand on the sigil and they ran through to a port nearby where the show was being held.

"Thirteen minutes," Tim said, glancing at his watch as they found the building where the man was playing.

They hurried in through a side door to avoid the crowd waiting outside.

"Auditorium?" Isaac suggested and Tim nodded.

Tim and Isaac hurried down to where the auditorium was signposted.

Tim stopped Isaac and clasped his hands on Isaac's ears.

Isaac barely had time to ask why when he saw through the glass panes on the door.

A man was sat down at a grand piano in the middle of the stage as his hands danced over the keys.

The man finished and went off to talk to a man who was taking ear plugs out of his ears.

"Son of a bitch!" Tim said, dropping his hands from Isaac's head and looking at the men, "They know what they're doing,"

"Are they cultists?" Isaac asked.

"I dunno," Tim shrugged, "Just made this more interesting, that's for sure,"

Tim looked around for a moment.

"I got an idea," he said, tapping at the door before opening a nearby closet, "You up to try something?"

Isaac nodded, keeping an eye on the men on the stage.

"Alright, how much control do you have over your 'human torch' thing?" Tim asked and Isaac looked down at his hands.

"Not much," Isaac said, "I mean, I've been trying, but I haven't managed to get it like I did when Clock and I fought,"

Tim came out a few seconds later with a step ladder, a janitor's cap, and a mop and bucket.

"Ok, you try to get it going and when I'm next to the stairs down there," he pointed to the right of the stage, "You lift whatever flame you have to that," he said, setting up the step ladder under a fire detector on the ceiling, "You can't do that, pull this," he said, pointing to a fire alarm on the wall.

"Got it," Isaac said and he climbed the bottom rungs of the ladder and watched as Tim made his way down through the rows of seats to the stage.

As Tim got closer to the stairs Isaac stared down at his hands.

They shook as he strained his fingers, willing for a spark or flame to appear.

"C'mon!" he muttered to himself, "C'mon!"

The air between his hands rippled for a moment but it disappeared.

"Hey! Clear off, we got a show to do!" One of the men shouted at Tim and broke Isaac's concentration.

"Hey I got a job to do, buddy," Tim shouted back, "You don't like it take it up with the boss man!"

Isaac turned back to his hands and tried again.

"C'mon!" he growled.

His head was starting to hurt but he kept pushing until a ripple of blue flame made its way around his hand like it had been soaked in something and lit.

Isaac watched as he touched his other hand to the flames and it was set alight as well.

"YES!" he cried and held his hands up to the detector.

The thing melted and burned as a loud and piercing tone echoed throughout the building, startling the crowd gathered outside, and Tim leapt onto the stage.

Isaac waved the flames out and jumped off the stepladder and looked through the pane of glass.

Tim was leaning on the piano, holding a blood-stained arm.

One of the men was aiming a gun at him and the other was picking up the fallen mop.

Isaac watched as they talked, unable to hear what they were saying over the alarm.

The other man swung the mop at Tim and Isaac's hands reignited in fury.

He shook them out again and quietly made his way into the hall.

The men didn't hear the door open and close over the alarm and he snuck round the side of the room, ducking down to hide behind the rows of chairs set up.

The man with the mop was talking to Tim, who couldn't do anything without getting shot again, as Isaac snuck up behind the man with the gun.

He looked up at the man and clenched his hands.

The flames came for a third time, burning bright blue and green, as he jumped up onto the man's back and held onto his face and arm.

The man dropped the gun in shock as his vision was obscured by flames and Tim was able to knock the other man away.

Isaac was knocked off as he spun around in panic.

Isaac's vision blurred as his glasses fell away and he could just make out Tim breaking his opponent's arm before stamping hard on the middle of his chest with the heel of his boot.

The screaming man had run himself into a crazed frenzy and had gotten tangled in the large red curtains.

"Time to go!" Tim yelled over the alarm as he grabbed the music with his good arm and Isaac's shoulder just as Isaac found his glasses again.

Tim yanked Isaac to his feet and the two of them bolted back towards the door they had come through.

"GYAH!" Isaac screamed and fell as his leg collided painfully with the step-ladder.

He got back up as Tim turned around and half ran, half limped, with him as they got out before legging it back to the Slender port.

Masky and Isaac leant against the wall, panting heavy.

In the not-so-far distance, they could see the sky glow from the blaze that Isaac had started.

"Well…" Tim gasped, "That could have gone better,"

"What…" Isaac started, gulping down air into his burning lungs, "What did they want? _Were_ they cultists?"

"Worse," Tim said, "Business men.

Didn't know jack shit about what it was, thought I was from a rival drug company.

All they knew was that the music caused rupturing and were going to use the scare from this to boost their sales for heart medication," Tim spat out a small amount of blood, "No idea that it was supernatural, just thought that it was some resonance with the chords and certain… I dunno, he went on about 'architectural structure resonance' or some shit like that,"

Isaac slumped to the ground. His leg was getting too sore to stand on.

"Lemme have a look," Tim said, picking up a tatter from the torn trouser leg and pulling it up, "You'll live," he said, rolling the trouser leg carefully back down so as to not disturb the cut on Isaac's leg from where the step-ladder had caught him.

Isaac stood back up and Masky handed him the sheet music as they walked back into The Forest. He needed his other arm to try and stem the blood flow from the bullet wound in his arm.

"All in all," Masky said, "We missed our chance to get the music and ditched plan A, broke into a school, got shot, and started a fire.

Yeah… that's about how things would normally go," he finished and Isaac laughed, limping as they walked back up the stairs of the porch.

"Welcome back, how did it…who's bloody?" E.J shouted from the living room.

"Both," Masky shouted back, "I got shot and the kid got into an argument with a step-ladder,"

Toby had sped round the corner and skidded past them towards the kitchen and dining room.

Masky sighed and rolled his eyes.

E.J threw Isaac a small first-aid kit to bandage his leg and followed Masky to the Med-bay.

"Here," Ben said, handing Isaac a wet paper towel to wipe the blood away, "So, did you win your fight?"

"We got the music," Isaac said, patting the pages next to him but Ben moved them to the coffee table to sit down.

"Not that fight," he said, "You V.S. a step-ladder, who won?"

Isaac rolled his eyes as he winced from patting the bandage down.

"Well since it's stuck inside a burning school I'd say I won," Isaac said.

Tidying up he saw the small burns on his hands that had appeared from whatever his hands could do.

Toby had come back through at that point and took one of Isaac's hands and examined it.

"You realise what we gotta do next, don't you?" he said, turning the hand over and examining his palm.

Isaac shook his head, "What?"

"See if you can throw fireballs," Toby said as Hoodie swapped him the music sheets for a cake.

"And now that you're back, we can properly celebrate," he said, "Wanna try lighting the candles?"

Isaac flexed and shook his hand for a moment.

Sally leaned in closer, wanting to see him do more magic, as he focused and the blue flames rippled back around and he held it over a candle as it flickered out and he dropped his hand back to his side.

"Well, you got one of them," Toby said, "Feel ok?"

"Little tired," Isaac said, shaking his head to clear it.

"Well, good thing that cake exists," Toby said, using the candle Isaac lit to spread the flame to the others, "You realise that Sal's' is going to keep asking you to light her candles from now on?" Toby laughed as the blue flame stayed the same for all the candles.

Isaac managed to get through the rest of the day without further incident and Ben got him to help him drag another t.v. down to the living room so that they could set up one big gaming system.

"Would've let you open this one before you went," Toby said, handing Isaac a package that curved slightly, "But it arrived after you and Masky left,"

Isaac unwrapped the present and let the object dangle on his hand.

"Well that'll help you keep your glasses on," Masky said from the couch, wincing as he switched hands to take a drink.

"Better yet, they're prescription," Toby said before urging Isaac to try them on.

Isaac took off his glasses and pulled on the pair of light-blue translucent goggles.

"Looks like a good fit," Toby said, adjusting the straps so they didn't slide around on his face.

"Matches my hands," Isaac said, causing Toby to laugh looking around at the blue-tinted world around him.

He gave his head a few quick shakes to see that the goggles wouldn't fall off before pushing them up onto his forehead and replacing his glasses.

"Nobody's too badass for cake, Jane," Clockwork said, shoving a small plate into Jane's hands, "Now shut up and help me beat these dorks," Clockwork said, turning back to the screen as the next game started.

Halfway through that game a loud hooting came from outside and Sally bounced happily by the window as Hedwig flew in, spinning in the air as she did so and causing Sally to squeal, and dropped two packages on the table before landing on Isaac's outstretched arm.

Hedwig hooted happily, muffled slightly by a letter in her beak.

Isaac recognised the Hogwarts wax emblem on the letter and recognised it as the Hogwarts school letter before Hedwig started trying to get his attention.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked as Hedwig flew back to the window and nodded outside.

"Follow you?" he asked and Hedwig flapped her wings to say yes.

"Let's go see what she wants," Toby said and he and Isaac followed her to a road just outside of Slendy's Forest.

"Ok, I see diddly squat," Toby said, looking around.

Hedwig hopped off of Isaac's shoulder and down onto the ground where what seemed like an old and tattered feather duster had fallen off a car.

"Oh…" Isaac said, "Errol,"

The old owl hooted, sounding incredibly weak.

"What the hell is that?" Toby asked as Isaac picked up Errol and cradled him close to his chest.

"Errol, the Weasley's owl," Isaac said, gently rocking Errol as he carried him back to the Mansion.

"This won't break any of Slendy's rules or wards, will it?" Isaac asked as they came to the edge of the forest.

"Nah, just make sure that you keep him in your room so Smile or Eris don't eat him," Toby said, picking up the package that Errol must have been sent with.

"What was all the... What the fuck is that thing?" Masky asked as Isaac came in carrying Errol.

"The Weasley's mail owl," Isaac said, "I don't think he's for long flights,"

Toby placed the owl on the coffee table as Isaac carried a barely alive Errol upstairs.

"Here," Toby tossed him the package to him when he came back down, a few stray feathers stuck to his shirt.

Isaac opened the package from the Weasleys and a card fell out of the package wrapped in gold.

Isaac flipped open the card and a piece of flimsy paper slid out onto the floor.

He recognised it as a cutout from a newspaper and the moving picture told him it was from the Daily Prophet.

Isaac looked at the cutting of the article which showed, in it's grainy black and white picture, a photo of the Weasley brood smiling and waving at the camera.

Isaac smiled as he read the title which proclaimed that they had won a large amount of Galleons in a prize draw.

Isaac thought that if there was anyone that deserved it then it would be the Weasleys; who were some of the kindest people that Isaac had ever met but unfortunately some of the poorest as well.

"Could you hurry up and shut up whatever is making that noise?" Jeff growled next to a whining Smile.

Isaac quickly opened the parcel and what looked like a spinning top having a sugar rush fell onto his hand.

He placed it on the coffee table and read through the letter.

"Erm... Mr Weasley won the lottery... went to Egypt... old wizarding tombs, I'll let you read it in a moment," he said to Ben who had done a wonderful impression of an owl to turn and look at Isaac, "... back in the UK a week before the school year starts... Percy's head boy, good for him...,"

Isaac changed to the other note.

"Pocket Sneakoscope, here we go..." he read the note, "Does this whenever someone un-trustworthy is around..."

On instinct, Isaac's eyes flicked up to look at L.J.

L.J sighed, "Oh sure, blame the homicidal killer clown," he mock cried, "Lemme try something," he said, popping away and back again five seconds later.

"Did it go off?" he asked.

"No, might just need to shove it in a sound-proof box," Isaac said.

"Well I'm sick of it," Jane declared and left the room as Isaac stuffed it back in the wrapping paper and bunched up other pieces to act as padding to muffle the noise.

He then quickly turned to the top package on the table and the way that it was neatly wrapped up told him that it was Hermione's gift.

"Holiday in France... re-wrote her essay to mention what she found... sent her gift with Hedwig since... Customs would probably withhold it, Hermione, what the..." he broke off as he read the letter.

He opened the gift and a sleek, black-leather, case fell out onto his lap; silver writing embroidered on the cover labeled the box as ~ _Broomstick Servicing Kit_ ~.

"Wow, Hermione," Isaac muttered as he opened the heavy case to look inside.

He had just picked up a jar of high-finish handle polish when the remaining package bounced on the table.

"Back!" Masky commanded and everyone backed up from the table.

"Isaac," he said warningly when Isaac approached the table.

"Oh," Isaac groaned, "That's Hagrid's handwriting," he said, pointing at the scrawl on the thick, brown, paper.

"Same Hagrid that thinks monsters make perfect housepets?" Jeff asked, "Nice guy, for a lunatic nut-job,"

Isaac carefully found one of the strings on the package and tugged it open.

He just had time to read the title ~ _The Monster Book of Monsters~_ before the book flipped and scuttled off the table like a weird crab.

"What the shit!" Toby yelped as it scurried past him.

"Erm... Belt!" Isaac said, fumbling to take his own off.

An odd yelping filled the air as The Puppeteer carried the book back into the room; hanging it from a large amount of string.

"What the fuck?" he asked, "Why the fuck? And who the fuck?"

"I have no idea," Isaac said as he hurried forward and bound the book closed with the belt.

"Go stick it in your trunk," Masky said, sitting back down and taking another drink.

After Isaac hurriedly shoved it away and came back down.

"Last one," Ben said, handing him the school letter.

Isaac sighed as he opened the letter.

He frowned as he pulled out an extra piece of parchment along with the usual two.

"Starts at same time... Oh," he said to himself before clearing his throat, ~"Third-years are permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade at certain weekends. Please give the enclosed permission form to your parent or guardian to sign."~ Isaac read out from the additional notice on the yearly letter.

"Someone got a pen?" Toby asked as Isaac handed him the form.

Liu, who had just come down from having a shower, tossed him one as he passed.

The Sneakoscope started spinning sporadically.

It would suddenly flare up and then drop as if it never moved; before repeating the process.

"Erm... what is that?" Liu asked.

"Birthday gift from Ron," Isaac said, looking curiously at it, "Lights up when... Oh... Sully,"

"Erm... what?" Liu asked as he frowned down at the thing on the table.

"Lights up when someone untrustworthy is around," Isaac said, "Must be reading you and Sully,"

Liu looked up at him, "Well, handy little thing,"

"Sorry," Isaac said as Liu straightened back up but he waved it aside.

"Eh, forget it," Liu said, "Just means that you get a notice whether or not I'm Mr Grump or not," he said with a small smile.

Isaac finished taking everything up until the final thing left was the servicing kit.

"Erm... Masky," Isaac asked, "Can I..."

"Go get it, have a fly around," Masky said and Isaac bolted back upstairs.

A few moments later he came back down with his Nimbus in hand and Sally bounced excitedly as she followed him out the back of the Mansion.

Toby and Ben hesitated less than a second before running out after them, followed shortly by Teer, Helen, Clockwork, Hoodie, and Jeff waited a few seconds before meandering after them.

"So what's the hubbub..." he asked before doing a double take as Isaac sped past them before corkscrewing into the air and doing a barrel roll.

"Ok, that's kinda cool," he said as he watched Isaac roll in the air.

When Isaac flew down and hovered just above the ground Sally immediately leapt forward and begged to get flown around.

After Hoodie gave a nod Isaac picked her up and sat her just in front of him before flying her around the outside of the house.

She squealed happily as they circled back round before skimming over the tops of the nearby trees before he landed and let her off.

She wriggled down and bounced around happily; flickering in and out of sight every so often.

Isaac raised an eyebrow at Ben and shuffled forward a bit to make space for him.

"Hold on," Isaac whispered to Ben, who had placed his hands on Isaac's shoulder's to steady himself.

Isaac kicked off hard and Ben just barely managed to move his arms around tightly around Isaac's waist to stop himself sliding off backwards of the broom as they shot upwards.

His grip tightened further and his legs were crossed under the broom as Isaac sped around the house before rolling and flying upside-down for a moment.

"Gyaah!" Ben yelped as the world turned upside down and he pulled himself as close to Isaac as possible to keep on the broom.

He could hear Isaac's laugh over the rushing air as they swooped down and Ben could feel the tips of his sneakers hitting leaves and small twigs as they moved around the tops of the trees.

He carefully unwrapped one arm and let his fingertips brush down on the top most leaves.

Isaac pulled up and he returned the arm as they circled back to the back door.

"You actually weren't kidding," Clockwork laughed as Isaac and Ben dismounted.

Isaac snorted in laughter, "Yeah, I've not got a lot of potion stuff right now or I'd show you the cauldron,"

Clockwork shook her head in laughter and headed back inside.

"You can play with the rest of this stuff tomorrow," Toby said as they reached the living room, "It's late enough as it is,"

Isaac nodded since he couldn't really argue and Ben offered to carry the servicing kit back upstairs for him.

"Wanna pull an all-nighter?" he quietly asked on the stairs.

"You're on," Isaac grinned back.

Once everyone else was either in bed or already asleep Isaac quietly got out of his own and knocked on the screen.

Ben phased into appearance and they quietly started their night-long competition.

"You looking forward to going back?" Ben asked as they finished the campaign of one game and switched to the next.

"Little bit," Isaac said, "I mean, I'd happily spend the rest of my life here with you guys, but it's nice to see my other friends as well. Plus, over there, I feel a little safer acting my age around others,"

"What do you mean?" Ben asked, a little confused.

"Well... over there, everyone isn't as grown up and know about this other side of life," Isaac said, looking at Ben and around the room, "They don't know about what we do, and I know it's for a good reason, but here I've got everyone readying me for what feels like war at times,"

"And you need a break?" Ben asked.

"It feels wrong to admit it," Isaac said softly.

Ben reached out and shook Isaac on the shoulder.

"Nothing wrong with wanting a break from all this now and then," he said, "I think I once spent a couple of months, when I wasn't busy deleting footage of the others, out and just doing weird, random, little kid things," Ben said, "Bought a portable barbacue and made sausages in a park somewhere, tried to learn how to skateboard and ended up skinning my knees bad enough that E.J had to bandage them, spray-painted my name on an underpass..." Ben paused as Isaac laughed a bit.

"Point is," he went on, "Everyone takes a break from this. I have that website for gaming help, L.J has his prank shop, Jeff goes and plays guitar on open nights at bars and city centres sometimes, Helen goes and does caraciture's in festivals, and I heard that Hoodie once peformed at Edinburgh Fringe in the street doing a mime show.

If your break is going off to a magic school and becoming the next Sorcerer Supreme, then go for it,"

Isaac smiled and handed Ben one of the snacks that they had managed to squirrel away with help from their 'unnamed accomplice' who agreed to it if they got him a large amount of a certain white vegetable that causes a fairly well known reaction to eyes whenever sliced open.

Around half seven in the morning Isaac could barely hold his eyes open any longer and Ben helped him into bed before stuffing the evidence of their games night under the bed and crawling back into the t.v.

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Nigg Bay golf course.

The waves lapped up on the beach in calm rolls as night started easing away.

Nobody was around that time in the morning and if there had been anyone then they would have seen a rather odd sight.

A large, but skinny and almost skeletal dog paddled tiredly to shore.

It's fur sodden; coated with salt and other things that one might find adrift in the vast ocean.

Parts of its skin were burnt from endless paddling in the sun and as it reached the shore it crawled, half dead, to the nearest bin and weakly knocked it over.

He tore into the remains of someone's lunch viciously, wolfing down the remainder of the chips and half a sandwich.

A few metres away there was a vending machine being watched by an old, broken, video camera.

The dog made its way towards it and halfway there it transformed into a filthy and just as skinny man with matted and disgusting hair.

He reached down and just managed to pick up a large stone before bringing it hard against the glass and grabbing a few bottles of water and desperately gulping them down.

After everything in the vending machine was devoured he turned his eyes inward.

As the sun rose behind him murder gleamed in his eyes.

Murder for the one who betrayed his best friend and his wife.

In Azkaban he could always tell when someone was about to die, he felt some morbid sense of belief that he needed to be present for it.

Now he would find the bastard traitor and commit the act of murder that had him wrongly imprisoned for twelve years.

But first he had to make a stop.

He had to check on the one he failed all those years ago, his godson.

He remembered some of his final words with Hagrid; how Harry had been taken to live with Lily's muggle relatives.

That would be his first stop, if they hadn't moved away from, the dreadfully dull Privet Drive.

With a new sense of determination Sirius Black leapt forward; turning back into the large hound, and set off.

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End.

Well, things are kicking up a bit now, aren't they?

I hope that you all enjoyed, and I hope that I did the heist part justice. It was my first time writing anything along those lines.

I took inspiration for the Music sheets from two Creepypastas. I had heard the story of the pianist who made a deal to perform better music first from the song by Madame Macabre and when I was looking up the story I found the other version of a haunted grand piano bought by someone called 'Ivann' so I decided to combine the two of them a little.

I'll probably learn how to do things like that better in future scenes, but, until then.

I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you all in the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

If any of these are wrong then please notify me of this so I can fix them.

If you have a favourite Creepypasta that has not made an appearance then message me or leave their name in a review.


	27. Chapter 27, A Bus, Convict, and Diagon

Chapter 26, A Bus, Convict, and Diagon Alley.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kills scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Ok, chapter 27, getting near 30.

I hope last weeks chapter went well, was a little late in uploading it, I know.

But I reckon that things are going well, time to step back to the wizarding world again.

But, as usual, gotta get through any reviews from last weeks chapter first.

I am going to say that I'm changing a couple of things with how one of the classes at Hogwarts is taught just in case anyone gets annoyed about it or says that I've messed up how the class is taught.

DarkRavie;

Thanks, glad that you like it.

Sweet Smilie;

Mrs Norris will probably be missing a tooth by the end of week two.

Jason and Candy Pop were recently read stories for me so I probably don't know them as well as others do.

Why the sugar? Because I zoomed in on a random town in America, found Sugar Ville, Utah, and thought that stealing every bag of sugar would be the perfect amount of pun and weird.

I am so using that one with the cars next time I do something with Laughing Jack.

Yeah, Ben is the only person who remembers, I'm going to start readying for things there soon.

I think Jeff would throw any alarm that tried to get him up before he naturally wakes up out a window or stab it a bunch of times. Maybe both.

I suggest that you go back and read the chapter named 'The Mandatory Filler Chapter' if you want to know what happened to Vernon after Toby gave Privet Drive a visit.

Right, that's it for reviews, and now the check in from DP,

I am glad to be back guys! I had a few things going on the past few weeks. School work picked up, I had to get a new car, and I became a waitress at Northwoods brew pub.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this week's chapter.

My response to your part.

Ok, no more stalling, time for the chapter.

Enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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The Mansion.

Isaac woke with a rolling yawn.

He sat up but flopped back down as he got light-headed and rolled out of bed.

He shoved on his glasses and checked the clock on the bedside table.

He groaned as he saw that he had managed to only get around four hours of sleep after playing games with Ben until the early hours of the morning.

He had missed breakfast but could get away with having an early lunch.

He tugged on a jumper and made his way downstairs, listening out for anyone else that might be up and about.

By the sounds of things, there was someone near the kitchen.

"Oh, morning," Isaac said blearily to Jeff as he moved to get past him.

He froze and suddenly felt a lot more awake when he got sight of the bloodied up Jeff.

"What happened to you?" he asked as Jeff took off his hoodie before it started dripping blood everywhere.

"Well... someone's going to have a fun way to wake up tomorrow," he chuckled.

"What'cha do?" Isaac asked, interested in whatever mischief Jeff had managed.

"Heh," Jeff chuckled, "Well... if you really wanna know..."

He broke off as he heard someone walking close by.

"Walk with me, wanna avoid Jane for a while," he said as he threw his hoodie into a basket in front of the washing machine.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

Jeff watched from the adjacent rooftop as the three girls carelessly made their way down the street.

"Christ, could you take any longer?" he asked, it was already fairly late at night and his intended targets had stopped in front of a closed store and were talking about what they were going to do over the holidays.

He could hear the faint chatter of one of them saying that they were heading out early in the morning to fly over to their parents a couple of states away.

Jeff laughed to himself.

"Oh no, you're not~," he said in a sing-song voice as they _finally_ made their way into their house.

He looked the house over and saw a small balcony that connected the back most rooms together, but it was too far a jump so he decided to go for the side door into the house that he could see.

He got to his feet and rolled out a crick in his neck as he focused on the roof opposite him.

He backed up a little and took a running jump, landing on the roof of the apartment above the store that he had watched the girls talking in front of.

He carefully made his way across and over to the roof of the house and looked for anyone in the windows that might be looking out.

After checking that the coast was clear the descended down the side and made his way to what he assumed to be the laundry room door.

He carefully picked the lock and listened for anyone moving around inside.

All noise seemed to be coming from upstairs so he entered and closed the door softly behind him.

He mentally groaned as he looked around the living room.

It stank of layers upon layers of hairspray and nail polish, a small splodge 'hidden' under a rug proved that, and what looked like a small mountain of fashion magazines and gossip articles took up the entirety of the coffee table.

He heard the footsteps of someone making their way down and ducked back into the laundry room.

"Yeah, Stacy, I'll be right up," the girl that came downstairs called up, "I'm just putting this mess away,"

Jeff snuck behind the laundry room door as whoever it was, he didn't care, entered the room.

"Like I could sleep anyway, Gemma's stupid candles keep me awake," she grumbled, "Migraines on a stick,"

"I'll help you sleep," Jeff said, quickly placing a hand over her mouth so she couldn't scream and digging the knife deep into the base of her spine.

She struggled for a few seconds before going limp and Jeff let her lifeless body fall onto the floor.

He pulled down the basket of clothes she had brought down and the body soon disappeared under the mound of dirty washing.

He listened to see if anyone was coming down from hearing any noise that had been made but it sounded like no one had heard a thing.

The faint sound of music drifted down from what sounded like someone's music player as he carefully made his way up the stairs; testing each step in case one squeaked loudly.

There was an open closet to his right as he came to the landing at the top of the stairs. He quickly darted inside when someone came out of one of the rooms.

The fact that the music didn't grow any louder told him that there was only one person walking his way and as the bottle-blonde passed he grabbed her arm and quickly dispatched her with a deep gash across her neck.

He stepped out of the pooling blood that made its way just outside the door, brushing a large amount of the splatter that had covered his face as he did so.

He came to the door and tried the handle but found it locked from the inside.

He growled in annoyance and looked at the writing on the door.

~ _If the music's playing, then away you'll be stayin'~_

He growled again at the pretentious writing.

He thought about what he could do when he remembered the small balcony that ran from the room he was trying to get into and the room next to him.

He opened the door and froze.

There was someone asleep on the bed, earplugs in to block out any noise coming from next door and an eye mask.

He carefully made his way across the room, stopping again when she turned over in her sleep.

He carefully opened the door without making a sound and exited onto the balcony.

He stopped again at the sight of someone already on the balcony.

They had a dark hoodie drawn tightly across their face and were holding their phone up close to the window, taking a photograph or video.

Jeff watched the peeping tom as he felt rain start to fall down.

Whoever it was didn't seem to care about it as it fell harder and faster.

The man was so engrossed in whatever he was doing that he didn't notice Jeff sneak up behind him as he stopped recording whatever was going on inside the room.

He did notice, however, when Jeff grabbed the guy by the back of his neck, causing him to drop the phone, as Jeff picked him up and shoved him over the railing.

He landed on the bins outside with a loud crash.

Jeff quickly darted out the way as whoever was inside the room opened the door to come check what was going on.

Jeff didn't breathe as he slipped behind her and inside the room as she looked out over the balcony.

From her gasp Jeff could tell that she had seen the person lying on the ground and she hurried back into the room, not seeing Jeff, to find her phone and call someone.

As she was about to dial for emergency services Jeff snatched the phone from her and she spun around.

Her mind seemed to freeze as she backed up away from him; her face one of pure, frozen, terror.

Jeff dropped her phone to the ground, standing sharply on it with his heel, as he walked forwards.

She made a quick lunge and grabbed one of the glass figurines that were on a shelf above her bed.

She pointed the glass unicorn at Jeff threateningly.

Jeff made a face of mock fear.

Before changing it to one of a condescending sneer.

"What do you think you can do with that?" he asked as he let his glamour fall away.

The glass unicorn fell from her hands as his hair grew out, wilder, as the mousy brown locks changed to strands of charcoal black.

He could see his reflection in the mirror as his skin tone changed from a healthy tanned look to his bleached, leathery, white.

He inwardly smirked as the large gashes in his cheeks appeared and he ran his tongue along the rough edges as he grabbed the falling unicorn figurine.

She barely had time to raise a hand to defend herself as he raised it up and brought the tip of the horn down hard into her eye socket.

She started to scream as he rammed the knife deep into her side and as he drew the knife out he watched her fall and squirm slightly on the bed before she lay still as blood poured out of her, staining the bed sheets and pooling underneath her, making a small and morbid waterfall off the bed and onto the floor.

Jeff looked down at her.

"This feels familiar," he said to himself, looking at the glass figurine impaled in her head, "Why does this feel familiar?"

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

Back at the Mansion.

"You're right," Isaac said as they wandered through the forest, "It does feel kinda familiar,"

"See, I knew I wasn't the only one that thought so," Jeff said as he kicked the rotted corpse of an old bird that Smile and Eris had missed.

Isaac looked back through the trees, "You reckon that Jane's given up trying to find you?"

Jeff snorted in laughter.

"Nah, she's been hunting my ass for years," he said, "She'll be milking the three fights a week deal for as long as she can,"

"Uh-oh," Isaac said, "Talk of the devil,"

Jeff glanced at where Isaac was looking and saw Jane storming towards them.

"Fu-ck," he growled under his breath as Jane got closer.

"Let me guess," Jeff said as Jane glared at them, "You want to fight?" he asked in a baby voice, "I'll take that as a yes," he said when Jane growled again.

"Well, have fun," Isaac said as Jeff made his way back to the Mansion, not seeing any point in delaying this one more than he already had.

Isaac turned to continue with his walk and found his path blocked by Jane.

"Keep out of my way!" she snarled down at him.

"You're the one that walked in front of me," Isaac said.

Jane walked closer and crouched down in front of him.

"Keep getting in the way of me and Jeff, and I won't give a damn about any of the tall prick's rules," she said threateningly.

"You mean the tall prick that's letting you stay here, rent free, that could string you up in a tree before you could get a single hit in? Forgive me if I'm not exactly quaking in fear,"

Jane grabbed Isaac by the hem of his shirt.

"Keep running up that mouth of yours and see where it gets you," she said, glaring daggers into him.

Isaac clenched his hand as the blue flames spun around his fingers.

"Want to get burned again?" he asked, holding his hand up, "Then get your hands off me!"

Jane pulled him around and slammed him against the tree.

"Oh, just try it," she dared, as Isaac yelped as his head hit against the tree, "Unless you've got the skill to match that little hocus-pocus threat of yours, keep your head down, keep your little mouth shut, _and keep out my way_ ," she ground out.

She patted him on the cheek before shoving him sideways and Isaac fell to the ground.

He glared at the female killer as she strode back to the Mansion.

His hands re-ignited back in the green flames and he shook them off.

He figured that Slendy wouldn't be too pleased if he burnt his forest down.

Isaac glared at Jane's back as he continued his walk through the forest; thinking about how he could pay her back.

When he reached the edge of the forest he caught full effect of the hot sun.

He looked up and down the road as he continued walking forward and took out his wand to perform a little charm that Hermione had found in one of her library excursions that cooled the caster's clothing down to a pleasant temperature.

He was about to say the spell when his foot caught an exposed root and he flung his arms out to break his fall.

There was a deafening BANG and Isaac had to roll out of the way to avoid being run over by a thick and heavy looking tyre.

"What the hell..." he left the question hanging when a large, purple, _triple-_ decker bus rolled to a stop in front of him.

A pimply looking man in a matching purple suit jumped down.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, transport for the stranded witch or wizard, my name is Stan Shunpike and I will be your..." the pimply wizard named Stan broke off as he caught sight of Isaac.

"What choo doin' down there?" he asked with a snicker.

"Admiring the view, what the hell is this?" Isaac asked.

"Knight bus, transport for the witch and wizard that wot' flags us down," Stan said, looking suspiciously at Isaac, "You are the one that flagged us down, ain't choo?"

"Tell me how you do it," Isaac said, "I am a wizard, go to Hogwarts, just... fell over a root and might've done it by accident,"

Stan laughed a little more.

"Stick out your wand and we'll pop to where you currently are," Stan said, "Pretty long way to be from 'ogwarts, all the way in the States, not get many flaggings down 'ere,"

"I'm on Holiday," Isaac said, "So where does this thing take you?"

"Anywhere that you might want to go," Stan said proudly, " 'cept underwater, can't do nuffink underwater," Stan added on, peering at Isaac's forehead, "Woss that on your 'ead?"

"Dirt, probably," Isaac said, pulling his hair down so that the lightning bolt scar was better hidden, "Sorry about this, didn't mean to flag you,"

Stan laughed again, "Nothing to worry about, er..., woss your name?"

"Isaac,"

"Nothing to worry about, Isaac, got me a small break any-how,"

With that Stan jumped back on the footplate on the bus and called inside,

"Take her away, Ern!"

The driver, presumably Ern, tooted the horn and the bus sped away faster than Isaac would have thought.

Isaac watched the large, purple, bus disappear down the road.

 **"Well, that happened,"**

Isaac leapt around a foot in the air as Slendy appeared next to him.

 **"It would appear that we are about to save a fortune on travel costs,"** Slenderman said.

Isaac looked at him in confusion.

 **"We don't have to keep paying for plane tickets if you want to return to your school,"** Slenderman hinted.

Isaac blinked up at him.

"Ohh," he said after a moment, "I get it,"

If Slenderman had eyes he would have rolled them there and then.

 **"Sometimes I forget that you and Toby are not blood-related,"** he said and Isaac blushed a little, **"Also..."** Slenderman said, leaning down a little, **"Do not go and provoke Jane further if you are not capable of dealing with the fallout,"**

Isaac blinked innocently.

"But I've already annoyed her, why would I put myself even further on her bad side?" Isaac asked innocently.

 **"Don't cause too much trouble,"** Slenderman said, not getting fooled by the charade.

"Yes, sir," Isaac said, saluting as Slendy disappeared.

 **(X) Later, at dinner (X)**

Masky looked with mild skepticism at what Isaac told him. L.J was talking with Jeff about whether he found the knife he had lost in his carnival.

"So there's a triple-decker bus, with what sounds like an eye-sore of a paint-job, that goes around the world acting like a global uber?"

"Pretty much," Isaac said, leaving out the part where he nearly got run over by it.

Sally started bouncing in her seat next to Isaac and grabbing his arm, interrupting him bringing the cut of burger to his mouth.

"Can I come to see you off this year, can I? Can I? Can I? Can I?" she jabbered excitedly.

"Maybe," Isaac said, "Gonna be up to Masky," he leaned over to talk quietly to her, so that no one else could hear, "Did you do the..."

She nodded happily, she wasn't too happy with Jane either after she snubbed her invitation to come to her tea party saying that she wasn't some snot-nosed baby.

Isaac grinned at her as she smiled happily and jumped up and down again in her chair.

"If you're taking her flying later, can you help me test some trapeze nets I got replacements for?" L.J said, having paused behind them when he passed, going along with the ruse.

"Sure, what do you want me to drop on them?" he asked.

"Well I've got some willing volunteers," he said, taking his own seat next to Isaac, "Also has anyone seen..."

What sounded like the start of a shriek of terror turned into a roar of pure anger as everyone in the dining room turned to look in the direction of Jane's room.

"Never mind, think I found him," L.J said nonchalantly before scooping some potatoes onto his plate.

Jane stormed into the room, her eyes full of malice, and anger seemed to irradiate off her.

"Something wrong?"Liu asked.

Jane briefly switched glaring at Isaac to him before glaring at Isaac once more.

"What did you do?" L.J asked him.

"Me?" he looked away from Jane's glare, "Nothing," he said with a shrug and returned to his burger.

"Bull-shit!" Jane spat out.

"Is there by any chance a six-foot snake in your room?" L.J asked.

Jane's glare was now directed at him.

"You..." L.J took the icy tones as confirmation and excused himself.

Jane looked like she was ready to burst in frustration as L.J disappeared in a quick flash of smoke.

Jane stood there for a few more moments before walking around to the far end of the table and nearly pulled a piece of the chair she grabbed off when she pulled it out to sit down.

"Anyway," Toby said, cutting the tension, "Since we now have a decent excuse on how we can get there faster, wanna head down a little early and do some sightseeing?" he asked Isaac.

"Sure, never really had a look around when we were there in the past, have we?" Isaac said, reaching for the pitcher to refill his drink.

"No, but I do know of a cool museum that we could go to," Toby said, "And I passed a few decent looking waffle places last time I was down there, could probably nab a few bites to eat along the way,"

A few seconds later L.J re-appeared with another puff of black smoke and Kalakuta draped across his shoulders.

Jane stiffened and looked ready to impale him with every piece of cutlery within reach as Kalakuta raised his head and smelt the air.

$"Aah, ssspeaker,"$ Kalakuta hissed and slithered down from L.J to Isaac.

L.J huffed and muttered about favouritism under his breath.

$"Jane doesssn't know I can ssspeak to you,"$ Isaac hissed back quietly enough for it to sound like it was from the discomfort of Kalakuta's cold underbelly.

$"Isss there a reassson for thisss?"$ Kalakuta asked softly.

Isaac didn't say anything back and gently stroked the back of his head as Kalakuta lay across his shoulders, his tail coming to rest down his back.

The rest of dinner passed without further incident, though many continuous glares from Jane until L.J took Kalakuta back to his carnival.

L.J let Isaac rest for half an hour before bringing him to the carnival and helping him test his new nets.

Isaac spent the next hour flying around with some of L.J's playmates and letting them jump down onto the nets below.

After L.J was satisfied with the new nets he let Isaac fly around the carnival and see it from above.

Isaac came to a stop, hovering above the large Ferris wheel in the middle of the carnival, and watched the many souls running around and having the time of their life.

A few shrieks met his ears as the roller coaster reached the top of a steep dive and dropped down as Isaac spun around and flew alongside it for a few moments.

He circled L.J once before returning to the ground.

"You look like a natural on that thing," L.J said as Isaac dismounted, "Like some... really weird looking bird,"

Isaac laughed as L.J tossed the last net over to a bunch of zombie-kids that were immediately knocked over and trapped underneath the heavy net.

L.J rolled his eyes and had made his way over to try and lift it off them when the net rose into the air.

He turned back and saw Isaac pointing his wand at the net and was levitating it off them and over to the other pile of nets.

"And why haven't your kind taken over the world yet?" he asked sarcastically as Isaac pocketed the dark-wood wand.

Isaac shrugged, "You guys would have probably slaughtered us all," he said as he and L.J made their way back to the Mansion.

"So, Jane looked pissed off at you," L.J said, "What happened, and do I get to finance another war?"

Isaac looked up at L.J.

"She seems to think I've been deliberately interrupting her fights with Jeff whenever I can," Isaac told him.

"Were you?" L.J asked.

"Maybe," Isaac said with a small smirk, "Also have you got any of those onions left that me and Ben got you?"

L.J shook his head.

"Nope, none left," he said.

"Me and Ben bought around two hundred bucks worth, how could you use that much already?" Isaac asked.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

Jeff paused before opening his room.

He flung an arm out behind him and caught Liu by the arm.

"Open my door," he said.

Liu looked at him in confusion.

"What?"

"You have eyelids, open my door," Jeff said.

Liu rolled his eyes and moved past his brother and opened the door.

Jeff just managed to move out of the way as what looked like a small mountain of chopped onions was shot all over Liu, enough to make him stumble backwards from the impact.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

"I guess I just used them all up somehow," L.J said with a shrug.

Isaac sighed.

"Well there goes that idea," he said, "I was going to mix the onions in with her shampoo and toothpaste,"

L.J nodded, "Not bad, and I'd appreciate a heads up before you borrow Kal in the future,"

"Thanks," Isaac said, "But I didn't plant Kal in Jane's room, I asked Sally to put small packets of neon-orange dye in her laundry basket,"

L.J looked down at him.

"Maybe I do actually need to fix the locks on his vivarium," L.J mused as they made their way back through the door into L.J's room at the Mansion.

 **(X) Time Skip (X)**

Toby placed the duffel bag containing his clothes on the small pile of others and Isaac's trunk by the side of the road.

Sally had won Masky over and was getting to accompany him, Isaac, Toby, Hoodie, and Liu to taking Isaac shopping for his school supplies and to go sightseeing with them.

Isaac and Sally were also a little eager to go to London since today was the day when Jane was going to empty her clothes basket into the wash.

"Alright, how do we summon the magic bus?" he asked Isaac.

"Well, the guy said all I had to do was hold my wand out," Isaac said, raising his wand, "And..."

A loud bang heralded the arrival of the triple-decker bus and Sally gazed up in awe at the sight.

"Cho' again," Stan said, jumping down, "Gonna get on this time?"

"Hi," Isaac said, "Six tickets,"

"Tha'll be..." he broke off to count everyone there, "Fifty-five sickles, plus another seven for the little girl, eleven each. Though for firteen, you get 'ot chocolate,"

He jumped down as Tim and Isaac counted out what to give him. Tim grumbling about stupid ratios of sickles to galleons as they did so.

They ended up buying Isaac, Toby, and Sally a hot chocolate as well so that was another two sickles added on for their tickets.

After that Stan helped Brian lift the many duffel bags up and passed him a cord to help tie them together for the trip.

Liu picked Sally up to help her on the bus and soon they were led to a few seats on the bottom level, around the middle. A few witches and wizards looked irked at the time taken but didn't say anything as the large group boarded.

Stan resumed his position next to the driver's cab and tapped on the glass.

"Take her away, Ern," he said and the driver nodded.

"JESUS!" Tim said as his chair was just kept from being knocked over as the bus shot down the road, another loud bang taking them to what looked like a rural country road.

Stan laughed as he made his way towards them.

"Firs' times always a shocker," he said as Toby and Isaac held onto the railing next to them, Brian grabbing onto a light fixture above him and Sally squealing happily from her seat next to Liu as he grabbed Toby so he didn't fall off.

Stan kept near them to answer any questions that the first timers had and Isaac noticed the newspaper tucked into his belt.

It was of the daily prophet and it showed a man with filthy matted hair screaming at a camera.

"That man, who is that?" he asked Stan.

"Him?" Stan asked incredulously, "Him! That's Sirius Black, that is!"

He took the paper out of his belt and handed it to Isaac.

Isaac skim read through the paper, reading in a moving vehicle always made him feel sick.

"He killed thirteen people with a single curse?" he asked Stan, letting Toby look over his shoulder at the paper.

"I've heard about him," Toby said lowly to Isaac, "I'll tell you later..."

Isaac looked at the odd glance Toby gave Tim but was distracted further as Toby flung his arm out to stop Isaac flying out of his chair as they entered what looked like a desert of some kind.

After an hour and a half of what felt like a mildly road-legal roller coaster, Stan announced that their next stop would be theirs.

"So where we dropping you's off then?"

"Diagon Alley, Leaky Cauldron," Isaac said, turning to Toby and the two of them nodded in understanding.

"No, no," Tim said as Stan made his way to tell Ernie where to stop next, "No, you two, no,"

Stan had made his way back to them and was about to ask Tim what he was saying no about when Isaac and Toby stood up in the middle of the lane between the chairs.

"They have this stupid game where they try not to fall over whenever they travel by bus or train and it's their stop," Tim grumbled, standing up to try and shove the two of them back in their seats.

Before he could do anything the knight bus stopped and Isaac and Toby were both sent into a juddering skip along the middle of the bus, towards Ernie's cabin, but the two of them were still upright.

Tim, however, was knocked onto the ground and slid along the ground for a couple of feet.

"Tie, Tim loses," the two of them declared and Tim used Toby as a balance to get up.

Sally giggled, placing her mug of now empty, a fair bit was sent onto the floor from the constant moving of the bus, onto the chair for Stan to collect and walked over to Isaac to be picked up and carried off while Liu and Brian handled getting their bags down off the bus.

Isaac crouched down and Sally climbed up onto his back; Toby helped her get a good hold on his shoulders before they climbed down onto the London street.

Stan gave Hoodie the last of the bags and was about to call out to Ernie to leave when;

" _Harry Potter_ ," a voice said and Isaac felt a new hand on his shoulder.

The owner of the voice yelped as Sally, who he must not have seen, bit down hard on his hand and Toby instinctively moved Isaac behind him.

Tim and Brian were glancing around to see if anyone else was trying to get over and Liu stood at the side, a little confused at what was going on.

Isaac peered round Toby, quietly shushing Sally who had buried her head into his back, to look at the man who had grabbed him.

A portly man wearing a lime green bowler was rubbing his hand and looking extremely shocked.

The man looked indignantly up at the group but flailed under the intense glares that four of them were sending his way.

"Mind explaining why you were trying to feel up my little brother?" Toby said icily.

The man sputtered at being talked to in such a disrespectful tone.

"I-I-" he tried to regain his voice.

"C'mon," Tim said as he picked up Sally off of Isaac's back, cradling her close to his chest as she tightened her hold in his shirt, "Toby," he said warningly.

Liu reached over and gently pulled Toby towards the door to the Leaky Cauldron as Tom, the owner, came to see what had happened.

"Everything alright, Minister?" he asked the portly man and Isaac remembered where he had seen him before.

"Y-yes, well, no... well..." the portly man said, still unable to comprehend what had happened.

Tom looked at the group with the Minister.

"I think I can guess what happened," he said, "Come in, let's get this sorted out," he said, taking a bag off of the ground next to Brian.

Brian reached down and picked up the other two next to him, all without removing his emotionless death-glare from the portly man.

Liu picked up the other three and followed Toby and Isaac inside.

Tim backed into the room, letting Sally drop down and she ran to hide behind Brian's legs.

They could hear Tom talking outside with the Minister and it seemed like Tom had agreed to do something for the Minister and a few moments later Tom came back inside.

"Sorry about all this," he said to the group, leading them over to one of the larger tables, "I expect that you'll be wanting to know who that was?"

"Was he a Mole-star?" Sally asked from behind Brian.

"A- er, what?" Tom asked but Tim distracted him from Sally.

"What did he want?" he asked.

Tom looked awkwardly at the group.

"The... this topic isn't good for... younger ears," Tom said.

Brian nodded and led Sally over to where a painting of a fish pond was on a wall. Her giggles at the sight of the moving pictures could just be heard from across the bar.

"Is it to do with Sirius Black?" Isaac asked and, by the way Tom reacted, it was

"First to ever escape Azkaban," Tom said, "No one knows how he did it, but he's out,"

"And let me guess, in the UK?" Liu said, looking around the bar at some of the idle magic on display.

"That's what they all believe," Tom said, "But... erm... see, he was in deep with 'You-Know-Who', and..."

"Who?" Toby asked, "Voldemort?"

Though it was a little later in the evening, not far from dusk, the bar was fairly empty but the three patrons, and Tom, jumped at the mention of the name.

Toby looked around.

"Did I accidentally a say Taboo?" he asked Tom who nodded vigorously.

"Yes! Anyway... Black was in deep with... _him_ , and people say that he would have been his second if they had taken over," Tom went on, "Now that he's broken out, people are a little worried about what he'll do, or where he's going. Some reckon that he's after, well..." Tom broke off and looked down at Isaac.

Toby closed his eyes and groaned slightly.

"One year, all I was asking for," he said, "First year you went comatose, last year it was a big snake with a Medusa complex, this year it looks like it's an escaped convict,"

Tom didn't really know what to say to this and looked back at their bags.

"Take it that you'll want to rent some rooms?" he asked.

"Three, until September first," Tim said and he went with Tom to work out the exchange rates for payment.

After a few moments Tim and Tom came back and carried the bags up to three rooms next to each other on the second floor.

"Does mean that two of you's'll be sharing a bed, or taking the couch," Tom said, showing them the middle room which had a single queen sized bed against the back wall.

Tim solved the problem by throwing Toby and Liu's bags onto the bed.

Isaac and Sally ended up sharing a room with Brian and Tim sharing the last.

Sally bounced excitedly on her bed as Isaac carried his and her bags inside.

"When can we go down there?" Sally asked, bouncing off the bed and leaping over to the window and looking out over the nearly empty Diagon Alley.

"Probably tomorrow, getting late and we'll be having dinner soon," Isaac said, putting the last of his clothes away and moving to make a start on Sally's bag.

Sally looked a little sad about having to wait to go explore the magical shopping street but was equally excited about what kind of food that they could have as well.

At dinner Sally frowned at the rather ordinary looking steak pie that sat in front of her.

After a rather restful night of Ben checking in on them, and him promising to keep an eye out on cameras near the Leaky Cauldron, Isaac was woken up the next morning at the nearly unbearable time for being on a holiday of eight in the morning.

After knocking her off the bed twice and rolling back over to sleep, Isaac was shocked awake when she plunged a hand into his chest and he felt like he had been dumped in a bathtub filled with ice.

"Ok, I'm up!" he said through clenched teeth as his body shook from the sensation and Sally squealed happily before throwing a bunch of clothes at Isaac and darting through the wall towards Toby and Liu's room.

A yelp came through the wall not long after meaning that she had done the same to Liu.

Toby took a little longer to wake, Liu sending Sally out of the room while he tried to wake him up.

"Well, you two's bed hair looks ridiculous," Liu said as he and Toby joined Sally and Isaac downstairs.

Tim and Brian were at the bar with what looked like a third pot of coffee and Tim still looked drowsy.

After a 'healthy' amount of waffles, Isaac was starting to run low on wizarding money so they figured that a trip to Gringotts was probably the best way to start.

Sally looked curiously from up in Brian's arms at the goblins in the bank and Brian had to keep a tight hold of her, and Tim had to remind her that this was still in public and she couldn't go ghost-girl to look around.

Sally was let down to walk around when they walked down to the cart. Tim was staying upstairs to wait for them.

Sally edged closer to the edge of the ravine and Brian picked her back up, shaking his head, as the cart came and he made sure that she was sat between him and Liu.

Sally's delighted squeals filled the ravine and probably startled a few of the other patrons as they passed.

When they arrived at Isaac's vault Brian picked her back up so she could see inside.

She wriggled down and tugged at Isaac's shoulder.

She looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Can I pretend to be a rich duck?" she asked in a whisper.

Isaac blinked at her.

"Go on," he said, lifting her up and she tried to swim on the coins.

"What is she..." Griphook asked, looking at the small girl in the vault.

"Quick version, there's a cartoon she likes that has an immensely wealthy duck that is able to swim in his vault of coins," Isaac said to him as Toby lifted Sally out and made sure that no coins had gotten stuck on her.

Griphook didn't seem to quite know what to make of this and didn't say anything as they made their way back onto the cart and back up to the foyer.

After that they decided that the best idea would be to get his school things sorted out before any personal shopping so they headed to the bookstore.

The first stop was the bookstore.

Tim and Brian took Sally off to look at some of the children's books while Liu, Toby, and Isaac went to the store manager to get his new school books.

The manager nearly cried when Isaac told him that he already had ' _The Monster Book of Monsters_ ' which meant that the man didn't have to suffer opening the cage again.

He was soon distracted by them anyway after one of them was nearly torn in half by two others.

They handed him the book list and he returned with the advancements on the usual school books and two new ones.

"Taking Ancient Runes then, certainly an interesting one that," the man said as he handed Isaac a copy of ' _Spellman's Syllabary_ ' and ' _Starter's study of Signs and Sigils_ '.

Isaac handed over a fair amount of galleons to pay for them, and found Sally engrossed in a children's book.

The book was an A to Z of animals, both Muggle and Magical, and when the page was tapped a small hologram picture of the animal on the page would appear.

Sally looked up at Isaac with the strongest puppy eyes that she could muster and Isaac help his hand out to take the book to be bought.

Sally leapt up and gave him a hug as she bounced before racing to the till.

After that they refilled his supplies for writing, getting new quills, ink-pots, and parchment, before making their way into the apothecary to refill his potion ingredients.

"NO! Sally, we don't..." Isaac broke off as Sally held a unicorn horn to her head and pranced around the room.

He managed to get her to put the horn back by buying her a few strands of unicorn hair.

Sally gleefully took the strands and huffed when Brian took them from her but cheered up when he gave them back, wrapped up into a bracelet for her to wear.

After that they couldn't think of anything else to buy in Diagon Alley so they milled around the shops before coming to have a quick spot of lunch at an ice-cream shop in Diagon Alley.

By the time that everything was packed away Tim was debating whether or not it would be safe to be wandering around London with Sirius Black on the loose.

When he had tried to bring up the fact that it might be better if they didn't go out of Diagon Alley, Sally won the argument to go out by saying;

"Of course, Serious Black wouldn't stand a chance against someone as well trained as you or Brian, right?" Sally asked Tim, looking up at him with innocent eyes.

That was how Tim was leaning on the railing of the London Eye as Sally gazed out over the city of London.

The days counted down until Isaac would be returning to Hogwarts with them seeing one or two of the sights in London a day and spending time milling around Diagon Alley.

Isaac was feeling fairly impressed with himself for not splurging out and buying the broom, the _Firebolt_ , that he had seen in the Quidditch store.

As the days until Ron would be back dwindled away he met a few of his classmates doing their shopping.

"Aah," Toby said when he introduced them, "So this is your resident pyromaniac," he looked Seamus Finnegan up and down.

Isaac had bumped into Seamus and Dean Thomas as they were exiting the bookstore while walking to go get some more ice cream from Fortesque's.

"I don' mean for them to happen," Seamus said indignantly, "They just... blow up,"

"Ooh, he's a natural," Toby said taking Seamus's hand before he could protest and shaking it, "All that's left is to make s'mores with thermite and nearly burn your room down by messing up a chocolate fountain and he gets into the club,"

Seamus gave a huff of laughter as Toby caught sight of a product in Zonko's and wandered over to the storefront.

"So that's your brother?" Dean said, "I can see what you meant by human puppy dog,"

The next day Isaac accidentally bumped into Neville, nearly knocking him over while he looked at some flowers on display outside the apothecary.

Sally came over to see what was happening and had gotten on rather well with the shy Gryffindor as he pointed out the many plants to her and answered the rapid-fire questions that she had.

The day before Ron and Hermione were to arrive Isaac spotted a head of platinum blonde hair from his room window and went down to see if it was who he had thought it was.

He found Draco inside the Quidditch shop and snuck up behind him.

"Don't turn around," he growled quietly.

Draco stiffened.

"Do you have any idea who I am?" he asked his faceless confronter.

"The Slytherin Prince, if the names are to be believed," Isaac said as Draco spun around.

"Rogers!" he said, "You know I was this close to hexing you," Draco said, sucking in his lips and holding up his forefinger and thumb just a sickle's width apart.

"And then you would be on your ass with a bleeding nose," Isaac said and stood next to him to look at the handle polishes that Draco had been looking at.

Draco snorted in laughter, "I doubt that,"

"Knocked Lockhart out cold on his ass last year, wanna try your luck?" Isaac said, elbowing Draco in the side as they moved on to a section of broom-care handbooks.

"Lockhart was a moron who could hardly hold his wand properly," Draco retorted.

Isaac hummed his agreement and asked Draco how his holiday had been going.

"Not bad, practicing for Quidditch in my free time," Draco said, "You?"

Isaac rummaged in his pockets and took out his wallet.

He pulled out a small slip of card and showed it to Draco.

"You got kidnapped again?" Draco said, noticing the three stamps on the card.

"Three more and I get a pizza," Isaac said as he returned the card and his wallet to his pocket.

"You have a fun life," Draco said.

"You have no idea," Liu said, he had walked up silently and the two of them hadn't noticed.

Draco looked at Liu.

"One of the Jacks?" he asked.

"Nope, Liu," Liu said, offering his hand.

Draco shook it.

"Jeff's brother?" he asked Isaac.

"That's me, you gonna introduce us?" Liu asked Isaac.

"Oh, Liu, Draco," Isaac said, "He's in my year but in Slytherin and... well, I told you about the whole..."

"Enemies to the world, friends to each other thing, yeah," Liu said, "I'm betting that that lasts... another year at most," and with that Liu walked off, saying he was going to make sure that Toby didn't accidentally burn himself on something.

Liu had joined in with the betting that L.J had with how Toby would accidentally hurt himself next and had taken Masky's side with stabbing himself on something.

Draco and Isaac watched Liu hurry down the street. Isaac had the feeling that Brian was about to be twenty bucks richer or out of pocket in a few moments.

"So that's the person who kidnapped you the second time," Draco said.

"Yeah," Isaac said, "And now he dates my big brother, funny how the world works out sometimes, isn't it?" Isaac glanced at Draco.

"Say anything bad about them and I know of four ways in which your body will never be found," Isaac said, seeing the odd expression on Draco's face, "Five if I can get a hold of Smile and Eris,"

Draco jumped at the cold tones in Isaac's voice.

"I was about to agree with you," Draco said, "Just didn't expect to hear that," he finished stiffly.

"Good," Isaac said with eyes narrowed like a cat stalking prey, "It'd be a shame to have to drag you to London Bridge and toss you over, you're quite good company,"

"Good company?" Draco said in mock hurt, "I thought I was exceptional,"

"Exceptionally annoying," Isaac said, hitting him in the shoulder with the handbook that Draco had been debating buying when Liu interrupted them.

They spent a little longer chatting until heading their separate ways.

Isaac milled around Diagon Alley with Sally the next day as Isaac looked for Ron and Hermione.

It was the last day of the holiday and he figured that if he didn't find them today then he would at least see them tomorrow on the Hogwarts Express.

"Isaac! ISAAC!"

Isaac turned and saw an incredibly tanned Hermione sitting with Ron.

"Finally!" Ron said, "We went to the Leaky Cauldron, but they..."

"You have lots of freckles," Sally said, looking up and Ron.

Ron and Hermione both started.

Evidently neither of them had seen Sally and looked down at the little girl accompanying Isaac.

"Ron, Hermione," Isaac said, dropping down and picking up Sally, "This is Sally,"

Hermione and Ron looked at him in confusion.

"You have really bushy hair," Sally said, looking at Hermione, "Did you ever see how many pencils that you can hide in it and then forget that you had them there and then take a shower and they all fell out?"

Ron turned his head to the side.

"I found a plastic spider in it once," Hermione said.

Hermione managed to snap Ron out of whatever it was that had him distracted and started talking about their holidays. She told him that the shopkeeper had nearly cried when they asked for two of them.

Hermione still had some money left from her parents deciding to let her get her an early birthday gift and was deciding to get a mail owl like Isaac.

That worked out in Ron's favour as well since he wanted to have someone check Scabbers over. Apparently he hadn't been feeling too well since he had gotten back from Egypt.

What hadn't worked out in Ron's favour was a large cat trying to eat Scabbers and sending him running out the door.

He told Sally to stay with Hermione while he and Ron searched for Scabbers down the Alley.

They found him under a basket and made their way back to Sally and Hermione.

Sally was skipping next to Hermione, tenderly stroking the purring cat that had pounced on Ron.

Ron and Hermione argued quietly, not wanting to upset Sally, all the way back to the Leaky Cauldron.

When they got there they found that the rest of the Weasley's had found Toby and the others.

Mr Weasley was chatting with Tim, a copy of the Daily Prophet laid between them.

He waved over at them and Isaac found his way blocked by Percy, who introduced himself rather formally even for him.

The twins didn't miss the chance to get their digs in and imitated him pompously, introducing themselves to Sally like she was a Princess.

At dinner that evening Mr Weasley revealed the fact that they were getting loans of cars from the Ministry since their car had finally kicked the bucket, much to Mrs Weasley's pleasure, but that he was still keeping it to see if he can try and get it working again, not to Mrs Weasley's pleasure.

Later on Isaac was looking for the rat tonic that Ron had gotten at the store for Scabbers.

He paused when he overheard Mr and Mrs Weasley arguing about Sirius Black and something called a 'Dementor'.

He listened in on the conversation but didn't hear anything that he hadn't already known about the escaped convict so he left.

He passed the twins who showed him how they had 'fixed' Percy's Head Boy badge to read 'Humongous Bighead Boy'.

Isaac tossed the bottle of Rat tonic to Ron as he passed, Percy still trying to tear their shared room apart trying to find his missing badge, before making his way back to his and Sally's room to make sure that everything was ready for tomorrow.

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Little Whinging, Surrey.

A large, black, dog looked up at the house in Surrey.

It whined softly as it recalled the story that it had overheard from some kids that were running around.

A quick prayer for his missing Godson crossed his mind before it was filled with fury at the traitor and it took off.

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End Notes.

Right, that's it.

I'm cutting it close with this chapter since I'm finishing it the night before uploading so that's where were finishing this week.

I hope that you've all enjoyed this and I hope you enjoy it in the future.

Till the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

If any of these are wrong then please notify me of this so I can fix them.

If you have a favourite Creepypasta that has not made an appearance then message me or leave their name in a review.


	28. Chapter 28, New year, new times

Chapter 28, New year, new times.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Back to Hogwarts, woohoo...

I hope that the sarcasm came through there, I really do.

I'm going to be totally honest, I'm starting to hate writing the 'HP' side of chapters since I keep losing interest and I feel like it suffers in quality at times for what you're all here for.

If you wanted to read the books then that's what you'd do, not this...

So, here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to try and have more original scenes in the story, just focusing on the major chapters that I need for the furthering of the story when they come around, and write a more 'out of character' Isaac since I've gotten complaints about him being too in character to tell any difference.

It's annoyed me too so I'm gonna try and be more original with this chapter.

Right then, I think with that said, I need to ask you something.

Would you like me to bring in some original characters to the story, or bring back some characters that I've made in the past?

Or should I avoid original characters all together?

I am planning on bringing in more characters to the story, I've got a couple of ideas that have been hanging around for a while in my head that I'll be bringing in soon.

And there's still a couple of Orbitors that I've got to inroduce you all too, anyone want to hazard a guess at who they are?

Anyway, time for the reviews;

Lunarwolf11021;

Glad that you like the chapter.

I'm also looking forward for third-year, I've got a few scenes planned in my head that should be fun to write.

DarkRavie.

Glad that you like it.

I'm gonna be honest, I messaged 'DP' when the first revievs for this chapter came through betting that it was gonna be you.

It wasn't, but you were the second one.

Kumo-No-Kuro;

Seriously? Thanks for the fave but you do know that the follow button is there for a reason, so you don't lose the story.

Ok, Slenderman's in the game section, thanks, and CP's are in the book or short story section. Thanks, gotcha, I'll have checked that out and... wait, how long ago did I ask you that... I asked you this December last year, holy cow someone who procrastinates as much as me XD

Seriously though, thanks for getting back to me on that and well done for finding the story again.

Incidentally, your review number was at one point my old house number.

Matt (Guest);

I know exactly what I am doing with Sirius, don't worry.

Guest;

He'll get more CP as the story goes on.

Gonna explain a little thing quickly.

The Isaac Rogers that goes to Hogwarts, is the Tim that Masky becomes when he goes into public.

The student Isaac is different from the Creepypasta raised Isaac since he can't bring too much attention to what his home life is like and can't be as CP as people would like him to be.

I will be making it harder for Isaac to keep the two lives seperate, but it's still going to be a little away and I'll be forcing a few more CP things into the HP side soon.

Right then, I think I'm running out of things to say, all the reviews have been responded, though I do have one funny little story.

I was going through the past reviews and I noticed a name that I hadn't seen before with the username of 'Dante Pandemonium'.

I went, "Oops, did I miss a guy?" and went back through all the review pages and found a fair few.

I was going to write them an apology for missing and answering them when I noticed that they seemed familiar.

Turns out that 'Dante' is actually 'TheGavenExpress' and I had written the responses to his reveiws, even PMing him once or twice and I hit my head on the desk because of not realising that until I was about finished.

So yeah, that's pretty much all I've got aside from the fact that I have 2 EXTRAS chapters that I'm working on in my free time and a story request that some of you might be interested in but it'll be a long time away.

Right then, time for the chapter.

Enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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Isaac woke once again to Sally jumping on his bed and he gave a play roar and tackled her, she squealed in laughter as he threw her back onto her bed.

As Isaac was about to get dressed Ron banged his way into the room, pulling his sweatshirt on.

"The sooner we get on the train, the better," Ron said.

"Well you can tell me about it after we're dressed," Isaac said, pushing Ron back out of the room.

Isaac sighed and rolled his eyes as the twins came in as well, trying to congragulate Ron for annoying Percy.

"People need to get changed here! Out!" Isaac said, pushing the three of them out the door and closing it.

He had just gotten back to where he had dropped his clothes on the bed Tim walked in.

"Hurry up and get dressed,"

Isaac flumped onto the bed in defeat.

After he had finally gotten dressed Sally 'helped' him carry his trunk downstairs to where everyone else was.

Sally went over to Mrs Weasley, who was chatting with Hermione and Ginny.

Sally had somehow managed to get Mrs Weasley wrapped around her finger and Mrs Weasley found herself unable to say no to the small little girl wanting to see little magic tricks.

Right now she had Sally giggling at a napking she had folded into the shape of a bunny rabbit and animated to hop around the table.

After the last couple of trunks were brought down Mr Weasley stuck his head out the door to watch for the cars.

"That's them," Mr Weasley said, "Er, might be cramped," he added, looking at the large groupd in the Leaky Cauldron.

"Me and Brain'll meet you there," Tim said, "I can think of a few shortcuts that we can take,"

Mr Weasley nodded at this and helped get everything into the cars.

Isaac got into the back of the first car with Sally, she couldn't stop giggling at the funny suits that the drivers were wearing, Ron, and Hermione.

A few seconds later Toby and Liu climbed inside followed by, to Ron's irk, Percy.

"Well this is cosy," Liu said.

"Maybe for you, you're sitting half on top of me," Toby said.

"Sorry, lemme fix that," Liu said.

He moved over so he was sitting entirely sitting on Toby.

"Much comfier, thank you," Liu said, leaning back on Toby.

Hermione turned and whispered to Isaac.

"Are they always like this?" she asked him.

"Trust me, they've done worse," Isaac whispered back.

The journey to the train station was rather uneventful compared to the chaos that was the Knight Bus.

They reached Kings Cross with about twenty minutes to spare and found Tim and Brian waiting there for them, both holding the remains of another four cups of coffee.

"How did you get here before us?" Fred asked, climbing out of the second car after George.

"If I told you, then I'd have to kill you," Tim said, draining the last of his coffee and throwing the empty cups in the bin.

The twins laughed that off as they loaded the trunks onto the trolleys that Tim and Brian had gotten and wheeled them through the fairly busy station to the entrance to Platform 9 & 3/4.

Isaac lifted Sally and sat her on top of his trunk and pushed her through the barrier.

She flinched as she passed through the wall and looked back when she had passed through.

She turned and gaped at the sight of the wizarding station.

Isaac had to quickly run round and pick her up before she ran off to explore.

"No, Sally," he said to the struggling mass in his arms, "I'll show you around once everyone's through, ok?"

Sally nodded and Isaac placed her back on the ground, keeping a hand on her was proven to be a good idea when she made to go chase after a cat.

A few minutes later Toby and Liu came through and they were able to watch his trunk while he took Sally to the end of the station to look at the train.

Sally gasped and leant forward on Isaac's shoulders, pushing his fringe down into his eyes, as she caught sight of the scarlet train that spear-headed the Hogwarts Express.

Sally squealed again as an owl swooped overhead.

"Right, come on, better get back to the others," Isaac said, making his way back.

As they moved back to where everyone was they passed a few of the others that they recognised.

Sally waved excitedly to Neville as they passed him and as Isaac paused to let some fifth-years pass he was caught on the arm by another person he recognised.

"Oh, hey Oliver," Isaac said, "Sally, this is Oliver, he's the captain of my Quidditch team,"

"Hi," Sally said shyly as a couple other members of the Quidditch team, Alicia and Angelina, came over and cooed over Sally.

Oliver didn't get to say whatever he wanted to since Liu came over at that point to get Isaac and Sally.

"C'mon you two," Liu said, "I ain't gonna hoist your trunk up,"

Sally hopped down and went with Liu, holding his hand so that she didn't get lost in the crowds of people.

"So, Isaac," Alicia said, "Who's that?"

"I think you can guess which one's Sally," Isaac said, "And that was Liu, Toby's boyfriend,"

Angelina laughed at the slightly disappointed Alicia, who left muttering, "Always the cute ones," and Oliver said that he'd catch up later to talk with the new Quidditch strategies he had come up with over the summer.

Isaac jogged to catch up with Sally and Liu while Toby was helping Hermione try to get Crookshanks' paw back in the basket.

"Let me," he said when Crookshanks tried to claw at Hermione.

"No, it's ok, I can..." Hermione broke off as Toby grabbed the waving paw and pushed it back into the basket and tightened the straps.

Hermione went wide eyed as Toby handed her the basket and looked down at his hand.

"Eh, they ain't too deep," Toby said, sounding a little bored, and took a tissue out from his pocket and tied it around the bleeding marks on his palm.

A little ways behind him, a slight cough and nudge from Tim had Brian handing him and Liu a ten dollar bill each.

Isaac grabbed his trunk and passed it up to Ron who helped him shove it into the luggage racks overhead. Sally was taking the chance to gently stroke Hedwig before she was added to the luggage as well, her cage sitting next to her as she sat on Sally's lap.

When Isaac climbed back down Mr Weasley tapped him on the shoulder.

"Could I have a quick word?" he asked Isaac.

"Sure," Isaac said and the two of them moveed away from the bustling crowd to a more quiet location to talk.

"Now," Mr Weasley said as they came to a pillar nearby, "I don't know how much, or if you have heard, but..."

"Is this about Sirius Black?" Isaac asked and Mr Weasley nodded.

"Yes, now..."

"Erm, Mr Weasley, I er... already know," Isaac said, "I read the Prophet article when I came over on the Knight Bus and... Toby told me about him being... you know... old godfather,"

Mr Weasley looked around anxiously.

"How did he..."

"Some American Government wizard met up with them over last year," Isaac said, "He told them about... him,"

Mr Weasley glanced around again.

"Yes... well, there are a few who would have preferred that you never found out about that," Mr Weasley said, "But, what I wanted to say..."

He broke off as Brian came over and tapped the both of them on the shoulder before tapping at his wristwatch.

"Yes, yes, he's coming," Mr Weasley said, getting a little frantic, "But, Isaac listen to me, whatever you hear, _do not go looking for Black_!"

Isaac frowned at Mr Weasley.

"But... why would I go looking for someone who wants to kill me?"

Isaac yelped as Brian sighed and picked him up by the waist and carried him under arm back to the carriage, much to the amusement of the Weasleys.

"Good luck finding a compartment," Toby said, giving Isaac a hug as he climbed up on the foot plate.

Isaac quickly crouched down and hugged Sally as he relieved her of Hedwig and boarded the train.

"Take care," Toby said, leaning in through the door window.

He quickly took his head out as the train started and Isaac stayed by the window to wave to Sally, who was running alongside the train as it left.

Once they were out of the station Isaac could have sworn that Sally looked like she was going to sneak herself onto the train with him but Brian scooped her up and placed her on his shoulders so that she could see the train for longer.

Isaac patted the door before turning and facing down the corridor.

He felt something move in his pocket.

He quickly glanced up and down the small area he was in; before reaching into his pocket and retrieving Fizz.

"Soon, just let me find a place to sit down, ok?" Isaac said quietly to the midnight-blue mouse.

Fizz squeaked and ran around his hand a couple of times before going still and Isaac tucked him into his inner coat pocket.

"There you are," Ron said, sliding the door open, "C'mon, nearly all the seats are gone,"

Isaac, Ron, and Hermione walked down the corridor until they came to a compartment with only one other occupant.

"Let's just go in here," Hermione said, "I'm sure he'll understand,"

"Who is he anyway?" Ron asked.

"Defense Teacher," Isaac said as Hermione said, "Professor R.J Lupin,"

"How is it that you two know that?" he asked the two of them.

"Only space free," Isaac said as Hermione pointed out the name on his suitcase.

Ron huffed silently before turning to face Isaac.

"So what did Dad want to talk to you about?" Ron asked Isaac.

Isaac glanced at the sleeping form of Professor Lupin.

"Do you think he's really asleep?" Isaac asked the others.

When Hermione leaned closer to check she nodded and they crowded around Isaac.

"So Sirius Black escaped to come after you?" Ron said when Isaac had finished.

"Looks that way," Isaac said, leaning back in his seat.

Isaac looked around the compartment.

"Do you guys hear anything?" he asked.

Crookshanks had started mewling like something was wrong and Isaac was sure that he could hear a high-pitched buzing from somewhere in the compartment.

"I think it's coming from inside your trunk," Ron said, standing up and reaching up into Isaac's trunk.

"Gyah!" Ron said as something latched onto his hand.

"Fizz! No," Isaac said, standing up and grabbing the mouse off of Ron's hand, "Bad Fizz!"

"The bloody hell is that thing?" Ron hissed, holding his hand where two pin pricks of blood were visible.

The sleeping man shuffled in his sleep and they froze for a moment in case they woke him.

"Fizz, He's a gift from a one of Sl... Thalmann's guests gave him to me," Isaac said, "Jason travels a lot and he needed someone to home Fizz,"

"Fizz?" Ron said, looking down at small wind-up mouse in Isaac's hands.

"Yeah, it's his name," Isaac said as Fizz climbed up onto his shoulders.

"I've heard about these," Hermione said, leaning closer to look at Fizz.

"You have?" Isaac asked, a little worried.

"Yes. Apparently many toymakers in countries like Sweden and Denmark put long-life animation spells on products for children. It lets them experience a pet without having to constantly worry about most things that come with a normal pet," Hermione went on and Isaac relaxed.

"That's all really interesting but will someone find out what's buzzing in Isaac's trunk?" Ron said, glaring slightly at Fizz.

Isaac rolled his eyes at Ron and rummaged in his trunk.

"It's the pocket sneakoscope you sent me," Isaac said, pushing it in further and piling more socks onto it to try and muffle the sound.

Hermione looked at Isaac's trunk with interest as Ron sat back down.

"Yeah, might not work so well, kept going haywire when I was tying it to Errol's leg," Ron said.

"Well were you doing anything untrustworthy at the time?" Hermione asked.

"No! Well... I wasn't supposed to be using Errol for long flights," Ron admitted, going a little pink.

Isaac rolled his eyes.

Errol had had to have been flown back by Hedwig in a bag after resting for a week.

Isaac sat back down and let Fizz scurry around his lap and arms.

"I wonder if there'll be more things like Fizz in Hogsmeade?" Hermione said, looking at Fizz, "Maybe I could get something like him for Crookshanks to play with," she pulled Crookshanks basket closer to try and calm him down.

Ron soon got lost in talking about the attractions of Hogsmeade with Hermione.

Isaac smiled and stretched out his legs, "Certainly sounds like it'd be fun,"

Ron frowned at him.

"What, did your brother not sign your permission slip?" he asked in shock.

"No, he signed it," Isaac said, "I'm betting that one day when I'm down there, there'll be someone from home will just so happen to be in the area and stop by to visit," Isaac took a break to laugh to himself.

"But do you think that I'll be allowed to wander around, outside of Hogwarts, if there's a chance that a mass-murderer is out for my blood?"

Ron shook his head.

"No, come on, the dementors are looking for Black," Ron argued, "They can't keep you there, he signed the slip!" he gestured at Isaac, "You can't miss out on Hogsmeade,"

Isaac shrugged.

"Toby signed the form, maybe all they can do is suggest that I don't go there?" Isaac said and Ron cheered up.

Not long after that, the trolley rattled into view.

Hermione tentatively tried to get Professor Lupin up but he kept sleeping while Isaac sat back down after buying a few snacks from the trolley and breaking off a piece of a liquorice wand for Fizz and digging into a chocolate frog for himself.

Isaac didn't know what time he ended drifting off to sleep but when he awoke from Ron kicking him in the ankle it was around mid-afternoon.

Isaac made a noise that sounded like a duck being strangled and glared at Ron as he heard the compartment door open.

He turned to look at who was there and made another duck-like noise.

Draco was standing in the doorway, flanked by his usual bodyguards Crabbe and Goyle.

"Hello," Isaac said in a forced British accent, "Jolly good evening,"

"Potter,"

"Malfoy," Isaac said, stretching out his legs, "Have a nice summer?"

"A marvellous one, compared to others," Malfoy drawled,"

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Ron said hotly.

Malfoy faked a small frown, "Just that some have rather unfortunate luck over the holidays.

Though the same can't be said for you, Weasel, heard that your Father won some gold.

Maybe that explains what happened to your manners, leave them in the sand?"

Ron stood up quickly and knocked Crookshanks basket to the ground.

At that moment Professor Lupin snorted in his sleep, alerting Malfoy who apparently hadn't noticed him before and causing him to jump back.

"Who's that?" he asked, pointing at the sleeping man.

"New Professor," Isaac said, "Think he's Defense,"

Isaac was silently thanking the Professor for making his presence known. He knew that Draco wouldn't start anything if there was someone there to lecture him about his actions.

True to what Isaac was thinking; Malfoy nudged Crabbe and Goyle and the three of them left.

Ron nearly slammed the door closed after them and sat down, rubbing his knuckles.

"I'm not going to take any more rubbish from him this year," he said angrily, "If he makes one more quip about my family, or anything, then I'll..."

He ignored Hermione as he made a violent action in the air that Isaac had a feeling that he himself had taught him.

"He can go '私はフライより脳が少ない'," Ron looked over at Isaac, "Did I say it right?" he asked after seeing Isaac snort in laughter.

"You did, yeah," Isaac said between giggles, "But I may have told you the wrong translation,"

"What did I say?" Ron asked, slightly bewildered.

"You said, 'I have less brains than a fly'," Isaac told him.

"Oh, sorry," Ron said, not getting what Isaac was really saying.

Ron ducked down to tie his laces and Isaac silently shushed Hermione who looked like she had been about to tell Ron what Isaac meant.

Fiz crawled out from under his sleeve and up his arm, settling into the space under his ear and nestling into his shirt.

Again; Isaac wasn't sure when he started dropping off to sleep again but when he awoke it was from the train coming to a stop, and a rather jolty one at that.

"What we hit?" Isaac said, shaking his head to wake himself up.

"We can't be there already," Hermione was saying, ignoring him while Ron was looking out the window.

The lights flickered and the compartments all over the train were plunged into darkness.

"Ouch! Ron, that was my foot!" Hermione scolded as Ron shifted to look out the window.

"There's something moving out there," Ron said quietly as he looked out the window.

Fizz gave a low squeak that only Isaac heard a few seconds before someone opened the door and fell over themselves trying to ask what was going on.

"Hey, Neville," Isaac said, reaching down and pulling him up by the collar.

After Neville nearly sat on Crookshanks' basket Hermione tried to go and see what was going on and ran head first into Ginny, who was looking for Ron.

Isaac listened to the four of them squabbling amongst themselves before he decided to say anything.

"Well, this is a cluster-fuck," Isaac muttered, Fizz squeaked soberly next to him.

"Quiet," a hoarse voice said.

A few moments later there was a shuffling and Professor Lupin lit the room by holding out a handful of flames like the ones that Hermione would conjour on cold days.

Isaac nearly did a double-take at the sight of the man.

Though he could tell he was rather youthful in years, close to how old he expected Severus to be; but the flames brought detail to the lines that aged his face, greying hairs flecked his chestnut lockes, he looked tired. So, very, tired; but also alert.

"Stay where you are," he said, standing up and moving past them to try and close the door.

Before he could do so a wave of cold filled the air and a hand clawed the door fully open.

A large, cloaked, figure was...

Isaac went wide-eyed and dropped a hand to where he normally kept one of the throwing knives but he hadn't thought that he would have had to deal with something on the train.

The thing looked around the compartment, it was hard to tell since its head was obscured by a heavy looking hood.

Its head turned to look at Isaac and darkness started to fill the edges of Isaac's vision.

He could feel his stomach protesting as his vision turned shaky and Isaac could feel something trying to force it's way up and... what was that noise?

There was a faint... screaming?

He tuned out whatever Lupin was saying and caught the briefest glimpses of something white flashing as his stomach gave out.

Isaac's vision blurred again and he could feel someone gently rubbing his back until he stopped throwing up.

"Easy, easy," the unknown voice he assumed must belong to Professor Lupin said, "Let it out, we have vanishing spells for a reason. And fragrance spells too, now that I think of it,"

Isaac took the offered tissue and wiped his mouth as the light's came back on and the train started to move.

"What was that thing?" he asked. By the looks of things he was going to be calling in a possible demon to home and...

"It was a dementor," Lupin said, "One of the guards of Azkaban,"

Isaac made a weak grunt to show he understood.

He looked up and saw that Ron and Neville were both on the window sides of the compartment, each as pale as a sheet, Ginny was balled up into herself, and Hermione was looking at him, trying to see if there was anything outwardly wrong that needed fixing.

A loud snapping noise caused all of them to jump and turned to see Professor Lupin snapping a large bar of chocolate.

He turned and looked at them, an apologetic smile on his face.

"It helps with dementor attacks," he said, handing them each a piece.

He hesitated before handing Isaac a piece.

"Maybe wait a minute," he said with a small smile before dusting himself off and standing up, "I'm going to go have a little word with the driver,"

He paused in the door and looked back at them.

"Eat, you'll feel better," he said at the group, who all except Ron hadn't eaten the chocolate given to them.

Isaac watched the door close behind him and sniffed the chocolate before breaking it apart with his teeth.

"Mhm, not bad," Isaac said, swallowing the rest of the piece given to him.

"Are you alright?" Hermione asked, worry plastered across her face.

"M'fine," Isaac said, offering her a smile, "Did, any of you... pray to the porcelain god?"

Everyone shook their head and said the same thing.

It went cold, and they felt like they'd never be happy.

Isaac rested back against the chair, "I don't know about you guys, but I just want to sit through the feast, eat some grub, and get to bed,"

There were a few murmurs of agreement, and one squeak from Ginny.

Isaac groaned at the sight of Professor McGonagall calling his and Hermione's names.

They followed her up to her office and they had barely sat down when the door opened and Madam Pomfrey, the school's medi-witch, bustled in and started fussing over the two of them.

She took Isaac's glassess off him and before she could start checking his eyes he flapped her away with a slight glare.

"I'm fine," Isaac said, he didn't like people touching his face, "I just got a little queasy and Professor Lupin gave me some chocolate for the dementor, I'm fine," he snapped again when she re-attempted to examine his eyes.

"Did he now?" Madam Pomfrey asked approvingly, "Finally, a Professor who knows his remedies,"

Professor McGonagall nodded at her friend and then asked for a few moments of Hermione's time before she took the two of them down to the Great Hall.

"Oh, we missed the sorting," Hermione moaned as they passed Flitwick.

"Don't worry, you'll get to see all the new faces tonight or tomorrow," Isaac said as they entered the hall and sat down, "Or the day after that, or the day after that, or the day after..."

Professor Dumbledore stood up and smiled beningly at the crowds of people as Professor McGonagall returned to her seat.

"Welcome, welcome, to another year at Hogwarts..."

Isaac sat, listening intently, as Dumbledore explained to the students about the dementor search on the train and their role in protecting Hogwarts from the escaped convict Sirius Black.

After that he cheerily announced that there were two new Professors on the staff roster.

"Told you so," Isaac muttered to the others as he introduced Professor Lupin as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor.

Dumbledore then went on to inform students that Professor Kettleburn, the Care of Magical Creatures Professor, had taken his leave from the halls of Hogwarts to enjoy retirement.

Isaac cheered loudly along with all the Gryffindors when it was announced that Hagrid was going to be his replacement.

"That certainly explains the book," Isaac said, "Went off on a little run of the place when I got it,"

"I wonder what sort of creatures he'll have us looking at?" Hermione said, "He's not going to bring anything dangerous to class, I hope,"

"Well, it's certainly going to be an interesting class," Isaac said, sliding a few eggs and bacon slices onto his plate, "Excuse me, I think someone wants my attention," Isaac said and half spun around on his seat, "Hello,"

Draco had been trying to get his attention since Dumbledore had sat back down.

"Is it true that you fainted?" he asked with a faint trace of a sneer, "You actually fainted,"

"No, just had too much junk food on the way up and my stomach showed it's displeasure in me by making me mimic a very polluted, and tainted, water fountain," Isaac said and spun back around, leaving a mildly put off Draco to pick at his food.

"Dude, do you have to say stuff like that when I'm trying to eat?" Ron asked, looking a little off put.

"Well, all I have to do is pass you this plate of _deliciously,_ juicy, bacon and you'll change the topic," Isaac said, passing the aforementioned plate to Ron and swapping it with one of the mashed potatoes.

"Oh, thanks," Ron said, completely forgetting what they were talking about, "So what do you think the new classes are going to be like?"

The rest of dinner passed with the three of them, occasionally a couple of others in their year joining in, talking about what the new classes were going to be like.

When desert came talk turned to their holidays.

"So, we really didn't catch up that much at the Leaky Cauldron," Hermione started, "How did your holidays go? Did you get my parcel?"

"Yeah, Sally finally beat me with those puppy dog eyes of hers and got me to take her for a quick ride around the house," Isaac said, grabbing the pot of syrup before Ron could get to it, "Was definitely one of the highlights,"

Ron laughed a little before speaking, "And what was one of the downsides? Getting kidnapped again?"

Isaac bowed his head a little and ate some ice cream.

"No, seriously?" Ron asked.

"Three more times and I get pizza," Isaac said, "I actually have a little card that gets stamped now,"

"What happened?" Hermione asked, taking it a little more seriously than Ron who had snorted in laughter about the pizza and was tearing into some chocolate mousse.

"Well, like last year, it was someone pissed off at Jeff," Isaac said, leaning in so that it wasn't overheard by many who were too busy in their own conversations, "But it wasn't a relative this time, just an old _friend_ with some serious anger issues. She and her friend, who was trying to help her work out her problems and didn't approve when she found out and took me back home, were looking for Jeff and she saw me with him and... tada,"

"What happened to her?" Hermione asked, "Is she locked up?"

"Community service," Isaac said, "And Thalmann is her caseworker, so I see her about... three times a week, barely over an hour, if that,"

Hermione looked shocked while Ron was too busy putting more food onto his plate, "But why would he do that? I mean, her friend sounds nice enough, but... why?"

"It's what he does," Isaac said, taking a drink, "Finds people who need help and... does what he does. Don't get me wrong, she's a tempermental bitch, but Clock is alright,"

"Who?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, erm... Natalie," Isaac said, "Forgot that none of you will know how punctual she can be,"

Hermione smiled.

"Well, as long as the cow doesn't start anything, I guess that Mr Thalmann knows what he's doing,"

"Cheers to that," Isaac said, "Want some pie?" he asked, offering the tray with heavily sugar-dusted slices.

Hermione declined, "No, do you know how much sugar normally goes into those?"

"No, I just see pie and all the rest is blah, blah, blah," Isaac said with a smile.

"That's not a healthy way to go about things," Hermione said, the dentist raised daughter shining through for a moment.

Isaac leant back in his seat.

"Dean... Dean!" he got the attention of his fellow third-year, "I just see pie, and all the rest is blah, blah, blah,"

Dean blinked.

"I'm no angel," he said after a moment, "Also you realise that the apocalypse started because he wanted pie, right?"

"Yep," Isaac nodded, "And thank you for being the only one to understand me,"

Dean nodded, as...

"Can you two idjits keep it down, some like to eat in peace," Blaise said, turning to look at the two of them.

Dean and Isaac shared a quick glance and subdued a snort of laughter before turning back to their own meals.

The next thing of interest came from Mrs Norris yowling somewhere out into the corridor.

The few that had turned to look witnessed Mr Filch running past, very red in the face, and trying to hit something on the ground with a broom.

He bolted off further into the castle, chasing after whatever it was.

A few moments later Isaac felt something press onto his leg and looked down to find Fizz crawling his way up his leg.

He quickly looked around to see if anyone was looking and quickly shoved Fizz into his pocket and kept his elbow on the opening.

Once the feast was finished and the many students milling out of the hall, Isaac, Hermione, and Ron hurried over to Hagrid to congragulate him.

They assured him that he'd do fine as emotion overcame him and he buried his face in a hankerchief large enough that it could be used as a small table cloth.

Professor McGonagall shooed them away after that and they hurried off to catch up with the others in their house as they made their way up the many, ever shifting, stairs up to the Gryffindor common room.

Later that evening when they were all in bed he placed Fizz down on his pillow and looked at him.

"Ok, I know you're used to running off by yourself back at the Mansion,"

'Squeak'

"But, at Hogwarts, you're gonna have to take care," Isaac said, "I know that Jason's probably got you trained to look after yourself,"

'Squeak'

"But if you go picking fights in a _magical_ castle, then you might get into a fight that you can't win,"

'Squeak'

Isaac nodded as he sat cross legged on the bed.

"Promise that you won't do anything stupid?"

'Squeak'

Isaac smiled and extended his arm to let Fizz climb up onto his shoulder.

Isaac stroked the small mouse as he climbed over the covers and found a cozy hat that he had for the winter times for Fizz to use as a bed and placed it on the bedside table.

Fizz climbed into the furry inside and nestled down.

Isaac smiled and climbed into bed himself.

"You know," Isaac said to Fizz before sleeping, "I really wish that I could understand what you were saying,"

'Squeak'

Isaac frowned.

"Were you agreeing with me, or..."

'Squeak'

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The next day the three of them made their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Apparently the story of Isaac's run-in with the dementor had spread like one of Toby's fires and a particularly pug-faced Slytherin third-year, Pansy Parkinson, screeched for him to watch out for the dementors.

Isaac just smiled at her and pulled Ron away before he could say anything.

"Because," Isaac said, knowing that Ron was about to ask why he hadn't said anything back, "It's pointless to rise to it since they want to rise to it, and I'll get just go Gabriel on their asses if it get's too annoying,"

"The messenger of God?" Hermione asked while Ron looked extremely confused.

Isaac gave a cross between a sigh and a groan.

"Dean!"

"What?"

"Imma go Gabriel on someone's ass," Isaac called to him.

"Nut-cracker?" he asked in a japanese accent, "Or are you planning Mystery Spot?"

"And the commercial," Isaac said, mimicking stroking a white cat, "So what we got first?"

After they finished breakfast Hermione went to check something before catching up with Isaac for their first class of the day. One of the new ones they took, Ancient Runes.

"Hi, hi," Isaac said as Hermione caught up with him.

"Hi, yes, hi," said Hermione, a little flustured and slightly red in the face.

"You alright?" he asked as Hermione waved him off and lined up at the door.

Soon Professor Babbling, Isaac went stony trying not to laugh, came and they entered the class.

"Welcome to Ancient Runes," she said once everyone had sat down, "Now, a little about this class.

You may have guessed correctly when signing up that this class will involve the translation of ancient languages to modern scripture,"

Isaac frowned a little, he had been expecting to learn about runes that did magic.

"However, there is another side to this class, and that is the study of warding runes and sigils,"

Isaac cheered up at hearing this.

After she had finished explaining a little more about the courses, how they would split the lessons between the two areas until the end of fourth-year when they would choose which area to take on for their OWLS, she tasked them with studying some basic translation guides she handed to them.

After a couple of minutes of looking through the guides an owl flew into class with a note for Professor Babbling.

"Erh," Professor Babbling said, "Isaac Rogers?"

"Oh crap," Isaac said under his breath and Hermione glared at him, "Yes Professor?"

"Mr Weasley has your bag, I believe that you may have his?" Professor Babbling said and Isaac checked the bag.

"Erm... yeah," Isaac said when he found Ron's nametag on the inside, "Should I..."

Professor Babbling gave him the directions to the tower in which Ron had divination.

He paused for breath at the bottom of the ladder that led up to a trapdoor with Professor Trelawney's name and the declaration of her being the Divination Professor.

He climbed the silver rungs and knocked on the trapdoor before entering the heavily scented room.

He stumbled a little from the wave of heat that washed past him and he used a considerable amount of self-restraint not to punch the thing in front of him.

"Here's your bag," Isaac panted, "How many stairs?"

Ron sheepishly blushed and handed Isaac his bag.

Isaac turned and nearly punched someone again.

"Good evening," a misty voice said, "Do you know what happened?"

Isaac took in the sight of the shrawl wrapped teacher before him with glasses so big they reduced her eyes to the size of small marbles.

"Ron took my bag by accident," Isaac said, "And now I have to get back to Ancient..."

"Your coming here was supposed to be!" the teacher said excitedly and dragged him to the front desk.

"Erm..." Isaac said.

"Sit, sit," Professor Trelawny urged, "Drink," she shoved a cup of tea into his hands.

Isaac quickly turned and frowned at Ron who shrugged in response.

Isaac quickly drank the near scalding tea, he and Toby both enjoyed their hot chocolate rather hot; though Toby couldn't tell and liked breathing it out on cold days and pretending he was a dragon.

Once he was done Professor Trewlaney snatched the cup back and Isaac started to rise to leave but she told him to stay and began reading his tea leaves.

"The falcon! You have a dangerous enemy, my dear..." she said, turning his cup, "The club... an attack, this is not a happy cup...

The skull... danger in your path..." she looked up with pity at him.

Isaac looked semi-bored.

She kept turning the cup before yelping and dropping it like it burned her.

"My dear... oh, my dear..."

"What?" Lavender Brown asked, leaning over from her seat next to Parvati Patil.

"Oh... don't make me... oh, no..." Professor Trewlaney moved round the table and looked down at Isaac, "My dear... you have... you have, the Grim!" she said dramatically.

A few others in the class gasped, some looked confused, and Ron looked terrified at his friend.

Isaac still looked semi-bored.

"Ok," Isaac said, "Thank you for the tea, but erm... I think I should be getting back to class,"

"No, my dear, you must stay!" Trelwaney grabbed his wrist and Isaac's hand went to restraining Fizz in his pocket.

"To have such an omen, at such a young age," Professor Trewlaney said, voice heavily laden with pity, "An omen of death... you must learn to recognise the signs,"

"What is the Grim?" Isaac asked curiously, wondering what the hell was going on now.

"A large spectral hound that haunts the graveyards," Professor Trewlaney said, trying to move closer to Isaac but he backed away towards the trap door, "A hunter of souls upon this plane,"

"Right, yes," Isaac said, "I have seen them, and I know what to do,"

A few gasped and Professor Trewlaney looked victorious.

"Their names are Smile and Eris, I live with them," he said and a few chuckles came from the room, "And I'll set down circles of Goofer dust and rock salt around my bed when I sleep..."

Dean bit down on his hand to stop himself from laughing.

"And I'll get a rod of iron to defend myself," Isaac finished and Dean tried to gasp for air.

"Goodbye," Isaac said semi-cheerily before sliding down the ladder and jogging away before anyone could call him back.

Isaac glanced down at his watch and found that there was around a quarter of the lesson left.

"Got lost?" Professor Bavvling asked when he returned.

"No, erm... she insisted I have a cup of tea and read my leaves," Isaac said.

"Let me take a guess," Professor Babbling said, "You're dying?"

"Apparently," Isaac said as the bell rang to signify the next lesson.

Professor Babbling looked at him with sympathy and told him to talk to Professor McGonagall about it.

This had him feeling worried as it meant that either Professor Trewlaney was correct in his death threat, and he had an omen of death trailing him, or someone could see into his home-life.

Their next class was Transfiguration and this was helpful since he could ask Professor McGonagall about it after class ended.

When everyone was seated in the classroom Professor McGonagall told them that a brief part of this term would be looking at Animagus Transfigurations and then demonstrated by turning into her cat form and back again.

Isaac was the only person who clapped, everyone else looked depressed and a few were casting glances at him.

"Thank you, Mr Rogers," Professor McGonagall said, looking around the class, "Not that it matters, but that was one of the only times that many didn't clap when I transformed,"

Hermione raised her hand and spoke, "Please, Professor, we just had Divination, and..."

Isaac turned and looked at her in confusion.

"Aah, say no more," Professor McGonagall said with a nod, "Tell me, which of you is dying today?"

"Apparently, me," Isaac said cheerily and a few looked at him like he was mad.

Professor fixed her beady eyes on Isaac.

"Professor Trewlaney has predicted the death of one student a year since she began working at this establishment," she said, "None of them have died yet, and it is her favourite way of welcoming a new class, but I thought that you didn't opt to take Divination?"

"There was a mix-up with mine and Ron's bags and I had to go take his bag up to him, up the many, _many_ , stairs," Isaac slowly turned and gave Ron a suffering smile.

"I see," Professor McGonagall said, "Well then, Mr Rogers, you look in perfect health to me so excuse me if I don't let you off homework today. I assure you that if you die, you need not hand it in,"

"How generous of you Professor," Isaac said cheerily and got a small smile in return as Professor McGonagall returned to her desk and properly began the lesson.

Isaac ignored Lavender's mutters about something Neville did and he had a feleing that he had broken something.

As they made their way to lunch Ron kept pressing Isaac if he _had_ seen a great big ghost of a dog.

"Yeah," Isaac said, "Smile and Eris, though Eris is still like... two years old and a total lap-dog,"

Ron tried to get Isaac to understand how dangerous a Grim was but Isaac didn't care as they made their way down to Care of Magical Creatures.

After they made their way to Hagrid's hut where he was waiting for them with Fang, they were soon joined by the others of the class and found that the other house in their lesson was the Slytherins.

Isaac raised his head as he saw Malfoy in the group and gave him a half glare with a small smile.

He returned it and Isaac gave the subtlest of nods which was also returned.

After Hagrid revealed how they opened their books, Isaac lamenting why his friedn couldn't have just given them a non-enchanted book that didn't try to eath them whenever they tried to open it, he went off and retrieved what Magical Creatures the class would be learning about today.

"God this place is going to the dogs," Malfoy muttered and the Slytherins laughed, Pansy the hardest and used Draco to keep herself standing.

He glanced over at Isaac and he could see that Draco hadn't meant to be over heard and raised an eyebrow at Draco.

Draco looked down, away from him, as Blaise cuffed him over the head before he could say anything else as Hagrid came back.

"Holy cow," Isaac said as Hagrid brought them out, " I think Ben would squeal if he could see these," he said to Hermione and she snorted in laughter.

"Hippogriffs!" Hagrid announced, leading around a dozen of them into a paddock next to his house, "Beau'iful, aren' they?"

Isaac could see what he meant, the hippogriffs gleaming coats blended gracefully from the eagle heads of feathers to the coats of fur from the horse bodies.

Isaac listened to Hagrid talking about the hippogriffs, and the warning that they are an extremely proud race, but out of the corner of his eye he could see Pansy chatting idly to Draco, Crabbe, and Goyl.

"Now, who wants to come say hello?" Hagrid asked, clapping his hands together.

Everyone took a step back except Isaac who took a step closer to the fence

"But what about your tea leaves?" Lavender cried.

Isaac rolled his eyes, waved her off, and walked into to the paddock.

"Easy, now, Isaac," Hagrid said quietly, "Yeh've got eye contact, don't blink much,"

Hagrid walked him through the steps and Isaac bowed to the Hippogriff named Buckbeak.

Buckbeak walked forward a step and gave a screeching bark.

"Back away, back away," Hagrid said but before Isaac could do so Buckbeak bent down into what was unmistakably a bow.

Hagrid sighed in relief and told Isaac that he was allowed to move closer to stroke him.

"Hi," Isaac said to Buckbeak as he stroked the hippogriff's neck.

"Well done, Isaac, well done," Hagrid said enthusiastically as the class applauded, save for Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle.

Isaac spent another couple of moments petting Buckbeak's beak and was about to stop and return to the class when;

"I reckon he migh' let yeh ride him now," Hagrid said and before Isaac could protest he had been lifted onto Buckbeak's back and Hagrid slapped Buckbeak on the hindquarters.

Isaac scrambled to grab Buckbeak's neck as the hippogriff reared and took off.

"GYAHH!" Isaac yelped as Buckbeak soared out of the paddock and over the grounds.

Isaac soon started laughing in excitement as Buckbeak flew over the tree tops and out towards the lake.

"Ooh," Isaac said as Buckbeak flew close enough to the water for him to skim a claw in, "You were definately more than enough reason to take this class,"

Buckbeak called out in a screech and started rising again.

Buckbeak flew back to the paddock and landed in a run.

Isaac slid off of Buckbeak's back and wobbled on the ground.

Hagrid walked him back to the fence and told him he did great as the rest of the class, inspired by Isaac's success, wanted to try their luck.

Blaise and Draco were left without a Hippogriff and were to wait while everyone else was bowing to their hippogriffs.

Blaise came over to Isaac while he was getting a drink from the bottle of water in his bag, "So, Rogers, flying on a hippogriff any different than a broom?"

Isaac rinsed his mouth with the cool water and swallowed before answering.

"A little more uncomfortable, get hit in the legs by the wings," he said, "How was your holiday?"

"Not bad, went to a family home in Italy for a couple of weeks," Blaise said, watching the other students, "Yours go well?"

"About as good as they normally go," Isaac said, "Thalmann housed a guest for a couple of weeks and got to meet some of L.J's friends he has in his job so that was a little different.

Still got loads of cotton candy leftover from this thing L.J did,"

Blaise smirked at how Isaac grumbled about the cotton candy.

Draco was at the fence watching how Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy had taken over on Buckbeak.

"Uh-oh," Draco said.

"What's 'uh-oh'?" Isaac asked as he and Blaise looked too.

"Oh, christ," Blaise muttered, "That's Pansy's 'I'm going to be rude' glint in her eyes,"

"Oh shit," Isaac said.

A few seconds later Pansy had bent her head down closer to the hippogriff and...

"AIEE!" Pansy screeched as Buckbeak reared. A flash of talons was seen and Pansy's arm blossomed in blood while Crabbe and Goyle moved her away from the hippogriff as Hagrid wrestled his collar back on.

"CLASS DISMISSED!" Hagrid called out to the others as he scooped Pansy up and sped his way to the hospital wing.

"This isn't going to end well," Blaise said, hurrying over to the Slytherins.

Isaac had a feeling that he was going to be right as he made his way back up to the Gryffindor common room with Hermione and Ron.

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End notes.

Ok, this one is ending a little abruptly since I've taken longer to write this one due to a little bit of a writing block.

As you can tell, I'm changing some things around with the story and since I'm writing this around one in the morning I want to wrap it up so I can do a better job going into how things will change in the future.

Sorry if it's a little dull, I'll be doing more to keep it interesting with some CP segments next chapter, but this was just to get them back to Hogwarts anyway and prepare me to start planning for how much will change.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter and will enjoy the next.

What the hell am I going to do for the boggart?

I seriously have no idea.

Suggestions on how I can make the story more entertaining are welcomed since I'm writing this for the readers, not me, so if you have an idea feel free to leave it in a review or PM me.

Anyway, see you in the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

If any of these are wrong then please notify me of this so I can fix them.

If you have a favourite Creepypasta that has not made an appearance then message me or leave their name in a review.


	29. Chapter 29, Potions, Boggart, and Snakes

Chapter 29, Potions, Boggart, and Snakes.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

They're back at Hogwarts, and this fic is finally getting further from the canon story.

Sorry about last week's chapter being a little late, I definitely hit a wall when writing.

That being said, I've been planning how this fic will go and I'm almost certain that I have an idea on how it'll go.

Kidding...

I have no idea how it'll go.

Anyway, I've got a structure for these notes, and that means it's time for the reviews.

Lunarwolf11021;

...

Can you see my notepad?

549;

That... certainly sounds interesting.

From what I'm getting from the review, the dementor boggart causes whatever Slendy marked Isaac with to flare up and warps himself to the classroom and then goes full monster on the boggarts ass.

That would be a pretty funny scene but I think I'm gonna have something else.

Might put it in a small EXTRAS chapter where the CP things completely mess up HP canon.

DarkRavie;

Thanks, glad you like it.

ARMYPotterhead(Guest);

1, No.

2, No.

3, Glad that you like the story.

Matt(Guest);

Thanks. I want to try and lean further from the HP canon and the friendship with Draco would be pretty difficult to work with in the future if the Buckbeak incident went down with him as the one getting hurt.

I have read 'Harry by Proxy' and if I ever feel like I am really struggling I might drop them a message asking for advice.

Silver-Tongue;

Beautiful, why thank you.

Glad to hear that there's at least one person who thinks I'm doing the pacing of the story alright, I'm planning to try and have more of my own scenes instead of ones from the book and only try to have the major events that impact the story turn up.

I'm happy that you think I've done Isaac's development alright as well, that was something else I was worried about.

Alright, I think I'll not have any OC's that turn into major characters, just occasional people who turn up that I've mentioned in the past or keep them out of the main roles of the story.

Jamie(Guest);

Thank you.

I do have one or two things planned in the future in regards to that.

Sweet Smilie;

Fizz is the best mouse. Yes.

I... I... I really want to write that now. Just have Fizz pop out of Ron's easter egg or something. Or some chicken he wanted.

Mrs Norris will be faced with most of Fizz's actions that he gets whenever he gets bored, might annoy Crookshanks a little if he's around.

Trelawney looking at Slenderman's tea... I'm gonna write something with that eventually, that's too good an opportunity to miss.

No, Dean cannot be everywhere... I need to fix that a little... probably just have Isaac get grouchy and say, "Go find Dean," Or annoy everyone with references that only he understands.

Pansy's family will be out for blood. Hagrid's safe, but Buckbeak's going through the trial stuff.

Draco... I think I'm just trying to write him to be more independent and able to stand up for himself more.

Now how to have him and Isaac be able to be seen in public... to the library.

I'm not going to say anything about who I'm gonna ship Isaac with.

Ok... this part didn't translate to English very well. From what I understand... it's either about (1) if Slenderman would be affected by the dementors, or (2) do the dementors cause the same effects as Slenderman?

– No. They wouldn't affect Slenderman. He'd just look down at them and then rip them into pieces.

\- No. They do not cause the same effects as Slenderman, just slightly similar.

Shibo No Asashin;

Thank you!

No, it makes sense, I prefer it when I'm able to have 100% control of what I write and not follow the HP side as strictly as well. I think you're the first person to thank DP aside from me, that's nice.

I am reading 'Tale of a Clown's Mage' I really like it.

Just gonna say this. If there is an HP/CP crossover than I have most likely read it. I started writing this because there was a severe lack of HP/CP crossovers out there.

Ok, that was the last of the reviews.

And that means I check in with DP.

So, how ya doing?

I am doing good SG. How are you?

It snowed here in Wisconsin again… -.-

It is mid-April, it shouldn't be snowing like this. So how is the weather across the pond SG?

Anyways welcome back readers I hope you all enjoy this week's chapter.

Well... for me it was sunny, then it was cloudy, then it rained.

So pretty much normal for us, except that there was actual sunlight coming through the clouds and we're apparently getting a heatwave at some point so that'll be fun.

Ok, back to the story.

Let's hope that I know what I'm doing...

SteamGeek01,

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Lebanon, Kansas.

"C'mon," Charlie said, holding his hand out and helping Devon up over the ledge he currently stood on.

"Right," Devon said, rubbing his hands on his trousers to rid them of the dirt from the climb, "Should be this way," he pointed and started walking.

"This is what we get for not bringing a map," Charlie said, falling into step just behind him.

"I know where I'm going," Devon snapped, "Just over this next hill is a small stream, past the stream is the road, the road leads to the campsite,"

"Aah, yes," Charlie said, "The campsite where we should have been..." he checked his watch, "Three hours and twenty-eight minutes ago,"

Devon just growled and continued through the trees; the softly blowing wind seemed to laugh at their predicament.

Charlie stopped and looked around.

For a moment there, it sounded like there _was_ laughter.

"Hey... Devon?" Charlie called to his friend, looking over his shoulder down the path they had come down, "Did you hear something?"

"You complaining?" Devon called, a fair bit of distance between them now.

Charlie had just turned in time to see Devon yelp and tumble out of sight down some unseen ditch hidden by the ferns.

"Devon!" Charlie called out, hurrying over.

He skidded to a stop, letting his backpack fall off his back and crouching down where his friend had slid down.

Devon was bent over down at the bottom of a clearing, a strap on his backpack had broken and it was half hanging off him. The ferns and trees had grown in a way so that it was near impossible to see the clearing from the path they had been walking.

"You alright?" Charlie called down.

Devon didn't reply.

He slumped over onto his side, flattening his bag, and Charlie scurried back.

There was a large hilt sticking out of Devon's chest, the blade buried deep inside him.

Charlie was about to jump down when someone walked out of a hidden spot.

Whoever it was had their hood up so he couldn't see their face, but by the shape of their body, he guessed it was a woman.

"Please!" he cried down, "Help him!"

The woman bent down, tilting her head as she looked at the hilt of the knife, before grabbing it and yanking it free; sending a large splatter across the forest floor.

"His time... was up," the woman said, turning to face him.

Charlie gasped at her.

There were thick, black, cross-shaped stitches across her cheeks like she had sewn them back together after they had been cut. Her hair framed her face, falling away enough for him to see the one green eye staring up at him.

Her other eye had been replaced by what looked like a pocket watch that had been roughly shoved into the space, skewed so that the number twelve was in the direction of her other eyes eyebrow.

Her smile widened, causing the stitches to cut into her slightly.

"Your time is up too," she said in a carrying whisper and Charlie scrambled to his feet and started running down the path.

Brambles caught on the upturns of his jeans and low branches threatened to scratch his face as he ran as fast as he could, stumbling once or twice over loose stone before one particularly large one caused him to trip, roll, and land in a crumpled heap five feet away.

He tried to get up but his leg gave out underneath him.

He was sure that he had dislocated part of it, even though he had no proper idea, and tried to crawl his way into the thicket of the undergrowth.

He tried to frantically calm his breathing as he tried to listen for the sounds of someone chasing him.

He finally managed to calm his breathing to the point that it came out as shuddered whispers of breath and listened as the sounds of the forest echoed around him.

He started to breathe easier as he thought he had gotten away.

Then a thick belt was swung around the tree, catching him in the face, and was pulled tight; trapping his head against the tree.

"I told you..." the woman said softly as she started to twist the two ends of the belt so it pulled tighter and tighter against his head, "Your time..."

Charlie groaned as the leather cut into his face, he could feel his eyes starting to pop under the pressure.

"Is..."

He cried out as he felt his own, warm, blood seep out under his fingers as he tried to pull the belt off.

He could hear something else creaking alongside the leather against the tree.

"Up..."

With a loud crack his skull finally caved under the pressure and collapsed into itself.

A few moments later, the woman still hadn't stopped turning the belt, the straps gave way and the belt whipped free; tearing a few strips of flesh away with it.

The woman stood up and looked at the ruined belt.

"Aww," she moaned, "I liked this one,"

She walked around the tree and looked at the crushed skull.

"You're not using this, are you?" she asked the body, pointing to Charlie's belt.

"Well... you were never using anything down there anyway, were you?" she said as she pulled Charlie's belt free and fastened it on her own jeans.

"Thank you," she said before walking calmly through the forest on her way home.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Hogwarts.

Isaac sat on one of the chairs in front of the grand fireplace in the Gryffindor common room.

Dinner had passed and they were trying to go through the Transfiguration homework they had gotten but they were too worried about how Hagrid was.

"We've got a good..." Isaac said, checking his watch, "Hour and a bit. Wanna go see Hagrid?"

Hermione looked out the window overlooking the grounds.

"I don't know," she said slowly as she glanced at him.

"Let's go see Hagrid," Isaac said, jumping up and going up the stairs and grabbing a jacket.

Hermione and Ron realised that they weren't going to be able to convince him otherwise and followed him out the portrait.

They didn't meet anyone on their way down and hurried across the grounds towards Hagrid's cabin.

Inside the cabin Hagrid was wiping down his table, lifting a tankard the size of a bucket up as he cleared the spot underneath it.

"Spect it's a record," he said thickly throwing the washcloth into a basin of water on the kitchen worktop, "Don' reckon they've had a teacher who on'y lasted a day before,"

"You haven't been sacked, Hagrid!" Hermione gasped.

"Not yet," Hagrid said, sounding miserable, "But 's only a matter of time once Parkinson's family gets their fingers in,"

"You warned us, Hagrid," Isaac said, "She's at fault for not listening. Call us up to testify if it gets to court,"

Hagrid smiled meekly at the three of them.

"I can go through the library and find past cases involving hippogriffs in lawsuits," Hermione offered.

"I'll help you," Ron added on, not wanting to be left out.

Hagrid's beetle eyes seemed to glaze over in unshed tears.

He dabbed them against the large handkerchief he had and turned back to face them.

He went wide-eyed and jumped a little as though he was seeing Isaac for the first time.

"WHAT D'YEH THINK YOU'RE DOIN', EH?" the three of them jumped at his change of tone, "YEH'RE NOT TO GO WANDERIN' AROUND AFTER DARK, ISAAC! AN' YOU TWO! LETTIN' HIM!"

He strode over to Isaac and tried to grab him but Isaac ducked under his arm.

When Hagrid turned to see where he'd gone Isaac had seemingly disappeared.

"I'm takin' you's three back to the castle," Hagrid said, he swayed a little as he looked around for Isaac.

Isaac's head popped up from behind Hagrid's table.

"C'mon," he said, gesturing out the door as Isaac slid out, "Don' let me catch you sneakin' down teh see me again, I'm not worth it... jus' hold on a mo',"

He quickly dunked his head in the large water basin to wake himself up more and quickly wiped himself down with a towel that was hanging outside to dry.

As they made their way back up to the castle Isaac turned and looked at the trees.

He'd gotten too used to looking for Slenderman, he decided.

He didn't see him but he thought he had seen a pair of eyes staring at them from the undergrowth.

Pansy didn't re-appear in classes until halfway through the double Potions on Thursday morning.

Isaac rolled his eyes at her when she walked into the dungeon, looking like she was attempting to put on a brave face.

'I've seen better acting in B-movies,' Isaac thought as Snape called for the class to settle down.

Throughout the class Pansy loudly complained at how she was unable to perform the required actions due to her arm.

By the five minute mark Blaise and Draco, who she had been sitting next to and were instructed to help her through the lesson, looked tired and ready to have an early lunch.

Pansy had just started complaining about how her Father was already looking into action against the school when...

"And what colour is the potion supposed to be, Longbottom?" Snape asked acidly, dipping a ladle into the cauldron in front of the trembling boy.

"G-green, sir," Neville squeaked as Snape let a large amount of potion fall from the ladle into the cauldron and showing everyone it's orange colour.

Then things got worse when he announced that they would test Neville's potion on his toad Trevor at the end of class. Hermione offered to help him but Snape shot her down.

When Snape moved back to his desk Seamus leaned over to the desk that Ron and Isaac were using as he leant over to borrow Isaac's scales.

"Isaac, did you hear?" he breathed quietly to avoid Snape hearing him, "They reckon that they've spotted Sirius Black!"

"Really?" Isaac asked, "Where?"

"Not too far from here," Seamus told him, "Some muggle spotted him, but they think he's just a normal criminal that's escaped from a nut house,"

"Quiet," Snape called, not looking up from the piece of parchment he was marking on the desk.

The rest of the class was passed without further incident.

That was until Pansy started complaining about how Hagrid was an oaf that needed to be fired.

After checking that there was no one looking his way Isaac ducked his head down a little.

"Fizz," he said quietly, "Fizz... wake up,"

A barely audible squeak came from his pocket.

Isaac rolled his eyes and carefully sneaked Fizz out, pretending to have been adjusting his tie.

After a careful bit of maneuvering, he managed to turn the small key on Fizz's back with one hand and Fizz shook a little as he woke up.

"Girl in the cast, broken arm," Isaac said as quiet as he could, "Don't be seen, but give her a fright,"

Fizz gave another quiet squeak and scurried down his trouser leg and away.

Isaac waited patiently, and three minutes later...

"WYAAGH!" Pansy shrieked, jumping in her seat and knocking something into her potion which gave off a large purple cloud.

Professor Snape whipped his wand around and dissipated the cloud before glaring at a very red-faced Pansy.

"And just _what_ was deserving of that outburst, Mrs Parkinson?" he asked.

"A- a mouse bit me," she said, shrinking back a little.

"A mouse?" Snape said slowly, "Something funny, Potter?"

Isaac had let out a small snort of laughter that he had thought no one had heard. Evidently Snape had.

"Nothing, sir," Isaac said, "It's just that... those runes on your doors prevent the access of small rodents,"

Snape looked down at Isaac.

"And how do you know what those are?" he asked as everyone turned to see if he was right.

"They were used as an example on a starter sheet by Professor Babbling on common runes used in society,"

"Correct," Snape said, and turned back to Pansy.

"Refrain from further... embarrassing outbursts in class, Mrs Parkinson. Potions are a delicate craft, after all,"

Pansy somehow went a deeper shade of red as Isaac felt something tugging at his sock which meant that Fizz had made his way back to him.

"Unfair git," Ron mumbled, sliding a few roots into his own potion, "If that'd been one of us, he'd have thrown us into detention,"

Throughout this time Neville had continued working feverishly to try and fix his potion; Hermione giving him hints through clenched teeth.

At the end of class Neville had managed to create a working shrinking solution and Trevor the toad was temporarily transformed into Trevor the tadpole.

Snape, however, either noticed or correctly guessed that Hermione had helped him and took five points from Gryffindor for disobeying orders.

Ron grumbled on his way out of the classroom.

That was, until they reached the Great Hall for lunch and Ron turned to talk to Hermione and they found that she'd disappeared.

Isaac spotted her running up the stairs.

"I'll go get her," Isaac said, patting Ron on the back, "You go on ahead,"

Ron shrugged and went off to see what there was for lunch today as Isaac jogged and came up to Hermione as she was wrestling to close her bag.

"Need a hand?" he asked and Hermione jumped, yanking a part of her bag and a seam split.

Isaac looked at the amount of books that spilt out of her bag.

"Ok. I know that I joke about you trying to read the whole library by the time that we're done with Hogwarts... but holy hell, how many books do you need? It's only Defense this afternoon,"

"It's fine," Hermione squeaked, shoving something down her shirt, "I've sorted it all out with Professor McGonagall,"

She waved her wand, muttering a reparo, and fixed her bag. She then stuffed the books that had fallen out back in so it was near bursting again as she made her way to the Great Hall.

Isaac watched her and felt Fizz shuffle up the inside of his pocket and poke his head out.

'Squeak'

"I agree... she's hiding something," Isaac said, making his own way to the hall.

He wanted to get a good lunch before Defense because, so far, his experiences with the class were less than stellar.

First-year, the teacher tried to kill him.

Second-year, the teacher was an utter moronic cow and tried to erase his memory (A smile grew on Isaac's face at the memory of punching Lockhart in the face).

Professor Lupin, so far, hadn't been too bad. He had protected them on the train and looked like a generally kind person.

Isaac sat down between Ron and Hermione as he slid a few pieces of bacon onto his plate.

Really, after everything that had happened in the past years, how bad could it be?

Isaac glanced down at his watch as he sat in his chair as he and the rest of the mixed class of Gryffindors and Slytherins waited for the late Professor Lupin.

When he did show up he told them to pack everything that they had taken out away and follow him out of the class for a practical lesson.

Aside from meeting Peeves on the way down, and Professor Lupin sending him on his way with a large wad of gum shoved up his nose, the only other thing that happened was that they were led to the Teachers Lounge.

Snape was sat in the room. His dark eyes followed them in and Isaac watched as they latched onto Neville for a moment before looking to Lupin in what Isaac thought was the same kind of disgust that he normally reserved for him.

"Keep the door open, Lupin," Snape said, rising from the chair in which he was sat, "Possibly no one's warned you, but this class contains Neville Longbottom. I would advise that you don't entrust him with anything complicated. Unless Miss Granger is hissing instructions in his ear,"

Lupin smiled at the dark cladded Professor.

"Not to worry," he said kindly, "I was hoping that Neville could help me with a demonstration, and I'm sure he'll perform admirably,"

Snape sneered at Professor Lupin as he strode out, robes billowing behind him.

The class was silent for a few moments as Lupin closed the door.

Then the wardrobe by the door rattled and shook, causing a few people to jump away from it.

"Nothing to worry about," Professor Lupin said calmly, "It's just a Boggart,"

Isaac and Dean, going by the look on his face, had no idea what that was but everyone else looked like it was something to be worried about.

"Now, who can tell me what a Boggart is?" Lupin asked and nodded to Hermione when she raised her hand.

"It's a shapeshifter," Hermione said, "It takes the form of whatever a person fears the most,"

"Correct," Professor Lupin said, "Now, Boggarts like the dark and enclosed spaces. I once met one that had lodged itself inside a grandfather clock.

Now, as it does not yet have someone to fear it, it has not yet taken a shape.

However, when I let him out, he will assume the form of whatever you fear the most," he said to Neville, "Though this class does have one big advantage. Do you know what that is, Isaac?"

Isaac's eyes flicked to Professor Lupin and back to the wardrobe.

"There's a lot of people here," Isaac said, "It'll be harder to change into something that'll scare all of us,"

"Precisely. Now, the charm to repel a Boggart is very simple," Professor Lupin said, "But, what ultimately finishes a Boggart off is _laughter_. The charm will force the Boggart to turn itself into something that you find funny.

Now, repeat after me, no wands, _riddikulus_!"

The class echoed him twice until he deemed it that they could pronounce it properly.

"Now then, Neville, come here," he gently guided Neville so that he was directly in front of the rattling wardrobe.

"Now, what is it that scares you?" he asked Neville kindly.

Neville's mumbled reply of "Professor Snape," got a couple of chuckles from the class.

"Doesn't he scare us all... you live with your grandmother, yes?"

Neville nodded.

"Now, just what is it that your grandmother wears?" Professor Lupin asked and Isaac bit the inside of his cheek as Neville told him of the long, green, dress; a hat with a stuffed vulture on top of it; fox-fur scarf; and large red handbag. He had an idea of what Lupin was going to get Neville to do.

Professor Lupin smiled as Neville finished.

"Now when the door opens, and the Boggart assumes the form of Professor Snape, I want you to think about that long dress, big hat, scarf, and handbag.

And when you cast the charm Boggart-Snape will be forced into that long dress, hat, scarf, and handbag," Lupin finished and the class laughed.

The wardrobe shook violently and a few of them jumped back again.

Professor Lupin walked back from Neville and waved his wand at the windows to close the curtains so that the only light was from the many candles in the room.

"Ok, line up against the wall," he instructed, "We'll start on this side and I'll call you forward to face it," he turned back to Neville.

"Alright. Ready Neville?" he asked and Neville nodded and raised his wand.

Lupin pointed his wand at the wardrobe and it opened.

Snape climbed out, his long robes billowing as he glared at Neville.

Neville raised his wand a little higher and cried "Riddikulus!"

Snape staggered back and the class laughed at the sight of their greasy-haired potions Professor in the dress and scarf.

"Excellent, Parvati! Forward!"

Neville leapt back and Patil Parvati stepped forward.

The Boggart turned into a shuffling mummy. When Parvati cast the charm a bandage came undone and it fell over as its legs became tangled.

"Seamus!"

The mummy became a Banshee and as it started to screech Seamus cast the charm and took away it's voice.

"It's getting confused," Lupin said as the Boggart changed to a rat, then a rattle snake, then a single eyeball.

"Ronald!"

Many of them screamed as a large spider appeared in front of them.

"Riddikulus!" Ron screeched and the spider lost its legs.

"Good, good, Dean!" Lupin called and Dean stepped forward.

Isaac stared at what the Boggart turned into.

"Dean... if we don't die I'm going to kill you," Isaac said.

"Yeah," Dean agreed, not taking his eyes off it, "I'd kill me too,"

Blaise walked past the very confused others in the line and stood next to Isaac.

"Well... this is going to be fun," he said, "Don't blink,"

"Mr Thomas," Lupin said, "What exactly is that?"

Many of the class were looking amongst themselves as Pansy asked the question that many of them seemed to have.

"What's so scary about a statue, Thomas?" she sneered.

Dean, Isaac, and Blaise kept their eyes locked on the Weeping Angel that stood before them, it's face hidden in its hands.

Suddenly the candles in the room flickered, going out for a few seconds, and when they stilled again the angel had moved.

It was around a metre away from Dean now, who had taken a couple of steps back in anticipation, and its hands had dropped from its face. A cruel smirk could be seen upon the stone effigy.

Many of the class gasped and Dean raised his wand.

Before he could speak the candles flickered again and the angel moved. Its face was barely inches away from Dean, its hands had changed into claws and it's mouth had opened up in a silent, fang-filled, roar.

Dean leapt back and yelled, "Riddikulus!"

Blaise grabbed on to Isaac to steady himself as the two of them laughed at the sight of the wobbling man in the tan trenchcoat in front of them that staggered back away from Dean.

"I found a liquor store. And I drank it," the man said as it turned to look at Isaac.

Things seemed to slow down slightly as Isaac wondered what it would turn into.

For a brief moment something popped into his head.

The rotting hand that he had glimpsed on the dementor on the train floated to his mind.

Then something else came to him.

Him.

Standing there, drenched in blood with fire encircling him, sprouting from his hands in seemingly endless torrents.

A wide maniacal smile adorned his face and large, slanted, claw marks had been slashed across his face. One of his eyes was missing. Some sort of dark shadow seemed to be shimmering in the air around him, clinging to him almost possessively.

Toby and Ben were both lying dead at his feet as he laughed endlessly with Slendy approaching and a tentacle piercing through his chest and...

"Here!" Lupin shouted as he jumped in front of Isaac, startling him.

The Boggart briefly changed into what Isaac thought was a white ball before Lupin, almost lazily, cast the spell and the Boggart changed to a balloon that spluttered its way around the room before landing in front of Neville again.

A brief glimpse of Snape's clothes being quickly changed to the dress again as Neville gave another laugh and it burst into smoke.

Lupin waved his wand around and the curtains opened again, letting light flood into the room.

"Yes, well, that was most certainly interesting," Lupin said.

The bell to end the class ended and Lupin shouted out over it that all they had for homework was to read the chapter on Boggarts in their book for next week.

Isaac jogged down the stairs to catch up to Dean.

"So, that was the deadliest, most powerful, most malevolent life form that evolution has ever produced, was it?" Isaac said, causing Dean to jump as he hadn't noticed him approaching, "And you turned it into the Angel of Thursday,"

Dean huffed in laughter as they sat down at the table. Ron and Hermione not far behind.

"What was that thing?" Ron asked as he added a few helpings of roast beef to his plate.

"That was a Weeping Angel," Isaac said, "Deadliest creature in the universe,"

"A what?" Ron said.

"The Weeping Angels," Blaise said, sitting down and causing Ron to glare at him, "Oldest hunters in existence and the only thing that will kill you nicely,"

"What are you doing here?" Ron said defensively.

"Relax, Weasley," Blaise drawled, "I'm not staying long I just want to talk with, quite possibly, the only two other people in this castle that will understand me,"

Ron turned to Isaac, "You're going to talk to him?"

"No, I'm gonna Riverdance," Isaac said, piling a few spoons of mashed potatoes to his plate and passing the bowl to Blaise.

Ron looked astounded between the two of them before turning to his own plate.

"So, know what it would have been for you?" Blaise asked Isaac.

The image of Toby and Ben dead at his feet by his hands flashed through his mind again.

"No clue," Isaac said, not meeting their eyes, "Would've been interesting to see through. What about you?"

Blaise turned and looked at him, slowly chewing his food as he thought.

"It's between two," he said, "Either that green mess from Clom," Isaac and Dean shivered slightly, "Or..." he trailed off, going blank in the face and leaned forward to look Isaac directly in the face.

"Are you my Mummy?"

"Oh, _that_ kid," Isaac said, shivering again, "I mean... Yeah, he got that bomb to the face in the middle of the London Blitz and didn't mean all of it, but... just... no. I'd rather take the angel.

It's from Doctor Who," Isaac said to Ron who was looking extremely confused, "Got affected by... future medical things and was turned into a sort of zombie that went around 'curing' others into the same thing as him... I'll show you the episode some time,"

"You know, sometimes, what you watch sounds downright terrifying," Ron said, cutting into his roast beef.

"Na. I just haven't explained it properly... then again, my 'people skills' are 'rusty'," Isaac said with a smirk.

"I don't understand that reference," Blaise said.

"I learnt that from the pizza man," Isaac said and the two of them turned to Dean.

"My turn, or am I judging who had the better quote," he asked.

Blaise and Isaac turned and faced each other.

"Quote off?" Blaise challenged, "First to say a quote from the wrong character wins?"

"There's a bottle of old 'Fuck You' in a cabinet," Isaac started.

"Get the hell off my property before I blast you so full of rock salt, you crap margaritas," Blaise said.

"Well, boohoo, I'm so sorry your feelings are hurt, Princess," Isaac said.

"And what's going on here?" Snape asked acidly. Evidently, his curiosity as to why one of his Slytherins was sitting on the Gryffindor table had forced him over.

A quick glance at the head table told Isaac that a few other Professors were intrigued as well.

"I... don't exactly know, Professor," Hermione said.

"The two of them are trying to see who can come up with the better quote from Supernatural, Sir," Dean explained, "It's a t.v. show, sir,"

"I understand the concept of a show, Mr Thomas," Snape said, "And a point from Gryffindor for profanity," he added on, looking at Isaac.

"Yes sir," Isaac said, nodding and turning back to Blaise.

"Do I look like a ditchable prom date to you?" Blaise finally said.

"Do I look like Dr Phil to you?" Isaac countered.

"Don't make me get my gun, boy," Blaise said.

"Why'd you take a picture?" Isaac said.

"Why'd you use tongue? Damn!" Blaise hit his leg.

"Wrong character, Isaac wins," Dean declared and returned to his now cold cuts of beef.

"Tell me before you go running off again," Draco said, sitting down next to Blaise.

"And what are you doing here, Malfoy?" Ron sneered.

"Sitting with my friend," Draco said, "Crabbe and Goyle have the conversational skills of toddlers and Pansy is a simpering fool,"

"Fair do's," Isaac said, "Gravy?"

"Thank you," Draco said as a plate appeared in front of him.

"You're fine with this?" Ron asked Isaac in a whisper.

"Yes," Isaac said, "We're going to be sharing a castle with him for... how many years of school do we have here?"

"Seven in total," Hermione said, Blaise nodded in confirmation since his mouth was occupied by broccoli at that point.

"Right, thanks... five years. We have five more years with them so I'm not going to waste energy over something stupid and childish that we said when we were eleven," Isaac finished.

"Who's side are you on?" Ron asked desperately, as if Isaac was betraying him.

"Whoever gives me waffles," Isaac said.

Then he waited.

And he waited.

"That was the hint to pass the waffles," Isaac said after getting tired of waiting.

"Here," Fred said, sitting not too far away on the opposite side of the table.

"Thank you," Isaac said, taking the plate, sliding a few waffles to his, and passing it back, "I'm on their side," he pointed to the twins with his thumb, "Hail chaos!"

Isaac looked down at his plate and back to Draco's.

"Wait... how'd the table know to place a plate here for you?" he asked.

"There's charms based on what house you get sorted into," Draco said, "At the opening feast the elves set out more than enough plates and the ones that don't get used are sent into storage for the rest of the year.

Each table gets a set amount of plates and if a student from one table goes to sit at another then one from the original table moves with the person to the new one,"

"Wait... house elves?" Hermione asked, "Working here?"

"Yes, the largest amount in Britain, if I remember correctly," Draco said.

"Well... do they get paid? Sick leave? Why are you laughing?" Hermione cut herself off when Draco started snickering.

"Granger, house elves enjoy working," he said, clearing his throat, "Holidays? They don't want them. They don't want to get paid, they don't want freedom,"

"I hadn't mentioned their freedom," she looked down at her food, "Slave labour... all of this, made with slave labour," she pushed her plate away from her.

Draco sighed, "Granger, you are not the first to think that house elves need better lifestyles.

If you look at some of the more modern history books there are a few well-documented cases of witches and wizards trying to secure better living standards for them. None end well.

The elves are happy doing what they do, they turn down the offer of what we see as a better life, they feel insulted when you offer it. True there is the occasional one that might take it; our old elf Dobby certainly was an odd one, wonder what happened to him?"

"Your father released him by accident," Isaac said, "Tossed him a book that held a sock, gave him clothes,"

Draco looked at him in confusion, "Why did the book have a sock in it?"

"Plead the fifth," Isaac said.

Hermione had finished mulling over what Draco had said.

"Why are you being so nice?" she asked, "Last year you couldn't say a sentence to me without insulting me,"

Draco looked a little sheepish.

"I... I'm sorry for what I called you on the Quidditch pitch last year," he said, "It was... you know when you're a child and you hear a swear for the first time, so you go to your parents and say it, proud of learning a new word?"

Hermione nodded.

"Well I overheard my Father use it in his study, and when I asked him about it he said that it was a word to describe people beneath you. Had I known what it meant then I would have never called you it,"

"Thank you," Hermione said, "And if Isaac is willing to let bygones be bygones, then so am I," she pulled her plate back to her but didn't eat much.

Draco smiled and returned to his food.

"So what have people done about making sure house elves have better lives?" she asked and soon the two of them were deep in conversation.

Ron didn't say anything throughout the rest of the meal. Isaac expected that he was going to get an earful when they got back to the dorms.

'Yep... called it,' Isaac thought as he listened to Ron rant in their dorm room.

"... and Malfoy! Isaac, mate, he's just another slimy Slytherin!"

"Snakes aren't slimy," Isaac said but was ignored.

"... just trying to get close to you to curse, or hex, you before the next Quidditch match! And the way he was talking to Hermione!"

"What? Politely? He was nothing but civil," Isaac said and was ignored again.

"You haven't been here as long as I have, you don't know the stories about Malfoy's father," Ron wheeled around and grabbed Isaac by the shoulders, "He was the one to put the Diary in Ginny's cauldron last year, for Merlin's sake!"

"Get your hands... off my shoulders," Isaac said carefully.

Ron let go of him with an exasperated sigh, "You don't understand,"

"What don't I?" Isaac asked, "So far the only person who's throwing a tantrum about this is you. So we're in different houses, what's so bad about that?"

"Isaac, listen to me, I'm telling you, that there's not a single witch or wizard that went bad that didn't come out of Slytherin," Ron argued, "Name one good one that did?"

"Merlin," Isaac said.

"What? No he didn't," Ron scoffed.

Isaac responded by getting Merlin's chocolate frog card out from his chest of drawers and tossing it to Ron.

Ron's mouth dropped open and he looked like someone was pulling his eyes out of his head.

"Well... you can't name a bad one that didn't come out of Slytherin," Ron tried.

"Sirius Black," Isaac said.

"What? How d'you know he's not a Slytherin?" Ron asked.

Isaac responded by walking over to the bed where Seamus slept. He pointed out a name carved into the frame.

~Sirius Black, Hogwarts' heart throb~

Below that was another carved scrawl.

~And expert drama queen~

Ron went wide-eyed at the thought that he was sleeping in the room in which Sirius Black once slept.

"Look, Ron," Isaac said, "What's the big deal? Blaise seems like a nice guy, and Draco's not been as big a prat as he normally is, so what's the problem?"

" _They're Slytherins_!" Ron as if that explained his entire viewpoint.

" _It's just a schoolhouse_!" Isaac mimicked, "Seriously, the times that I've chatted with Blaise have been pretty fun and he's an alright bloke. I'm not gonna ditch you just because I've found someone else that can understand what I say when I reference Supernatural.

If Draco acts like a prat then I'm gonna tell him to shut his pie-hole and take a long walk off a short pier,"

Ron seemed to calm down a bit, though his ears were still pretty red.

Isaac walked over and rummaged through his trunk for his Charm's book.

"C'mon, we'd better make a start on the homework," Isaac said, looking back at Ron.

Isaac sighed and rolled his eyes.

"I'll give you a game of wizards chess afterwards," Isaac offered and Ron hurried after him.

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Wire Pass, Utah.

Sarah reached down and offered her hand to help her fiancé over the rock and they made their way down the path, hand in hand.

"So, how much further?" she asked him, bumping into him slightly ass she stumbled over a loose stone.

"Not too far," Jack said, "We've got another... four and a half miles until we reach Stateline Campgrounds.

We get there, we rest for the night, we go home,"

Sarah let out a sigh of relief.

"How long have we been walking?" she asked, pausing to empty some small stones out of her shoe.

"Lost count... do you hear something?" Jack turned and looked further away.

"There's something up ahead," Jack said, looking down the trail.

Something was pawing at the ground ahead, trying to free something.

"Looks like a couple of dogs," Sarah said as she hurried over.

Jack rolled his eyes and followed quickly.

Sarah's compassion for dogs was going to get them killed one day.

Sarah came to a stop and looked down at the dusty pair of dogs.

One of them couldn't have been older than a year at most, her coat was covered in dust and looked like she hadn't had a bath in months, supporting the idea that these were strays.

The other was definitely the older of the two, a good few years on him, and based on the coat and markings was the other dog's father.

He was also pinned under a heavy looking log and his back paw was bent at an odd angle that looked like it hurt.

"Oh dear, what's happened to you?" Sarah asked kindly, moving to examine the log.

There was no way that she and Jack would be able to shift it. By the looks of it, it had fallen down and pinned the older dog. Scuff marks around him showed that the other dog had tried her best to try and dig him out, but her paws barely scratched the stone.

The young dog whined sadly and nuzzled into the other. The trapped dog bent his head down and covered her small body as though hugging her.

"Right, Jack," she said to her fiancé, "If you go on to the campsite and see if you can get someone or something to help get this guy out, I'll stay here and try and keep them calm. Who knows how long it's been since they've had something to eat and drink?"

"Sarah... are you sure that this is a good idea?" he asked, half hoping that she'd agree to go with him so she wouldn't have to stay out here alone.

"You hurry up and go," she ordered, "And once this is done, we're adopting them,"

"Sarah, no," Jack whined.

"No, no, no," Sarah said excitedly, "They need our help, chances are that they've never had a good home and this is just one of those perfect stories.

We're about to get married, we go on this trip to celebrate, we find and rescue some dogs in trouble, we take them home and give them the life that they deserve,"

"You've been watching too many videos on Facebook," Jack said with another sigh.

He knew it was pointless and pulled her in for a quick kiss before saying that he'd be right back and jogging down the trail.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

Jack led the local ranger down the dusty trail, a saw and carjack bumped off his leg every so often.

"It should be just down here," Jack said, pointing down the path where he could just see the end of the tree.

The two of them hurried up.

Jack skidded to a halt and stumbled to his knees.

The ranger swore and grabbed the radio on his coat.

There was blood everywhere. Large claw marks gouged deep into the stone and the fallen tree looked like it had been rammed into by something at high speed. A large trail of blood showed that something had been dragged away and the handprints that accompanied the splatter made Jack want to throw up.

The sight of torn and flayed skin was what caused him to reach his breaking point and he dropped to all fours and vomited violently.

When he looked back up he saw something further along the trail.

Sarah's body was lying around twelve metres away.

Most of her skin had been torn off and it looked like a pack of wild animals had torn through her.

Her head was bent backwards and her mouth was open in a silent cry for help.

Jack felt the world swimming away as his stomach prepared to relieve itself again and he slumped sideways onto the ground.

 **(X) One day later (X)**

Jack was huddled in the back of the car that was taking him back to his house.

Everyone had been told of what had happened.

A wild animal, most likely a mountain lion, had ambushed Sarah as she stayed with the dogs, presumed dead as well.

He had told everyone not to come, to give him a day on his own.

He needed the time to mourn and he didn't want to see the people who once would have become his in-laws. He knew that they blamed him for her death, how could they not?

The car pulled up and the officer opened the door for him.

Jack nodded his thanks and climbed out the car.

Numb hands fumbled with the key and as he stepped over the door he saw a small pile of letters lying on the floor.

Well-wishers, condolences, a couple of bills, the usual garbage promotions.

He kicked them to the side, all in one pile and walked through to the living room.

He dumped his bag in the doorway and fell down onto the couch.

He looked around the home that he once would have shared with the love of his life.

He spun as he felt something brush past the back of his neck, but nothing was there.

He looked back to the small table and saw the small list that Sarah had written for when they got back, reminding them to get more milk and shove everything in the wash.

He picked up the small pad of paper and felt hot tears burn their way down his face.

"...blame..."

He jumped again, the note falling away as he looked around.

"Who's there?" he called out.

"... your fault..."

A soft padding came from the arch to the kitchen and the small dog that he and Sarah had come across on the pass shuffled into view.

Jack barely had time to whisper his confusion as the world seemed to tilt away from him.

The room seemed like it was bending, causing the small dog to become the only thing he could focus on, and warping as if the floor was being bent up.

He fell over, not able to keep his balance and clung to the couch to support himself.

The small dog advanced slowly and the whispers came again.

"... left her... dead... fault... you..."

Jack pleaded with whatever it was that it wasn't his fault as the dog's fur changed.

Her white undercoat, no longer sullied by the dust and dirt, changed to a crimson red as deep as the blood that had coated the canyon pass. A second head burst from her neck, both of their jaws open to reveal the rows of human teeth that seemed to grin at him.

He fumbled around as he tried to crawl away from the demonic hound before him.

"... good as killed her... your fault she's dead..."

He could recognise the voices now. His would-be father-in-law. The ranger that had came with him. His own mother.

"... your fault... didn't save her..." his would-be mother-in-law sobbed.

"No..." he cried, clutching his head, "No, it's not... it's not... leave me be!" he yelled, grabbing and throwing a lamp at the dog.

Everything seemed to stop and the room returned to normal.

The dog fell back slightly as the lamp smashed behind her, it had missed her by an inch at most.

Jack, for a few blissful seconds, thought that he had won.

Then it returned again. Stronger, louder.

His sobs wracked his body as the whispers turned to shouts.

"I know... I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." he sobbed.

The voices didn't leave him.

He wanted them to go.

He called for them to go but they only got louder.

He squeezed his head until he felt like he had pushed his ears into his skull.

He wanted them to stop. He wanted them to stop.

He grabbed the belt from his bag.

He wanted them to stop, he wanted them to stop.

He looped another belt through the first and slid it around his neck.

Make them stop! Make them stop!

He kicked the chair away and struggled against the tight leather cutting into his neck for a few seconds before the lack of air entering his lungs started to burn and he thrashed desperately.

His eyes, clouding over, found the dog standing a few feet away. Watching him.

The voices were getting quieter. They were leaving him.

His vision blurred as though he was looking through a thick fog.

The voices were gone! They... were... gone...

His neighbour found him the next day.

She had heard about what had happened and wanted to check up on him.

She had knocked gently on the door and was surprised when it swung softly open.

She had called out for him when she entered, apologising for entering but the door was open.

Her scream got the attention of the others and soon police were cordoning off the area and an ambulances doors were closing as they carried the body of the late Jack Granton away.

Watching all this from the shadow of a bush were two dogs.

The smaller of the two looked up at the taller and older one, clearly pleased with herself and the elder dog licked away some of the dirt that had built up around behind her ears.

Eris yipped happily and pranced around her father's legs before running off to go back to the Mansion they called home.

Smile paused and looked at what was happening one last time before a flash got his attention.

"Aren't you a gorgeous boy?" a young woman that had just taken his picture said, "Now let's see if we can find your owner, shall we?"

Smile looked up into the woman's face.

Then let his mouth split open in the toothy grin and his fur changed to crimson.

The woman gasped and her phone fell from her hands and cracked on the pavement.

A small twinge told Smile that the email that had carried his picture last had destroyed itself, probably destroying whatever was holding it at the time as well, as the new picture taken of him connected to him.

He walked slowly to the woman and opened his jaw further.

The woman fell back as whispers of an unknown voice filled her head.

"... spread the word..."

She was about to scream when the dog disappeared and she awoke in bed. Panting heavily.

She looked around before holding the covers close to her and wiping the sweat from her head.

She made her way downstairs to get a drink, the noises of the house seemed louder this late at night.

As she filled the glass at the sink she couldn't help but glance upwards and look out the window to the garden outside.

The glass fell into the sink and shattered.

The dog was outside. Watching her. Smiling and waiting.

"... spread the word..."

She fell backwards as the dog raised itself on its paws and pressed its nose against the window.

"... Spread the Word..."

She ran back upstairs as the dog somehow pushed itself through the solid glass without making a sound and walked almost lazily towards her.

She reached her phone and found the photo that she had taken of the dog,

It seemed to flicker in the picture, changing between the handsome husky and the hellish hound stalking her.

She quickly sent it as an attachment to a colleague, asking if she had seen the dog.

She was a new worker in the office so if she disappeared then no one would notice... right?

The dog had been mere inches away from her when she desperately sent send and she watched as it shimmered away.

She woke, gasping, in bed the next morning.

She brought shaky hands to her face and tried to get her breathing under control.

It was just a dream.

A stupid dream.

She didn't notice the claw marks on her windowsill and bedroom floor.

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End notes.

Alright, I feel like that one went rather well.

Was certainly fun writing the CP scenes, gonna stick with the trend of having two of them per HP centric chapter.

It's rather late in the night when I'm finishing this and I want to add some more pieces to it before I send it off to DP so I'm gonna end things here for now and get some definitely needed sleep.

Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

If any of these are wrong then please notify me of this so I can fix them.

If you have a favourite Creepypasta that has not made an appearance then message me or leave their name in a review.


	30. Chapter 30, Hogsmeade, Halloween, and

Chapter 30, Hogsmeade, Halloween, and Pie.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Chapter 30.

Thirty whole weeks of uploading this story.

That means it's 22 weeks until I've been doing this for a whole year... I wonder if I can finish it on 52 chapters exactly? Then again, Fanfic includes the Prologue as a chapter, so...

Either when this ends, or earlier if I can be bothered, I'll put the prologue onto Chapter 1 so it works better and is 52 chapters.

I'm... running out of things to put here.

I've pretty much said all I can here.

So, reviews;

ahhh (Guest);

That one was your favourite chapter? Glad I take that privilege.

Lunarwolf11021;

He-he-he-he, I am too.

Matt (Guest);

Yeah, I sometimes feel like I'm being too cruel with the CP kill scenes too...

But it's so fun to write them that I can't stop. They're the writing equivalent of Pringles to me; can't stop once you start.

silent blue rose;

Yep, things are getting interesting, what am I going to do next?

Seriously, I freewheel this thing so often I have no idea, HELP ME!

DarkRavie;

Hey, glad that you like it.

Right, well this has gone well.

Also, I've gotten a couple of reviews for scenes to add to EXTRAS, and I'll not be adding all reviews that I get for EXTRAS to this, but these two I really like and am already planning their chapters.

1, Canon!Harry meets Isaac.

2, Isaac's boggarts are every Doctor Who villain.

I think these'll be fun to write.

Anyway, I'm all done with the reviews.

DP, got anything to say?

Potatowafflelubetoastercats

my response.

Right then, I guess it's time for the chapter, enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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Woodsfield, Ohio.

The pawnshop desk worker looked up from the vase he was dusting at the sound of the bell above the door rattling.

A teen with messy brown hair and a pair of orange goggles pushed high up his forehead had walked in and was looking around the junk that they had on display.

He went back to dusting off the vase.

"Erm... excuse me?" the teen came over to him a few minutes later.

"Hi. Welcome to Soma Thrift Store, how can I help you?" he asked.

"Hi, yeah, so erm..." the teen said, "My grandmother's shears were stolen and sold here. I was wondering if they'd been sold already or if they were still in the shop?"

"Garden shears?" Matt asked, "Let me check the inventory record,"

The teen nodded and went off to look at the laurel wreath that they had in the storefront window as he went through to the back.

"Ok," he said, walking back through, "Yes, they were brought here, but they've already been sold,"

"Aah, great," the teen said grumpily.

"I can give you the address though," he said, "Since you've said they were stolen you can go explain it to them, or something,"

"Yeah, that'll be great," the teen said.

 **(X) Twelve minutes later (X)**

Toby knocked on the door in front of him.

A man with dirty, black, hair answered the door and looked down at him.

"Wha'd'ye want?" he grunted.

"Hi, I'm Toby, I think you accidentally got my Aunt Sharon's stolen shears sold to you,"

The man shoved his hair back onto his forehead and squinted at Toby.

"Yeah, maybe, so?"

"Well, I was wondering if I could get them back?" Toby asked politely.

The man snorted.

"And why should I do that?" he asked.

"Because I asked nicely," Toby said hopefully.

"Well take your skinny ass outta here, you ain't getting them," he said, moving to close the door, but it was blocked by Toby's foot.

Toby sighed, "Well... I asked nicely,"

Toby kicked the door fully open, knocking the man back a bit.

By the time that the man had gotten back to his feet; Toby had leapt up, grabbed the top of the door frame, and planted the both of his feet on the man's chest and kicked hard.

The man fell hard through a door that lead to the living room as Toby dropped down and closed the door.

 **(X) Five minutes later (X)**

Toby wiped the blood from his face, using the dingy mirror in the hall to make sure he got everything.

He turned around and threw the used napkin onto the man's body.

His eyes were gone, replaced with large amounts of blood, torn flesh, and the pair of old shears that Slendy told him to go get.

Toby sighed as he placed a foot on the man's head and started tugging at the shears implanted deep into his skull.

"Come... on..." Toby grunted as he tugged on the shears, "Three... sodding... junk stores later and you get stuck in this ass' head!"

He growled in annoyance as they didn't leave the man's head.

Just as he swore in frustration the shears came free and he fell backwards, sending a plate that had been balanced on a chair flipping into the air.

The plate hit the lamp next to it, knocking it over with a crash, and the uncovered bulb broke on a pile of old newspapers.

A spark crackled and the newspapers slowly shrivelled and browned until flames started trailing their way across their pages and set fire to the curtains.

Toby looked over at the wall that was slowly being taken over by fire and back to the shears in his hand and sighed.

"Man... I deserve a raise," he muttered as he sat up and brushed himself off, "I mean I don't get paid in the first place, but if I did, I'd still deserve a raise..."

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Hogwarts.

Dumbledore watched the Gryffindor table out of the corner of his eye.

The mixed Gryffindor and Slytherin Defense class had just ended and, for some reason, the Zabini child had gone and sat with Potter and his friends.

Draco Malfoy had joined them a few minutes later and now he was slightly concerned.

Malfoy Senior was deep in the Death Eaters before their 'Disbandment' at the fall of Voldemort near thirteen years ago, if his child was getting friendly with Potter then he would have to take further observations.

But why, and when, had Zabini gotten on friendly terms with Potter?

To his knowledge, they had only had two or three proper conversations throughout the last two years.

He mused to himself slightly and decided to have a few more custom paintings brought in.

He had arranged for a small number of paintings to be brought to Hogwarts in order for him to have tails on Potter at all times just before the start of his first year, and they had only reported one or two conversations between the boys in the library last year.

He watched as something happened at the Gryffindor table that caused Potter to have a silent cheer of victory against Zabini.

He'd have to double down on his efforts to keep Potter under the roof of Hogwarts.

He cast a quick glance sideways to Remus Lupin.

It had been a good idea to bring Lupin back to Hogwarts this year.

With one of James Potters closest friends back, able to keep Potter wanting to help his world.

He returned to the pork chop in front of him, planning for the future.

He paused for a moment.

Sirius Black was running around. If he made his way to Hogwarts and found the Potter boy... Told him about the letter Potter's father had sent him...

He shook his head.

Dementors at every entrance, his own portraits patrolling the hallways.

He was confident that Sirius Black would never again walk these halls.

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Isaac twirled the quill around in his hand as he looked down at the translation sheet in front of him as he and Hermione worked on the homework that Professor Babbling had assigned them; Ron was working on catching up on the Transfiguration homework that he had left till the last minute.

Life at Hogwarts was winding back to what it usually was.

The first-years were losing the hype of coming to Hogwarts, the upper-years were looking into pre-ordering headache potions for exams, and the middle-years were finishing homework due for the next lesson.

"Reckon that you'll have that done in time?" Isaac asked Ron.

Ron scribbled a few more things onto the parchment and proclaimed himself finished with a sigh.

"I don't know how I'll be able to keep up with this," Ron said, wrapping up his scroll.

"Isaac keeps up," Hermione said, "And on top of this, he's got Quidditch practice,"

Isaac rolled his eyes.

The Quidditch season had restarted and Oliver was getting paranoid.

Apparently, it had been several years since Gryffindor had last won the cup and he was determined to get it this year as it was his last and was having evening training sessions three times a week.

He had apparently learned his lesson of having them practice early in the morning after Fred and George duct taped him to his bed.

It was after one of those training sessions that they returned to the common room to find that a memo had been posted on the Gryffindor message board.

"First Hogsmeade weekend," Ron told him as Fred went off to examine the board himself, "End of October. Halloween,"

"Ooh, awesome," Isaac said, dropping into a chair next to the fireplace and warming up, "That'll be fun,"

Hermione looked over at him.

"But I thought that you said you weren't allowed to go to Hogsmeade?" Hermione said.

"I said that they'll probably not let me go," Isaac said.

Ron shook his head, "He can't be the only third-year left behind. He got his slip signed,"

Isaac shrugged as Crookshanks leapt up lightly onto Hermione's lap; a large dead spider in his mouth.

"Does he have to eat that in front of us?" Ron said, looking at the dangling spider in disgust.

"Clever Crookshanks, did you catch that by yourself?" Hermione said, scratching the underside of his ears.

Crookshanks purred as he slowly chewed the spider, not taking his yellow eyes off of Ron.

"Well keep him over there, I've got Scabbers asleep in my bag," Ron said, turning over his parchment and adding more to his star map for Astronomy.

Isaac let out a rolling yawn as he pulled out he took his own unfinished star map out from his bag and unrolled it.

He was reaching into his bag for a quill and ink pot when Crookshanks pounced on Ron's bag.

Isaac sat and watched as he watched Ron yank his bag up, spinning it round to try and get Crookshanks off.

Ron spun around again and Scabbers went flying.

"CATCH THAT CAT!" Ron yelled as Crookshanks tore after him.

George lunged but missed and Hermione hurried and grabbed Crookshanks around the middle when he started clawing under the chest of drawers that Scabbers had scrambled under.

Ron flattened himself on the ground as he tried to grab Scabbers.

"Look at him!" Ron said furiously once he had managed to wrangle Scabbers out, "He's skin and Bone! You keep that cat away from him!"

"I don't think you hanging him by his tail will do him any good," Isaac called over, still sat in his chair.

Ron rolled his eyes and walked up the stairs to the Gryffindor common room.

"Honestly, Ronald, he's a cat!" Hermione huffed as she sat back down across from Isaac, "What do you expect to happen?"

"I think he expects it to change because he doesn't like it," Isaac said, looking up from his nearly completed star chart, "I'll have a talk with him later,"

Hermione smiled at him, "Thank you," she resumed stroking Crookshanks' fur.

"Will say one thing, though," Isaac added on, "He needs a..." Isaac mouthed the word 'Bath,'

Hermione paused for a moment and bent a little closer to Crookshanks.

She raised her head and nodded.

Ron was still in a bad mood the next day. Not seeing the point in Isaac's talk about prey and predators.

Things didn't seem better by Transfiguration.

Hermione's attempts at cheering up Lavender didn't go over well; causing Ron's foul temper to flare and berate Hermione again.

Isaac sent a silent prayer to Professor McGonagall when she opened the door and started the class.

It seemed like he finally did manage to catch a break at the end of Transfiguration.

Professor McGonagall ended the class with the call for the permission slips for students to enter Hogsmeade.

"Mr Rogers," she called as they were all leaving, "A moment please,"

Isaac shooed Ron and Hermione out, both of them tried to stay behind, and walked to Professor McGonagall's desk.

"Yes, Professor?" he asked.

"Have a seat," Professor McGonagall said, nodding to a chair opposite her.

Isaac sat back down and let his bag fall down next to the chair.

"Biscuit?" she offered him a tartan tin containing what looked like ginger cookies shaped like newts.

"Thank you," Isaac said, taking a biscuit, "So what's the bad news?"

She looked down at him curiously over her glasses.

"Professor, I've not once ever heard of you randomly asking a student to stay behind and offer them biscuits," Isaac said after swallowing the bite of biscuit, "Even if they are really good,"

Professor McGonagall gave him a small smile.

"I'm afraid... that... well..." she started.

"I'm not allowed to go to Hogsmeade, despite having my permission form signed, because of the fact that my deranged, ex-godfather, of an escaped convict is on the loose and might be after me?" Isaac asked.

Judging by the shocked expression on Professor McGonagall's face that was indeed the case. Though Isaac expected that she didn't expect him to know all of that.

"How did you..." she left the question in the air.

"A worker from M.A.C.U.S.A came to see my brother about some paperwork last year. He told him about it," Isaac told her.

Professor McGonagall blinked at him.

"I see..." she said, "Well I'm glad that you understand the situation, even if it is a little inappropriate for your age,"

"Professor," Isaac said, "I've been through this before. Will I be allowed to go next visit if it looks safer?"

Professor McGonagall looked down at him pityingly for a moment.

"I suppose so," she said, "As long as the form is signed, and the safety of the student is assured, then any student may go to Hogsmeade," she gave him another smile and offered him the tin again.

"Thank you," Isaac said, sliding his bag onto his shoulder and taking another biscuit, "You don't put headache-relieving potions in these, do you? Had one starting since this morning but it's completely gone now,"

Professor McGonagall looked oddly at him and leaned back in her chair.

"That's not that bad an idea," she mused as she watched Isaac leave the room.

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Halloween.

Isaac waved to Ron and Hermione as they walked down with the rest of the group to Hogsmeade.

He had told Ron and Hermione to keep an eye out for things that might interest him while they were there for when he went and given them a few galleons so that they could buy him some things from Hogsmeade.

He decided that going back to the common room might be a good idea, it would probably not be too busy.

'Well... I was wrong,' Isaac thought as every first and second-year Gryffindor seemed to be there.

"Isaac! Isaac! Hi Isaac!" Colin Creevey, a very excitable and fan of his, called over.

"Hi Colin," Isaac said politely, already planning how he was to get out of there.

"Why aren't you going to Hogsmeade? Isaac, do you want to come sit with us?" he went on.

"I was just grabbing a coat and heading for a run," Isaac said, quickly moving past him and up the stairs.

He paused as he grabbed his hoodie.

This meant that he would have to go back out again, throwing his plan to sit in the tower out the window.

He sighed as he pulled it on and hurried out before Colin could try and talk to him again.

Hogwarts was rather calming without as many higher-ups running around, he found.

"What are you doing?" Filch, the bad-tempered caretaker of Hogwarts rounded on him with a snarl.

'Oh look, I spoke too soon,' Isaac thought.

"Walking around," Isaac said.

"Sneaking around on your own, why aren't you with your friends? Off buying Dungbombs and Stink Pellets?"

"There's a mass murderer after me apparently," Isaac said.

Filch growled at him and shuffled off, muttering to himself about kids and mess.

Isaac rolled his eyes and went walking around the castle.

He soon found himself in a deserted corridor not far from the Defense classroom that seemed like it had been built as a place for owls to gather if the Owlrey was unable to be used; stone pillars and beams stretched the span of the roof and the walls seemed to fold in on themselves slightly.

He walked over to the wall and placed a hand on the small ledge.

He nodded to himself, he wanted to try something...

He backed up a bit, looking at the ledges and the outcropping of the pillar that stood out a little from the middle of the corridor.

He focused on the piece of the wall...

and broke out into a sprint, jumping up and propelling himself up onto the next.

He quickly pushed hard against the wall, and against the pillar, and grabbed onto the large wooden beam that spanned the room.

He had just pulled himself up into a sitting position when...

"Isaac?" Professor Lupin's startled voice rose up, "What are you..."

Isaac jumped slightly and held onto the beam to stop himself falling.

"How did you..." Professor Lupin was looking incredulously up at him.

"Erm... I ran," Isaac said, looking for a way to get down.

"Jump," Professor Lupin said, taking out his wand, "I'll get you,"

Isaac looked over his back at him.

"Erm... kinda, maybe, a little skeptical," he said.

"I used to do this for your father all the time," Professor Lupin said, "Now jump before I start taking points,"

Isaac looked back at his Professor again before sliding forward off the beam.

He screwed his eyes for a moment, bracing his legs for the impact, but found himself slowed down carefully.

"That's better," Professor Lupin said, tucking his wand back inside his inner coat pocket, "So why were you doing that, where are Ron and Hermione?"

"They're in Hogsmeade," Isaac said, "And... I don't have an explanation for the other,"

Professor Lupin looked at him with a little exasperation.

"Well... why don't you come in?" he nodded, inviting Isaac to join him in his office, just behind them, "I've just taken in a delivery of Grindylow for the next class,"

"A what?" Isaac asked as he followed Professor Lupin through the classroom and into his office.

"A water demon," Professor Lupin said, taking out a teapot and two cups, "Lurks around marshland, thought that we shouldn't have too much trouble covering the Kappas,"

Isaac took the seat opposite Professor Lupin's desk as he prepared the tea.

"All I've got is tea, I'm afraid, might not be too keen on them after what I've heard Professor Trewlaney's been saying," Professor Lupin said, pouring Isaac a cup.

"You heard about that?" Isaac said, taking the cup and the offered dish of sugar cubes.

"Professor's gossip just as much as the students," Professor Lupin said, "You're not worried, are you?"

"A dark spectral dog is going to be stalking me," Isaac summed up from what he had gathered from Professor Trewlaney's reading of his teacup, and the subsequent readings that she had apparently made for him, "I'll be sure to keep a steak handy,"

Professor Lupin smiled and gave a small snort of laughter.

"Professor?" Isaac said, after adding a few cubes of sugar to his drink, "Can I ask you something?"

"You just did," Professor Lupin said off-handedly, adding two cubes to his own drink, "But go on?"

Isaac rolled his eyes.

"How well did you know my father?" Isaac asked.

Professor Lupin looked up at him and away to the Kappa squelching in the tank on the adjacent wall of the room.

"We were friends," he said after a moment, "He used to drag me into quite a few of his hare-brained schemes,"

Isaac smiled to himself.

"One of those schemes involved him doing a stupid little stunt on his broom. Ended up looking up that little charm I used on you after he dislocated his arm for the third time," Professor Lupin said.

Isaac put down his cup, partly because of his contained laughter.

"Can... can I ask you something else?" Isaac asked.

Professor Lupin nodded.

"Why did you stop me facing the Boggart that day in class?" Isaac asked.

Professor Lupin shrugged, "I thought that it would have been obvious. I thought that it was going to turn into Lord Voldemort,"

Isaac stared at his Professor. So far the only people he had known to be comfortable using the name had been himself and Professor Dumbledore.

"I take it that I was wrong?" Professor Lupin said, looking Isaac in the face.

"He didn't even cross my mind," Isaac said, eliciting a mildly surprised look from Professor Lupin, "I thought about... that Dementor,"

He didn't think that he trusted Lupin properly to tell him about what he really thought about, he didn't feel like he could tell Ron and Hermione.

"I was wrong, then," Professor Lupin said, "That suggests that what you fear the most – is fear. Very wise,"

Before Isaac could say anything else there was a knock at the door.

Professor Lupin answered with a call to come in and Professor Snape walked in with a smoking goblet.

" _Lupin drank it_?" Ron gasped, "Is he mad?"

Ron and Hermione had come back from Hogsmeade not too long ago and dropped a literal shower of sweets into his lap as he sat in the Gryffindor Tower.

They had finished telling him about where they went and when they asked what he had gotten up to he told him about the tea with Lupin.

Hermione pointed out at that point that if they wanted to get to the feast then they had better get moving.

Isaac pulled the portrait closed behind him and walked down the corridor before he paused for a moment and turned.

"Isaac?" Ron called out, looking back and seeing that he had stopped, "Something wrong?"

Isaac shook his head and jogged to catch up, "Nah. Just thought I saw something, just a trick of the light,"

Isaac laughed a little. He was putting too much by the things that Professor Trewlaney had said. For a moment there he had thought he had seen the tail of a large, black, dog pass around the corner.

The Halloween feast was, as always, decorated with floating jack-o-lanterns and the tables were piled high with enough food to feed a small country.

Even Ron and Hermione, who had eaten out at Hogsmeade, found themselves wanting seconds; Ron on his fourth helping by the time Hermione finished her second.

The Hogwarts ghosts provided the entertainment for the evening, flying around and popping out of the walls and tables, before finishing the evening by re-enacting the botched execution of Sir Nick.

By the end of the feast, Isaac had eaten himself weary and was looking forward to retreating back to the Gryffindor Tower and sleeping through to the next morning.

Isaac groaned as he, Ron, and Hermione arrived at the end of a large crowd of Gryffindors trying to get through the portrait.

Isaac swayed slightly from side to side, humming, as Percy made his way through everyone to see what the hold up was.

He snapped out of it when he heard Percy's shout of, "Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick,"

Isaac focused on trying to peer over the heads of everyone as he tried to see what had happened.

Not too long later Professor Dumbledore swept up the stairs and the Gryffindors squeezed past to let him through.

"Oh, my!" Hermione gasped.

Through the parted students they had gotten sight of what had happened.

The Fat Lady's canvas had been torn to near shreds, large gashes in the frame and backboard. The canvas itself looked like it had been on the receiving end of Jeff's anger.

Professor Dumbledore turned to see Professors McGonagall, Lupin, and Snape hurrying towards them.

He was in the middle of organising the Teachers to search for the Fat Lady, who must have fled her portrait, when Peeves floated overhead.

"You'll be lucky," he cackled.

"What do you mean, Peeves?" Dumbledore asked.

Peeves didn't dare to taunt Dumbledore and changed to an oily voice.

"Ashamed, your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees and crying something dreadful..."

He broke off and Isaac felt like he was waiting to drop a bombshell.

"... nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black,"

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"I... spy... with my little eye... something beginning with... 'W'," Isaac said.

Everyone had been gathered in the Great Hall by order of Professor Dumbledore and they were all sitting in large, squashy, purple sleeping bags.

"Window?" Ron asked grumpily.

He had been wanting to talk with Isaac about what he thought had happened, and how Sirius Black had gotten in, but Isaac had started a game of 'I-Spy' instead.

"Yep... so what did you want to talk about?" Isaac asked.

"Black! How he got in!" Ron said.

Isaac shrugged.

"I dunno, probably through a door or window while we were all at the feast," Isaac said, shifting around in his sleeping bag.

The drabbles of ideas of other students floated around them, Hermione dismissing the ideas of Black flying in, "Am I the only one who's bothered to read ' _Hogwarts, A History_ '?" by talking about how the school was enchanted to prevent things like that.

At that point Percy called for everyone to sleep and the lights went out and many shuffled into a comfortable position.

Isaac wished he had thought to look up a summoning charm, or something, so that he could get his Gameboy and talk to Ben.

"Sorry, Ben," Isaac mumbled, "Not tonight,"

Hermione looked at him oddly as he turned in his bag, trying to sleep, before shrugging and settling into her own bag to try and sleep.

Isaac opened his eyes a little while later, when he was sure that most of the others around him had fallen asleep.

Once an hour a teacher would come in to check on them and around three in the morning Professor Dumbledore came in to talk with Percy.

Isaac feigned sleep once again as he listened to them.

Not too long after that Professor Snape arrived, informing him that everywhere in the castle had been searched.

"You remember the conversation we had, Headmaster, just before – ah – the start of term?" Snape asked and, from what Isaac could see, he was trying to block Percy from the conversation entirely.

"I do, Severus," Professor Dumbledore said, a faint hint of a warning that had Isaac intrigued.

"It seems – almost impossible – that Black could have entered the school without inside help," Professor Snape said, but found himself cut off by Dumbledore.

"I do not believe a single person inside this castle would have helped Black enter it," Dumbledore said with a note of finality.

Dumbledore ended the conversation saying that he needed to go and inform the dementors that the search for Black was over.

Isaac let his head drop back to his makeshift pillow (His robe folded in on itself) and closed his eyes properly. Ron's soft snores rose from one side and he rolled over.

He opened his eyes for a moment and saw Hermione looking back at him.

Isaac facially shrugged and closed his eyes to sleep.

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"That prick got into the school!" Ben exclaimed the next night.

"Yeah," Isaac said, "Got away as well. The teachers couldn't find him,"

Ben looked exasperated as he and Isaac sat on the limb of the oak tree.

"Yeah, other than that not much has happened," Isaac went on, "The dementors at the border seem to be getting pissed off at not getting to roam around the school,"

"Those the things that caused you to throw up on the train?" Ben asked.

"Yeah," Isaac said, "I'll gladly go the rest of my life not having to see them again,"

Ben nodded.

"So," Isaac said, leaning against Ben to get comfy, "What's been happening?"

Ben smirked through slightly red cheeks.

"Wait till you hear what Toby got up to,"

When Isaac woke the next day he was met with a grumpy Ron.

"You talk in your sleep sometimes, you know that?" he grumbled.

Isaac froze as he watched Ron trudge downstairs.

He relaxed a little as he reasoned that the only things that Ron could have heard was what he had said himself, nothing that Ben said, and he would certainly look a whole lot more scared if he understood his nightly ramblings.

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Ben watched Isaac shimmer out of the dreamscape as he returned him back to his own dreams.

He floated back through cyberspace as he returned to the Mansion and drifted for a bit; thinking.

He wanted to go to Hogwarts himself and check up on him in the flesh, no waiting for him to fall asleep, but Slendy had put a ban on people visiting Hogwarts except for special circumstances.

An idea popped into his head.

He drifted through the cyberspace towards a server bank across the Pacific Ocean.

He had someone to find.

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The days after Sirius' Blacks failed raid on Hogwarts kept the air around Hogwarts tense.

The only other thing that seemed as high as the tension was the frustration of the Gryffindors.

The portrait that Professor Dumbledore had gotten to replace the Fat Lady, as she was being restored, housed a mad Knight by the name of Sir Cadogan; who spent half of his time thinking of ridiculous passwords and challenging people to duels.

Isaac walked down the corridor in the free time he had and glanced back as he walked down the corridor.

He groaned as he saw Percy Weasley following him, no doubt on his mother's orders.

Isaac sped up slightly and looked at the windows near the top of the walls on the ceiling.

He debated all of one second before taking a running leap and jumping on parts of the walls.

He had just swung his legs over the window frame and was halfway out when Percy rounded the corridor.

Isaac snickered to himself as he hung down and dropped to the ground.

Thankfully the route to the library he was taking had led him to a corridor that had a small hillock on the outside that he rolled down slightly, buffering his landing.

Percy Weasley panicked for a few minutes before hurrying to the library to find the nearest teacher.

Isaac was sat comfortably on a bench, leg propped up, and reading a book.

He looked up, smiled innocently, and waved.

Percy looked extremely confused and backed out of the library and away.

The teachers seemed to be trying to keep an eye on him as well and his Quidditch practices now had to be overseen by Madam Hooch.

It was at one of those practices that Oliver broke the news that their first match wouldn't be against Slytherin, like they had been preparing for, but rather Hufflepuff.

When asked why he revealed that Flint, the Slytherin captain, had arranged it on the account that a couple of their members were extremely sick.

Another trip to the library later and Isaac found why.

He had been lucky to find Blaise sitting there, working on the Ancient Runes homework the had been assigned, and was able to get the reason why from him.

Apparently, to put off having to fight in this matches weather conditions, Flint had two of their chasers and a beater eat a pound of Doxy eggs to get them bed lain for the match.

The days leading to the match only seemed to increase Oliver's paranoia.

He pointed Diggory, the captain of the Hufflepuff team and their Seeker, out to Isaac and he could see why Angelina, Alicia, and Katie had gotten giggly at the practice where Oliver had told them of the team change.

Diggory had a fairly strong build, normally not found in Seekers but that would help him in this match.

Isaac's annoyance with Oliver started to flare and culminated when he caused him to be late for Defense.

Isaac called his apologies when he reached the class but got the shock when it was Professor Snape, not Lupin, sat at the desk.

The class didn't go well.

First, he had lost some points for being late. Then Ron had gotten a detention for defending Hermione when Snape called her an insufferable know it all and berated Lupin's teaching standards throughout the class.

Isaac felt a groan rising through him but suppressed it when Snape called out that their homework was to be an essay on recognising and killing Werewolves.

The day of the match came and Isaac was woken early on in the morning by Peeves breathing cold air down his neck and Isaac attempted to smack the poltergeist.

Isaac growled in frustration as he dressed and walked down to the common room, picking Crookshanks up as he tried to yet again get into the third-year dorm rooms.

"Leave Scabbers be," was all Isaac could manage, his head still spinning slightly from how tired he felt.

He made his way down to the Great Hall and found one or two early risers already there.

He sat down and woke up over a large bowl of porridge and, by the time he had gotten started on his toast, the rest of the team arrived.

The rest of the school filed in around an hour later and Isaac couldn't hear the footsteps of passing students as the rain started falling harder and the wind picked up.

When the time for the match came Isaac and the rest of the team joined the marching students heading towards the Quidditch pitch; Isaac had to duck quickly so that he didn't get hit in the head by a stray umbrella.

Oliver seemed to have peaked with his nerves and his usual talk to prepare the team turned into a series of grunts and he nodded to them before they trudged out through the mud and onto the pitch.

'This is going to be fun,' Isaac thought as a large amount of mud came with his foot as he mounted his broom.

'W-why am I – I cursed to be right...' Isaac sang in his head as the game entered the next hour. The sky had darkened as though night had come early and the weather was showing no signs of easing off.

He briefly paused his lament to send yet another silent prayer to Hermione, she had come down when Oliver called a time-out and charmed his glasses so that they repelled water.

A flash of lightning lit the sky and his attention was drawn to something standing in the stands.

A large dog was standing on an empty part of the benches, watching him as he flew.

'What the...' Isaac thought.

He was drawn from his thoughts at Oliver calling to him. Isaac's head snapped to Diggory who was streaking down the pitch after a small glint of gold.

'Bugger, bugger, bugger, FASTER!' Isaac urged, flattening himself as possible to the broom and chasing after Diggory.

Diggory turned skyward to chase after the snitch and Isaac sped after him.

'Holy... how cold is it? It's going to start hailing next,' Isaac thought.

"Seriously?" Isaac grumbled angrily as a few chips of hail stung at his face.

His vision started to cloud as he saw Diggory speed away in another direction after the snitch but he was too distracted by something.

The handle of his broom had started to ice over and he could hear something.

"Oh... no," Isaac thought as he looked down and saw hundreds of Dementors staring up at him, a few others flying closer to him.

Someone was definitely screaming as one got close enough that he could hear it's guttural breath.

"Piss off," Isaac groaned, taking a swipe at the Dementor.

It grabbed his wrist and moved closer, breathing harder.

Isaac felt his broom slip away from him as he kicked away from the Dementor and just before he passed out he heard a female voice screaming his old name as he plummeted to the ground.

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"Lucky the ground was so soft,"

Isaac felt his breath hitch a little bit as voices drifted around him.

'Warmth... comfort... definitely not muddy,' Isaac thought.

He fought to keep a smile off his face as he let the people around him talk more. He could recognise Hermione and Ron's voice, as well as the twins and the others in his Quidditch team.

He let them talk for a couple more seconds as he braced his elbows on the bed and carefully let out a slow breath.

"GYAAAAAAH!" Isaac bolted forward, taking a loud and deep breath and causing everyone to either shriek, jump back, yelp and fall over, or some combination of all.

"Isaac!" Hermione squeaked, getting over her shock and pulling him into a tight hug around the neck.

"GYEK! Hermione... breath..." he gasped and Hermione quickly let go.

"Sorry..." Isaac panted, massaging his throat, "Couldn't resist,"

The rest of the team smiled exasperatedly at him, glad he was ok. Fred and George, who had been talking amongst themselves in low tones, were the next to recover from his little zombie act.

"Isaac! How're you feeling?" Fred asked.

"Like I went skydiving without a parachute, what happened?" Isaac asked, taking his glasses from Hermione.

Isaac paused before he answered and it was like his memory was on fast-forward as he remembered everything.

The game, the Grim, the hail, the Dementors... someone close by screaming his old name...

"What happened?" Isaac asked.

Isaac sat there as they told him about what had happened.

Dumbledore had caught him before he had hit the ground and sent something at the Dementors that caused them to retreat.

Somehow that seemed smaller to the fact that they had lost the game.

Diggory had gotten the snitch as he was falling and even though he had asked for a rematch even Oliver was admitting that Hufflepuff had won fair and square.

What seemed like a worse blow was the fact that his Nimbus had been blown into the whomping willow.

The bag containing its smashed pieces lay at the foot of his bed. He refused to let Madam Pomfrey throw the pieces out; he knew what he wanted to do with them.

Draco and Blaise came down the next day.

"What are you doing here?" Ron said as he saw the pair, standing up furiously.

"Ron, don't..." Isaac's plead was ignored.

"It's his fault that you had to face Hufflepuff!" Ron shouted.

"It wasn't Hufflepuff's fault I fell," Isaac protested but was ignored again.

"If you had been playing them, then none of this would have happened!" Ron went on.

Isaac sighed and fell back against his pillows.

It was at that point that Madam Pomfrey came out, quite angry.

"What is all this racket?" she turned to face Ron, "You. Out!" she snapped her fingers at the door.

"What, why?" Ron protested.

"You are making a scene and disturbing the patients... patient," Madam Pomfrey corrected herself.

"It's their fault!" Ron pointed at Blaise and Draco.

"You are the one making all the noise. You are the one causing this fuss. Now out!" Madam Pomfrey said sternly.

Ron glared at the two Slytherins and stomped out.

Madam Pomfrey gave them all a glare that warned them off of making more noise.

Isaac looked apologetically at the two as they sat down near the foot of his bed.

"So, how you feeling?" Blaise asked.

"Bored," Isaac said, flopping down again.

"Well, can't help there, but I did manage to convince Draco to help me make a thing," Blaise said, reaching into his pocket and taking out a small box.

"We may have made a permanent burn in one of the Potion labs," Draco said, looking at the small box that Blaise tapped with his wand.

The box grew and small wisps of steam escaped the lid.

"That smells like..." Isaac said, leaning forward.

"Pie," Blaise said.

"Love me some pie," Isaac and Blaise said at the same time.

Draco and Hermione shared a glance of confusion as Blaise and Isaac laughed and Blaise passed him a knife and plate.

"So what flavour is this thing?" Isaac asked, bringing his legs up so that they had space for the box.

"I couldn't think of a flavour to go for, so we tried to fit as many into it as possible," Blaise said.

"Each slice is a different flavour," Draco added, "I have no idea how this is going to turn out,"

Very odd, Isaac decided.

Each of them had gotten a different flavour of pie with each slice and it was only after that Isaac realised how lucky that they had gotten with none of them having an allergic reaction.

Ron's temper hadn't improved much and he was now holding Isaac in the cold regard that he had held Hermione in when she hadn't taken Crookshanks' attempts at Scabbers seriously enough for his liking.

Isaac was thankful when Monday came around and he was able to leave the Hospital wing.

Things could only go up from here, right?"

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Austin, Nevada.

Jeremy leapt over a fallen log, running as fast as he could, as the raspy laughter echoing in his ears got closer. The gun in his hand held tightly like it was a lifeline.

There was a clearing ahead, sunlight streaming down through the branches. A road lay just beyond it.

If he could get there...

He ran through what looked like a naturally grown archway of trees and...

He let out a sob as the night's sky overhead glistened with the many stars above.

"Round and round the forests of Earth, Laughing Jack chased the Weasel," the voice taunted.

"Piss off, fucker," Jeremy cried out, turning and unloading the clip at the lanky figure.

Sherbert, strawberry jam, and honey leaked out of the holes made in the clown's torso.

The raspy laughter roared again as Jeremy threw the empty gun away and bolted down the overgrown paths.

An old manor house loomed ahead and Jeremy prayed to whatever god there was that there was someone who could help him.

He threw himself against the door and hammered, pleading for someone to let him in.

He turned to see the clown slowly stalking towards him, a smile growing wider by the second.

The door opened and Jeremy turned just in time to see a large knife thrust into his shoulder.

He fell to the floor with a thud as a teen wearing a white hoodie looked at monochrome clown as he strode over.

"Seriously, you gonna make me do your dirty work?" Jeff asked, kicking the door closed as Jeremy crawled backwards away from the clown.

"You know, he's probably right," the clown said, pointing with a clawed thumb at the door, "But, then again, E.J did ask me to bring him a live one, so he could get something to eat. He'd have gotten you or someone else himself, but he didn't exactly understand what having 'Don't jump, you'll break your leg,' shouted at him meant,"

The clown picked Jeremy up by his coat and dragged him around to the side of the house, to what looked like the entrance to the cellar or storm shelter.

"Kinda got to make this easier for our resident cannibal," the clown said, eliciting another whimper of fear before a loud scream as he shoved two clawed fingers through his kneecaps.

The process was repeated on his shoulders, ruining any chance of him ever using his arms again, before he was kicked through the now open cellar doors.

Laughing jack wiped some of the honey away with a finger and licked it clean as Jeremy's screams rose up as Jack started collecting his dinner for the next week or so.

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End Notes.

You know, you nearly only got one CP scene this week.

I finished it later than I normally do because of a small bit of writer's block and was planning to write three CP scenes next week, but DP is a badass and managed to get this weeks chapter to me before I woke up this morning.

Thank you once again, DP. You're the best.

I also have to warn you that I might miss an upload date in the next couple of upcoming weeks due to College exams, but I will do my best to multitask them and try to have the chapters uploading on time.

Right then, that's pretty much all I have to say.

I hope you enjoyed this and I'll see you in the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

If any of these are wrong then please notify me of this so I can fix them.

If you have a favourite Creepypasta that has not made an appearance then message me or leave their name in a review.


	31. Chapter 31, Unexpected Visitor

Chapter 31, Unexpected Visitor.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Chapter 31; the fun has just begun; all the readers start to run; as the killers all come.

This has been your weekly ' _Poetry with SteamGeek_ ' session, probably the last too.

Well, thirty-one and I'm having fun. I know what I'm doing this chapter, and it should be great. Hopefully.

Also, can I point something out about the reviews I woke up to?

I uploaded chapter thirty at 10:21 pm on last Friday.

The first review came in at 10:39 pm and the last of that little bunch I woke up to came in at 6:08 am.

Now, I'm not pointing out the times because I think my story's being read by a bunch of insomniacs, though some (like me) probably are, I got six reviews before the chapter had even been up for twelve hours.

Not even a day later and I've already got six reviews for me to answer to.

You guys, and gals, rock. Each and every one of you.

And, as we're on the topic of reviews, let's answer them;

Lunarwolf11021;

Thank you, first is on the 8th of May so I'll be cramming for that... will have been? I dunno, I can't be bothered to check whether or not I'll have sat any exams before this goes up.

I think you'll like what Ben has in store for Isaac... :D

DarkRavie;

Thank you, glad you like it. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

.549;

'Plays the Who, 'Don't get fooled again,'

NO! WAIT! Get back in here and make more puns, I command it!

Shibo No Asashin;

DP is the best badass, yes.

Thank you, can't think of much else to say other than that, I am getting slightly panicked over them.

Matt(Guest);

Yep, Pringles are addictive.

1,

Go re-read the Prologue for info about the letter.

2,

When I mean CP scenes, I mean a CP kill scene to offset the fact I have to go back into the HP world and divert away from where I could have more control without having to follow a preset narrative.

P.S.

I think he might be getting it this chapter... I dunno, I haven't started on it yet. Well, I have, just not gotten to actually writing the actual chapter yet.

Sweet Smilie;

Yep, another reason to watch Doctor Who. The episode where the Angels are first introduced is called 'Blink' if you just wanted to watch that. It's definitely a scary episode, really well done.

Yep, chaos for the world, hail chaos.

Dumbledore is getting a little worried and I have some notes next to me (Covers them so Lunarwolf11021 can't read from whatever spy satellite they have over me) about what might cause a few migraines in Dumbledore's future.

Ron... I don't know, I might have him as a good friend until fourth-year, but I've not reached that part yet.

Hermione was only looking at him for the time when Percy told them to go to sleep, when Dumbledore talked with Snape she turned to see if Isaac was still awake, probably might've been able to write it a little better.

You'll find out who he went to today...

Right then, that's all the reviews, what's next?

'Consults notebook...

Checking in with Beta, alright, DP! How are you doing?

I'm doing good, how are you SG? Also, thank you Shibo No Asashin for calling me a badass. You are the first person to ever call me that, so thank you. Anyway, I hope all of you lovely readers enjoy this chapter.

Never doubt your badassery, you manage to deal with me on a weekly basis, that more than proves it.

Alright, back to the story,

Enjoy;

SteamGeek01.

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Just outside Reykjahlíð, Iceland

The man turned off the engine as he pulled over on the side of the road. The flashing lights of the police car behind him hurting his head a little as he heard the crunching of snow.

"License and registration," the officer asked him.

He handed over his wallet and the officer looked at his license.

"You are aware that you have a faulty tail light?" the officer asked him.

"Yes, it stopped working a few miles back. I found out about it when I got out to change a flat, and I am on my way to the mechanic," the man told him.

The officer nodded and before either of them could say anything else another car, this one coming out of the town sped past them.

The officer's partner beeped the horn and drove alongside them to pick him up.

The man sat back in his chair as he watched the car drive off after the speeder.

The officer called in the speeding car as his partner drove to keep up.

So far they were ignoring the siren and indication to pull over.

Their response had been to turn the music up and try to drive faster.

They entered the part of the road that took them through a forest and this just seemed to urge them on.

A mousy haired teen leaned out of the passenger side window and flipped them off, throwing a bottle of something at them that missed and hit the road.

"Your aim sucks," Clockwork said, laughing in the back as he leant between the seats and turned the music up.

"Not my fault this dipshit can't drive in a straight line," Jeff shouted over the music, pointing his thumb at The Puppeteer who was looking out the window.

Clockwork rolled her eyes and turned back to look out the back window as another bottle was thrown and hit the grill of the cop car.

"I hit them, and I don't even have any eyes!" Eyeless Jack shouted as he climbed back inside and Clockwork fell over in laughter.

"I will pull this car over right now and ditch your asses if you three don't shut up!"

After a while, it seemed like they would finally be stopping.

The officer gave a sigh of relief that soon turned into a groan as then car turned and shot down an opening that gave way to a path that led away from the main road and into the trees.

Teer gritted his teeth as they bounced over roots and rocks.

Soon they saw the shine of the headlights off of a white mask and he honked the horn.

The figure darted out of the way as the car sped past and through the Slender-port.

The car bounced over more roots before they finally reached the clearing of The Mansion.

Teer turned the engine off as they came to a stop and Jeff hit the radio until it turned off.

They heard the crunching of boots on stone and turned to see Masky making his way to them.

Jeff grunted as Teer phased out, putting him in the driver's seat and disappearing.

"You Jackass!" Jeff shouted at the Mansion where Teer appeared in one of the upper windows.

Masky hit the door hard and opened it, glaring at Jeff through his mask.

"WHAT THE HELL?" Jeff winced a little.

"Blame Teer! I... we were fine to walk back, he wanted to jack a car!" Jeff growled, "Is a pretty good car though,"

Masky rolled his eyes and went off to find Teer.

"Did you at least get the thing?" he shouted back to them.

"In the boot," Clockwork shouted back, trying to get it open with E.J.

"Right," E.J said as they finally got the lid open and looked at the meteorite that had crashed through to their world, "How are we gonna get this thing out?"

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Hogwarts.

Isaac's first Defense class after being released from the Hospital wing ended and as they were packing away Professor Lupin called for him to stay behind.

"I heard about the match," Professor Lupin said, covering the box holding the Hinkypunk that they had been learning about with a cloth, "And I'm sorry to hear about your broom. Is there any chance of fixing it?"

"No, it's completely wrecked," Isaac said, "I'm going to give it a Hunter's funeral this weekend,"

"I'll pretend that I know what that means," Professor Lupin said, "It hit the Whomping Willow, right?" Lupin let out a tsk, "That tree was planted the same year that I started Hogwarts, incidentally. There used to be a game where people would try to get close and touch the trunk. Stopped after Davey Gudgeon nearly lost an eye,"

"Professor," Isaac interrupted, "Did you also hear... about the Dementors?"

"Of course," Professor Lupin said, sitting against his desk, "From what I've heard from Dumbledore they've been growing restless, apparently. Don't think anyone has ever seen Dumbledore so angry as he was when they attacked you.

A Dementor is one of the foulest things to walk this earth, feeding on every happy memory a person has until they can reduce them to something like themselves. Soulless and empty,"

"Why do they go for me?" Isaac asked, "I mean... after that match I'd understand as when one came close I might have tried to get a swing in, but..."

"You tried to punch a Dementor?" Professor Lupin said, sounding equal parts amused and impressed, "Well, you've certainly got your Father's fighting spirit, not that punching a Dementor would have done any good,"

"That day, on the train, you got the Dementor to leave," Isaac said and Professor Lupin looked around the room.

"I don't pretend to be an expert in fighting them," Professor Lupin said, clearing a few pieces of parchment from his desk, "There are certain defences that one can use, but..."

"Can you teach me?" Isaac asked, "If they come again..."

Professor Lupin looked up at him.

"Well... alright. I'll try. But it'll have to wait until next term, I'm afraid. I have a lot to do before the holidays. I chose a very inconvenient time to fall ill,"

Isaac's mood definitely improved after that, the promise of learning how to fight Dementors certainly helped.

Oliver's mood certainly improved as Ravenclaw beat Hufflepuff, meaning that Gryffindor was still in the running, and he regained his manic attitude to trying to get the cup.

That weekend Isaac made good on his promise.

Hagrid had shown him to the woodpile behind his house and told him where to find some good wood on the edge of the Forest.

Once he had everything he needed he carried the wood over to a sort of rocky edge of the Black Lake.

He had been fortunate enough to catch a break in between the frequent showers and set up a small pyre on the rocky overhang. Even if it had been raining he wouldn't have minded, he had written home and Toby had sent him something.

Hermione came down a little later, as he was nearly finished setting up, bringing Ron, who was in a slightly sour mood, with her. Isaac was crouched down in front of the pyre and turned to see them.

"Hey guys," he said, turning back to the small box he had nestled in the middle of the branches.

"Hello," Hermione said, a little unsure of what to say to try and bridge the rift between the two boys.

"Nearly done, just give me a moment," Isaac said and Ron snorted.

Isaac rolled his eyes and glanced around before setting part of his hand on fire and holding it to the fuse.

"Good luck getting anything to light in this weather..." Ron said but before he could finish Isaac stepped back as the flames flared into life and the entire pyre went up with a rippling wave of heat.

Isaac staggered a little as he walked to them.

"I still have my eyebrows, right?" he asked leaning in towards the two of them.

"Yes," Hermione said while Ron made a non-committal grunt.

Isaac clapped his hands together and went over to where he had left the bag containing the remains of his Nimbus.

He picked it up and rummaged for a specific piece and pocketed it before approaching the pyre and placing it on top of the burning logs.

He stepped back so that he was next to Ron and Hermione, turning the broken handle piece that had the golden writing ~Nimbus 2000~ and watched as the embers and sparks rose into the air.

"I had a good run with that broom," Isaac said, "Gave Sally and Ben a ride on it on my birthday. May have spun Ben around upside down," he added with a small laugh.

"Do you know what you're going to do?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah," Isaac said, "The way that the matches are going, the next Gryffindor game will be... late February to early March?" he shrugged, unsure of how the future games would play, "Anyway, I'm waiting for the post-Christmas blues to get a new one,"

"The what?" Ron asked, confusion heavy in his voice.

"Ron," Isaac said, resting an arm on his shoulder despite being shorter than him, "You have no idea how to track shopping sales, do you?"

Ron looked even more confused.

"After the major holidays," Isaac saluted, "There's always a surplus of stock that they want to push out to make room for new products. So, to help that, they lower the prices. Make it more affordable,"

Ron's face lit up slightly.

"Come with me, young one..."

"I'm older than you," Ron said.

"Silence, youngling," Isaac said, holding up his hand to silence him, "Silence before I execute order sixty-six,"

Ron looked confused again and Hermione sighed.

"It's a Star Wars quote," Hermione said and Isaac turned around.

"I don't believe it," he said, "I've finally found a quote that Hermione recognises,"

"You mean you've found a franchise that I recognise," Hermione said.

"Fairpoint," Isaac said, "Where was I?"

"You were..." Ron started.

"Oh, yes," Isaac cleared his throat, "Come with me youngling, and I shall show you the way to get the best offers, for the lowest price,"

Ron managed to get over his funk after that, the three of them sat on the rocky ground roasting marshmallows that Toby had sent over, and soon the next Hogsmeade visit came.

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Isaac was starting to hum a few Christmas Carols under his breath as the countdown till the day reached just over two weeks away.

He waved bye to Ron and Hermione and walked off to go look at the magazine that Oliver had loaned him to see which broomstick he could get as a replacement.

Isaac stopped and blinked as something hit the back of his head.

"Psst!" he turned to look at the twins, who were hiding halfway out of a tapestry.

Isaac walked under the tapestry and looked at them.

"What?" he asked, trying not to rub the bit on his head that stung slightly.

"Early Christmas gift," Fred pushed a piece of old parchment into his hands.

"I got plenty," Isaac said, looking at the slightly tattered thing in his hands.

"Oh – but this is no ordinary piece of parchment," Fred said, "George, will you do the honours?"

George looked up and down the little passageway that they were in before pulling out his wand.

" _I solemnly that I am up to no good_ ," he said and tapped the parchment.

Isaac watched as spindly lines grew out on the parchment, weaving until...

"A map?" Isaac looked up at the two of them.

"Of all of Hogwarts..."

"... and every person on..."

"... the grounds, every minute..."

"... every hour, of every day," they finished together.

Isaac looked up at them and back at the map.

"Where was this thing when I kept getting lost?" Isaac chuckled, "Is... is that..."

"Dumbledore," Fred said.

"In his study," George added.

"Pacing," Fred finished, "Does that quite often, unless he's at his desk,"

"Where did you even get this?" Isaac asked.

"Well... back in our first-year, Isaac, when we were young and innocent..." George said.

"Bull-shit," Isaac said.

George smirked, "Well... more innocent than we are now. We ended up in Filch's office.

And there was this cabinet..."

"... with a drawer that was..."

"... marked ' _Confiscated and Highly Dangerous_ '..."

"You didn't?" Isaac asked with a small laugh.

"Yes we did," Fred said proudly.

"Took us a couple of months, but we finally cracked that puppy open," George said.

"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs," Fred said fondly, "We owe them so much,"

"But, now, it is our gift to you," George said.

"We've pretty much memorised it, by this point," Fred said, "And now it is time to pass it onto another,"

"Now, we want to draw your attention to this," George said, tapping the map.

"These," Fred said, patting another part.

"Those," George said.

"And that one," they said together.

"Make up all of the passages that lead out of Hogwarts," George said, "This one's caved in,"

"This one has the Whomping Willow planted on top of it," Fred tapped the only one that started on the grounds and not inside the castle.

"Now, that one, the One-eyed witch, just out there," Fred said, pointing into the hall that Isaac had walked in from, "Leads straight to Honeydukes,"

"Best sweet-shop in the town," George said.

"Now, to seal it up again," Fred took out his wand and tapped the page saying, " _Mischief Managed,_ "

"Have fun," they said together, hitting him on an arm each and walking off.

Isaac looked down at the now blank map for a few seconds before tearing up to Gryffindor Tower and grabbing the invisibility cloak. If he was going to go through with this then he was going to do his best to not get caught.

After hurrying back to the statue of the witch pointed out to him by Fred and George he consulted the map which revealed that to gain access he only had to tap the hump of the witch and say ~Dissendium~

Isaac dropped down into the corridor that opened and cast Lumos so that he could see his way ahead.

"I'll take 'places perfect for jumpscares' for five hundred please, Alex," Isaac muttered as he walked down the tunnel.

True to their word, the passage ended in the cellar of the sweet store.

He let the slab covering the exit fall back down as he tugged on the invisibility cloak and carefully made his way up the stairs into the main store.

He carefully ducked and weaved around the passing students, pausing once he had gotten out of the shop to remove a lollipop that had gotten stuck to the side of the cloak, and walked off down the street; trying to think where Ron and Hermione had said they'd be going.

"Come on, you two," a voice trilled and Isaac resisted sticking his foot out.

Pansy Parkinson was walking past, Crabbe and Goyle in tow.

"Draco may have left off the Mudblood and the Blood Traitor, but that doesn't mean that they don't deserve it any less," she said as if she had eaten something foul.

Isaac narrowed his eyes and followed after them.

They did eventually find Hermione and Ron; looking at the most haunted house in Britain, The Shrieking Shack.

Isaac let out a low growl as Parkinson spat out insults at his friends and ducked down to pick up a decent handful of snow.

Pansy smirked at the furious looks she was enticing from the Mudblood and...

'SPLAT'

She shrieked as a large amount of snow hit her in the face.

Crabbe and Goyle looked dumbfounded as snowball after snowball was thrown their way.

"COME OUT!" Parkinson screeched as she waved her wand around only to find another snowball in her face.

It was at that point that Crabbe fell over and Goyle was spun into him, falling over in the process as well.

" _Join us,_ " a hoarse voice unlike any she had heard before, save maybe the Bloody Baron, whispered in her ear and it felt like something was pulling her towards the Shrieking Shack.

"NO!" she screeched and flailed to try and get away.

She was about to start screaming for help when whatever it was let her go and she fell face-first into a large embankment of snow and mud.

She scrambled to her feet, her body halfway across the entrance to the Shrieking Shack's grounds, and she ran away up the hill.

Crabbe and Goyle scrambled after her as she screamed for them to not tell anyone of this.

Isaac turned his attention to Ron and Hermione, who had been amused at first before looking slightly terrified at who their saviour might be.

"Hello, Ronald," Isaac called out in the raspy voice, "Hermione," he drew in a rattling and slow breath.

Ron went as pale as the snow around him as Hermione looked around for the source of the voice.

Isaac started lifting the bobble of Ron's hat and flinging a few loose strands of Hermione's hair into her face.

"Isaac," Hermione reached forward, letting out a chuckle and taking the hood of the cloak off him.

"Hi," Isaac said, sounding as though he could barely contain his laughter.

"Bloody hell, man," Ron said, still looking a little peaky, "That was not funny,"

Hermione laughing broke Isaac's hold on his own laughter and the three of them walked slowly back to Hogsmeade.

While they were walking Isaac showed them The Marauder's Map.

Ron grumped about how Fred and George never told him about it and Hermione suggested that he hand it over to Professor McGonagall.

Isaac snorted in laughter and rolled his eyes as they drew nearer to town before he stopped and pulled the cloak on.

The three of them walked into the Three Broomsticks, Isaac in the middle of them and they settled into a booth near the door with Isaac pressed against the wall.

Ron went up to the counter and ordered three bottles of Butter Beer, claiming the third was for a friend that couldn't make it.

When he returned he slipped Isaac the bottle under the table when he pretended to put it in his bag.

The three of them talked quietly among themselves, Hermione teasing Ron about his 'little' crush on the barmaid, Madam Rosmerta, and drank for a good while until the door opened.

Isaac looked up to see who had come in.

"Bugger," he said quietly, nearly dropping his bottle.

When Hermione and Ron turned to see what had him spooked they saw Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, and Hagrid had just walked in with Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic.

The party of four sat at the bar, Hagrid opting to stand, as the Barmaid came over and took their drinks.

Fudge politely inquired how business was going for her and Isaac nearly snorted when she waved a rather sharp cocktail stick in his face, claiming that things would be better if Dementors didn't stroll through every day.

Talk inevitably turned to the incident on Halloween, of how Sirius somehow got into the school, and Madam Rosmerta gave a humourless chuckle.

"Oh, I remember him when he was a boy," Madam Rosmerta said, "If you'd have told me then what he was going to become now... I'd have said you'd had too much mead,"

"You don't know the half of it, Rosmerta," Fudge said gruffly.

Hermione, Ron, and Isaac listened to them talk about how Sirius had once been James Potter's best friend.

The two of them turned and looked at the air where Isaac was when they mentioned that Sirius had been named his Godfather.

Isaac might have forgotten to mention that little detail to them.

"You know, I bumped into Harry Potter while..." Fudge rambled away from the conversation.

"Rogers," Professor's Flitwick and McGonagall said in unison, Hagrid said, "Isaac," and Isaac nearly snorted, almost choking on the sip of Butter Beer he had taken.

"I see no reason why he should continue to deny who he is," Fudge said indignantly.

"And I see no reason why you should disrespect him so," Professor McGonagall said, "He has his new family, one that he is proud of, and them of him. If he goes by Rogers, like his brother, then so be it," she faced a very red-faced Minister.

"You know, I met them," Madam Rosmerta said, "Lovely blokes,"

Fudge gaped at her.

"I think we're thinking of different people," he said unbelievingly.

"One's got messy brown hair, twitches a bit and is a little pale, Toby, I think," Madam Rosmerta sad and Fudge paled a little.

Hagrid nodded, "Aye, couldn' ask for a better guy to look after him,"

"There was one with black hair, bushy sideburns," she went on, scratching the sides of her face.

Professor McGonagall nodded, "Mr Wright, if I remember correctly,"

Madam Rosmerta gave a small chuckle, "Don't need to try to remember what the last one looked like," she pointed to a picture on the wall.

Isaac squinted and nearly laughed out loud.

A slightly blurred picture of a merry and rosy-cheeked Brian was sat on the wall.

"Drank a good quarter of my pub under the table and walked out of here as steady as you like," Madam Rosmerta laughed.

"Whatever he wants to be called," Fudge said huffily, "The truth about Black being his godfather would be too..."

"Oh, he knows that too," Professor McGonagall said, "A worker from M.A.C.U.S.A visited them and explained the whole thing,"

Fudge spluttered indignantly.

"Next you'll be telling me that the boy knows that Black is the one that sold the Potters out to V..." he broke off in an odd, seized, whimper, "To... to _You-Know-Who_ ," he finally hissed, "And obliterated Potter Senior's other friend, Peter Pettigrew, into little pieces!"

Isaac nearly dropped his bottle again.

"No, I don't think, _Mr Rogers_ , knows those details," Professor McGonagall said curtly, "If you're dining with the Headmaster then we'd better head back to the castle," she said as she finished her drink.

There were murmurs of agreement from the rest of the party and when Ron and Hermione turned to face Isaac again there was an empty bottle of butterbeer lying on his chair.

Isaac made his way back down to the cellar of Honeydukes, not noticing if people could see him or not as the cloak flapped behind him as he leapt down the stairs and pulled open the stone slab.

Once he heard it crash back in place he tore off the cloak and stuffed it inside his hoodie and made his way back to Hogwarts.

What he was feeling was... odd.

He knew that family was important. But when he thought of family it was Toby's face, Ben's, Slendy... everyone there at the Mansion... he didn't think of the man and woman that would have been his parents in another life.

He would treat them with the same grace he would treat anyone else who didn't deserve to die, but he didn't mourn them.

So why was he so angry at Sirius Black?

He never knew his parents, save for what he believed to be his mother's last words whenever he got close to a Dementor, so why did he care so much that Black betrayed them.

The tunnel was lit up as his hands flared for a few moments before being plunged into darkness again as they extinguished themselves, and the process repeated.

Hermione and Ron got back to Hogwarts and immediately headed up to Gryffindor tower to try and find him.

Upon seeing that the trunk sitting at the foot of his bed was open and that a flat, square, box was lying open on top of everything.

Ron picked it up and found it empty, showing Hermione, and they asked if anyone in the common room had seen him.

All that they noticed of him was that he seemed a little disconnected and disappeared off towards Hagrid's hut.

They ran down to the empty hut, Fang's scratching at the door was all that they could hear.

Ron pointed out a fresh set of footprints not far away from them and they followed them, after a moment of Ron steeling his nerves, a little way into the forest.

In the short distance, they could hear what sounded like something hitting something repeatedly and rhythmically.

"... he killed my parents," Isaac's voice carried over the thuds, "... know them,"

It sounded like he was talking to someone.

Ron and Hermione pushed round a low hanging bush.

A whistling noise was heard, along with a brief flash of something, and Hermione shrieked as a knife larger than the ones they used in potions hit deep into the tree next to her head.

Isaac did the smallest of double-takes as he looked at them.

"What are you doing here?" he asked quietly.

Hermione paused to catch her breath; doing a small double-take of her own as she thought she saw a tree of all things move away from them.

"W... we were... worried about you..." she turned and looked at the knife impaled deeply into the tree.

"Sorry... reflex," Isaac said, dropping the arm he had only just realised was still outstretched after throwing the knife.

Ron looked past him and at the circular cut of a log that Isaac had borrowed from Hagrid's woodpile out the side of his house.

What looked like several others of the knife he had thrown at Hermione was impaled in a tight grouping around the largest knife there that looked like it could be used to cut open a wild boar.

"We... thought we heard you talking to someone," he said with a small chuckle, a little pale at the sight of Isaac's makeshift target.

Isaac blinked and let his shoulders drop.

"I was..." he gave a small cough, "... talking to... myself,"

Ron tilted his head a little.

"Only way I can be sure of intelligent conversation," Isaac said with a slightly forced chuckle.

Hermione frowned at her friend.

"What?" Isaac said, "Do you see anyone else here?"

"Face, sodding, your, shut," Hermione said.

Isaac blinked again and felt his jaw drop a little.

"What?" Hermione shrugged, "You've got to appreciate the classics,"

"You've been holding out on me with your pop culture references," Isaac said, a little impressed.

"You always give out more than enough," Hermione said with a shake of her head, "Are you sure you're alright?"

Isaac looked around the cramped space in the trees he had set up his little throwing range.

"Yeah. I mean... better... but, yeah," he said, walking over and picking up the piece of wood and wrangling the knives out, "Could you pass me..." he pointed to the one level with Hermione's head.

Hermione turned and tugged on the knife in the tree, struggling to get it out while Ron looked around.

"We'll catch up if you want to get out early," Isaac said to Ron, remembering how he had been with the Acromantacula.

Ron nodded and turned around to leave.

Isaac watched him go before hearing a grunt and a couple of staggered steps as Hermione got the knife free.

Isaac held his hand out while Hermione looked down at the knife.

"What happened to it?" she asked him, turning it over in her hands.

Isaac frowned a little and looked at the blade.

The handle had been melted slightly.

Isaac sighed.

"It's nothing, just..."

"What was that flash?" she asked him, looking up at him.

Isaac's shoulders dropped a little further and he looked around.

"You know those... blue flames that you can make?" he asked.

Hermione nodded.

"Found the spell written in the margin of a library book," she admitted, "Wanted to try it out and it seemed handy,"

Isaac nodded and glanced around again.

He held up a hand and...

Hermione dropped the blade as a small blue flame circled around the tips of Isaac's fingers before settling and leaving his hand looking like a morbid candle.

"Accidentally did this over the last summer," Isaac told her, "Jumped around like a maniac flapping my hands trying to get them out,"

Hermione let out a soft chuckle.

"I read about types of fire you can settle in your hand," she said, getting a little closer and looking at his fingertips, "Professor Lupin did it on the train, but... I've never read about someone who could do it like this,"

Isaac snorted, "Yay, something else to make me special," he watched as Hermione held a finger over the flames, withdrawing it when it singed the edge of her nail.

"You know what we did when I managed to get a good enough grasp on this, me and Ben?" he looked Hermione in the eye, "We tried to use it to make smores,"

The edges of her lips tweaked upwards before she snorted in laughter as he dropped the flames and she picked up the knife, "Here. Why do you have these again?"

"Jeff's Christmas gift a couple of years back," Isaac said and Hermione's jaw dropped and she went wide-eyed, "That was after the point when a troll had gotten in and attacked us,"

She didn't say anything as Isaac dropped the knives back into his bag; only responding when Isaac prodded her in the face.

"So you live with someone who thought that a good gift, for an eleven-year-old... would be throwing knives?" Hermione seemed a little flabbergasted.

Isaac tsked in amusement, "You have to live with him to under... no, you know what, that's a lie. I live with him, and I don't understand him at all,"

Hermione laughed again but was stopped when Isaac placed a hand on her arm.

"Don't tell anyone about what you saw," he said, "The knives, I might be able to get away with them. But the fire thing... don't tell anyone,"

Hermione nodded, "Ok,"

Isaac smiled and let go of her and the two of them walked back up to the castle.

Hermione laughed a few moments later.

"Sorry, it's just... I forgot to mention in Diagon Alley but... well, I nearly died in a fire over the summer holiday,"

Isaac stopped and nearly choked on air.

"What happened?" he asked, wondering if someone from the Mansion crossed her path.

"Well... over the holiday there was this touring pianist that came to do a show at a theater near where I lived, but we couldn't get tickets for the shows he was putting on.

Then, a couple of days later, some posters went up about how he was doing a special show at my old school for a charity event.

I was lined up outside with my parents when the place caught fire, the man and someone sponsoring him caught inside," she finished sadly, not thinking too much into the look of shock on Isaac's face.

"Anything else that you might have failed to mention?" Isaac asked.

"Aside from someone nearly spilling tea on me when my parents made me get a picture drawn when we were in Paris, no, not really," Hermione said, "Then it turned out that the tea was for the guy drawing me, so there's that,"

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Slenderman watched his young Proxy walk off with his friend after the ginger one that he remembered to be the one that fainted in the hollow deep in the forest.

It had been a coincidence that they were both there; Isaac had merely been looking for a quiet space to throw the knives that Jeff had given him.

He'd be having a word with Jeff later.

When he had made his presence known to Isaac he had explained what was on his mind.

"I overheard something from one of my Professors," Isaac had said, "About Black, my once Godfather,"

" **Something other than what we already knew?"**

"He was the one to sell my parents out to Voldemort. He's the reason I was sent to live with the Dursleys,"

" **And now he's broken out to finish the job,"** Slenderman looked down at his Proxy as he paused in throwing the knives.

"I say bring it," Isaac threw the largest and it landed square in the middle of the piece of a log he was using, "If he wants to try to do anything kill me, he's in for a shock,"

" **You know the others and I will not let anything happen to you,"** Slenderman said, looking as Isaac moved onto the throwing knives.

"It's just... I don't care that he killed my parents," Isaac said, throwing another knife, "I don't care that I never got to know them..."

It had been at that point that his friends had come and Slenderman slipped silently away.

He had been expecting something like this to happen eventually, truth be told, when he would question what he felt for his old world.

True, he didn't expect it to happen this soon. But with Sirius Black after him, then maybe now would be better than later.

He turned and stalked off back into the forest.

He had other things to do.

Such as finding a lost Orbitor.

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The days once the term ended, and the Christmas Holidays properly started, seemed to pass by in an odd blur.

The first couple of days Ron and Hermione tried to talk to him about Black they were shocked when he said that if he was going to come for him then he'd be waiting. They had tried protesting to him about it, but nothing changed.

Hermione, in a small fit of desperation, suggested that they go see Hagrid.

Isaac shrugged, deciding that if he at least played along with the idea that they had changed his mind then he'd be able to get some peace from it.

What he hadn't expected was for all thoughts of Black to be pushed from his mind as Hagrid collapsed on him, the giant man's chest wracked with sobs.

It was only with the help of Ron and Hermione that they managed to get the massive man off him and back into his cabin.

When they asked what was wrong they found out the fate of the investigation into the day that Parkinson was attacked by the hippogriff.

They had a moment of relief when they read that Hagrid himself wasn't being held responsible for the incident, but that dissipated quickly when they read onwards through the letter he had given them.

Buckbeak was going to stand a trial for the attack, at the prompting of Parkinson's father.

They had tried to give him hope, saying that they'd go to the library and look up cases of Hippogriff baiting for the trial and that they could call them up as witnesses.

Hagrid, however, seemed unmoveable from his slump, saying that the committee that disposed of the dangerous creatures were all in the pocket of Lucius Malfoy, who was supporting the case against Buckbeak for the Parkinsons.

The trip to Hagrid's hadn't been fun by any account of the word, but it did give Isaac an out from being pestered by Ron and Hermione for him not to try and fight Black.

The rest of the holiday until Christmas day was spent in the deserted library looking up past cases to help Hagrid reference at the court hearing.

Fizz 'helped' Isaac search by sitting directly on the page that he was trying to read.

Isaac solved that problem by giving him a marble that he had found in a corridor somewhere and rolling it along the table for him to chase.

Ron's eyes followed the small mouse with slight irk; he had never really gotten over Fizz biting him on the train.

Hermione did the best out of the three of them finding cases of animal baiting and writing down the relevant dates and details for Hagrid.

The days leading to Christmas eve were as usual for Hogwarts as it normally was, the castle was decorated splendidly, despite there being little students to enjoy them.

The delicious smells wafting from the kitchen even tempted the paranoid Scabbers the rat out of hiding from Ron's pocket to stick his nose into the air.

Christmas morning, however, Isaac was woken with a pillow being smacked into his face and Ron spent a good few minutes doubled up on the floor while Isaac sat on his bed, talking him through catching his extremely winded breaths.

Once Ron was able to breathe freely the two of them turned their attention to their gifts.

"What's that?" Ron asked, still gasping slightly, as he pointed at the large package on top of all of Isaac's gifts.

"I don't know," Isaac said, picking up the guitar-shaped package, "What could it possibly be?"

Ron frowned at Isaac's sarcastic tone as he undid the scrunched up wrapping paper.

Isaac snorted as he read the note, "Jeff's gotten tired of me always having to borrow one of his when he teaches me,"

Ron looked at the guitar as Isaac settled on the edge of his bed and plucked a few strings.

Isaac had just turned back to the remainder of his gifts when Hermione came up; Crookshanks, who was looking extremely grumpy with a string of tinsel tied around his neck in her arms.

"Morning, Merry Christmas," she said happily as Ron quickly stuffed Scabbers off the end of his bed and into his pyjama pocket.

"Morning, happy Christmas, to you too," Isaac said as she walked in, "Had a good morning? Ron's was so good that he lost his breath and... oh, hahaha," Isaac broke off, holding up a shirt.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, sitting on the bed next to theirs and keeping Crookshanks on her lap.

Isaac turned the shirt around and showed her the writing on the front.

~If you have no idea what I'm talking about, ask Dean~

He flipped it around and on the back was...

~I plead the fifth~

"Smarmy pillock," Isaac said as he threw the shirt down onto his bed as the two of them laughed.

Isaac turned his attention to the small bag that Ben had sent him and tugged the tape sealing the bag open.

Inside were a collection of tapes and spare batteries for the Walkman and Gameboy.

Isaac leaned over into his chest of drawers and pulled out the Walkman, trying out a random tape as he read the note attached. Apparently, he had something else headed his way.

He nodded his head for a bit before pausing it and tucking it, and the rest of the batteries and tapes that Ben had sent him, into the drawer with the Gameboy and turned to the final present on his bed.

"What the..." he broke off as he pulled the wrapped broomstick onto his bed.

"Toby save you the trip to the shops?" Ron laughed.

"No. I don't think so... No one mentioned it in a note," Isaac said, pulling the wrapping paper off.

His and Ron's eyes went wide as they recognised the Firebolt that rolled out of the packaging and onto the bed.

Hermione's arms dropped to her side and Crookshanks leapt off her lap and onto Seamus' pillow.

Ron glared at the small cat as Hermione approached Isaac's bed.

"Who sent it?" she asked.

"I dunno," Isaac said, "Like I said, no one mentioned it in a note. Maybe it fell down somewhere?"

As he and Hermione ducked down to look under the bed for the note; Crookshanks leapt from Seamus' bed, across Isaac's and leapt at the pocket that Scabbers was hiding inside.

"GET – HIM – OUT – OF - HERE!" Ron bellowed as he grabbed Scabbers before he could run and tried to kick Crookshanks.

He missed and ended up kicking over Isaac's trunk.

All the commotion woke up Fizz who scurried across Isaac's bed and onto Crookshanks back.

Crookshanks bucked and ran round, and back down the stairs, to try and get him off.

Isaac meanwhile had hurried over and picked up something that had fallen out of his trunk.

The Pocket Sneakoscope that Ron had gotten him that summer had skidded across the floor and was spinning like mad.

Isaac picked it up and wrapped it back up in a scarf that he had forgotten he had since it was too small for him now.

"Don't!" Isaac said sharply, cutting across Ron before he could shout at Hermione.

"How can you..."

"AH!" Isaac cut across him again, holding a finger up, "From now on. Crookshanks doesn't get brought up here," Hermione nodded, a vibrant blush on her face.

"We don't blame Hermione for the fact that Crookshanks is a cat, and cats chase mice and rats," he turned to Ron.

Ron nodded grumpily after a moment.

"Good," Isaac nodded.

Isaac looked over at Scabbers, who instead of the fat rat he had once been was now looking as if there was only skin holding him together. Patches of his grey fur seemed to have fallen away to reveal the dull skin underneath.

A squeaking at the door had them look over and they found Fizz sat on top of Crookshanks' head.

Crookshanks looked extremely grumpy now as Hermione shut him inside the dorm, not having to worry about him getting out since she was the only third-year Gryffindor girl in the castle.

They sat in the common room for a couple of hours before going down for lunch, their breakfast becoming the snacks that they had gotten from home and each other.

At both Hermione and Ron's insistence, the only time they seemed to get on that morning after the latest Crookshanks incident, Isaac went back upstairs and got the guitar Jeff had sent him.

"Alright, what do you wanna hear?" he asked them, checking the pegs as he sat back down.

Isaac threw out the many suggestions of songs from the wizarding world since he had never heard of, let alone played, them before.

"The first one you learnt," she suggested.

Ron and Hermione watched as he flinched and his hands seized a little.

"Sorry, just... Jeff had me going for hours until I could get it right, no breaks... days on end..." he sighed as he shook his hands and found the strings, "I ain't singing it, can't sing to save my life," Ron and Hermione laughed as he started the intro to 'Don't threaten me with a good time'.

After that Isaac went and changed out of his pyjamas and pulled on a fresh set of clothes, a grey T-shirt with a light blue flannel shirt over that, and they set off for the Great Hall.

When they got there they found that all the usual house tables had been pushed up against the wall, like they had been on Halloween night, and in the middle of the hall was a single table at which most, if not all, the teachers were sat at with the other students.

"Merry Christmas!" Dumbledore merrily called to them, "As there are so few of us it seemed foolish to use the house tables,"

The three of them sat at the end of the table next to each other just as Dumbledore enthusiastically offered the other end of the cracker that sat at his plate to Professor Snape.

Isaac bit down at his tongue at the sight of the flowery bonnet that appeared after the smoke cleared, thinking back to the Boggart version of Snape that Neville had faced.

A little way into the meal the doors to the hall opened and Professor Trelawney entered.

Isaac pretended not to notice her stare as she approached the table.

He doubled down on not noticing her once she started to protest her joining the table as she would be the thirteenth person to dine and how when thirteen dined together then the first to rise would be the first to die.

It got harder when Professor McGonagall got her to sit down and she flinched like she was expecting lightning to strike the table.

The most notable of things to happen that dinner, aside from when the Hufflepuff first-year nearly dropped the plate of sausages offered to him by Dumbledore, came from when Professor Trelawney predicted that Professor Lupin wouldn't be staying for much longer.

Isaac rolled his eyes at that.

The past two years he had been there had both had their own Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for the year and, if what Fred and George said was true, there hadn't been a Defense teacher to stay on for longer than one year.

The other two things of amusement, to Isaac at least, came when the Slytherin fifth-year turned to talk to Isaac.

"Rogers," he said, getting Isaac's attention briefly away from the duck on his plate.

"Yeah?" Isaac asked, looking up at him, not noticing the way Dumbledore was glancing down the table at them whenever he took a bit or when he thought no one was looking.

"You're on good terms with Zabini, aren't you?" he asked, drumming his fingers on the table.

"Yes, so?" Isaac said, leaning forward slightly.

"Could you perhaps tell him to stop waking us up in the morning with that song?" the fifth-year said.

Isaac let out a small yawn as he rested his head in his hand, "What's the betting that I can get the day he plays it, the exact time, and the exact part of the song he plays?"

The fifth-year looked at him confusedly.

Isaac let out a sigh, "Tuesday mornings, plays it ten seconds after half-past seven, and..." Isaac cleared his throat, " _Heat of the Moment_. Told you that I can't sing," he added to Ron and Hermione.

"How do you..." the fifth-year asked him, glaring a little as if he suspected that Isaac had put Blaise up to the task.

"Supernatural, season three, episode eleven," Isaac recited, "Sam Winchester keeps re-living the same day over and over again, always waking up to that song," Isaac laughed a little, "Imagine living the same day over again for over a hundred days and waking up like that each time.

Don't hold your breath, but I'll ask him," Isaac said and the Slytherin nodded and returned to his meal.

As Isaac returned to his food he caught the briefest glimpse of Dumbledore looking his way, but when he looked back Dumbledore was looking at his plate.

A hooting that he knew belonged to Hedwig, came and soon she had swooped down to the table; a wrapped box attached to her legs.

"A late gift?" Dumbledore asked merrily as Isaac untied Hedwig's burden and fed her a few pieces of bacon before she flew off again.

"Yep, from L.J... oh," Isaac looked at the black and white box that lay free in the packaging.

"Something the matter?" Professor McGonagall asked, looking over.

Isaac kept his face blank as he placed the box on the table next to him.

"Yeah... just not a suitable game for the present company," Isaac said, nodding his head to the first-years.

Ron snorted, "How bad can... 'Cards Against Humanity' be?" he asked, picking up the box.

"Open it, pick out a few white cards and read them," Isaac told him, taking a drink while he could.

Ron rolled his eyes and fished out a few of the cards from within.

"Bees?" he showed Isaac the card.

"Keep going," Isaac said, watching him.

Ron shuffled through the other cards, reading them silently and...

Isaac bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself laughing at Ron's expression.

Hermione leaned over and read the cards he was looking at and Isaac started shaking with contained laughter.

"Lemme just put those back before you get scarred for life," Isaac said, taking the white cards from Ron and sliding them back into the box.

He stood up to go toss the box on his bed and...

Professor Trelawney screeched and started warning him about the forces that would be after him.

"Unless there is a mad-man wielding an axe waiting outside, I doubt that Mr Rogers will be in any danger," Professor McGonagall cut across her, releasing Isaac from the conversation.

"Be right back," Isaac said before jogging out of the hall.

"Oh hi, Toby. What are you... HEURGH!" he gave an odd cry as if he had been stabbed.

Back at the table Ron and Hermione laughed and had they to explain how Toby shared his name with a fictional horror character that uses axes to the others.

Isaac had just reached the top of the second floor when Ron caught up with him, saying that Hermione had stayed behind to talk to McGonagall.

Isaac snorted as the two of them passed a window.

"Still light out, want to go see what that new broom can do?" Isaac nudged Ron in the side and the two of them raced up the remaining stairs to where they knew the Firebolt lay.

The first thing that Isaac did when he got it was drag out the maintenance kit that Hermione sent him.

But before he could even open the catch the portrait door opened and Hermione walked in... followed by Professor McGonagall.

Isaac ignored the sinking feeling in favour of putting on a cheerful smile better fit for the Christmas spirit.

"Hi Professor," Isaac said in what he hoped was a cheery voice.

"Good evening... so that's it?" Isaac's mood deflated a bit as she spoke and held out the broom for her to take.

Judging by the odd mix of excitement and dread on Ron's face Isaac knew he was thinking that the same was about to happen.

"And there was no note? No letter from anyone?" Professor McGonagall asked, looking up and down the broom.

"No, Professor," Isaac said, "Me and Hermione checked but we found none. I'll write home and see if anyone got it as a surprise gift,"

Professor McGonagall nodded her approval of the plan.

"Then until such a time as you hear a reply, I'm afraid I'll have to take this," she said and Ron's face went aghast in horror.

"I understand Professor," Isaac said.

Professor McGonagall nodded curtly and left.

As soon as she did so Ron rounded on Hermione.

" _What did you go running off to McGonagall for_?" Ron demanded of her.

"B-Because..." Hermione said, shaking a little before the towering figure of Ron, "I thought – And Professor McGonagall agrees – that that broom was probably sent to Isaac by Sirius Black!"

"He's on the run!" Ron thundered, causing Hermione to squeak, "He can't exactly go into a broom store and order one!" he said as he advanced on Hermione.

Isaac darted between the two of them.

"Ron, wait..." Isaac started but Ron cut across him.

"How in the name of Merlin's Baggy Y-fronts could Black have gotten a hold of a broom like that?" he shouted.

"There are probably ways," Isaac said but Ron seemed to be ignoring him.

"She's just determined to ruin things!" Ron glared round Isaac at Hermione, "First that mangy cat and Scabbers, and now the broom, and..."

"Ron, calm down!" Isaac snapped, "Take five minutes and..."

"Don't tell me to calm down!" Ron shouted, shoving Isaac in the shoulder,

"Gyah!" Ron screamed as his face was planted on the floor, a foot square on his back, and his arm twisted behind his back and stretched upwards.

"Take five minutes," Isaac said, his accent had slid to full American, "Go calm down and pull your head out your ass before I shove it up there even further,"

Isaac let go of Ron and stepped off him.

Ron glared at the two of them, rubbing his wrist, and he stormed up the stairs.

It was only when he reached the boy's dormitory that he noticed that the red marks where Isaac had grabbed him were stinging like they'd been burnt on an open fire.

Isaac watched him go and turned to Hermione.

"You ok?" he asked, his accent not slipping to British again.

Hermione nodded with a small whimper and Isaac sighed.

"Go get Crookshanks, no reason to keep him stuck in the room all day when there's a castle for him to play in," Isaac said.

Hermione nodded and walked up the stairs towards the girl's dorms.

Isaac looked up the stairs towards the boy's dorm, squared his shoulders, and walked up.

Ron, Isaac thanked his luck, wasn't there but the sound of running water in the bathroom told him where he was.

As Isaac grabbed his jacket he paused and looked down at his hand.

A few red ripples whenever his hands were aflame had started to settle.

He sighed again and left before Ron could exit the bathroom as he met Hermione back in the common room. She was stroking Crookshanks with unshed tears in her eyes.

"C'mon," Isaac said softly, guiding her out.

Hermione crouched down at let Crookshanks wander off after he bumped her hand with the top of his head and the two of them walked down the stairs, waiting at an opening to the stairs as they waited for a staircase to spiral down.

"I understand why," Isaac said, "And I know that, even if Ron doesn't, so thank you. It probably wouldn't be too good for my health to fly around on a broom sent to me by a murderer after my blood,"

Hermione nodded, her lip quivering, and Isaac thought that for a second that she was about to burst into tears.

What he hadn't expected was for her to fling her arms around his neck and cling tightly to him.

Isaac let out a soft, barely audible, sigh and rubbed her back to calm her down.

"I – I just d – don't understand why he h-hates me so much," Hermione stammered into his shoulder.

"He's just a little temperamental," Isaac said, gently shushing her.

"And what's this?" a voice called from overhead.

Isaac groaned slightly as Peeves descended down.

"Rogers and the Granger, together are we?" he cackled, "That'll definitely spin a few heads,"

"Enough Peeves," Isaac said slowly, "You're not going to tell anyone anything,"

Peeves cackled again, "And why's that then?" he asked smugly.

"Unless you want to be exorcised by me, you're going to listen to what I have to say," Isaac said, still holding Hermione.

Peeves laughed again, harder this time.

Isaac smirked and raised his hand.

" _Exorcizamus te, Omnis Immundus Spiritus_ ," he said, letting the blue flames slowly build around his hand.

Peeves was so shocked that he fell out of the air.

"N-no," he said, panic starting to edge his voice.

" _Omnis Satanica Potestas. Omnis Incursio Infernalis Adversarii_ ," Isaac narrowed his eyes at Peeves, "I will give you one last chance, Peeves, listen to what I tell you to do, or I complete it," he let the flames drop away.

"Anything," Peeves pleaded.

"First, you will not mention what you saw here today, to _anyone_ ," Isaac said and Peeves nodded, "Good. Because, honestly, I kinda like you, you're a cool guy, and I'd regret having to exorcise you.

The second thing... have you ever seen the muggle cartoon 'Fantasia'?"

Peeves thought hard for a second, "N-no,"

"Alright... it is a musically narrated series of short stories. The most famous being the 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice'.

In it, the apprentice who was instructed to gather water animates a broom to do it for him. He falls asleep. When he awakes he discovers that the broom has nearly flooded the castle room as it carries bucket, after bucket, of water down from the well.

There is more to the story but the part of it I want you to focus on is the broom,"

Isaac smirked to himself as he looked back at Peeves.

"I will not complete the exorcism... if, in a couple of days time, you animate, or however you do it, all the brooms in Filch's broom closet to go chaotic and start over-cleaning everything and, or, chase him,"

Hermione's jaw dropped while Peeves nodded eagerly and took off.

"Isaac, what if he..." she started.

"He won't tell anyone," Isaac said with a grin, "He's too afraid of me right now,"

Hermione still looked a little worried but soon forgot about it when Isaac started talking about a few of the runes he had been looking at when doing his homework and asking her about what some of them did.

The ones that blocked Apparation, after Hermione explained what that was, sounded fun. Maybe he could change a few so that Teer and L.J couldn't appear in his room without his permission.

The next few days were rather awkward in terms of staying in the tower.

Ron awoke and left before either of them each day and the most that they saw of him was if they passed in a corridor, though most of the time Ron would turn down a separate corridor or ignore them completely until they were out of sight.

The days until the end of the year passed and on New-Years Eve, he wished Hermione a Happy New Year and went up to the dorm.

Like always, Ron had pulled the hangings around his bed closed so that he was hidden from the room.

Isaac debated trying to talk to him but decided against it, it was Ron who had the problem. If he wanted to apologise then he wasn't going to chase him for it.

He looked down at his trunk for a few moments before looking out the Marauder's Map and Invisibility Cloak.

He wrapped the cloak around his shoulders and unlocked the map.

He looked at the pages that showed the surrounding corridors next to Gryffindor Tower, his and Ron's name so close together that anything there was unreadable, and at seeing the coast was clear he headed out.

He was planning on heading to the Astronomy Tower to spend the remainder of the year and see the stars.

If he had looked at the map for a few more seconds he would have seen the name appear on the edge.

Hermione had headed to bed herself and so the common room was clear and he walked down.

"Come back you mangy cur!" Sir Cadogan called at the unseen person and Isaac rolled his eyes as he let the cloak flap around him as he walked down the corridors.

Not noticing the shadowy figure watching him that subsequently started following him.

Isaac had reached the next floor up when he heard something scuff behind him.

He turned around, a hand dropping to where he kept the knife and the other to the pocket with his wand.

He looked around.

"Hello?" Isaac called as he heard the footsteps grow.

Then something dropped down behind him and before he could turn he was picked up, spun around, and dropped to the floor.

Isaac had his hand halfway to the knife on his belt when he stopped and looked up at the figure crouching over him.

The figure leaned down until their faces were inches apart.

"こんにちは, hello,"

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London.

The man couldn't help the smug look cross his face as his partner slowly lowered him down on the winch.

It had taken them nearly a year of planning for this.

Their friend getting on the security detail and being able to turn off the cameras for them to get those nice, shiny, rocks that were sat on the pedestal.

They had spent all this time planning everything.

Barry would lower him down, Ivan would knock out the guard downstairs and James to avoid suspicion cast over him, and he would grab the rocks.

'Better have done this right,' Josh thought as he smashed the casing and grabbed the gemstones on display.

"Got 'em, hoist me!" He hissed into the little Bluetooth speaker that connected him to Barry.

"Hoist me!" he said again and he started to rise.

He stopped and a tugging on the rope proceeded something falling down.

Josh nearly dropped the bag of gemstones in his hand as he came face to face with Barry.

The rope hanging the both of them was tangled and by the odd angle in which Barry's head was pulled onto his shoulder, his neck had snapped when the rope caught him.

"Shit!" Josh swore and tried to turn himself around to try and pull himself up the rope.

"Uh-uh-uh," a voice echoed and Josh _did_ drop the bag this time as he came face to face with another figure.

The pale grey skin was out in contrast to the lightly shimmering golden eyes and smile.

"And what do we have here?" the golden-eyed... man said.

"Leave playing with strings to the professionals," he said as golden strands of light waved around his body.

Josh struggled and protested against the thing that floated almost lazily before him as the string wound around him and pulled him up with the man.

The string wrapped the rope that he was hanging off of around him; almost the same way that one would tie a makeshift noose around a man heading to the gallows.

Josh struggled for a few more seconds before the man waved a mocking farewell and he was dropped.

A few drops of his blood dripped down onto the gems that had spilled out of the bag as the rope pulled sharply on his head, catching his mouth and tearing a few teeth away from his upper jaw, before snapping to a halt and leaving his lifeless corpse hanging there until he was found the next day.

Police tape banned entry to the museum the next day and a couple walked past.

"Shame," the taller of the two, with long black hair that fell down to just past his shoulders said, "Well... I guess that exhibit was to die for,"

"You can be worse than Ben sometimes," Helen said, raising his recently ordered tea to his lips with his free hand.

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End notes.

And we're done.

Well... I hope that you enjoyed, and what a teasing end for next week's chapter.

And some other ideas that I had planned come a little into the light, so things should be getting real good soon.

And I've started planning for the future when the story gives the HP storyline a good old kick out the door.

Also, I've chatted with DP about this but would like your input, what kind of car should I make the one from the scene at the start? PM me or leave a review and I'll look through them.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed, and I'll see you in the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

If any of these are wrong then please notify me of this so I can fix them.

If you have a favourite Creepypasta that has not made an appearance then message me or leave their name in a review.


	32. Chapter 32, Unexpected Guest Pt2

Chapter 32, Unexpected Visitor PT 2.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kills scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

I've left you on what might be one of my favourite cliffhangers for a week now,

And it was fun to me.

'Cackles'

Anyway, as per, I need to thank you for reading, the responses were awesome, and I have reviews to give.

Thunder-Death;

Thank you.

I've been debating whether or not to put any parts of the story that have accented English, like Hagrid's parts, with an extra bit at the end that would be easier to translate. If I get another review about those bits being hard to read I'll start doing that.

Lunarwolf11021;

Yeah, you guessed right, I got Kagekao into Hogwarts.

I actually haven't read Lost Silver's story yet, I'll be looking it up at some point and maybe have Ben be the one to bring them into the story since he's the only one at the Mansion that can travel into t.v's.

DarkRavie;

Glad that you like it.

YinYangWriter;

Are you new here? I don't recognise your username.

Welcome to the story anyway.

I LOVE THOSE GUYS! I also think I know the exact video by them that you saw, did it involve BigJigglyPanda playing a card about a certain war-time diary writer living in an attic becoming friends with a lonely boy named James?

I've been wanting to write the Creeps going for a joyride and keeping the car for a long time, that seemed like a good time to do it. Still, need replies about what kind of car they stole.

Ok, the Creep-gate is shut down so...

Uh oh, run. RUN!

Jeff – I heard someone talking shit?

RUN!

'Ducks as Jeff vaults out the window'

Ok, that happened... maybe start running...

Yeah, Kagekao's back for a bit, I wonder what I'll do...

Sweet Smilie;

Yeah, they stole the car and they are definitely keeping it.

I've been planning that shirt ever since I had Dean quote Supernatural.

Erm... acoustic guitar, I think. Don't really think that electronics work in Hogwarts. Unless you've got Ben to fix them up, but the guitar is acoustic.

Erm... don't exactly know what you meant there with Fizz...

'Snorts in laughter'

Slendy in a tree costume, now that would be slightly amusing to see.

Exactly, Hogwarts doesn't get any room to talk when it comes to personal safety. At least Isaac is trained in using those knives.

Ron is a bit of an ass, I've tried to give him an out in terms of the story but I don't know if I'll let him take it. Depends on how I'm feeling.

Hermione is a good friend and I don't know why J.K made them a coupling, she's admitted that she would change it to Harry and Hermione if she could.

The map giving the Creeps symbols that relate to them... that sounds interesting.

Maybe only Isaac or the other Creeps could see them, like you have to know who they really are to be able to see the symbols.

I don't think that Isaac is done getting kidnapped, not by a long shot, though I doubt that Kagekao will be able to get him out of Hogwarts. Isaac will get those pizzas.

I'm going to start writing out ideas for how Dumbledore will get his comeuppance and I am sure that it will be fun and pleasant... for the killers, not so much for Dumbledore.

;

A Porsche for the car, aside from DP, you're the first to suggest a car for them to have.

I'll look up cars by Porsche and see what I can find that I think they would have.

You think the Creep that's come to Hogwarts is Jason The Toy Maker.

Well... no, if you read the other review answers, no.

I could bring him back, though. Maybe I'll bring him back in the future...

I have an idea... I have a possibly amusing idea... hehehe...

Matt (Guest);

Ok, this guy made 3 so I'm gonna roll them into one big review.

1,

Yes, I do state that I condone killing unless justified.

If I were to talk with you one to one then I would tell you the whole story of how one time I pretty much had an emotional breakdown when I had to kill a fish I caught when camping.

But, what I mean in the disclaimer, is that outside a world of pure FICTION I don't take any joy out of the taking of another's life.

There are probably ways to word that better, but this story is one of pure fiction, entirely made up.

I've said that I do feel a little sorry about the people I kill in a past Author Note, but I also understand that people who read Creepypasta and have come here to see the Creepypasta world and Harry Potter world combine will be expecting what the stories we enjoy have brought us. The Creepypastas are killers; to not have them kill anyone, or only have them kill people that would 'deserve it' wouldn't be keeping in theme to their world.

2,

The letter, there are only two letters there.

Look for the one that actually has Sirius's name pop up... you know what, I'll just tell you. The one Dumb-ass-dore (love that name for Dumbledore) burns on the fire.

3,

Digital Magic as a ship name for Ben and Isaac...

Ok, that's kinda cute.

Also sounds like a band name.

Ok, that was the last of them, what's next...

Oh, right, the car thing,

I think I'll give it until the Third-Year ends to decide what car they'll have since I've only got two suggestions so far.

Ok, now that that's settled, DP, my badass beta, how are you doing?

Thanks, SG. Welcome back, everyone.

Sounds like they're doing good.

Ok, that's everything, back to the story,

Enjoy.

SteamGeek01.

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Ellis Trailhead, New Mexico.

Amaya crouched down next to the grouping of wildflowers that grew on the side of the path.

They were her reason for being our here, after all, the wildflowers. They were the reason she was enduring the cold cross-wind that brought a chill to the air that only such a serene place could bring.

She straightened up and cupped her hand around the little screen of the camera to see her latest pictures.

'Not bad... bit much gravel in the background...' she thought as she crouched down, flattening one of her legs out so that she could get further down.

'That's better,' she thought pleasantly as she looked at the picture that now had blue sky shining above the mildly swept flower.

She let the camera fall back to her chest as she picked up her bag and, after taking a quick drink from the bottle strapped to the side, set back off down the path.

Her head bobbed slightly from the music coming from the headphones lodged in her ears as she mouthed the words to the song.

She could have spent all day on this path, relaxing in the sun, watching the small animals that darted across, taking pictures of the wild flowers.

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Hogwarts.

Dumbledore sat in his office as the faint noises of returning students rose to his tower.

He leaned back in his chair as he listened to the report of the portrait in his room.

The news that the youngest male Weasley and Potter had had a falling out troubled him.

The Weasley's were the ideal picture of a family for the light, their influence by mere presence would help him keep Potter under his control until the time came to sacrifice him.

If the Weasley boy's behaviour was becoming volatile then he'd have to hold off on his frequent use of the Impirius on the boy to find out details of Potter's attitude and life.

"And what of his activities on the night of the New Year?" Dumbledore asked the portrait, interrupting it before it could finish.

The warding that he had placed around the portrait of Sir Cadogan had registered the boy leaving late at night.

"But, Professor, when the boy met Peeves..." the man under the green cap started but Dumbledore cut across him.

"The Potter boy's activities the night of the New Year!" Dumbledore snapped.

The cap shifted awkwardly.

"He hadn't been out and about the previous nights of the New Year, we..." it started but Dumbledore raised a hand to silence him.

"You mean to tell me, that you have failed to perform the simple task I instructed of you?" Dumbledore said icily.

The figure just managed to scramble out of the portrait frame as the elder wand slashed down and the portrait in which the young farmhand had been a few seconds ago curled from the flames that rose from the slash across the canvas.

Dumbledore waved the wand again and the portrait and the smoke disappeared as he leant back.

Since the Potter boy has a piece of Voldemort's soul within him, then the boy must die.

Then there was the matter of how big a piece was within him in the first place.

How many Horcruxes had Voldemort already created that night?

The smallest flicker of unease passed over him as to his treatment of the boy, but his overwhelming despise of Riddle erased it.

Depending on the size of the soul piece, the boy may be more like Riddle than just a mere Parselmouth.

Then there might also be the chance that Black may find him.

Dumbledore scoffed and shook his head.

The Potter boy wouldn't convene with him while he was under the castle.

If there was one thing that Dumbledore might have been grateful about those _muggles_ that the boy had been sent to, it was that the boy would be untrusting of anyone that could be called a killer.

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Hogwarts, New Years Eve.

Kagekao stretched his arms as he stepped away from Isaac and offered him a hand to help him up.

"What are you doing here?" Isaac asked, laughing slightly as the two of them hugged.

"穿孔, " he said and Isaac snorted, he had heard that word uttered from him enough to know what it was, 'Bored,'

"Well it's good to see you," Isaac said as the two of them fell into step next to each other, "Been up to... wait," he stopped in the corridor, "Slendy has a rule about you guys visiting me,"

"Aah," Kagekao said with a small giggle, "I no live with you, rule does not apply to me,"

Isaac laughed with him for a few moments before quickly grabbing him and pulling him under the cloak.

"Putting a hand over my mask does not..." Kagekao started but Isaac shushed him.

Professor Snape's head came up the stairs along the corridor from them, his wand light had alerted Isaac to his presence before he came up, and Kagekao hummed softly as he passed.

"You know, we could have just..."

"No killing my Professors," Isaac said, "There's barely a handful of people here at the moment,"

Kagakao's mask changed to the calm smile, "I was only going to knock him out,"

Isaac rolled his eyes.

"So, what were you doing?" Kagekao asked, stepping out and playing with the cloak by vanishing parts of his hand and arm.

"I was going to go up to the Astronomy Tower," Isaac said, "Watch the New Year roll around while watching the stars,"

Kagekao made an approving noise and quickly turned and grabbed a small white mouse that had ran across the floor.

"Please tell me that you aren't going to eat that?" Isaac said as Kagekao looked at the wriggling mouse that he was holding by the tail.

Isaac could have sworn that Kagekao rolled his eyes behind his mask as he dropped the mouse and it went scurrying off.

"So... Star gazing tower?" Kagekao asked, walking down the corridor and turning to see Isaac standing where he had left him.

"It's this way," Isaac called over to him, keeping his voice low in case Professor Snape was still nearby.

"So... this is the magic school?" Kagekao looked over the banister of the Astronomy tower, "It's a bit dusty,"

Isaac snorted in laughter, letting the cloak drop off him and walking over to the bannister as Kagekao leaned further over.

"Careful, you might..." before Isaac could warn him about falling over Kagekao lost his footing and tumbled over the edge.

Isaac hurried over to the spot where he had toppled over and looked down, wondering what he was going to say.

'Oh hi, Professor. See, this demonic friend of mine that came to visit me kinda fell off the tower,'

"Oooh, それは楽しかった, that was fun," Kagekao giggled as he swung from one of the stone outcroppings upon which rested a gargoyle.

Isaac let out a sigh of relief.

Then Kagekao let go.

Isaac felt like he wanted to collapse onto the ground as he saw Kagekao standing completely horizontal on the edge of the gargoyle, walking around it as if anyone could do it.

"Can you stop trying to give me a heart attack?" Isaac called down, resting his crossed arms on the bannister.

Kagekao giggled again and jumped back up, landing deftly on the banister and swinging his legs back over.

"So, how is school?" Kagekao asked him.

"I'll trade you stories of my time here for a couple of your kills?" Isaac asked, sitting up on the banister as well.

Kagekao's mask flickered between the two sides of the face, like it normally did when he was excited.

"対処, deal, " Kagekao said holding out an arm that was bent at an odd angle.

"Alright, so... you first," Isaac said.

Kagekao stretched his arms out in front of him and cracked his knuckles, popping his shoulders while he was at it.

"Well... to start..."

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Yokohama, Japan.

The man ran down the street, panting heavily as he tried to run from the thing chasing him.

A sign caught his eye and he quickly ran down the side street towards a truck dealership, hoping that someone might still be there.

He pounded desperately against the metal shutters as he heard a soft chittering, almost faint laughter, from behind him.

"You're boring me," a voice said and the man looked up, falling to the ground as he did so.

The thing that he was running from was crouched on the top of the roof; he could have sworn that he had been at least a street away when he had run down there.

"Boring," the thing said, stretching the word out and jumping down and landing without much noise other than a soft tap on the ground.

The man whimpered and ran back up the street, grasping the railing to the stairs that led to the walkway over the Yokosuka line and the Tokaido main line.

There was a Police Box just down the street, if he could get there then he might get someone to help him.

He climbed the railing, his skin catching on some of the chipped and peeling blue paint, and scrambled up the stairs.

He could hear his frantic footsteps echoed back to him, for a moment he thought that it sounded like he was being chased by the thing as it was running on all fours, but when he looked back he was the only one on the walkway.

He had just reached the middle of the walkway when he heard the horn of an approaching train.

Then something grabbed his foot.

The thing had crawled along the underside of the walkway and swung around and grabbed his foot.

The man tripped and fell against metal grating on the floor as the thing climbed up onto the walkway.

It stood over him, leaning completely horizontal at the waist as it looked at him through the smiling mask.

"B... O... R..." the thing said, grabbing him by the front of his jacket and forcing him into a sitting position.

"... I... N... G..." it went on, pulling out a bottle of whiskey that looked like the one he himself had lifted barely an hour ago.

"M... E..." the thing looked at the bottle, "You seriously like this stuff? Tastes disgusting," it said with obvious dislike before twisting the lid off with his thumb and forcing the neck of the bottle into his mouth.

"Drink up," it said, sounding like a chipper woman talking to their young child.

"Good boy," it said, patting his cheek as he started to choke and cough on the whiskey being forced down his throat.

The thing pulled the bottle out and threw it over the edge as the walkway started to shake from the approaching train.

"I'd love to stay and chat but..." the thing picked him up.

The man screamed in fear as the thing lifted him clean off the ground and over the railings; directly over the tracks below.

"Hope you catch your train," the thing said happily, patting his face, before letting him go.

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Hogwarts.

"Ok, as much as I trust you can you stop dangling me over the edge?" Isaac said, holding onto Kagekao's arm.

"何?" Kagekao said, bringing him back to the floor, "It's only over the staircase,"(1)

"Still not too keen on falling down those stairs," Isaac said, fixing his shirt.

Kagekao shrugged, looking out over the grounds of Hogwarts.

"So, I told you story of mine, one of yours?" Kagekao said.

"Alright, erm..." Isaac broke off in thought, leaning on the bannister next to him, "Oh! You weren't around after my second-year here, let me tell you about what happened then,"

By the end, Kagekao was tugging on his arm to go see the Chamber of Secrets.

"Alright, come on," Isaac said, tugging the cloak back around him and walking back down the stairs, "You can tell me another story while we walk,"

Kagekao clapped his hands excitedly and followed Isaac back down the many, _many_ , stairs of the Observatory Tower.

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Konabe, Nagano; Japan.

The man leered at the pair walking down the street in front of him.

He quickly ducked down the back of a house, coming slightly too close to the edge of the steep drop for his liking, and made his way back to the street he had been trying to get to when the police had shown up.

"Help me," a voice called out from somewhere below. A child's voice.

The man stopped, looking around for the source.

"I fell... help me," the voice called again.

The man smoothed the bulge of his coat, where the packet he was determined to get back to his boss was, and looked towards the edge.

He slowly edged towards the drop and...

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"ATCHOO!" Kagekao broke off, lifting his mask and rubbing his nose.

"Bless you," Isaac said.

"いいえ. No," Kagekao said, dropping his mask down, "Don't bless Demons, like putting pineapple on pizza. No,"

Isaac didn't say anything, just rolled his eyes.

"So, you were saying?" Isaac asked, prompting Kagekao to start again.

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The man slowly edged towards the drop and looked over.

A small boy, maybe ten-years-old, was stuck on a large number of roots and resting against the trunk of the tree.

The man debated what to do.

He sighed, called down to the boy to wait, and then made his way back around the house and waved over the two police officers.

Thankfully they listened to him about the boy and didn't think to check him for the package.

When he showed them to where he had last saw the boy he was sitting there on an upturned log, cradling his arm close to his chest.

The officers went over, checking on the boy, and asked him who had gotten him out.

The man was just at the edge of the house when the little kid told them something else the man said.

"... and that the man with the drugs would have left me there..."

He turned and looked at them as the police looked back at him.

He quickly started to run but something tripped him up and he slammed into the fence.

He bounced back and before anyone could reach him he stumbled over an old and nearly forgotten brick.

His arms windmilled as he tried to stop himself stumbling over the edge and he fell backwards.

He cried out as his head hit a root, his body smashing into tree trunks, and rocks tore at his arms, clothes, and skin.

He eventually rolled to a stop, gasping as he tried to pull air into his battered body.

There was the sound of footsteps approaching him and he tried to turn his head to look at whoever it was.

Through blood stained eyes he saw someone in a black and white mask crouch down and grab the sides of his head before sharply pulling and twisting.

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"Yikes, that's got to hurt... we're here," Isaac said as he opened the door to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

"The Chamber is in a little girl's toilet?" Kagekao asked with a slight snicker.

"Sort of," Isaac said, finding the tap that held the entrance and trying to hiss in Parseltongue.

"Does saying 'Open' over and over again do any..." Kagekao broke off as Isaac let out a guttural hiss, finally speaking Parseltongue and the sink slid open to reveal the entrance to The Chamber of Secrets.

"Ooooh," Kagekao whistled as he looked down the pipe.

"After you," Isaac said, pushing Kagekao over the edge.

"Hmm? Kagekao hummed as he tilted forward over the entrance

He crossed his arms behind his back as he stopped just halfway inside the entrance and turned to face Isaac.

He was balanced on the balls of his feet while he was, not fully but almost, horizontal over the entrance to the Chamber.

"That was rude," he said, rising back up and looking at Isaac with an amused frown; though Isaac didn't know it due to the mask on his face.

Isaac shrugged.

Kagekao rolled his eyes, unseen again, and quickly grabbed Isaac by the arm and pulled him into the pipe.

After a few minutes of the two of them bumping into each other, as they slid to a stop.

"Ke – Ke – Ke," Kagekao laughed as he quickly got back to his feet, "Lots of skull animals,"

Isaac looked down at the skeletons of dead rats that had somehow made their way into the small ante-chamber.

"So... this is Secrets Chamber?" Kagekao said, looking around, "Not very impressive,"

"The Chamber is this way," Isaac said, rolling his eyes and leading the way down towards the snake-adorned door.

"Oooh, someone had a style," Kagekao said, tapping the metal snakes on the door.

He jumped back, however, when Isaac hissed again and the large snake circled around the edge of the door, knocking the snake-shaped locks out of the way, and opening the door.

Kagekao hopped down through the doorway and whistled as he looked around the Chamber.

"Better," he said, sounding impressed, "But what is that smell?"

Isaac had walked past him and was standing in front of the corpse of the large Basilisk.

He quickly glanced down at his feet, looking at the large black splodge on the ground.

"And this is where... well, I just told you," Isaac said, still looking at the black mark on the ground below him.

Kagekao let out a low whistle as he took in the sight of the large Basilisk corpse.

"You killed this? Impressive," Kagekao said, "Did you like the sword?"

"Hmm? Oh... Yeah... I guess, bit heavy though," Isaac said, walking over to the head of the Basilisk.

The flesh had long since decayed, aided by the damp air, and the skin was patched and falling away.

The creature's jaw had split from the rest of its head and the rows of teeth that had once tried to kill him were slightly yellowed.

Kagekao splashed a little of the water from the pool at the front of the mouth with his sneaker as he examined the man's face as Isaac bent down a little closer to look at the teeth.

Some of the smaller ones at the back caught his eye.

The ones at the front, the long fangs, were stained slightly with black from the dried out venom that had lain in waiting for prey.

The smaller ones at the back, however, were almost the size of the tip of his thumb.

He thought for a moment before carefully grabbing one and trying to pull it out.

After tugging for a few moments part of the jaw came away and he was left with a cracked piece of bone and a few small teeth.

"What broke?" Kagekao called, hanging from the nose of the statue.

"Nothing important, just a bit of this things bone," Isaac said, turning to see where Kagekao had gotten.

"How did you get there?"

"Jumped,"

Isaac indulged Kagekao exploring the Chamber for a few more minutes before the two of them headed back up to the castle.

"So, how did you get out of here again?" Kagekao asked him as they reached the end of the pipe they had travelled down.

"Well... last time Fawkes, he's Dumbledore's Phoenix, carried me out, but..." Isaac said, looking around.

"登る," Kagekao said, "Climb on," he pointed to his back as he crouched down.

"You sure about this?" Isaac asked, not wanting to get the both of them hurt.

"愚かなばか," Kagekao snorted, "I once held man four times your weight over the edge of a building, you are nothing compared to him," (2)

Isaac blinked and carefully climbed up onto Kagekao's back.

"すべての良い ?" Kagekao said, "Hold on," (3)

Just as Isaac tightened his grip Kagekao jumped up and dug his hands into the stone surface that made up the pipe.

Kagekao pulled the two of them up, sprinting on all fours as they neared the entrance to the Chamber.

He bent down again and Isaac left his back.

"Well... certainly an interesting New Years," Isaac said with a small chuckle, "Thanks for this by the way,"

"No problem," Kagekao said, looking down at his watch, "Couple of minutes until... shall we?"

He pulled out a bottle and the two chipped wine-glasses that he had once offered Isaac.

Isaac debated for a couple of moments.

"Sure," he said with a sigh and Kagekao chittered excitedly.

"This one is 完璧な for beginners," he said, popping open the bottle, (4)

He filled two of the glasses and offered one to Isaac.

"三..." Kagekao counted. (5)

"二..." Isaac said, unsure of his pronunciation but the nod of Kagekao told him he had gotten it right. (6)

"一!" the two of them said together, clinking the glasses together. (7)

Isaac managed to take a decent sized sip and gagged slightly.

"Ke – Ke – Ke," Kagekao laughed, looking at the slightly flared expression on Isaac's face, "Not to your liking?"

Isaac made a non-commital half-groan and tried to take another sip.

"No... no..." he said with a cough, "Not for me, sorry,"

Kagekao snorted and waved the apology away, taking the glass back.

"First time with champagne is never fun," he said, pouring the remains of Isaac's glass into his own and downing the rest.

Kagekao nearly burst out laughing again as he saw Isaac scraping his tongue against his front teeth to try and get rid of the taste.

"Sleepy?" Kagekao asked as Isaac let out a yawn.

"Little bit, who knew listening to murder stories and exploring an old cave could exhaust you so much?" Isaac joked as the two of them left Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

Just in time too, judging by the small splash that normally meant that Myrtle had returned to her toilet.

"So, any other interesting jobs you had?" Isaac asked as they neared the corridor leading to the Gryffindor Tower.

"Well... there was one man that I threw off an apartment building," Kagekao mused.

"What's the story behind that one?" Isaac asked.

"I was staying in the same apartment building as him for a while... and he was a lousy neighbour," Kagekao said and Isaac snorted in laughter.

"Well... this was a fun night," Kagekao said, looking at the portrait of a man sleeping next to a fat, grey, pony.

"Yeah... thanks for this, forgot just how much I missed this," Isaac said.

"Missed what?" Kagekao asked.

"Out and about, the talk of murder, having fun and screwing the rules," Isaac said, "Chatting with Ben is great, but... I miss actually being there,"

"Who doesn't miss home once in a while?" Kagekao said, "You chat with Ben? I heard that things go freaky near here?"

"He fixed up a Gameboy with the same sort of Slendy-Mojo that disrupts magic and it allows him to do his Dream-sharing thing. We talk once a week normally, unless he's working or the batteries die,"

Kagekao hummed thoughtfully.

"He cares," he said, "Goodnight, and till the next time, Isaac Rogers," he held out his hand.

"Till the next time, Kagekao," Isaac said, taking the hand and shaking it.

"You know, there are a few New Year traditions that involve a kiss?" Kagekao said with a little bob of his head.

Isaac went red in the face and flapped him away.

"Shoo, before someone finds you," Isaac said, blushing furiously.

"Kage. We are close enough so that you don't have to keep saying the whole thing over and over, and if they can find me, then they deserve nothing less than a good fright... or fight," Kagekao said, "さようなら," (8)

With that he turned and leapt up to the rafters of the corridor, slinking his way along them like a cat stalking an unsuspecting bird, and he climbed out through one of the high windows.

Isaac listened carefully throughout all of this, always impressed with how Kagekao could move so silently.

He returned the hood of the cloak to around his head and muttered the password to the sleeping knight.

"Face me when I've rescued the princess..." the man shuffled in his sleep as the portrait swung open and Isaac climbed back inside.

It took Isaac a while to fall asleep and when he did he found Ben waiting for him.

"Hey Specs... woah, never had this place be this way with you before," Ben said, looking around at the slightly blurred landscape and the way it seemed to jitter around slightly.

"Well... I dunno?" Isaac said, "I can't think of anything different except for... Oh, Kagekao came to see me!"

"Did he?" Ben said, smirking internally since he had been the one to ask Kagekao to check up on Isaac. He had been worried about him ever since Isaac had been a little off in their chats.

"Yeah," Isaac said, looking around the blurred landscape, "We talked a bit about what he'd been going in the ways of kills, a little about my second-year, had a little champagne after exploring the Chamber of Secrets..."

"What?" Ben interjected, "You drank with him?"

"Barely a sip, champagne is gross," Isaac said, shuddering slightly at the memory of the taste.

"Oh..." Ben said, wondering why he was so annoyed by that, "So, how was it?"

"Hmm?" Isaac said with a slight frown.

"Spending time with Kagekao?" Ben said, maybe a little too happily.

"Oh... well, like I said, he told me some kills of his in exchange for hearing a little about my time at Hogwarts,"

"Cool, cool..." Ben said, "And you had a little champagne on the New Years, always a fun little tradition,"

"A tradition I'd happily leave behind in that year," Isaac said, the frown returning.

"First time drinking is hardly the best," Ben said with a laugh that sounded a little forced.

He was genuinely surprised when Isaac shook his head.

"No, first time I tried something like that was at the end my first-year with you guys," Isaac said, "Remember, Toby brought those alco-pop things, we had one each and when Masky found out he flipped and told Toby no drinking with me until I was fifteen or something. I still think I've got the bottle cap in my room somewhere,"

Ben went a little red in the face for forgetting that time, it had been one of the first times that Isaac had actually said something snarky back to them when joking around. Normally around that time he would have smiled and ducked his head a little.

Ben pushed aside the twinge when he had seen Isaac flinch when Toby patted him on the back after that and returned to the conversation with Isaac.

"... kissing Kagekao..."

"WHAT!" Ben said.

Isaac jumped a little.

"Sorry... kinda spaced out a little..." Ben said.

"I was saying that Kagekao mentioned another tradition of kissing someone on the New Year," Isaac said slowly, "I didn't actually kiss him, just that he made a bit of a joke about it,"

"Oh..." Ben said, ignoring the returning flush.

"You alright?" Isaac asked.

"Yeah... I'm just... I gotta go, Jeff's done... something and I gotta go wipe cameras..." Ben mumbled.

"Alright," Isaac said and Ben pretended like he didn't see the upset look on his face.

"I'll... send a letter back with Hedwig or something when I can chat next," Ben said.

Isaac nodded, glancing down for a moment at the ground.

"See ya, Ben," he said, pulling him in for a hug.

Ben eagerly returned the hug, 'What is up with me...', and he floated off again.

"See you, Spe... Isaac," he called as the dream dissolved into nothing.

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Cyberspace.

Ben drifted alone in the seemingly endless space he would call his second home.

Right now... he didn't know what to think; he was feeling so confused about things...

First off, the thing that was weighing heavily on him right now and making him feel sick, was that he had lied to Isaac about needing to go solve something for Jeff.

In actuality, he could just hear him through his room's t.v. where he was strumming away on his electric guitar.

The other thing was... anger? He didn't quite know but he definitely knew that it was nothing positive. What was confusing him the most about it was that... whatever it was, it was directed at Kagekao.

He had been the one to ask Kagekao to go check on Isaac, so why was he angry at him spending time with him?

The third thing, and quite possibly the most confusing thing right now, was that part of him was... elated.

Seeing Isaac always brought a smile to his face and sometimes he could swear that the only thing that made him put up with some of the others in the Mansion was that he could spend time with, and talk to, Isaac.

He rubbed the part of his neck where Isaac's hair had tickled him, then feeling disgusted with himself for upsetting him by lying to him and leaving earlier than he wanted to.

He let out a sigh before groaning and pressing the balls of his palms into his eyes until he could see stars.

He wanted to go back to Isaac and say that Jeff had been mistaken and that they could talk more... but part of him was worried about him doing something else incredibly stupid and upset him more.

"What's wrong with me?" Ben whispered himself.

An abnormal blip in lines of data caught his attention and he shook his head before heading after it, desperate to busy himself so that he didn't think about the funk he was putting Isaac through.

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Ellis Trailhead, New Mexico.

"Excuse me, Maam?" a voice called out.

Amaya turned and watched as two men in Ranger outfits jogged towards her.

"We've gotten reports of a few wild animals in the area, the kind that don't exactly _play nice_ ," the taller of the two said.

"We'd really appreciate it if you came back at a later date," the shorter man said.

"Oh.. and it was such good weather," Amaya said, slightly disappointed.

The two men watched her go and let out a small sigh.

"That could have gone a lot worse," the taller of the two said, taking a packet of cigarettes out of his shirt pocket.

"Yep," the smaller said, "Was planning on taking the family for a bit of a day out near here, but..."

"How's the kid?" Matt asked Troy as he cupped his hands around the lighter so it wouldn't be blown out.

"The best handful that I could have ever asked for," Troy said, messaging Masky that they had sent everyone that they could find away.

If Slendy told them to clear the area of civilians then there was definitely a chance that something could go wrong.

In this case, it would be one of the Earth's natural ley-lines acting up and causing a good few ruptures in the tectonic plate underneath, so they really didn't want anyone disturbing him when he tried to stop a new super-volcano forming, "How's your brother?"

"He's been suspended for playing a prank on the new recruits by pretending that he's accidentally released a pathogen into the air," Matt said, tapping away the built up ash, "He's trying to get away with it by saying that it was a surprise test to check their responses and that he was mostly unimpressed by the fact that most of them immediately bolted out from the room and could have caused further infection.

Credited one of them for having the sense to stay put, but that was only because the kid fainted,"

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End notes.

Ok, this one is a little shorter than I would have normally tried to write them, normally I aim for around 8000 words per chapter, but I'm going to have to really knuckle down on revising for exams and I'll need to take some time from writing to do that.

Thank you all for reading and I would also like to point out that this story now has 200 followers and has been added to its fourth story community.

I want to thank you all for following this story, it means a lot to me to know that I'm able to keep this many people happy with the random stuff that my brain comes up with and, to celebrate, I've already got a new EXTRAS chapter in the works.

Also, there is still time to suggest a good car for the Creeps to have.

Either PM me or leave a review, as Marpas will confirm, I will always answer 's PM system.

I'll hopefully have chapter 33 up on time and I hope that you enjoyed this weeks chapter, and I'll see you all next time,

SteamGeek01.

Kagekao's translations,

1, "What?"

2, "Silly fool,"

3, "All good?"

4, "Perfect," though the translate when I double checked it said flawless. Kinda the same thing.

5, "3,"

6, "2,"

7, "1,"

8, "Goodbye,"

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

If any of these are wrong then please notify me of this so I can fix them.

If you have a favourite Creepypasta that has not made an appearance then message me or leave their name in a review.


	33. Chapter 33, Of Cats and Mice

Chapter 33, Of Cats and Mice.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real life events.

Author's note.

And we're back, ladies and gents, new chapter for a wonderful weekend.

So, last week, I brought Kagekao back for a little fun, and I'm planning on expanding my knowledge of... electronically based Creepypastas for future chapters.

So, I've got another chapter to get to, and a whole bunch of reviews to answer, hopefully,

Lunarwolf11021;

Thank you.

Itsy Betsy, I will add them to the list of Creepypastas that I have to read. Going by their name I think they have something to do with spiders, so that could be fairly interesting.

DarkRavie;

Glad that you like it.

YinYangWriter;

Remember... the closest at Hogwarts to finding out the truth about Isaac's home are the Twins, and they're still no where near close.

Ok, I have nothing else to say at that part other than this review absolutely slays Dumbledore. He's going to need to take a trip to the North Pole to heal those burns.

That finishing line, magnificent!

Let your villain side run wild, there be no judging here... kinda.

You see... whenever I see Troy Baker's name, all I can hear is, " _EXCALIBUR! EXCALIBUR! From the United Kingdom! I'm looking for Heaven! I'm going to Claifornia!_ " YOU SEE MY PROBLEM! Damn that incredible catchy song.

Ben jealous about Kagekao spending time with Isaac? Little bit yes... little bit no...

Oh, yeah. If Toby's involved in something, and they're clearing people, you better hope that the fire brigade is nearby!

Just biding your time in the shadows, huh, well welcome to the light...

It's horrible here, back to the darkness!

If you had posted that back on that chapter, I feel like I would have fallen out of my chair in tears from laughing too hard.

I have seen every episode of their CAH episodes, I believe I know what you're talking about again, and Ohm is such a precious little bunny. (Adding this after I'd finished the chapter, didn't realise that I'd called Ohm a Bunny, how perfect is that?)

I haven't listened to that one yet, queuing it up on my phone now... It's awesome!

Well if L.J's done one thing...

'quickly checks Creep-gate'

... right then it's teaching you how to ward off Jeff, though I give it twelve minutes before he gets a pair of goggles and tries again.

Matt(Guest);

Well, I've been wanting to write more to do with the Orbitors and that seemed like a good way to bring a couple back.

Would you like to guess what the next EXTRAS chapter is about?

Sweet Smilie;

Ok, I have a confession to make.

I like pineapple on pizza.

Kagekao to me seems like someone who wouldn't like pineapple on pizza, he has very fine taste in things like food and drink.

... who the hell puts peaches on pizza? That's just... Ewww!

Ok, this is the second time I've ever had to look up foreign slang for this story.

So then... Tightly-packed passenger bus, I don't think it's that... ok, detainee being slapped repeatedly in an interrogation, that sounds like it.

I have no idea on what 'Take out a turkey' means though.

I think it's about Ben being jealous of Isaac spending time with Kagekao? Maybe?

Yes, we can always laugh at the stupidity of Dumbles. Have fun doing your homework.

Thunder-Death;

Ok, first off, cool name.

Second, thanks.

I was thinking what New Year traditions there were, and the thing about drinking wine or champagne (I nearly throw up each time I try a sip) popped into my head. After that I thought, 'who would get him the champagne?' and then Kagekao popped into my head, everyone's favourite wine-drinking demon.

Ok, that was the reviews...

The car;

Well, after two weeks of leaving it open to suggestion, I've made the decision for the car.

You'll find out in a future chapter probably, most likely one of the CP scenes at the start and end.

I bet a whole bunch of you were scratching your heads with what I pulled last week, he-he-he...

Also, by the time this chapter goes up it'll probably have already happened, but the story is nearly at 30,000 total views!

I have no idea on how to properly thank you all, so I'll just keep improving with this story and hope that I can keep you all happy.

Anyway, I've got to send this off to my wonderful Beta, DP, and check if they've got anything interesting to say?

Welcome back everyone. Sorry about the delay on my end. SG had gotten the chapter to me just like normal. However, it is my fault for the lateness since I am visiting family. Anyway… enjoy guys.

Ok then, everything's sorted out, this is going to be the third time I put up this chapter,

Alright then, time for the story,

Enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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Havre de Grace, Maryland.

The man took up his position at the top of the light house.

The pair of binoculars around his neck bumped on his chest as he walked around the small balcony and looked out over the pier.

A ship's horn got him standing a little taller and he looked at the approaching vessel.

He quickly checked the name on the ship's bow with the binoculars and used his radio to inform his supervisor that the target was approaching the docks.

His commander gave confirmation and told him to keep watch as the S.W.A.T teams prepared to seize the ship once it entered the port.

He checked out the visible parts of the deck, thinking that he had seen something black and white flash momentarily, but found that there was no one there.

No one at all.

Then the alert came in through the radio that the ship was not slowing down, the tugboats that had gone to help it into the port were trying to slow it down but they were having little to no success with their endeavour.

The man watched as the ship hit the docks, still not stopping, and carried on as it wrecked them.

Eventually, the ship stopped, once it had grounded itself, and the S.W.A.T teams advanced.

The man listened as they went through the rooms, continuing his vigil of the deck.

"Sir... it's a blood bath in here," the man did a doubletake.

He was on good terms with the man who had called in and knew that the man had once been called in to investigate an incident before his S.W.A.T years where a young couple fell into a meat grinder on the father of the boy's farm.

Over the radio, he heard more reports of the same thing, people sliced open, impaled on broken doors, burnt over the grill in the kitchen, and one where someone had apparently had their head crushed into pieces by an iron.

Something flashed on deck and he quickly gave the message that they had a runner.

He focused in on the figure, calling out the description.

"Black hair... female... black dress... seems to be wearing white body paint..."

The members closest to deck were unable to catch her as she dived into the water, vanishing even from the coast guard that had moved in to make sure none tried to escape via an escape boat.

The man kept an eye out for the woman as the boarding parties reported that there was no... survivors, they decided, on the boat.

The next few days were spent trying to figure out exactly who the mysterious woman was; the only things confirming her existence being a torn piece of what was most likely her dress, the man that had seen her, and the two frames of footage that showed her killing what looked like a chef when she was mid-swipe with a large knife across his throat.

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Hogwarts.

The returning masses gave Isaac and Hermione the relief of not having to spend the days pretending that there wasn't a third Gryffindor pissed at the two of them and they were able to turn their attention to the returning school work.

Though the distraction a couple of days after the New Year, when Filch's screaming woke up anyone still in the castle as he ran from the army of every single brush and mop in Hogwarts chasing him through the many corridors, was something that Isaac would remembere fondly for years to come.

Isaac resisted hitting Dean up the back of his head when he saw his fellow third-year walk back into the Hall.

Halfway through the feast, Fred and George made their way along and nestled next to them on either side of the table.

"So... Ron's seeming a..."

"Little peeved off at..."

"... something, based on how..."

"... he's not exactly looking..."

"... at you two like..."

"... you're the best of friends right now," they finished in unison.

"Something's happened over the holiday, Ron's temper got the better of him and I helped him to be firmly acquainted with the carpet in the Gryffindor common room as a result," Isaac said as Hermione bowed her head.

"What happened?" they asked, in unison again.

"I got sent a mystery package," Isaac told them, "Hermione told Professor McGonagall about it and she took it. I owled home asking if it had been anyone there but none of them claimed it so she's getting it checked over before I'm allowed it back,"

"Why would you get it back?" Fred asked, stealing the gravy boat before a fourth-year could use it.

"Got to be something special then, hasn't it?" George added on.

"I'll tell you guys later, I'll probably need to tell Oliver about it later," Isaac said, stealing the gravy boat in turn from Fred.

"Quidditch related then," Fred said as he and George shared a look of intrigue.

"If he had to tell Oliver, then it couldn't have been a broom, could it?" George said, dropping his voice so that only the four of them could hear.

Isaac nodded, looking around to see if anyone had heard them.

"Ok... so what's Professor McGonagall doing to... it?" Fred asked.

"Checking it for curses, jinx's, making sure that if I try to use it then it won't try to off me," Isaac said.

"She's stripping it?" Fred and George said at the same time.

By the looks on their faces, and he saw it often, they were struggling with the dislike of something being done to the broom and yet knowing that it had to be done to make sure that Isaac was safe.

"Better safe than sorry," George said a few moments later.

Fred nodded and turned to Isaac.

"So, anything exciting happen over the holiday?" Fred said.

Isaac frowned for a moment.

He quickly glanced around and signalled for the three of them to come in closer, not wanting to be overheard.

Isaac glanced around once more...

"A Japanese demon that can climb up completely vertical walls like nothing visited me. We explored the Chamber of Secrets for a bit, and then we had a bit of champagne to welcome in the New Year," Isaac said.

Keeping his face straight wasn't exactly hard, he wasn't lying after all.

"I tricked Peeves into thinking that I could exorcise him from the castle and got him to chase Filch around with every mop and broom in the castle," Isaac said a few moments later, causing two of the three to burst out laughing.

Hermione looked torn between amusement and a reprimand, she had been there the night that Isaac had told Peeves to do it.

"Seriously had us going there for a moment," Fred said, trying to stop laughing to take a drink of pumpkin juice.

"How did you manage to trick _Peeves_ , of all people?" Fred managed to ask after a moment.

"You ever seen that poster I have next to my bed?" Isaac asked the pair.

"The one with the guy that looks like Death warmed up, or the one with the Latin words?" George asked.

"Latin words, and accurate statement about the guy since that _is_ Death," Isaac said, "In the show, it's an exorcism to get rid of Demons. Don't tell Peeves,"

"You tricked him with a reference to a show?" George said, mildly impressed.

"With a little light show from Hermione," Isaac said with a small wink in Hermione's direction.

"Nicely done," Fred added, giving Isaac and Hermione a small golf clap.

"The best pranks often require a fair bit of brain behind the scenes," George said, causing Hermione to blush and duck her head down again.

Isaac knew that she would talk to him later about him giving her credit for stuff that she didn't do, but he'd sort that out later.

The rest of dinner passed rather dull compared to the conversation between the four of them and Isaac followed file with everyone else as they marched back to their common rooms and dormitories.

As he was getting changed for bed, Isaac found a bit of folded parchment in his pocket.

He was half tempted to throw it away since he was rather tired, but curiosity won and he unfolded the parchment.

~Meet us in the common room at half past 10~

Isaac frowned at the parchment and looked towards the door.

The only people that could have...

George must have slipped it into his pocket during dinner as Percy had came over when they had ducked their heads when Isaac told them about Peeves so they wouldn't have been able to arrange anything without their Head Boy over hearing.

Isaac stuffed a spare change of clothes into his bed with him and, once he was sure everyone was asleep, changed under the covers and headed down to meet the twins under the cover of the Invisibility Cloak.

He was early for meeting the two, but he didn't care because that meant that he got the comfiest seat in front of the fireplace.

He was almost about to doze off in front of the warm, yet dwindling flames, when the twins arrived.

The two of them looked around and checked their watch.

They were about to sit down in front of the fire when.

"Sit on me, and I'll have you drawn and quartered," Isaac muttered before the two of them sat on him.

Fred and George jumped up and Isaac shirked the invisibility cloak off.

"How do you..." Fred broke off, looking at Isaac's half-visible body.

"That explains a few things," George said, nudging the floor where Isaac's foot should be.

"So, what did you want to do?" Isaac asked, pulling in the cloak and stuffing it inside his coat. Sometimes he was still surprised at how little space it could take up.

"You got the map?" Fred asked and Isaac patted his shirt pocket.

"Right, well, follow us," George said, leading the way to the portrait hole.

Isaac unfolded the map as they moved, checking the corridors around them as they did so.

So far, it was only them out and about, everyone's names were so close in the tower that it was tricky to tell who was who.

George led them down a couple of the passages until they came to what looked like a blank stretch of wall.

Fred and George cast a quick glance down the corridor before the two of them looked at the bricks in the dim light.

Isaac was about to ask them what they were doing when Fred said that he had found 'it', whatever it was, and started pushing at something on the wall.

The stones slid back and to the side after a moment and revealed the entrance to an unlit room.

"Not that next to nothing good ever comes out of walking into an unknown and unlit room late at night, but what is this?" Isaac asked as Fred and George walked into the room and beckoned for him to follow.

"Well... we think that it was originally a panic room," Fred said, "Either for hiding during an attack or something, or a room to help people relax during panic attacks,"

"Could be either, or none," George said, "There was some old stuff set out that made it look like it was just a potions workshop closer to the Tower for people to study, but..."

George muttered a quick Lumos and found the rooms equivalent to a light switch.

Isaac saw what he had meant by calling it an old Potions Lab; there were a few old workbenches that the two of them had pushed against the wall that had a sunken, stone-lined, divot where a small cauldron could sit.

The other things that he noticed were what looked like a pair of camp beds pushed up pulled up on their side against a wall, a few old looking bookcases, and he could see the edge of a toilet and shower through a door on the other side.

There were also a number of new, well... not new but newer than most things in the room, plant pots around the high areas where long windows that Isaac thought Kagekao might have trouble slipping through. The growing plants did help give the room a feeling of odd serenity that suited the twins.

"Whatever it used to be," Fred said, "Welcome to the Workshop of the Messyrs,"

Isaac looked around the place where he realised that Fred and George probably spent their time planning their pranks and making the things they used.

"Ok, I have a number of questions, first of all... you really went with Messyrs?" Isaac asked.

"Oh," Fred said with a large, deliberate, frown, "Oh, show him our private workshop, and he insults us,"

"It is a little silly," George said.

"Who's side are you on?" Fred said.

"Good point, we show him our workshop and he insults us,"

"That's what I said,"

"No, you didn't,"

Fred glared at his twin and threw an empty Dungbomb pellet at him.

Why it was empty Isaac didn't want to know.

"So this place is where you make up your stuff," Isaac looked up at the low dome ceiling.

"Yep, this is where we plan everything from fake spiders in books," Fred said, kicking out a chair for Isaac, "... to our next big prank, bewitching Filch's brooms to chase after him,"

"Ooh, you've got spinny chairs," Isaac said, sitting in one and giving it a test spin, "And you can't do that to Filch,"

"Don't see why we can't," George said, "Technically there's nothing in the rules about it,"

"No, you can't because I already did, remember?" Isaac said, dragging his feet on the ground to stop himself spinning.

Fred and George blinked at him before realisation dawned on them.

"Damn! I was looking forward to that one," Fred muttered, sitting in a chair of his own.

"How did you get these here, anyway?" Isaac asked, patting his chair, "I don't think Amazon make deliveries here for some reason,"

"Saved up, bought them at a store, built them at a friends so Dad wouldn't go nuts about trying to do it, he shrunk them and we un-shrunk them when we got here," George explained.

"Dad would have probably broken something and gotten a bit stuck in his eye," Fred added on, pulling out a chest from underneath.

"So, not that this place isn't cool and fun, but it's late and I'm kinda tired," Isaac said, "What are we doing here?"

"Well... we were planning on chasing Filch around with his own brooms, but you beat us to that one," Fred said.

"So we're onto the next thing we had planned," George said, bringing out a cauldron that had been tucked away.

Inside it was a mirky looking substance that had the same colour of toffee.

"Told you that the heating charm wouldn't last," Fred said, tapping the rock-hard substance inside.

"What is it?" Isaac said, craning his head to look inside.

"Toffee," George said.

"Oh," Isaac said, he had been expecting a little more.

"We were going to put it in a mold and charm them so that the consumer's tongue grows out. So far the charm has worked... just a little too much,"

"Last time we tried it George's tongue grew to the size of a fat python that we saw in the zoo one time," Fred said, "And didn't stop until he summoned the toffee out of his mouth and shrunk his tongue back,"

"It wouldn't have gotten that long if you had decided to help me," George said, glaring slightly at his twin.

"Well _sorry_ that I was unable to breathe at the time," Fred said, huffing slightly.

"Why couldn't you breath?" Isaac asked.

"He was laughing too hard," George replied, ducking under the table.

He resurfaced with a hammer and hit the surface of the toffee.

"Can't let this go to waste then," he said, hitting it a few more times and turning away so that none of the bits went in his eye.

Soon enough of the cauldron was empty for them to make their next batch, but the two of them decided that that could wait until tomorrow.

So the last bit of the night was them trying the latest batch of toffee, rather good in Isaac's opinion, the two could definitely make a bit just selling sweets.

Things wound down, however, when Isaac spotted a name on the map and pointed it out to Fred and George.

"Professor McGonagall inbound," he said, pointing at the map.

"Late night checks," George said, quickly grabbing the sweater he had taken off.

"Quick, we can... No, she's there," Fred groaned as she passed the point on the map where the workshop entrance was.

"Quick," Isaac said, holding up the cloak, "Get under,"

The two of them scrambled under and managed to get out without much noise.

Professor McGonagall was at the end of the corridor, just before the portrait. She had paused and turned, she might've heard the sound of the workshop entrance.

Isaac quickly dug Fizz, who squeaked indignantly at being woken up, and turned the key a couple of times to wake him up.

"Stop the portrait from closing," Isaac said, dropping down and letting Fizz scurry off.

Professor McGonagall was through the portrait hole at that point and the three of them reached it.

Fizz had managed to wedge himself between the frame and the wall.

Isaac quickly picked him up as they passed and they paused as they waited for Professor McGonagall to go up the stairs that led to the first-years.

"See ya," Fred and George whispered as they split from Isaac and quietly hurried up to their dorm.

Isaac tip-toed back to the third-year boy's dorm and quickly tugged off his shoes.

He had just stripped off his shirt and settled under the covers when he heard the door open.

Professor McGonagall didn't say anything and left.

Isaac let out a sigh before stifling a snort of laughter.

He easily knew how that sort of adrenaline rush could get addicting.

Too bad he already was.

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The next morning Fred and George tossed Isaac a small bag of the toffee as they passed them in the hall.

Isaac nodded his thanks as he looked up at the staff table.

Professor Lupin wasn't there and just as Isaac turned back to his food someone sat down.

"Alright," Oliver Wood said, "You said that you would have everything sorted out after the holidays, so..."

"It's a thing in progress," Isaac said.

"Ron said that you got sent a _Firebolt_!" Oliver said, dropping his voice as low as possible.

"I'd like to know why Ron's telling people details about my life," Isaac said, turning slightly to face him.

"I couldn't find you yesterday, but I found him and asked him about it," Oliver said, not sensing Isaac's frustration.

Or if he was he was deliberately ignoring it.

"But is it _true_?" Oliver asked through his teeth.

"It's true, but..." Isaac hit Oliver hard in the ribs before he could squeal, he didn't put it past his captain, "Since _no one_ knows who sent it to me, Professor McGonagall's got it getting checked for hexes,"

" _Stripping it_?" Oliver sounded like he had been castrated, "She can't,"

"Apparently, she can," Isaac said, "Now I have Transfiguration, so I will ask for an update on it then, and I'll tell you later,"

"But..."

"Later," Isaac said, grabbing his bag and walking off to catch up with Hermione who had already started walking.

"What was that about?" she asked.

Isaac did a slight double take once he had reached a couple of floors up when Hermione jogged to catch up with him.

"Oliver being Oliver," Isaac said, turning to look down the corridor where he had been following Hermione just a few moments ago.

"Ok, well come on, Transfiguration starts soon," Hermione said, starting down the corridor.

'What is up with her?' Isaac wondered as he followed after her.

Professor McGonagall had expected him to ask about it, apparently, Oliver had cornered her when she tried to leave the Hall, and she told Isaac exactly what she had told him; that the broom was still being checked and that Professor Flitwick and Madam Hooch knew what they were doing.

Ron's mood seemed to stale the air around him and classes that Isaac and Hermione shared with him were slowly becoming irritating.

Ron seemed less concerned with learning what was taught and kept glaring at the two of them, working a desk over, whenever they seemed to be able to do things right in the class.

By the end of their second Transfiguration class of the week, Isaac thought that his eyes were going to roll out of his head. It seemed that Ron was expecting an apology if what he overheard him saying to Seamus was to be believed.

He was thankful when the class ended and he and Hermione were able to break away from him to go to Ancient Runes.

"You alright?" Hermione asked him as they took their seats in Ancient Runes.

"Yeah, why?" Isaac asked, flipping through his book to the page that they had been working on last week.

"Just, you know, everything with Ron, what he was saying in Divination, and..."

"How do you know what he's saying in Divination? We have this when he's up in that stuffy as all hell tower," Isaac said.

Hermione went pink and told him the exact same thing as she normally did when he brought it up, that she had sorted it with Professor McGonagall.

The thing that cheered Isaac up a little more was that Professor Lupin hadn't forgotten about teaching him how to handle a Dementor and they arranged to meet up that Thursday to begin the lessons.

Isaac left Hermione in the library that evening and headed off to meet with Professor Lupin in the History of Magic classroom.

He made it to the classroom that they had agreed on before Professor Lupin, though he was barely five minutes behind Isaac himself and he was carrying a large case that he lifted onto Professor Binns' desk.

"Right, well," Professor Lupin said, taking a break from having to carry the heavy case, "Since we can't bring a Dementor into the castle, this should work instead,"

"What is it?" Isaac asked.

"A Boggart," Professor Lupin said, "When I open the case, it sees you, and should turn into a Dementor,"

"Should?" Isaac asked.

"Just think of a Dementor and it should transform into it," Professor Lupin said, "Now, are you sure that you want to do this?"

Isaac nodded.

"Alright then," Professor Lupin walked to the side of the desk, "The charm to repel a Dementor is both simple and complex.

First of all, the incantation, _Expecto Patronum_ , however, the words alone are not enough.

The most important part of the charm is a memory.

Dementors feed off emotion, a Patronus is a type of barrier created by an intense, positive, emotion that the Dementor feeds off of instead of you,"

Professor Lupin turned to look at him, concern lining the man's tired face.

"This spell is highly advanced, far beyond that of the Ordinary Wizarding Level. Not many can master it,"

Isaac nodded to show he understood.

"Now, I told you that the charm requires a memory, yes? Well, before I release the boggart, I want you to try to cast the charm.

 _Expecto Patronum_ , and think of a happy memory,"

Isaac drew his wand and turned to Lupin again.

"Does the memory need to be magic based?"

"Like a happy memory to do with Magic? No, just a happy one," Professor Lupin said, pulling out a chair from behind one of the desks and sitting down.

Isaac nodded and closed his eyes.

'Happy memory, happy memory...'

" _...Nice to meet you, Isaac Rogers, I'm Toby..._ "

The memory of the night that he had come to the Mansion flooded into his mind.

" _Expecto Patronum_ ," Isaac said under his breath.

"Got your memory?" Professor Lupin asked.

Isaac nodded and waved his wand.

" _Expecto Patronum!_ " Isaac's eyes widened at the sight of silver mist that formed in the air in front of him, spiraling out like a vortex from his wand.

"Impressive," Professor Lupin said, "I had thought that it would have taken you a few tries,"

He walked back to the desk and unlocked the case.

"Ready?" he asked.

Isaac nodded and readied his wand again.

Professor Lupin opened the case and, like he had said, the Boggart turned into a Dementor and the room was drenched in cold air.

" _Expecto Patronum_!" Isaac said, but the silver mist from before didn't come, _"Expecto Patronum_!" he tried again.

His mother's screaming filled his ears again as his vision started to cloud.

" _Expecto Patronum_! _Expecto..._ " Isaac cried but, once again, nothing happened and he bent over to try and stop himself throwing up again.

His vision cleared and the screaming became distant.

When he looked up Professor Lupin was forcing the Boggart, now a silver sphere, back into the case.

"Here," Professor Lupin said, handing Isaac some of the chocolate he had given out on the train.

"Thanks," Isaac muttered.

"I didn't expect you to get it the first time," Professor Lupin said, re-lighting the candles that the rush of cold-air from the Dementor had extinguished.

He turned back to Isaac once he had finished.

"Are you sure that you still want to do this?" he asked.

"I need to," Isaac gritted out, "If the Dementors come back, I need to be able to fight them,"

Professor Lupin gave a sort of resigned sigh.

"Alright then, you ready?" he asked.

Isaac nodded, trying to remember another memory that might work.

Making cakes and cookies with Sally... playing with Ben.

Isaac narrowed his eyes as Professor Lupin opened the box and gritted his teeth.

" _Expecto Patronum_!" Isaac growled.

Nothing happened as the Dementor approached.

" _Expecto Patronum_!" his mother's screaming started.

" _EXPECTO PATRONUM_!"

The screaming began to dull and when Isaac opened his eyes the silver mist that spiralled from his wand was hovering in the air between him and the dementor.

Isaac was able to keep the shield up for a few more moments before his knees started to shake and he felt himself tire out.

"Riddikulus!" Professor Lupin shouted and the Dementor disappeared as he shoved it back into the case, it turning back into a silver sphere once more, before the latches were shut tight.

"Well then," Professor Lupin said, sounding very impressed, "I think that you would have given your Father a run for his money, and that's saying something,"

Isaac grinned as he wobbled his way over to a chair nearby.

"I think we'd better leave it there for today," Isaac nodded in agreement with his Professor.

"Here," he gave Isaac another couple of pieces of the chocolate, "You'd better have the lot, or else Madam Pomfrey will be out for my blood,"

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January passed away to February in a whirl of icy wind and patched skies.

It also passed with Isaac finally reaching his limit with Ron's persistent brooding and yanking him by the ear into their dorm room.

"Ok, what is your problem?" Isaac asked.

"My problem? You floored me and nearly broke my arm!" Ron said, a heavy scowl on his face.

"You took the first swing," Isaac said, "You were the one to get all fired up enough to hit someone,"

"Well if Hermione hadn't..."

"Hermione did what I was already going to do," Isaac said, "Believe me, I've been around this particular carousel already, you don't just accept pretty things with no explanation,"

"But, Isaac..."

"No buts, Ron," Isaac cut him off, "Hermione was looking out for me, yes she maybe didn't handle some other things as well as she probably could have, but you're the one acting like she castrated you with a nail file,"

"What does that mean?" Ron asked.

"Just... just take it as something you would never want to have happen to you," Isaac said.

"Look, mate..."

"No, you look," Isaac cut across him again, "If you're waiting for an apology from me, you're going to be waiting a long time,"

Isaac left it at that to go and find Hermione in the library again.

Half an hour later Ron came down, scarlet in the face and asked if it was alright to sit down.

Isaac pushed a chair out across from him and when Ron had sat down he raised an eyebrow at him and nodded in Hermione's direction.

"Erm... Hermione?" Ron said, quailing slightly from the cold regard he got in response.

"Yes?"

"I erm... I'm sorry," Hermione raised an eyebrow, "I'm sorry for... flipping out, I've been a little temperamental lately, and... I'm sorry,"

Hermione nodded, not saying anything in return, and returned to her book.

Ron frowned at Isaac who mouthed back 'Best you're gonna get right now,'

Ron nodded in acceptance and pulled out his Charms homework while Isaac returned to his Ancient Runes sheet.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Isaac stumbled back into the chair.

He and Professor Lupin had finished another day of training and he was no closer to getting a Patronus like the one that Professor Lupin had explained in their second session.

He had said that a true Patronus would do something like charge down the Dementors. Attack them back.

But after a few more weeks of training, he was still nowhere further along than the shield he was managing.

"You're putting too high an expectation on your shoulders," Professor Lupin said, fumbling with his bag, "For someone your age, even a non-corporeal Patronus is a huge achievement.

You're not passing out, you're not hearing... the screams as loudly as before. Give it time," he said, pulling out a couple of bottles from his bag," I don't know if you'll like this, or not, but..."

"Butterbeer," Isaac said, looking over at his teacher, "Yeah, I like it,"

Professor Lupin raised an eyebrow in suspicion at him.

"Ron and Hermione brought me back a bottle after the second Hogsmeade visit," Isaac added on quickly.

Professor Lupin looked at him with a little suspicion but didn't say anything and handed Isaac the bottle.

"If you don't mind me asking, is everything alright?" he asked, pulling over another chair, "You seemed a little distracted today,"

Isaac looked up at his Professor then back to the bottle in his hand.

"Have... have you ever gotten the feeling that you've annoyed, like _really_ annoyed, someone... and you don't know what you've done?"

Isaac, truth be told, was feeling a little distracted.

The past few weeks had been a little weird for Isaac.

For once, he was feeling the full effects of homesick that everyone else normally felt.

The other thing, probably what was causing that, was that he hadn't spoken with Ben since the New Year.

Isaac had fallen asleep to lonely dreams and woken to find the Gameboy still on each morning until he had run out of batteries.

He had sent the batteries back to get charged again, and the Gameboy incase something was wrong with it.

Toby had said that Ben was looking into it, Ben hadn't written either, and he hadn't heard any news from it since.

Out of all his memories at the Mansion, if he was pushed to choose, he would have chosen the ones with Toby, Ben, or the both of them as his happiest.

With the feeling that Ben was avoiding him...

Professor Lupin leaned back in his chair with a groan.

"I've lost count the number of times that I've thought that," he said, taking a swig of Butterbeer, "Why? Who do you think you've annoyed?"

"Well... it's hard to explain.

Normally whenever I get a letter from home there's either a second letter with the one from Toby, or Ben's took up every other space he can. Sometimes stealing the paper when Toby's writing," Professor Lupin gave a small snort of laughter, "But lately... I've heard... nothing from him.

Even Toby says that Ben's acting a little weird lately and..." Isaac trailed off before he mentioned anything about Ben being able to travel into his dreams.

"And you think that you've done something to upset him?" Professor Lupin suggested as an end to his sentence.

"Something like that," Isaac said, taking the out that had been presented for him.

Professor Lupin shrugged and placed his nearly finished bottle on the floor.

"Well... I don't know much about your family," Professor Lupin said, "Have you written to him specifically?"

Isaac shook his head, "He always steals the letters from Toby as soon as he opens them,"

Professor Lupin gave a small huff of laughter.

"Why don't you send him a letter, along with the one to your brother?" Professor Lupin suggested, "That way you can talk specifically to him, and you can ask him if he's alright without anyone else knowing,"

Isaac nodded his thanks.

After he finished his Butterbeer Isaac left, thinking about what Professor Lupin said.

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice he was about to walk into someone until they were less than a foot away from him on the stairs.

"Do watch where you are going, Rogers!" Professor McGonagall said sharply as Isaac jumped back down the stairs to avoid walking right into her.

"Sorry," he said, stumbling a little and nearly falling the rest of the way.

"I've just been looking for you in the Gryffindor common room. Well, here it is, we've done everything that we could think of..."

Professor McGonagall's voice faded from his mind as he saw what she was holding.

The Firebolt was in her hands, gleaming slightly, and as good as he had last seen it.

"I can have it back?" Isaac asked excitedly, "Seriously?"

"Seriously," Professor McGonagall said, a rare smile on her face, "I daresay you'll need to get the feel of it before Saturday's match, won't you?"

As she handed Isaac the broom he felt the urge to jump over the bannister and fly back to Gryffindor Tower that way.

It was only when she clapped her on his shoulder as she was leaving and he flinched slightly that he realised that she had still been talking to him.

Isaac turned the broom in his hands for a few more moments before realising that he was still standing on the stairs.

As he made his way back to the Gryffindor common room Ron came running down the corridor towards him.

"She gave it to you? Excellent! Listen, can I..."

"If you can speak at a speed I can understand, then I will listen," Isaac said, he had been unable to understand any part of what Ron had said.

Ron started ranting about how Gryffindor would never lose a match now.

Isaac rolled his eyes as they neared the Tower and found Neville trying to get in.

"I thought that you had written down the passwords for the week?" Isaac asked Neville as he ignored the demands of Sir Cadogan to remove him from the castle grounds.

"I did," Neville wailed, "I must have left them in the dorm,"

Isaac rolled his eyes as Ron opened the portrait to the common room.

As soon as the three of them had walked in every head in the room snapped to see what Isaac was holding.

Isaac rolled his eyes behind shut eyelids as he sighed internally at the cacophony of noise that filled the room of the many admirers of the Firebolt.

Not wanting to deal with the mayhem he let the twins have a look at the broom, telling them that if they broke it he'd write for L.J to send him some of the things that he keeps off the shelves to use against the twins, before making his way to Hermione.

She had been the only person not to try and clamber around Isaac. Instead, she had been sitting in the corner doing what looked like an Arithmancy assignment.

"Well... I got it back," Isaac said.

Hermione hummed in agreement, keeping her head bent to the parchment. It almost looked like she was reading but the way her hand was shaking slightly told Isaac something different.

"Thank you," Isaac said.

It confused Hermione enough to cause her to look up and Isaac saw that the edges of her eyes were tinged red, and maybe a little puffy.

"You saved me a trip to McGonagall to hand it in, imagine if it had been cursed, might have been worse than when Quirrell was jinxing my broom during my first game,"

Hermione's lips edged upward.

"You mind if I join you for a bit before I go to bed? I've got a letter to write," Isaac said, taking out a piece of parchment and a quill.

He allowed the broom to be passed around for a few more minutes while he finished his letter to Ben before he announced that he was tired and going to bed, telling them to either wake him for dinner or leave him until the morning.

He got the broom back and walked up the stairs.

Hedwig was waiting for him on his bed, a parcel in her claws.

Isaac traded the letter for the parcel and carried her over to the window.

He watched her swoop away for a few minutes, wondering what it would be like to have wings of his own, before turning back to the parcel on his bed.

He opened it and, apart from a few of L.J's candies stuffed in, found the Gameboy with the refilled batteries and a note.

~Tonight?~

~Or, when you get it?~

Isaac packed the batteries in and turned it on, before he closed it securely in the drawer.

Isaac settled into bed and was about to drift off when a strangled yell broke his attempt to sleep.

He immediately leapt to his feet in time to be knocked back as a duvet was thrown across his face.

If he hadn't caught the glimpse of Ron's furious looking face before getting a face full of cloth then he might have thrown the duvet to the side in a ball of fire.

Instead, he managed to wretch the thing off his face in time to see Ron storming out of the room with his bedsheet.

"Oh, great," Isaac moaned and made to follow.

"Gyah!" Isaac leapt again as he stood on a now yowling Crookshanks' tail.

"Oh, no," Isaac said as he realised what Ron was probably shouting about.

"LOOK!" Ron bellowed from downstairs.

When Isaac had made his way down, finding the stairs proved interesting without his glasses and he couldn't be bothered to get them right now.

So, he was watching what looked like a bunch of blurred lines that vaguely resembled Ron shout at a trembling bunch of blurred lines that vaguely resembled a shaking Hermione while a blurred white sheet with a large, blurred, patch of red was draped across the table.

"BLOOD! AND YOU KNOW WHAT WAS ON THE FLOOR!"

Isaac closed his eyes and let out a soft groan.

He opened them again just in time to see Hermione dart past him and up the stairs. As she passed something wet landed on his arm and he realised that she was probably crying.

"Can you believe her?" Ron scoffed.

Isaac started slightly as he realised that he hadn't noticed him moving to stand next to him.

He was close enough that even without his glasses he could see the hatred etching it's way onto Ron's face.

"Ron. All I know is that I am too tired to deal with any of this right now,"

Isaac turned and left before Ron could say anything.

"In the morning!" Isaac said over Ron when he tried to call after him, "Till then leave Hermione alone,"

"AFTER WHAT SHE DID!" Ron bellowed.

"Yes!" Isaac shouted back, "Leave her alone until the morning when I can be bothered to deal with any of this bullshit," Isaac grumbled, closing the door to the dorm once again.

Isaac collapsed back in bed and tried to fall asleep, the quick rush of adrenaline taking it's time to leave his system.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

"I have had enough of this!" Tom said, hitting the desk in front of him and looking around his companions.

"As do I," another, Felix, said, "The act performed of this individual are to the norm,"

"But..." a red-headed prosecutor tried to argue but was shot down.

"Enough, Ron," Isaac said, standing up behind his desk next to a suited cat that looked like it had run face-first into a wall.

"Quite right!" Salem agreed, "In the case of, 'The unjust killing of Scabbers'..."

All eyes in the room quickly flashed towards the oversized rat hanging by its tail like a wingless bat. Large, comical, crosses on his eyes.

"... we, The Acclaimed Cat Order, also known as T.A.C.O, hereby do decree that Crookshanks, Heir to the pillow of Granger, is innocent under the law. Due to the fact that we think rats taste yummy!"

Salem broke off to lick his lips.

"Now, can we please wrap this up? Sabrina said she'd bring me a few tins of tuna,"

"But my rat is d-d-d-dead," Ron wailed, rocking on the floor.

"And let's give a big warm welcome to sadness!" Salem said, "Not that it's been fun, it wasn't, but next week we reconvene to discuss whether or not to continue vomiting hairballs into our owner's shoes,"

"But it's tradition!" many a voice thundered from the hordes of cats in suits and dresses lined up in rows as far as the eye could see behind Isaac.

"Too true!" Salem declared, "We keep doing it then, no need to meet next week,"

"What in the actual hell?"

Isaac jumped slightly as Ben phased into existence at his side.

"Ben, what are you... why am I in a court of cats?" Isaac asked, looking around.

"What were you eating before you went to bed?" Ben asked between laughs as the many cats filed out.

Tom, the Chairman for the Hunting of Animals and Insignificant Rodents, leapt from his chair and started chasing a chocolate brown mouse.

"I have no idea," Isaac said as Ben held Isaac loosely by the shoulder and the two of them were soon in the field of tall grass with the oak tree.

"So that was probably the weirdest dream that I have ever had the pleasure of walking into," Ben said, releasing Isaac's shoulder after a moment since he had forgotten he was holding it while they walked.

Isaac hummed his agreement and nodded, but said nothing else.

Ben nodded mutely and the two of them kept walking.

"I'm sorry," Ben said after they had reached the tree.

Isaac turned to face him and found Ben facing the base of the trunk.

"I... On New Years I was feeling a little... off," Ben said, "I don't know why, but after that, I got caught up working on something and I just... I don't know,"

"I thought I'd pissed you off," Isaac said.

"No," Ben said quickly, "I... did something stupid and..."

"You had one massive sulk," Isaac said.

Ben nodded.

"Well, did you have fun being Batman?" Isaac said.

"Is that supposed to be an insult?" Ben snorted, "First off, Batman doesn't sulk,"

"Fanboy,"

"Cat lawyer," Ben shot back.

"I was dreaming," Isaac said, "I don't exactly have complete control over my dreams,"

"Then why did I bother teaching you lucid dreaming?" Ben asked and the two of them soon fell back into their usual routine.

"So, you said that you were busy with something? What was it?" Isaac asked.

"Well... after I... left on New Years, I found a sort of... blip, you could say, in some streams of code that was I was near," Ben said, "I followed them and, well... I now have to deal with a bipolar homicidal mouse with attachment issues,"

"What?" Isaac asked.

"Well..." Ben broke off as he shuddered slightly.

Ben went wide-eyed and spun on his foot.

"Uh – oh," Ben said.

Isaac turned to see what was wrong.

Something was running through the tall grass.

"Ben, what is it?"

"Up the tree, up the tree," Ben pushed Isaac towards the tree and cupped his hands to help Isaac climb up.

"Ben, what is it?" Isaac demanded, not moving an inch except closer to Ben.

"Pi..."

Isaac and Ben turned to look at the shuffling patch of grass.

"Ka..."

"Ben... is that..."

"Uh-hu," Ben nodded.

Something yellow crawled out of the grass.

Parts of its fur were crusted red with blood, whether it or anothers Isaac didn't know.

Its mouth was open, revealing slightly curved fangs, and it's black eyes were dancing with venomous glee.

"Ben... why is there a murderous-looking Pikachu in my dream?"

"Remember that blip I mentioned?" Ben said as he and Isaac backed up slightly, "Yeah, that's it. Another data-ghost,"

Ben took a hesitant step forward.

"Hey... BRVR,"

"BRVR?"

"Pi... Ka..."

Ben took a hesitant step forward.

"Hey... buddy,"

BRVR snapped at the air in front of him, his cheeks sparking.

"Ok, bad plan," Ben said, backing up next to Isaac.

What looked like a subtitle box appeared above BRVR's head and Isaac blinked as words appeared in the frame.

~BRVR wants to play~

"Ben... is this 'play' like, 'yay, happy fun' or... 'Billy the puppet' type of play?"

"Let's not find out right now," Ben said.

"Pi-kaa,"

"Do you mind, we're talking," Isaac said and Ben turned to look at him in shock, "What? If he kills me, then what's going to happen?"

"You know that thing where 'If you die in the dream, you die in real-life?' complete bollocks," Ben said, "You die in the dream, you wake up. Unless, it's me that does the killing, or someone else who can get into your dreams,"

"So _you_ can kill people in their dreams?" Isaac said, turning so he could still see BRVR in the corner of his eye.

"Well... not really," Ben said, catching Isaac's eye and looking at him like he was insane, "Me and _anyone_ who can get _into dreams_ , if we kill people in a dream it's more like they go into a _brain-dead coma_!"

"PIKA!" BRVR snapped.

"So when did you say that you were going to introduce us?" Isaac asked Ben, crouching down and smiling at BRVR.

Ben hadn't lost the look that clearly showed that he thought Isaac was insane.

"So, you're BRVR?" Isaac sat on the ground and smiled, "Hello,"

BRVR snarled at him and snapped his jaw again.

"Well that's rude," Isaac said, "I mean, we're going to live in the same house... mansion... thing, so we might as well get to know each other,"

BRVR narrowed his eyes and stalked towards them in a wide circle.

"Well... I'm Isaac," he introduced himself to the murderous looking Pokemon.

"Pi – Pi,"

Isaac blinked at BRVR.

"I don't speak Pokemon, do you know what he said?"

"No,"

BRVR sniffed the air between him, Isaac, and Ben.

~You are user~

"User?" Isaac asked Ben.

"Erm... what I've been able to understand is that he classifies people as one of two things.

'User', someone in the outside world...

'Character', someone in a game, like an NPC or sprite...

And 'Player' someone he goes after," Ben explained, "Though I have no idea if I've gotten that right,"

BRVR sniffed the air again.

~How is user in game~

"We're not in a game," Isaac said, "I'm... dreaming, back at my school, and Ben's able to visit me through the Gameboy..."

~If you can be seen through Gameboy, then you must be Character~

~How can Character be User~

BRVR shook his head in confusion.

"Ben's able to travel into people's dreams," Isaac said and Ben nodded, "He's visiting me in my dream because we hadn't seen each other in a long time and..."

~He abandoned you~

It was hard to tell if it was a statement or question.

"Yes," Isaac said hesitantly after a moment, "But..."

BRVR trotted over and sniffed the air around Isaac's legs before hopping up and curling in his lap.

~Abandonning is bad, User or BRVR~

Ben looked down at the two in surprise.

"How did you..."

BRVR snapped his teeth at Ben when he spoke.

~TRAITOR~

"Whoa, hey," Isaac said, gently jostling BRVR in his lap, "He had his reason, he was helping you, and..."

~He abandons, he bad~

"He isn't bad, well, by normal people's standards he's bad, but he isn't bad to me," Isaac said, "He needed to help you and he wasn't able to come see me.

I know he feels bad..."

~Liar~

"He does, he was apologising before you came and telling me why he hadn't been able to talk as often,"

Ben was about to say something, but remember what happened last time, he kept his mouth shut and sat down as well.

BRVR glared slightly at him.

"Slendy gave me orders to make sure you knew about all the stuff I told you," Ben said slowly, ready to stop if BRVR protested him speaking again, "And I had to watch you incase you left the Mansion. Incase you went somewhere people could find you,"

~Let Users find BRVR~

~BRVR want to play with Player~

"Do you know why Slendy told Ben to keep you there?" Isaac asked.

BRVR went silent for a moment.

~No~

"Do you think that there might be a reason?"

~Yes~ came the reply after a few seconds.

"If you go out there before you're ready then you could put the people in the Mansion in danger," Ben said, "If the... User's out there find out about us they would hunt us down like animals,"

BRVR chittered and jittered slightly in Isaac's lap, getting comfy again.

"They would hurt us, do bad things to us," Isaac added.

~Like abandoning you~

"Worse," Isaac said, "They'd make it so that they wouldn't have anyone to abandon,"

BRVR looked a little angry at that.

"And... if they got only some of us, then we might not be able to help the others," Ben said, "We would be forced to abandon them,"

BRVR looked angrier, he cheeks sparked slightly.

"And we don't want to abandon each other," Isaac added quickly, thinking of the times that Team Rocket had been on the receiving end of what was coming, "BRVR... were you abandoned?"

BRVR glanced up at Isaac and away again.

~BRVR thought User would stay with BRVR forever~

~User abandoned BRVR and got new best friend~

~User and BRVR were supposed to be best friends forever~

Isaac frowned and slowly made to pet the fur on top of BRVR's head.

He flinched slightly at the slight static charge that met him but it was nowhere near painful so he kept at it.

"I know how you feel," Isaac said, "When I was little, my parents died. I was sent to live with my Aunt, and Uncle, and their bully of a son. They didn't like me very much.

They treated me like a slave. Until, one day, Toby came.

He saw what was going on and wanted to punish them for it.

Afterwards, when I did something special, he took me home with him," BRVR looked up at Isaac and curled in his lap again. Like a cat trying to get all the warmth and comfort from someone they were sat on, "He became my brother and he's been that to me ever since, everyone else at the Mansion is part of my family, and Ben's even my best friend,"

Ben blushed slightly but Isaac didn't notice.

"They took me in and cared for me when no one else was, they'll never abandon me,"

BRVR turned again so that he could face both Isaac and Ben.

~Family is important. Family shouldn't abandon family~

~What is User's name~

"I'm Isaac," he continued stroking the fur around BRVR's ears.

~Izak~

"Erm... close enough," Isaac said, "It's..."

~BRVR like Izak~

"... good enough for me,"

"It's better than what he calls me," Ben said, "BRVR, what's my name?"

~Bin~

Isaac snorted in laughter and rested his back against the tree.

Ben frowned at him, but Isaac's laughter was infectious to him and he started laughing as well.

~Can Izak and Bin play with BRVR~

BRVR stood up on his legs and jumped down from Isaac's lap, his tail swaying slightly.

"Sure, what do you want to do?" Isaac asked.

~Fishing~

"Ok then," Isaac said, "Let's go fishing,"

He turned to face Ben who changed the dream to a pier by a calm, blue ocean with a snap of his fingers.

~This ocean cleaner than BRVR's ocean~ BRVR said as he hopped over to where three fishing poles were set up for them.

Fishing with BRVR was... interesting.

Isaac and Ben both spaced out for around half an hour when BRVR caught what looked like the goldfish for a demon toddler.

After that they happily threw a red ball for BRVR to chase through the meadows, Ben vanishing the grass temporarily whenever he lost it.

"As fun as this is," Isaac said, throwing the ball again, "I'd probably get some actual sleep,"

"Yeah," Ben said, "How do you wanna break it to him?"

BRVR came bounding back through the grass at that point, the ball squished between his mouth.

"Hey buddy," Isaac said, crouching down, "You remember how I said that I was dreaming, and how you've entered my dream with Ben?"

"Pika," BRVR squeaked happily.

"Well... the point of sleep is that I rest, right. Well, it's time for me to go to sleep. Properly,"

BRVR's ears dropped slightly and his eyes went stony.

~You are leaving~

Isaac nodded, "Yeah, buddy, I am. For now, though," Isaac said, scratching BRVR on the cheek, "Me and Ben do this once a week so that I don't get as home sick and to catch up,"

BRVR bristled a little at the touch to his cheek, as if his trust in Isaac was still a little shaky.

~You won't abandon BRVR~

"Never,"

BRVR smiled a little and leant into the touch.

Isaac sat bolt upright in his bed, his hand still shaking slightly from where BRVR had shocked him.

A quick glance around the room showed the dark, barely lit interior told him that it was late at night.

Pale light shone through the window from the moon overhead and everyone in the room was silent.

Isaac gave a quiet chuckle and laid back down.

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Hannibal, Missouri / Illinois.

Devon Hanson sighed and closed his laptop.

He stretched out and sighed, rubbing his tired eyes.

Several hours of looking online for any translation to this old thing he found when clearing out his Great-Grandfather's attic.

It looked like a book, well... it was. But there was a heavy lock keeping it closed and weird inscriptions around the metallic corner plating that made it look like something from a knights and wizards movie.

He had passed the thing to a friend of his, Adam, who had taught himself how to pick locks, and gotten in trouble from his parents for picking open everything in their house and their grandparent's liquor cabinet, but he had no luck getting it open.

His parents had said that he either found the key or binned it.

He had stuffed it up his shirt and carried it under his armpit to get it out of the house.

Now he had spent the remainder of the day and a good start into the night trying to find out what the etchings on the book were.

They didn't pop up in any language he knew, though that was only French and a small bit of German from what he was taught in school, and there didn't seem to be anything that matched online either.

He had thought that he had found a few symbols, but they were just random scratches in rock up some nature reserve somewhere from an animal or something.

He picked up the book, looking intently at the cover, and sighed before throwing it onto his bed.

He needed a drink.

As he left the room he didn't see the hand pushing his laptop screen off the keyboard.

By the time that Devon returned there was someone standing in his room, looking around the place for something.

"Who the hell are you?"

The person turned around just as he picked up his Great-Grandfather's book.

"Sorry bud, need this," now that he could see him better he looked... rather young.

His green jumper seemed to hang off him like a tunic and his dirty-blonde hair hung down in messy spikes.

"How the hell did you get in?"

"Through your laptop," the kid said nonchalantly, "Quicker than the door,"

"Look, kid, I don't know who you are, but if you don't get out I'm calling the cops," Devon said.

"Well that'd be interesting to see you try," the kid said.

Before Devon could say anything else the kid stamped on the ground and the room seemed to melt away.

"What the!" Devon shouted as the floor beneath his feet became liquid and his feet sunk into the ground.

Devon frantically tried to grab onto something to pull himself out but anything he grabbed melted away too and when he tried to push himself off the ground his hands sunk in.

When he tried to pull them free the floor stuck to his hands like he had submerged them in a pot of glue.

He strained his neck as his head inched closer to being submerged and soon he was breathing heavily through his nose.

He took one last deep breath before he felt his floor swallow his head and he felt like he was drowning in honey or tar.

His legs came free and soon the rest of his fell through into a black void, the only light coming from the gap he had created that was slowly closing in on itself.

Devon scrambled to his feet, looking up at the slowly closing light.

Torches of black flame erupted around him as the last beams of light disappeared and Devon found himself in some sort of cavern.

More torches lit up and led the way out to a large temple, plants had grown throughout the place like veins and there was something slinking around the entrance.

Devon gasped and jumped, nearly falling out of his chair.

He scrambled back up and looked at his laptop, the screen dimmed from inactivity as a death screen flashed dully in the background.

Panting heavily he wiped the sweat off of his forehead.

"Jesus... I gotta stop playing horror games when I'm tired... fucking Dark Souls..."

As he closed his laptop down and climbed into bed he didn't notice that the book he had taken from his Grandfather's attic wasn't on his desk.

Or the fact that there, in its place, was what looked like the dirty mark left behind by a sneaker.

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Author notes.

Well, that was fun.

So, bet that came as a surprise, new peeps in the Mansion at any rate.

So, I have little to say here, probably nothing...

Except for 30K+ views!

Seriously, that was awesome, I'm repeating yet again, but thank you all for reading.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you in the next chapter.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte.

If any of these are wrong then please notify me of this so I can fix them.

If you have a favourite Creepypasta that has not made an appearance then message me or leave their name in a review.


	34. Chapter 34, Breaking Points

Chapter 34, Breaking Points.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

And hello once again.

You know how earlier I said that I thought it would be awesome if I managed to finish the story on 52 chapters, and then I'd have uploaded a chapter a week for a whole year since I uploaded the first? Looking at this, and how I'm planning this so far... I'm hopeful.

Might make it... might make it.

Anyway, I have a chapter to write and if I've worked this out correctly then it'll go up after I've sat my last exam so that'll be happy for me.

And we've got reviews, gotta answer them.

Sweet Smilie;

Were still on pizzas?

Ok, I think that is the weirdest pizza story I have ever heard.

I managed to understand the slaps, got there in the end.

Does that mean you hit them with the turkey?

That sounds fun.

Yes, Ron is still being a prat. I don't think he's likely to stop being a prat and I am not envious of him when fourth-year rolls around.

I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do for the Patronus scene right now.

I might keep the patronus the same animal, though maybe more gaunt looking and deathly, or I might change it. I'm panicking slightly about what I'm going to do.

Ok, I googled 'ucayaya' and what the hell is that thing?

I... I have no idea what your second review is about.

Dark Ravie;

Hello, thank you, glad you like it.

Matt (Guest);

You'll see... I think.

I haven't read 'Tails Doll' yet, I'll have a read and decide after.

Oh christ, imagine Excalibur and Laughing Jack singing a duet.

Thunder-Death;

Thank you, glad that you like it.

I was hoping that introducing BRVR would go well, I do have some ideas on what I'll do in the future with him.

YinYangWriter;

Ok, I'm not going to say much on the twins and L.J since I really don't know what I'm doing on that front right now, but I do have some ideas that I really like and I'm not wanting to spoil anything just yet.

Going by what you have said I think I nailed the BRVR introduction.

This story is turning into a who's who of Creepypastas, isn't it?

It's actually been great for me reading this because I've had people suggest stories that I've never heard of before and get to find out new ones that interest me.

Don't rely on onions to protect you forever though, he'll find a way around them eventually.

FoxKat;

Are you new? I don't recognise your name.

Anyway, welcome to the story.

I haven't read Silver's yet, or I have and I've forgotten it so I'll refresh my memory later.

I like Smile Dog as well, it doesn't matter what he does, to me, you can't blame a dog.

Ok, that was the reviews. The last thing on my list is, as usual, is to thank DP for their endless patience to put up with me. Thank you, DP.

You are welcome SG. I am glad to help.

And it's always a delight to have you do so.

I have one last thing to ask you all before finishing.

A while back, I can't remember which one it was, I got a review mentioning a Creepypasta character called 'Itsy Bitsy'.

I found the pictures of him, kinda looks like L.J except with red instead of white, but I can't find his story. I've found nearly every other story to do with spiders, but not his.

Any suggestions on where to look?

Ok then, that's everything, time for the story,

Enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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Montpelier, Vermont.

The man kicked aside the long empty cans as he walked down the corridor to his kitchen, placing another to later be added to the growing piles on the small table in the hall.

After moving around the cluttered, and filthy, bunkers to get to the fridge he tugged the door open and grimaced at the smell that met him.

A rotten pack of ham was squashed into the corner and he picked up the edges of the box, bringing it out so he could throw it away.

After gagging slightly at being closer to the source of the stench he tossed it in the bin and turned back to the barely filled fridge.

He shut the door with a slight growl; if he had known there was nothing to eat in the place he wouldn't have had the beer.

But he had, and now he had to walk the trip to the store and carry everything back by hand.

He pulled on his jacket and picked up his keys from the bowl before looking around to find where his shoes had gone.

One of them was on the stairs, around halfway up.

He put his keys on the small, empty, table and climbed up the steps to grab his shoe.

Once he had grabbed that one he looked around for the other.

It was sitting innocently at the top of the stairs.

He sighed, wondering when he had left it there, and went to pick it up.

He reached the top of the stairs and sat down to pull his shoes on.

He was halfway through tying the laces to the other shoe when something rolled and hit his side.

He turned and found the can that he had put on the table had rolled into his side.

"Hello?" he called, wondering who was there.

He stood up and walked down the darkened hall to the bedroom.

He opened the door but found no one.

He sighed and rolled his eyes, he must have been more tired than he realised.

When he made to walk back down the stairs the door to the attic creaked open.

He had just turned around when something swung down and hit him in the chest.

The air was pushed from his lungs as he was sent backwards, arms windmilling, as he landed on the floor.

"Relax," whoever knocked him over said, "You weren't hit hard enough to bruise,"

He had just forced himself into a sitting position when the person dropped down to the floor.

A blue mask obscured the teenager's face and he wore a dark-blue hoodie that seemed like it had dried blood around the cuffs.

"Now, you want to do this the easy way? Or the fun way?" he took out a thin metal box from his hoodie pocket.

"Either way, I'm getting what I came for," he flipped open the metal case and in the side that had flopped open, that he could see, were a few scalpels with dried blood around the edges.

The man scrambled to his feet and was just about to go down the stairs when something connected with the base of his spine and he was sent tumbling down.

Eyeless Jack listened as the man's head connected with something before a satisfying crack was heard.

The man didn't move from his position on the stairs.

"Not the easy way… or the fun way…" Jack mused, "The… death-wish way?"

He shrugged and slid down the stairs after him, stumbling a little at the landing.

"Right then," he said, dusting himself off and twirling the scalpel around, "You…" Jack broke off as he noticed the man's wallet on the table in the living room.

"Oh, look at that," Jack said, holding the man's wallet up, "You're an organ donor, thank you, for enabling me to keep eating,"

He slid the cash that the man had into his pocket before taking out a food bag and lifting the man's shirt and getting to work.

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Isaac didn't get a chance to talk to Ron the next day.

He stormed out of the dorm and common room before Isaac had a chance to talk to him and Hermione didn't seem to fare any better when she tried to talk to him at breakfast.

He had glared at her and said something that sent her out the hall, nearly in tears.

Isaac managed to track her down in the library, being sent away in tears by Ron hadn't ended well the last time, and when he found her she had her head bent over a heavy looking tome and was mouthing words as she read.

"Hey, 'Mione," Isaac said, sitting across from her.

Hermione made a soft hum to show she had heard him, but didn't say or do anything other than that.

Isaac looked around the library, drumming his fingers against his wrist, for a moment before speaking again.

"He'll calm down," Hermione's head stopped moving for a fraction of a second before continuing to follow along with the page she was on, "He's just upset that he's lost Scabbers for good, he'll come to terms and be back to the..."

"And if I don't want _him_ back?" Hermione said, her voice choked, "Each time something he doesn't like happens, he gets so... so _foul_ to be around and... he clearly doesn't care about...," she let out a sigh, "It's like first-year all over again..." she added quietly.

Isaac's face grew dour as she spoke.

"But he lost Scabbers, and if it was Crookshanks that... ate him... then..."

"Then he can blame me," Isaac said between Hermione's pause, "I was the last to go into the dorm, Crookshanks could have snuck past me. I wasn't exactly paying attention,"

Hermione finally looked up.

"Isaac, no... you don't have to..."

"If he's looking to play the blame-game, then he can pin it on me," Isaac said sternly.

"Who's blaming who for what?"

Blaise walked over and sat down at the table, Draco not too far behind.

"Ron's pet rat, Scabbers, has snuffed it," Isaac said, "Or, at least, that's what it looks like,"

"And why would he blame you?" Draco asked, pulling out a nearly completed Potions essay.

"As I was last up into the dorm, I was probably the one who let the cat that got to Scabbers in," Isaac told them, leaving out that the cat belonged to Hermione.

"Did he keep the rat in a cage?" Blaise asked.

Hermione and Isaac shared a quick glance before shaking their heads.

"Then he has no one to blame but himself," Draco said, "The second most popular option for a pet in the school is a cat, even you have one, don't you, Granger?"

Hermione nodded, a small blush at bringing up the cat that had apparently started all this.

"If he was letting the thing run around, unguarded, then something was bound to happen," Draco thought for a moment, "Was... Scabber? The grey thing he had sleeping on his lap on the train in first-year?"

"You know, train-ride where you..."

Blaise quailed a little and was silenced by a glare from Draco.

"Yes," Isaac said, "Scabbers was the grey thing sleeping on him when I sent Draco running with his tail between his legs," Draco glared at Isaac, Blaise snorted in laughter.

"Anyway," Draco said impatiently, "The point is, that that rat looked like it was at death's door anyway, how old was it?"

"I think he said he got it from Percy, total... twelve years, I think," Isaac said.

"A rat that old!" Blaise said in surprise, "I'm surprised that a cat didn't go after it sooner, easy prey,"

Baise winced at the shushing he received from Madam Pince.

Hermione seemed to have had her spirits raised after that, she and Draco started discussing the Potions Essay that he had been working on as Isaac and Blaise started going over some of their Ancient Runes homework.

As he was going through the book he found a makeshift bookmark made from a torn scrap of parchment.

He looked at the page in question and found the rune that was designed to block out Apparition. He remembered the day that he found it and started wondering about if he could alter it to prevent Teer or L.J from getting in.

He excused himself for a moment and went to go find a reference book.

Though while he was flicking through the pages to try and find the page he bumped into someone backing down the aisle.

"Sorry," they both said at the same time.

"Oh," the person who had bumped into him said as he saw who it was.

It took Isaac a moment to recognise who he was faced with.

Cedric Diggory, the Hufflepuff captain, and Seeker.

"Sorry," Isaac said again, going to move past him, but Cedric caught his arm while he passed.

"Listen, about the game," Cedric said, "I'm sorry for not noticing. I tried to call for a rematch, but..."

"I know," Isaac said, he had been told this in the Hospital wing, "And I agree that you won fair and square,"

Isaac reached into his pocket and held out a wrapped piece of candy to the older Seeker.

"I'd have rather the match ended than try and deal with Dementors chasing after me the rest of the game,"

Cedric nodded, still a little red in the face, and accepted the sweet.

"Sorry for bumping into you," he said.

"Relax, you're cute enough to get away with it," Isaac said, feeling a little satisfaction from the way Cedric spluttered before laughing.

He found his way back to the table and started looking into how modifying runes worked.

He kept at it for a good portion of the time left before class and loaned the book out so he wouldn't have to worry about someone else taking it while he was away.

Later that evening, Isaac had Quidditch practice and he was able to convince Hermione to take a break from the endless studying she was doing.

She had snapped at him, saying that she had work to do.

"And up here, in this stuffy room, where there's more noise, isn't going to be worse than in the stands, with plenty of fresh air, and only seven people?"

Isaac had managed to get her to only bring one book she was studying from and they headed down with the Weasley twins to meet the others on the pitch.

Madam Hooch had been a big fan of the new Firebolt on the team, comparing it to a broom that was no longer in production for a few minutes before Oliver reminded her that they needed to start practicing and she went to sit with Hermione.

Isaac felt that he had gotten a good grasp on the Firebolt and would be ready for the looming Gryffindor /Ravenclaw match that was nearly upon them.

Isaac had tried to get Hermione to have a go on the Firebolt, but she refused.

If it wasn't by plane, she would keep her feet firmly on the ground.

As they made their way back Isaac stopped for a moment and found that a pair of eyes were watching him in the darkness.

Since he and Hermione had been at the back of the group only she noticed that he had stopped and turned when he lit his wand.

Hermione could have sworn that there was relief in her friend's face when he found that the eyes belonged to Crookshanks.

"Are you ok?" she asked once they reached the Great Hall, Crookshanks had gone chasing after a shrew or something.

"Yeah," Isaac said, "Just a little paranoid,"

"About what?"

"Honestly, ever since Ron kept badgering on about how the Grim is an omen of death, I keep seeing glances of a dog," Isaac said, "Evidently someone didn't listen to the part of the rules where it said 'Cat, Owl, or Toad'," Isaac said.

Hermione snorted and shook her head.

She apparently didn't put much by the ramblings of the Divination teacher, thinking her a fraud.

The next morning the team thought that the Firebolt deserved an honour guard as they made their way to the Great Hall, not letting anyone from the other houses come near without being kept under watch.

Cedric came over to congratulate him on getting a brilliant replacement and when Percy and his girlfriend, the Ravenclaw prefect Penelope Clearwater, came over he whispered to Isaac that they had a bet on and he _really_ needed him to win as he wouldn't be able to pay her off if he lost.

"You know what, just for you, Perce, I'll win," Isaac said and sent Percy off with a quick laugh.

Isaac felt the tension around the team grow and looked up to find Blaise approaching.

"Draco says good luck," he said, "Pansy says... well, you can imagine,"

Isaac snorted in laughter and tossed him a bit of toast, "Tell Draco thanks, and tell Pansy to take a hike,"

Blaise nodded and caught the toast.

"Draco would have come over himself, but he thinks that a few here would get the idea that he would try and sabotage you," he said between bites.

"And why wouldn't we?" Oliver said, getting defensive over his Seeker.

"Didn't say that you shouldn't," Blaise said calmly, "Draco and Isaac have a little bit of a reputation for a rivalry, they'll both admit it,"

Isaac mused that for a moment before nodding, "Yeah,"

"And Draco says that if he ever beats Isaac, he wants it to be a fair game," Blaise added, "No point in winning if you know you had to cheat, hollows the feeling,"

"You actually managed to make friends with them?" Fred asked, he was sat next to Isaac and George on the other side, as they watched Blaise return to the Slytherin table.

"Yeah, surprised me as well," Isaac said as he nabbed some poached eggs before Fred could get them.

Soon it was time for the game to begin and the Gryffindor team ushered Isaac out before everyone else so that there would be no chances for sabotage.

As they changed Isaac slid his wand into his shirt pocket under the Quidditch robes.

Fred had re-assured him that Dumbledore would go ballistic if the Dementors tried something but he was going to have the Patronus Charm ready.

The teams stepped out amidst the roars of anticipation echoing down from the rest of the school, a number of the Slytherin students had trouble deciding who to cheer for.

Isaac found the Ravenclaw Seeker, Cho Chang, and nodded to her; he received one in reply and the two of them wished each other luck silently.

Madam Hooch gave the call for them to mount brooms and soon Isaac was soaring through the air.

Isaac kept an eye out for two things as he was flying.

One was the snitch, obviously, he was not going to disappoint anyone this game and put on another spurt of speed to circle around the pitch.

The other thing he was keeping an eye out for was the Grim.

If he saw it this game and something happened then he would start taking things he heard about it more seriously and see just how well he could handle it.

"ARE YOU BEING PAID TO ADVERTISE FIREBOLTS?" Professor McGonagall's latest reprimand against Lee Jordan broke through Isaac's concentration and he laughed as he finished yet another lap of the pitch.

Just as Ravenclaw started to catch up in terms of points Isaac spotted the tell-tale flash of gold that came from the snitches wings and he spun around in the air, flying upside down for a moment before righting himself, and sped towards it.

Cho appeared out of nowhere and Isaac nearly rammed into her, he ducked down and spun to avoid knocking her off her broom. Something that Oliver seemed to not be too concerned about as he shouted at Isaac.

Having lost sight of the snitch, what Cho wanted, Isaac returned to circling the pitch but now Cho was marking him to try and block him again.

Isaac slowed down momentarily, letting her get close, before he stopped and quickly dove to the ground before rocketing upwards.

Cho spun around, confused for a moment, before realizing that Isaac had lost her and she sped after the Scarlet robed blur shooting off towards the other end of the pitch.

Isaac's original plan had been to dive down and lose her at the goal posts, but he had spotted a second flash of gold and shot upwards to chase after it.

He edged further forward on the broom as he got closer, ready to take his hand off the broom to catch it once he was close enough.

He could hear the tell-tale whistling of a second broom following him and he knew that Cho was chasing him again.

Suddenly, Cho screamed.

Isaac looked to where the snitch was leading him and saw that three, long, robed Dementors were staring up at him.

He glared at them before plunging his hand into his robes, grabbing his wand and aiming it at them.

In the quick moment he had to think of a memory, the time he and Ben had been on his old broom, flying around the Mansion during the last summer, and bellowed, " _EXPECTO PATRONUM_!"

Something large and white shot out his wand and he didn't get a chance to see if it connected as the snitch was hovering between him and the wall of the pitch.

He quickly grabbed the fluttering ball and turned sharply, his shoulder banging off of the wall, as he sped upwards to avoid a head-on collision.

Madam Hooch's whistle pierced the air and the game came to a close with a groan from half the stadium and roaring cheers from the other.

Isaac circled back to where everyone else from the team was.

Soon he found himself in a tight hug from Fred that made him think that he was in a headlock so tight he felt that he might take his head off. He preferred that when he started blushing as Alicia, Katie, and Angelina kissed him on the cheek.

Somehow the group managed to get to the ground without crashing and were soon surrounded by a gaggle of Gryffindor supporters.

Isaac thought he might go deaf over the congratulatory shouts, but a quiet voice nearby got his attention.

"That was some Patronus,"

Isaac turned and found Professor Lupin standing next to him

"Didn't feel a thing," Isaac said, proudly excited, "The Dementors didn't affect me,"

"That would be because they – er – weren't Dementors,"

Isaac looked at his Professor in confusion as he beckoned him to follow.

There, on the ground, was Marcus Flint, Pansy Parkinson, Crabbe, and Goyle.

The four of them were struggling to get out of the long black robes they had, Pansy had been on top of Goyle's shoulders.

And standing over them, with a look of fury that made Isaac thankful he wasn't on the receiving end of, was Professor McGonagall.

"An unworthy trick!" she was shouting, "A low and cowardly attempt to sabotage the Gryffindor Seeker! Detention for you all, and fifty points from Slytherin! I shall be speaking to Professor Dumbledore about this, make no mistake! Ah, here he comes now,"

If there was anything to top the victory for Gryffindor that would be it.

It was at that point that George dragged Isaac away, announcing a party in the Gryffindor common room to celebrate.

The twins disappeared for a couple of hours and returned with armfuls of Butterbeer and other types of soda that the wizarding world had along with a good several bags full of sweets from Honeydukes.

Fred nudged Isaac in the side when he thanked the Marauders for their help in getting the food and passed him a chocolate frog.

As Isaac tore the head off the frog with a smiling bite he couldn't help but feel like he was missing something.

He found Hermione tucked in the corner and put a sugar-free bottle of Pumpkin Fizz next to her as she read from a massive book about muggle social habits. Lately, Hermione had been proving tricky to find.

She wasn't at the library as often and she wasn't in the common room whenever he went to try and find her. He assumed that she was in an empty classroom somewhere to get away from the noise, and probably Ron.

Isaac might have managed to crack a smile from her, if it hadn't been for a timely comment from Ron about how Scabbers would have loved the Fudge Flies that were there.

Isaac watched as Hermione stuffed the book under her arm and ran up the stairs, in tears, to the girl's dorm.

"Can't you leave her alone?" Isaac snapped as he glared at Ron.

"No," said Ron flatly, "If she just acted like she was sorry – but she'll never admit she's wrong..."

"She has, you've..." Isaac started but was ignored, many were now looking at the two in interest to see what would happen.

"She's still acting like Scabbers has gone on holiday or something, if she'd..."

"She is sorry that Scabbers is dead, and you've..."

Isaac sighed as Ron went on until he had had enough.

"... she should do herself a favour and..."

"How about you do us a favour and pull your head out of your ass!" Isaac said sharply.

Any conversations in the room that had still been going stopped and everyone was watching the pair.

"Watch what you're saying!" Ron thundered.

Isaac scoffed, "Or what? We both know what happened the last time, and you seem to think that for some reason you're justified in all this,"

If any attention to the pair had been directed away from the furious looks on the two boy's faces they would have seen a brief flare of green light from within Isaac's clenched fist.

"And what gives you any say in this?" Ron sneered.

"You're harassing my friend," Isaac said, "You're blaming a cat for doing something that is inherent in its nature, and seem to think that nothing would happen to a _rat_ that's over twelve years old and lives, unguarded, in a castle filled with cats.

If you didn't want something to happen to him, then you should have looked after him better,"

Isaac saw it coming. As did, he guessed, a few of the other Gryffindors.

They watched as Isaac kept a lazy, almost bored, look on his face as Ron swung at him; his fist was barely an inch from his face.

The next thing people knew Ron had been spun and was now lying face down on the floor, an arm bent behind his back held by Isaac, who still looked bored, while a foot was placed on his spine and keeping him in place.

"That's two for two, Ron, don't try for a third,"

He let go of Ron's arm as Percy came over.

He knew Percy couldn't fault him for defending himself so he turned and walked up the stairs.

"You alright?" Fred asked, stopping him at the mouth of the stairs.

"I'm fine, dealing with prats is tiring," Isaac said, casting a quick glance back to where Percy was taking Ron to talk in private, before resuming his walk up the stairs.

If he had looked a moment longer he would have noticed that Ron started rubbing his wrist. The same one that Isaac had grabbed and held the first time he knocked him down.

He sat in bed for a good portion of the time looking through his runes books for ways to modify the rune to prevent Apparition.

What he did find, however, was a rune that he thought might solve the problem for the twins were having with the 'Ton-Tongue Toffee' they were trying to make.

There was a trap rune that caused expansion of a stone cylinder, the idea being that once a seal was broken the floor would rise up to trap the persons or crush them.

If he it was possible to modify it slightly, then it could cause the expansion of the tongue instead.

There were size limiters, something that the twins were having trouble with before, so he marked the page and wrote a note to remind himself to talk to the twins about it the next day.

His mind drifted to something else connected to the Twins, the map.

Isaac paused for a moment.

'Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs... Moony and Padfoot... where have I heard them before?'

He shook his head, it was probably just something similar that he had seen and his brain was trying to make the connection.

He sighed and rolled his eyes as he switched on the Gameboy.

If there ever was a time for him to talk to Ben and rant about the idiots in his school then it was now.

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"You're right," Ben said, throwing the sponge ball for BRVR to chase through the fields, "He is a prat,"

"One that I'm going to be stuck with for half of the next four years," Isaac said, bordering on sulking.

"You know," Ben said slyly, "I reckon that the Gameboy has enough reach to get him, want me to scare the ginger prat into making a bit of a mess?"

Isaac snorted in laughter, "Maybe another time," he said, dropping down to rub BRVR's head as he returned with the ball, "He's had enough done to him for tonight,"

"What did you do?" Ben asked, the last time that Isaac had taken action against someone annoying him the man had barely escaped with his sanity.

Then The Puppeteer had sealed the man inside his own head so he didn't even have that anymore.

"Called him out on his bullshit and then dropped his ass when he tried to punch me in front of everyone,"

Isaac didn't see the venomous look that flashed across Ben's face as he was busy throwing the ball for BRVR.

Whether Isaac said so or not, the prat would be getting a good scare tonight.

"Well... if you do try anything, can you wait until I've gotten a drink and fallen asleep again. Kinda forgot to get something before heading to bed," Isaac admitted.

"Sure..." Ben said, thinking of what to do.

He couldn't make it too scary, he didn't want to terrify the kid awake before he could have his fun... and he, Ben thought that this was rather unfair, couldn't snap the kid's mind so he went comatose for punching Isaac.

He decided that he'd start with something small and fun.

Something to amuse him, but confuse the hell out of the ginger prat.

He watched as Isaac collected the ball from BRVR one last time for that day before saying that he had to wake to do something and BRVR gladly helped Isaac wake up.

Ben had the feeling that if the two of them had been in the real world when BRVR shocked Isaac again then he would have been winded from the force in which they were expelled from the dream.

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Isaac looked around the dormitory, a little after two in the morning, before he put on his glasses and quietly snuck out of bed to get a drink.

He was on his way back when the door to the dorm creaked open.

Isaac rolled his eyes, thinking it was Professor McGonagall performing a late-night check for any of the ongoing party.

He froze partly when a man in tattered robes, holding a knife used in potions, shuffled across the room.

Isaac slowed his breathing as he watched Sirius Black walk across the room.

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The urge to end the chapter there was nearly overwhelming... Nearly. - S.G

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For a moment he debated letting Sirius continue on his path to Ron's bed. But even though his ex-friend was a major prat, he mentally saluted, he didn't deserve to die.

"Good morning," Isaac said softly.

Sirius Black nearly dropped the knife in surprise.

"Harry?"

"Shh," Isaac raised a single finger to his lips, "A murderer in Hogwarts ought to be more careful to not be caught,"

Sirius hadn't said anything, he merely glanced towards Ron's bed.

"Take another step towards his bed and you'll regret it," Isaac warned.

"You look so much like your father," Sirius said softly, "Harry, you are..."

"My name isn't Harry, not anymore," Isaac cut across him, "Now... you're going to walk back down those stairs, I'm going to follow, and then we're going to settle this,"

"I've waited twelve years for this," Sirius growled, "You will not..."

"All I have to do is scream and you've got the entirety of Hogwarts against you," Isaac said, much too calmly for the situation, "So do the smart thing,"

Isaac nodded to the door again.

Sirius cast a furious glance at Ron's bed before walking out.

Isaac waited a few seconds before hurrying silently to his trunk and grabbing one of the throwing knives Jeff had given him.

When he descended down the steps to the common room he wasn't surprised to find it deserted.

"You actually came down,"

Maybe not so deserted.

Sirius walked out from behind one of the chairs by the fireplace, now filled with dying embers, and looked at Isaac; the knife glinting the reflection of the small number of embers so the blade looked like it was already blood specked.

"You actually stayed," Isaac said back, "Half thought that you would have run at this point,"

Sirius shook his head.

"No, I've waited twelve years for this moment, you will not stop me from finishing this,"

"Aah, yes," Isaac said, slightly sneering at the man, "Twelve years since you outed my parents to Voldemort..."

Sirius, to his credit, barely flinched.

"... and here you are, back to finish what he started,"

Isaac was surprised that Sirius would opt for the emotional bluff.

"I don't deny that their deaths are on my hands," Sirius said softly, looking down, "But if you knew the whole story..."

"I know enough," Isaac cut him off, his fingers rubbing against the knife hidden up his sleeve, "So, what was the original plan? Get Voldemort to kill me and my parents, rise in the ranks because you got him there, and then spend the rest of your life as his personal bitch?"

Sirius did a double take, Isaac took pleasure in seeing the man's face twist in disgust.

"I... You... This is _his_ , that rat's, fault," Sirius seethed.

"Who's? You're leather daddy's?"

Isaac had to bite his tongue to stop himself laughing when Sirius shuddered in disgust.

" _Pettigrew_!" Black hissed, "If that little rat hadn't... if I hadn't..."

Isaac raised an eyebrow as Sirius dropped the knife, kicking it away.

Sirius walked around and sat in the chair facing the fireplace.

"Twelve years ago, your parents got wind, from Dumbledore, that V-Voldemort would be going after them next," the embers in the fire reflected in the man's slightly glassy eyes.

"They... they went into hiding, used a charm, the Fidelius. The house they were hiding could have had old snake-face press his face right up against the window and he wouldn't have been able to find them.

The way that the Fidelius works is that the secret, the location, is entrusted to a single person. The only way to get there is if the person tells you the location.

James wanted me to be the Secret Keeper, and I would have gladly given my life to keep them safe..."

"This sounds like a load of bull," Isaac said, he wanted to gauge the man's reaction. For some reason... he could tell that he wasn't lying, "You..."

"Let me finish!" Sirius said, quickly but hardly a trace of anger, "Please?"

Isaac nodded, keeping his wand level at Black's head.

"They wanted me to be the Secret Keeper, but I... I convinced them to change it.

I convinced them to change, to Pettigrew," Sirius spat the name, "That rat, sold your parents to V-Voldemort. If I hadn't... It doesn't matter, tonight! I will kill that traitor!"

"Ok, then your delusional," Isaac said, holding his hands up, "Pettigrew is dead, I believe the words were... you obliterated him,"

"I didn't obliviate the fu... no, wait, did you say obli-VI-ate, or obli-TER-ate?"

"Obliterate," Isaac said, "To totally destroy,"

"I failed to kill that rat twelve years ago," Sirius said, his hollow voice gaining some semblance of emotion, "He shouted for the whole street to hear that I was the one that betrayed your parents. He blew up the street, taking those muggles with him.

Twelve years... twelve years I thought that I had killed him, but then I saw his form in the paper and..."

"Form?" Isaac interjected from the other chair, he had gotten tired of standing.

Sirius fished around inside his robes and took out, Isaac prepared to throw the knife between the man's eyes, a picture.

Isaac reached with his free hand to take the picture.

It was the same one that Ron had sent him on his birthday, the Weasley family in Egypt.

"Erm... I don't think anyone there is..." he broke off.

Was Mr Weasley leading a double life?

"The youngest boy," Sirius said.

Isaac frowned in confusion.

'And the grand total of marbles left in the bag is... none, what a surprise,' he thought.

"That's my... classmate, Ron, I don't think he..."

"Not him, his rat," Sirius said, sounding slightly exasperated.

Isaac looked at the picture of a live, and healthier, Scabbers sitting on Ron's shoulder.

'… _Pettigrew. That rat... failed to kill that rat twelve years ago... saw his form..._ '

"Pettigrew is an animagus," Isaac said, "He can turn... he can turn into a rat, he's... I've had a thirty-year-old man sleeping beside me for the past two years,"

Sirius' eyes shone at how quickly Isaac came to the conclusion.

"Well... you have a problem," Isaac said, "Scabb... Pettigrew is dead,"

Sirius looked at Isaac in disbelief.

"Not too long ago, I may have accidentally let a cat into the dorm room... while Scabbers was sleeping," Isaac told him.

"Did you see a body?" Sirius asked, "Blood on the cat's mouth, or how... oh hi,"

Sirius broke off as Crookshanks padded down the stairs and climbed up into his lap.

"And there's the cat that saved you the trouble of killing him," Isaac said.

To his surprise Sirius scoffed; as he started stroking Crookshanks behind the ears.

It sounded raspy, sore, from the years of malnutrition in the prison.

"Crookshanks hasn't eaten the rat," he said, "He's the one who told me that he had faked his death again. Probably bit himself and bled a bit to try and trick you,"

"So he's... he's still alive," Isaac said before groaning, "Ron's going to be insufferable,"

"Your friend will understand," Sirius said, attempting to be sympathetic.

"He ain't my friend," Isaac said and Sirius jumped slightly and looked around for where the apparent American wizard was, "It's me, my accent slips sometimes. So... there's a man, disguised as a rat, running around somewhere and if we get him..."

"I kill the traitor!" Sirius spat.

"Or, we could prove your innocence... yeah, killing sounds more fun, plan A it is," Isaac said, "But, no, listen to me, but... we kill him, _after_ we've proven that he's alive.

You get your revenge, retribution, and get to be a free man,"

Sirius looked less than pleased at this, but nodded nonetheless.

"Alright, wait a moment," Isaac said.

He quickly, and quietly, made his way up the stairs and found a plastic bag that he used for when a pair of his sneakers got too muddy to keep in his trunk.

He made his way back down the stairs to where Sirius was still huddled in the chair next to the fireplace.

"You know a cleaning spell?"

" _Scourgify_ ," Sirius supplied.

Isaac nodded and performed it on the inside of the bag and started filling it with some of the more filling foods left over from the party.

"It's not much, but it's probably better than what you've been eating," Isaac said as he handed him the bag.

"Thank you," Sirius said hoarsely, he had found himself an unfinished bottle of juice while he waited and drank it like a man dying of thirst.

"You'd better go before someone finds you, chances are they're not going to be as open to listening to you like I was,"

Sirius nodded.

"Thank you, Harry," he said as he descended through the portrait hole.

"Isaac," he corrected, but Sirius was already gone.

A meowing as something brushed against his leg got Isaac's attention.

"D'you mind not fraternising with people that might be trying to kill me?" Isaac said, bending down and picking up Crookshanks.

Crookshanks purred as Isaac scratched behind his ears.

Isaac bent down and let him run up the stairs, back towards Hermione in the girl's dormitory, as he climbed back to the boy's dorm.

He had barely gotten settled beneath the sheets and closed his eyes when a yelping and frantic whimpering from a bed next to him broke through the silence.

"Spiders..." Ron wheezed, "Wanting me to tapdance..."

Isaac had to bite down on his tongue to prevent himself from laughing.

He fell asleep with a silent word of praise to Ben.

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Andrew sat on the couch; legs fidgeting and nursing a sore hand, his now red fingertips aching from the anxiety induced biting.

A couple of days ago he had seen… he didn't know what to classify it as.

A normal looking teen had gone from brown-mousy haired and kind-faced, to psychotic and murderous. His face had split as if someone had dragged a large knife across his cheeks.

After that, the kid had slaughtered a bunch of people and he had run before the kid caught sight of him.

Now he was holed up in a motel he had found after driving through the night.

He was sure that he hadn't been seen, and the number of random roads he had taken should make sure of that.

He nearly jumped out of his skin and reached for the handgun on the table that he had bought the town back, but the call from whoever was outside had him stop.

"Room service," someone called from outside.

Andrew still grabbed the gun and stuffed it in his pocket before moving to check who was there.

When he moved the curtain across the window he calmed down a little.

The person outside wasn't the teen he had seen dice up the people a few days ago.

This one was taller. He was blowing out his cheeks in a way that wouldn't have been possible if, like the other kid, he was wearing something to cover up the gaping wounds.

"I didn't call room service," Andrew said.

"I know, just had to make sure I had the right room,"

Before Andrew could say anything else the door was kicked in with a single kick and the teen wrestled the gun away from him.

It went skidding across the floor and as Andrew went after it something was stuck into his leg.

Before he could scream out a hand was clamped across his mouth and his scream was muffled by the teen's hand.

"Nope," the teen said, digging another knife into the man's ribs, "No noise, makes the fun parts tedious,"

Andrew choked as blood started flooding his lungs and soon coughed up a large amount.

He rolled on his side and looked up at the teen.

His face had changed and it looked like he had been cut apart and sewn back together, thick slices had cleaved his head apart before being re-attached, and there was a malevolent smirk on his face.

"The joys of being the bigger brother," he said, "Always cleaning up after your bro,"

That was the last thing that Andrew heard.

Aside from the boot that snapped his neck slamming into him.

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Author notes.

And we're done.

I'm actually sending this to DP before I've gotten chapter 33 back, I am so on top of this story right now it's hilarious...

But I still need to name this chapter, right now it's just got the working title of 'waffle' as a placeholder.

Anyway, let's take the story and give it a big kick in the ribs.

Isaac and Sirius had a quick chat, things have been found out, and I actually have no idea where I'm taking this next.

Anyway, I'm hoping that you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you in the next one.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

If any of these are wrong then please notify me of this so I can fix them.

If you have a favourite Creepypasta that has not made an appearance then message me or leave their name in a review.


	35. Chapter 35, Confession and Chase

Chapter 35, Confession and Chase.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental, unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

And we're back, I've still got a chapter between uploads so I am more on top of this story right now than anything else in my life, woohoo!

I actually have very little to say this time around, nothing actually.

Right then, reviews, always fun.

Dark Ravie;

Thanks, glad you like it.

Sweet Smilie;

No, it is not wrong as he is turning into a major prat.

'salutes Major Prat'

Yeah, twelve years in Azkaban would be pretty bad.

Ok, I think I... and now I'm laughing with the idea of L.J dressing a chicken like Toby and letting it run around the Mansion. Even talking to the chicken as if it was Toby.

A thestral for a Patronus might work for Isaac... but I think I have a better idea...

Lunarwolf11021;

Yeah, I actually had no idea what was going on while I was writing that scene, I think it's safe to say that I effectively winged it at that point.

Dante Pandemonium;

Aah, the reader who went through an identity crisis, changed their username, and made me think that I missed a bunch of reviews.

Welcome back, was getting kinda lonely and you're one of the old-timers of this story.

You're making me blush, thank you. ;D

I can easily fix the line breaks, no problem.

Though I am tempted to make them a little longer since it was the notification from your review that woke me up this morning. I'm writing this response barely eight minutes after.

'added onto before upload'

AGAIN! You changed your name again, I... I'm going paranoid, you keep making me think I've missed a review.

YinYangWriter;

Hehehehehehehehe, bring it.

No, Ron is an irredeemable prat in this story, such joy for me to write. I'll keep that threat in mind. Yeah, I think the friendship is completely dead there.

Ben would like to say that you're welcome, and that he has more planned in due time.

I honestly winged that scene with Sirius, I'm still going through the 'see what happens next' part of the story as I didn't really plan for that to happen. Don't let them hear you saying that, the ego on L.J is big enough as it is.

Hermione finding out the truth, well... maybe a lot more freaking out than I had her go through in the 'Werewolf' chapter on EXTRAS.

If it gets written, you'll probably have an audience somewhere.

I saw that, had to pause to stop laughing so I could hear it.

Jeff took the cake, says you've got a day to run, and he might make your death quick.

LMspy;

Another newcomer? Awesome! Welcome.

Glad that you like the story...

Which chapter did I post that went there? Hold on, I need to try and find it...

Oh, right, the prank war and ice cream.

Well to be completely honest when I was writing that chapter a guy I go to college with asked for a lift and that was where we met, saved me having to find one somewhere else in the world.

Ok, DP, how are you?

I'm good. How about you SG? Also, how are the lovely readers doing?

I'm good, I've finished all my exams for College, and now I'm able to put some more time into writing.

Ok, that's everything, enjoy this weeks chapter,

SteamGeek01.

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Tasiilaq, Greenland.

"Remind me how we got this job again?" The Puppeteer asked.

"Something about, 'you can't feel the cold', and 'he can get you two up and down faster' or something like that," Toby said, checking that the thick coat he was wearing was done up properly.

"Well whatever the reasons were," Jane seethed, "I don't see why _I_ was needed for this,"

"That was because you got too cocky about not having to do this," Teer said.

Before Jane could turn around and shout at Teer, he had placed a hand on her back and pushed her into the open crevasse that lay before them. Her shouts of fury eventually getting drowned out by the blowing wind.

Toby saluted him and then swan-dived over the precipice.

Teer sighed and quickly wrapped string around him to catch him before he hit the bottom.

Teer waited a few moments before kicking the snow that had built up on the beach chair he had brought and hitting the small radio set that Ben had given them.

He turned up the collar of his coat and shoved the headset on.

"How's it going down there?"

#I WILL KILL YOU!#

Teer fiddled with the knobs on the radio.

"Toby? This your channel?"

#You are listening to...#

"Oh for..."

Teer growled as he turned the knobs again.

#... FLAY YOU WITH...#

Teer hit the top of the radio.

#... hanging from a really weird bungee cord,#

"Toby?"

#Yeah? Oh, right,# Toby's voice crackled through the speakers, #We've nearly reached it. Jane sounds pretty angry… Hey, it kinda looks like...#

Teer pressed the headset closer to try and hear him through the wind before he nearly threw it away.

#BITING! OH, THEY'RE BITEY ALRIGHT,#

Teer sighed and started rubbing his forehead.

This was going to take a while.

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Hogwarts.

Severus Snape was marking papers in his office. An old, wind-up, record player was spinning in the back of his office, filling it with low melodies while he worked.

A knocking on the door had him look up and glare at the closed piece of wood.

He flicked his wand at the record player and it froze as he made his way around the desk.

He opened the door, looking down at the person standing there.

"Hi, can I ask you for your advice?" Isaac asked.

Isaac swayed back a little as the door was closed in his face.

He sighed and knocked again.

"I've recently come into a problem where I need..."

The door shut again.

Isaac glanced up and down the corridor.

"I'll talk Fred and George out of their next prank in your classroom, and tell you where the next one they're planning will take place, and how to not get caught by it?" he said to the closed door.

It swung slowly open.

Professor Snape was back behind his desk, the quill he had been using moments ago back in his hand as he graded the papers.

"This had better be worth my time, Rogers," he said silkily.

"Ok, so... I recently found out that someone who I had thought did a terrible thing was, in fact, innocent of that terrible thing, and the person who was, in fact, the actual person who did the terrible thing was going unpunished and has, in fact, been hiding next to me for nearly the past three years," Isaac fired off quickly, "I recently was contacted by the person who I had thought had done the terrible thing and found out the truth, and right now I really need a blunt as well as an answer for what the hell to do,"

Professor Snape looked down at Isaac.

"Find the person who 'did the terrible thing'," he said, slightly mockingly, "And then see to it that justice is served. Although this is sounding like you interrupted my morning... to ask me for what to do about your friends," he said, sounding rather annoyed.

"Well, he's not really a friend, he's someone who was a friend of my parents and..."

"You either tell me all the facts, or I put you in detention twice a week until the end of the year,"

"If I say it all in one go, will you not interrupt me until I'm finished?"

Snape growled.

"Sirius Black is innocent, Peter Pettigrew betrayed my parents, Pettigrew has been hiding as Ron's rat Scabbers for the past twelve years, and now Scabbers, er... Pettigrew has faked his death again and Sirius really needs a bath,"

Professor Snape's face went blank.

"You mean to tell me, that you willingly conversed with an escaped mass-murderer?" his voice held no emotion, but that somehow only made him sound more dangerous, "And you didn't think to tell a single person about this?"

"Oh, excuse me, it was two in the morning, last night," Isaac said, "What was I supposed to do? It's not like a student knows where the personal quarters of the teachers are,"

Snape's lip curled.

He wouldn't admit it, but the boy had a point.

"You will wait here while I summon the Headmaster," he said, moving to the fireplace.

"Professor, no, wait,"

"For what?" Snape snapped at Isaac, "You should have gotten the attention of the prefects, or the head boy and girl, as soon as you saw Black in the castle.

Need I remind you that Black is here to kill you? If he had gotten his chance last night then we would be contacting your family to tell them to arrange a funeral,"

"They'd more likely be arranging a massacre to find who killed me," Isaac said casually, and Snape moved towards him.

"Well then, Rogers, why should I not contact the Headmaster?"

"Sirius is innocent, and if we go to Dumbledore early then..."

"And how do you know that?"

"I can tell when people lie to me," Isaac said with a wave of his hand, "He _is_ innocent, and a man has been walking, or scurrying, rat animagus, free for the past twelve years, then what use is Professor Dumbledore?

Without any proof he'll be forced to let the Dementors into the grounds to search for Black, and how many students do you think will be affected?" Isaac said, starting to pace in a small circle.

Severus looked at the boy pacing in front of him.

"Why should I help you?" he asked.

"I didn't ask for your help, I asked for your advice," Isaac said, "I've got a problem, and you are the best person to go to, to give me the bluntest answer on what to do,"

Professor Snape half-glared at Isaac.

"Alright then," he said, bending down to look Isaac directly in the face, "You bring me to Black, and I force him to take a truth serum to prove his innocence,"

Isaac nodded.

"That... would be good, but... I don't know where he is," Isaac said, "But, I might be able to find out where he is,"

"You have until tomorrow evening," Snape said, "Then I take you to the Headmaster and you tell him everything that you have told me,"

Isaac nodded in agreement and Snape pointed to the door.

"Thank you, Professor," Isaac said, "Enjoy listening to Dead Or Alive,"

Before Snape could say anything, Isaac had closed the door and was already halfway down the corridor.

Severus Snape returned back to the parchment on his desk.

He picked up a quill to continue but his mind was far too preoccupied.

There was something... off about Rogers. He didn't know what, but he was very interested in learning what it was.

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Isaac's conversation with Snape had helped clear a few things.

Despite not getting the answer he was going there for, he did get some semblance of an idea.

He went through the rest of the day forming a plan to try and find Sirius.

So far, his plan was to look on the Marauders Map and hope that Sirius was hiding somewhere on Hogwarts grounds.

Failing that, try sending him a letter with Hedwig.

So far she hadn't failed to deliver a letter yet, despite travelling to places like the Mansion that didn't quite exist properly.

She had even found Toby while he had been out working once, that had been a little bit of a shock to him.

So now Isaac had some semblance of an idea, and he was going to put it into action.

After classes were done for the day he grabbed the map and a spare piece of parchment and raced to the owlery.

"Alright," he said as Hedwig flew down to greet him, "I got an important job for you.

Find Sirius Black,"

Hedwig hooted and took off, twirling in the air before going out the high windows above.

Isaac then went back to the Gryffindor common room and unlocked the map.

"Where are you? Come on, come on," he muttered to himself as he checked the grounds for any sign of Sirius.

If he was somewhere in Hogwarts, then he was somewhere where he was masked by all the other names of students and teachers.

Isaac sighed and laid back on his bed. He had little over a day now to meet Professor Snape's deadline.

"Where are you?"

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Dumbledore's office.

Dumbledore looked at the small house-elf before him.

"And you are certain that he said, 'Find Sirius Black'?" he asked the trembling thing.

"Y-yes, yes, Professor Dumbledore, sir, yes," it squeaked.

"Excellent, thank you," Dumbledore said.

Before the little elf had realised a small pulse of blue shot from Dumbledore's wand and the little elf forgot all about the conversation that had just taken place.

"Thank you, for the excellent tea," Professor Dumbledore said, smiling sweetly at the little house elf.

"You's is welcome, sir," the elf said proudly before bowing and disappearing back to the kitchen.

Once the elf had disappeared Dumbledore vanished the remains of the tea tray he had brought up by the elf he had assigned to watch over any and all outgoing letters from the owlery.

He steepled his fingers as he thought.

What was Potter doing?

Was he seeking out Black for his own revenge, or had he somehow found out the truth about that night.

He didn't see how, Pettigrew was dead, and Black hadn't made his way back inside the castle.

He was interrupted by a knocking on the door.

He sighed internally as Mr Filch entered, informing him that the restoration of the Fat Lady's canvas was complete, however, there were some security arrangements she was demanding before she would agree to return to her old job.

Dumbledore waved the demands aside, telling Filch to see to it that they were met.

Honestly, he was a busy man, he couldn't be bothered to listen to the twaddle of a painting.

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Isaac almost cheered when he saw Hedwig fly into the Hall the next morning.

He said that he'd forgotten a bag in the dorm room to Hermione and excused himself from the table under the pretence of finding it.

When he was a couple of corridors away from the Hall he unfolded the parchment.

~Tell Snivellus that if he wants to drug me, then he can meet me behind the Greenhouse sheds tonight~

Isaac wasn't going to question where Sirius had gotten a quill from, but he was glad that he had something to give to Professor Snape to stop him going to Dumbledore.

As he made to put the note in his bag he found that he actually had forgotten a book and quickly ran towards Gryffindor Tower to retrieve it.

Later that day, once they had finished Potions, Isaac hung back when everyone else was leaving and handed Professor Snape the note to show that Sirius was willing to meet.

Judging by the sour expression on Professor Snape's face, the note was from Sirius.

"Alright then, considering the fool hasn't bothered to give a time," Professor Snape mumbled, "Rogers, you will meet me in the Entrance Hall at ten, under the pretence of a detention, do not be late,"

"Yes, sir," Isaac said, "What should I say that the reason is?"

"You're creative, figure something out," Professor Snape snapped before striding out of the Potions classroom.

Isaac sighed as he picked up his bag and made his way back to the Gryffindor common room.

Later that day.

"An old detention that you never did?" Hermione said.

"Yep," Isaac said as he shrugged on a jacket, "Apparently I missed one and he found the slip for it when cleaning out some of his drawers,"

Hermione gave him a pitying look as he descended through the portrait hole.

He made it to the entrance hall with a couple of minutes to spare, Snape was already there.

Snape didn't say anything until Isaac was a few metres away.

"Do you know what this is?" he asked Isaac, holding up a small, tear-shaped, bottle.

"I'm going to assume it's the truth serum you mentioned," Isaac said.

"Veritaserum," Professor Snape said, "Two drops of this and even the Dark Lord would spill his darkest secrets,"

Isaac nodded in understanding as he followed Professor Snape out of the hall.

"And what excuse did you give?" he asked.

"You found a detention slip you forgot to assign to me when cleaning some drawers," Isaac said as they walked down the path to the Greenhouses.

Snape nodded, it was a believable enough story, and it definitely showed that Rogers was more Slytherin than he let on at times.

He pushed his curiosity about the boy aside.

"Did Black mention a time?"

"No, Professor,"

Professor Snape made an irritated sounding growl as they reached the edge of the Greenhouses.

"Very well then," he said, "For your 'detention' you will be cleaning the outer windows," he waved his wand, causing a bucket and sponge to fly towards them.

He waved his wand again and the bucket filled with soapy water that steamed slightly in the cold air.

Isaac spent the most of the next hour cleaning the windows of the Greenhouses, at least Snape had made the water continuously warm, as they waited for Sirius to show.

Nearing the hour mark Professor Snape raised a hand and stopped Isaac as he refreshed the sponge.

"Half expected this place to be swarming with Dementors," a hoarse voice called and Sirius walked out from behind the Greenhouse next to them.

"The thought crossed my mind, but then I would hardly get answers," Professor Snape said, drawing his wand and keeping it pointed at Sirius.

Once Sirius was out in the open, Snape tossed him the bottle.

"Veritaserum, drink,"

"How do I know you haven't poisoned it?" Sirius asked, looking at the bottle in his hand suspiciously.

"What would I have to gain by poisoning you?" Snape asked, raising an eyebrow to mock him.

"Credit for catching me," Sirius said, undoing the wax seal on the stopper.

"Then I would have stunned you as soon as you showed your face, Black," Snape said as Sirius took a swig of the bottle and replaced the bottle.

"Who are you?" Professor Snape asked, taking a step closer to Sirius.

"Sirius, Orion, Black," Sirius answered, his eyes not focussing and swaying a little.

"Were you the secret keeper for James and Lily Potter?" he asked, his voice close to a growl.

"No,"

"Who was the secret keeper?"

"Peter Pettigrew,"

Professor Snape lowered his wand and stowed it in his pocket.

"What do you plan to do?"

"Find Pettigrew and kill him," Sirius said and Snape's lip curled.

"And where will you end up after doing that?"

"Don't care,"

Professor Snape tutted at him.

"Do you have any plans to harm any of the students in the school?"

"No,"

Professor Snape nodded for a moment before a vindictive smile appeared on his face.

"Has Professor Lupin been helping you onto the grounds?"

"No,"

It was at that point that the small dose of veritaserum that Sirius had taken started to wear off.

"Alright then, Black," Professor Snape said, "When I perform my nightly search of the grounds for... wayward students, I will leave a bag with food for you on the edge of the forest, the closest point of the Black Lake to the castle,"

Sirius nodded.

"Now, Mr Rogers has a detention to finish, you had better leave before you are found,"

Sirius nodded.

"Take care, Harry,"

"My name's not Har... he's gone," Isaac sighed as Sirius disappeared into the darkness once again.

Professor Snape made a small huff of amusement before waving his wand and causing the bucket to empty before it and the sponge flew back to the storage shed.

"I think you've done enough for tonight," he said, "Back to Gryffindor common room," he told Isaac.

By the time that Isaac reached there everyone was in bed.

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That morning, everyone was woken up to the sounds of Filch replacing the portraits. Many of them were grateful that the ever-annoying Sir Cadogan was back to his normal resting place and that the Fat Lady was back.

What they weren't too happy about were the two security trolls hired to guard her which meant that if you forgot the password, like Neville, you were subjected to being jeered at by the security trolls until someone came with the actual password.

That morning Isaac got a letter from Hagrid, inviting him and Hermione for tea that evening at six.

"He probably wants what we've found for him for Buckbeak's case," Hermione said and Isaac froze as he reached for the jam.

"I completely forgot about Buckbeak," Isaac said.

"I'm sure he'll understand," Hermione said.

After classes finished Isaac waited for Hermione in the common room before the two of them headed to Hagrid's.

Isaac was just thankful that Ron wasn't in the common room at that time to stir up more trouble.

Then, at six, the two of them gathered up all of Hermione's notes and made their way down to Hagrid's cabin.

Isaac knocked on the door and the booming barks of Fang heralded the sounds of him being pulled away, his nails scratching on the floor, before Hagrid opened the door and stood aside to let them in.

Isaac and Hermione stepped in before stopping just inside the door, far enough for Hagrid to close the door.

Ron was sat at the table, looking rather pale, and with a large cup of tea in his hands.

"I was jus' having a wee chat with Ron," Hagrid said, "About habits of pets, an' friends,"

The faintest blush that Isaac had ever seen, and that was saying something considering who he lived with, rose onto Ron's cheeks that made him look rather peaky and sick.

"... an' how people can be stupid about their pets," Hagrid said, nodding his head out to the paddock where Buckbeak was tethered.

It was at that point that Ron stood up fast enough to knock the chair he had been sat on over and stormed out of Hagrid's cabin, nearly bumping Isaac's shoulder in the process.

He slammed the door behind after him with enough force that Isaac thought that he heard the wood crack slightly.

"Oh... erm..." Hagrid said, looking rather sheepish, "Sorry about that... I jus' thought that..."

"It's ok, Hagrid," Isaac said as Hagrid struggled to find the words, "His temper was always going to get the better of him one day,"

Hagrid nodded, quite red in the face, as he bustled over to fill the pot with water to make some tea.

It was at that point that Isaac noticed a hideous brown suit hanging on Hagrid's wardrobe.

"Erm... what is that?" Isaac asked, looking at the equally hideous tie that was hanging around the shoulders.

"Suit for Buckbeak's court case," Hagrid said.

The next moment he burst into tears.

It took the combined strength of both Isaac and Hermione to, just barely, help him sit down on a chair.

Hermione tended to the now whistling kettle as Isaac tried to clam Hagrid down.

"Sorry..." he said, gulping down sobs, "It's jus'... those gargoyles of a committee have it in for interesting creatures. An' with them all in Lucius Malfoy's pocket..." he broke off in sobs once more.

Isaac fought the urge to roll his eyes at this.

"Hagrid, you listen to me now," Isaac said, sitting opposite him, "The only person to fault here is Parkinson.

If she had _listened_ to the warning, that _you_ gave, at the start of the class then this wouldn't be happening. Instead, she chose to completely ignore you, and paid the consequence,"

Hagrid let out a soft hiccup.

Hermione came over at that point with a fresh pot of tea and poured it out for them all.

Hagrid raised the cup to his lips with shaky hands, nearly spilling it as he took in the comfort of the hot tea.

"I thought about setting him free," Hagrid said after a few moments of silence, "Jus' letting him go, but how do you explain to a hippogriff that he's got to go into hiding?" he asked with a mirthless chuckle, "An' there's the fact I'd get into trouble with the Ministry... they'd probably cart me off to Azkaban fer letting somethin' as dangerous as him go..."

Isaac watched with morbid curiosity as Hagrid gave a slight shiver that ran through his body. Out of all the things that Hagrid talked about, Azkaban was never one of them.

"I don' want to go back there..." he said, his eyes taking on a slightly hollowed look.

Isaac was left wondering just how bad Azkaban was, and how Sirius had somehow managed to survive for nearly twelve whole years there.

For the briefest moment there the image of a Dementor lifting Ben up to it's cloaked face flashed in his mind and Isaac barely contained his growl.

If Hermione noticed the flash in his hands at that point she didn't say anything.

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Ron was still sending small glares towards the two of them by the time that the next Hogsmeade trip rolled by.

Hermione was slightly against her friend going down to Hogsmeade, saying that it might be too risky since there hadn't been any talk of Sirius Black for a while and she took that as a sign that he was planning something big.

Isaac countered that by saying a better time to break into Hogwarts would be during Hogsmeade weekends as there would be fewer people in the castle.

The had their mock debate for a few more minutes before Hermione conceded that if Isaac turned up then she wouldn't report it to the teachers.

Isaac had decided on going down to the Hogsmeade trip after all.

After running back up to the Tower to grab the invisibility cloak, which he had almost forgotten, he was just about to turn onto the corridor where the one-eyed witch statue was when he nearly walked into someone who had just walked around the corner.

"Watch where you're going, Potter," Professor Snape said.

Isaac resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Sorry, sir," he said.

"Indeed," Professor Snape said, his eyes rolling across the corridor, "And just where are you off to?"

"Library," Isaac said on instinct.

"Well then, off you go," Professor Snape said as he strode away, black cloak billowing around him with each step.

'He's got to be charming it to do that,' Isaac thought as he rolled his eyes.

He sighed as he picked his bag up and headed off towards the Library, now that there was someone in the castle that expected him to be in the library it would be harder to sneak off to Hogsmeade.

Best bet, browse the books for half an hour, or so, and then sneak off to Hogsmeade.

He walked into the Library to find it, as he had thought, barely filled with second-years taking advantage of the space.

He dumped his bag at a table hidden between a few bookshelves and went to go find a book that might interest him.

The book that he had returned a few weeks back, the one he had taken out in order to find a way to modify runes, was sitting on a shelf not too far away from his table.

He picked up the slightly heavy tome and started walking back to the table.

Before he had realised it an hour had passed and he was still drawing out patterns from the book.

He took his glasses off and let them fall to the tabletop as he rubbed his eyes.

He closed the book and carried it back over to the shelf.

When he returned to the table he jammed his glasses back on and looked at the sheets of parchment he had filled.

Then, an idea came to him.

He rummaged back in his bag and found the Marauders Map.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Isaac muttered, tapping the old parchment and watching as the many lines started appearing on the once blank pages.

Now that the castle was a lot more vacant, it would be the perfect time to try and find Peter Pettigrew.

He scoured the map, looking under every fold, until...

There!

In a corridor not too far away from the Hufflepuff dormitories, was a quick moving pair of footsteps with the name, ~Peter Pettigrew~

Isaac quickly stuffed his rolls of parchment into his bag and slung it over his shoulder, his eyes never leaving the parchment.

Soon he was running towards the corridor with Pettigrew.

He let out a soft growl as Pettigrew's nametag changed direction and ran down a corridor that would be quicker to get to if he had taken the door he had just passed.

He skidded to a halt as the staircase swung away.

He wasn't able to stand still while he waited for the staircase to move to its new position, did they always move this slow?

The staircase set and he took the steps two at a time, skidding near the bottom and jumping the rest.

He threw a hand to the ground to keep himself from tumbling over, pushed hard off the ground, and took off running once more.

The corridor he was on ended in the middle of another and he quickly checked the map to see which way that Pettigrew had gone.

However when he looked at the map Pettigrew's name had disappeared again.

"Fuck!" Isaac swore under his breath as he scanned the map for Pettigrew, but he had truly vanished.

"Isaac?" a voice said from the corridor he had just passed through.

Isaac spun and saw Professor Lupin walking towards him.

Aside from their extra lessons on fighting a Dementor, Isaac had given the Professor a fairly wide berth ever since Snape had brought up Lupin when questioning Black.

Then there was also that he thought that the man was hiding something, what it was he didn't know.

"Why were you running?"

Isaac took a moment to catch his breath.

"I was looking for... for something," he told Professor Lupin, though his teacher's focus had shifted to the piece of parchment in his hands.

"Isaac... where did you get that?" he asked, holding his hand out for the parchment.

Isaac, hesitating for just a second, handed him the Marauders Map.

Professor Lupin looked at the map for a few seconds before silently motioning for him to follow him into an empty classroom just to their right.

"Now I have no idea how on Earth you managed to find this map, considering that Mr Filch confiscated it many years ago, however, I am astounded that you didn't hand it in," he said, turning to look at Isaac.

What Isaac was faced with wasn't the type of disapproval he had faced from teacher's like McGonagall or Snape, it was... disappointment.

Snape, for the first couple of years, had always found fault with him and would sneer in a way that suggested he was lording his superiority over them. Isaac had, somehow, passed through to the level that other students outside of Slytherin received where he pretended that they didn't exist and ignored their accomplishments, only paying attention if a mistake was performed.

McGonagall would look at them disapprovingly over her glasses and be straight to the point.

This, however, it was... disappointment.

Professor Lupin's tired face was now lined with disappointment in Isaac, and he didn't know why.

"Did the thought ever occur to you that this map in the hands of Sirius Black is a map directly to you at all times of the day, wherever you are?"

Isaac shook his head.

"Now, I'm not going to pretend that I don't understand the appeal that this map has to offer," Professor Lupin said, much softer than his voice had been moments before, "But I also know that this is too dangerous to leave in your belonging,"

Isaac nodded, understanding that he had been dismissed.

A thought crossed his mind.

"Just so you know, Professor," Isaac said, just as he was leaving, "That map doesn't always work,"

Professor looked confused.

"Earlier on, it showed someone that couldn't have been there. Someone who was dead,"

"Who?" Professor Lupin asked, still looking confused.

"Peter Pettigrew,"

Professor Lupin's eyes went wide and for a moment it looked like he might have let the map slip through his fingers.

"That's not possible," he said quietly.

"It's what I saw," Isaac said, closing the door behind him.

Isaac gave the corridor he was on a quick glance over, just in case that he might have caught a glimpse of Scabbers, before heading back off to the library.

It was just as deserted as it had been earlier, maybe less so now that people had finished whatever bit of homework they had been given.

As he was walking back to the table he had been at earlier he heard a familiar voice.

"... the letter means he isn't too happy," Draco said, probably talking to Blaise.

"What are you going to do?" Blaise asked, confirming Isaac's suspicion.

A chair creaked as someone leaned back. Draco, probably, since he was the next to talk.

"I don't know,"

Isaac chose that moment to walk over to the pair.

"Hey," the two of them looked up at him.

"Talk of the devil," Blaise murmured as Isaac pulled out a chair to sit on.

"Should I be worried?" Isaac asked him.

"No, but I should," Draco muttered, pushing the letter they had just been discussing over towards Isaac.

Isaac picked it up and skimmed over the careful and practised cursive on the parchment.

"... expect better... cavorting with muggle-borns... appalling behaviour to Mrs Parkinson, she deserves it," he muttered, "... cease all interactions with the Potter boy," Isaac looked up at Draco.

"Who's Potter?"

Draco didn't seem to find this as amusing as he did.

"This is serious!" he seethed at Isaac.

"So am I, " Isaac said, "And I also think you need to explain some things,"

"Explain what?" Draco asked, sounding tired.

" _A Gryffindor under the watch of Dumbledore's manipulative mind is of no use to us_ ," Isaac quoted Draco from the forest, "What did you mean?"

Draco looked around before turning back to Isaac.

"How much do you know about the last war?" Draco asked, leaning on over the table.

"Honestly, not much," Isaac said, "Aside from the stuff mentioned in books, but I can probably guess a few things,"

"Like what? " Blaise asked.

"I'm going to guess that the history books omitted a lot of what was going on in the war, history is written by the victors, after all," Isaac said, "And that there are some things that people would like to keep under wraps,"

Draco glanced around again.

"The war was going bad on both sides," Draco said, "For every raid against Death Eaters, there was just as hard a push back. What people seem to think is that the Death Eaters were a small group.

No.

The elite, the ones truly trusted in the inner circle, those were the only part of the groups where you could call the total members 'small'.

It was closer to a fully fledged army, the war nearly sent the Wizarding World into extinction,"

Draco paused as a couple of second-years passed them by.

"So the Ministry was loosing as bad as the Death Eaters were," Isaac said and Draco nodded.

"Things were getting desperate.

The orders to capture were thrown out the window and the order to kill on sight was given.

But then, for some reason, the Ministry started proclaiming that it was winning the battle," Draco went on, "Father was still just outside the inner circle at the time, part of those not given the Dark Lord's brand, and so he was able to continue working at the Ministry.

He found out the reasons for why the 'kill on sight' order was given.

Dumbledore.

Despite protesting them in court, Father found evidence of meetings shortly before the court session of the Wizengamot between Dumbledore and those who aggressively pushed for the order to go through,"

Another pause as a few more students passed.

"So Dumbledore pushed for the order to go through," Isaac summed.

"But not in the court," Blaise said, ending his silence, "Records all show that he protested against it, every time it came up, saying that there were alternatives that they should be going for,"

"There was something else as well," Draco said, "Before the 'kill on sight' order went through, the Death Eaters numbers just started dropping like flies and the list of names of those missing nearly tripled.

Dumbledore had decided that Ministry wasn't being as efficient as he could be, so he formed a group.

I don't know their name, but this group was led by Dumbledore in secret and went after those suspected of aiding the Death Eaters, whether by partaking in the attacks or funding the Death Eaters,"

"Dumbledore started a militia," Isaac said, looking between the two.

"Pretty much," Blaise said, "Though each time that the group went out and did their work he made sure that the Death Eaters took the blame for each name that went missing, whether their bodies were found or not,"

Isaac looked between the two of them again.

"So things were pretty messy back then,"

Blaise nodded.

"I'm kinda surprised that you didn't turn this into a Death Eater sympathy session," Isaac said.

Blaise and Draco shared a quick glance.

"What?" Isaac asked.

"At the start... they weren't as bad," Draco said, "No, listen.

At the start, all they wanted to do was push for further separation from Muggle society.

I may not know a lot about them, but I know that if we were revealed there would be mass slaughter, worse than there had been during the war, before any side began to talk about working things through.

They wanted to start the monitoring of Muggleborns earlier than when they receive their letter, bringing them to purely magical foster families if need be," Draco said, checking around them and between the shelves near them for prying eyes, "But something changed.

I'm not saying they're misunderstood, but the original intention was to preserve our society and culture before it faded forever.

Something changed, before the war even started, and the Dark Lord's sanity seemed to become more... unstable. Instead of removing the muggle-borns from muggle society it was removing muggle-borns entirely. That was when they became the 'Death Eaters'.

Any trace of what the group once stood for disappeared, and I doubt that it would ever go back to what it once was,"

Isaac sat back in his chair, taking everything in and trying to piece everything together.

A bell sounded somewhere and they realised just how much time had passed, the students that had gone to Hogsmeade would be back soon.

"I'll see you guys later," Isaac said as he picked up his bag and walked out of the library back to Gryffindor Tower, thinking about all they had discussed.

Later that day he descended the stairs to meet Hermione as she came back he spotted her hurrying over to him, her eyes red and she looked like she was on the brink of tears.

"What's happened?" Isaac asked as he hurried to meet her half-way.

"H-H..." she stammered slightly, "Hagrid... Hagrid lost his case,"

Isaac felt his heart dip a little. In his chase for Pettigrew, he had forgotten that Hagrid's meeting about the incident back at the start of term was today.

"Buckbeak is going to be executed,"

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Gilbertsville, Kentucky.

Andy was getting impatient as he waited for Connor and Sam to come back down.

The three of them had been planning this for weeks, maybe near a month by this point, and he wasn't going to let them back out of it.

He bounced his leg in irritation as he checked his watch.

They were going to be late.

A couple of months back they had noticed that the man who ran a local jewellery store hadn't replaced the broken cameras that should have been watching the store.

Couple that with them wanting to hit it big in Vegas, making a few quick stops at pawn shops on the way to change the stolen goods to cash, and then hightail it to Vegas for a week or so.

Everyone in town thought that they had already left so they had good alibis.

Right now they were sat in his sister's house, she was out at friends, and he was getting really annoyed now.

Finally, Sam came down.

"Nervous stomach," he said, pointing his thumb back upstairs and Andy sighed.

"Fuck sake," he groaned, rubbing his temple to sooth the growing migraine.

A loud thump and crash, following a quick yelp, came from upstairs and then the sound of something splashing.

"If he's done what I think he's done... I'm going to kill him," Andy said.

"I'll go check on him," Sam said, re-ascending the stairs towards where he had left their friend.

Andy, meanwhile, went through to the kitchen to try and find the small basket thing where her sister kept the medicine.

He rummaged around in the small white box until he found some painkillers and he was about to dry swallow when he heard another thud and cry of pain.

By the sounds of the latest thud something heavy had fallen over, and with Connor busy...

He slammed the pills down on the counter and headed up the stairs.

The bathroom was still closed and the door to his sister's bedroom was open, he could just see a cabinet had fallen over.

"Get out of my sister's room, you pervert," he said, walking in to see someone with wild, tangled, black hair wearing a white and bloodied hoodie crouched over his friend.

Sam was indeed trapped underneath, but the way his neck was twisted and the empty look in his eyes told him that he was gone.

Faster than he would have thought possible, the person leapt back and threw a large knife at him.

The blade impaled his shoulder and the person pushed hard against it, pushing him back and the knife further through until he was stuck against the door and held in place.

Andy tried to scream out when a hand was clamped against his mouth and another hit his chest, winding him.

He gasped, bringing in short breaths, as the teen picked something up.

Andy started struggling harder against the knife, hot tears started streaming down his face as the knife cut in deeper in his struggles.

A loud click was heard and a hand forced him to look up.

His sister's curling iron was being held a few inches from his left eye.

"I've always wanted to try this," the person...

Andy started struggling harder as he looked into the bleached out face of the, permanently scarred, smiling teenager.

Dark rings around the eyes that peaked slightly above the brows suggested that the eyelids had been burnt away completely and slightly bloodshot iris' stared back at him.

"Now..." he broke off as Andy tried to swing at him.

The curling iron dropped, momentarily forgotten as the teen punched him in the face before pushing the knife deeper into his shoulder.

The teen kept going until he felt something come loose in his jaw and then more pain shot through him, this time in the arms, as another knife, smaller but just as sharp, was forced through part of his arm and pinning it against the door.

"Now then," the teen said, picking up the curling iron that had now burnt into a discarded shirt, "Let's try that again,"

Andy whimpered as the curling iron was brought up to his face, the intense heat making his eye water and the teen carefully let it come close to burning his cheek.

Before pulling it back and thrusting it into his face.

Andy closed his eyes and screamed.

And the teenager laughed, doubling over slightly.

He hadn't shoved the curling iron into his eye, he stopped barely a centimetre before doing so.

"Oh man... you should have seen your face, priceless,"

Before Andy had time to call the teen a goddamn freak, the curling iron was brought up to his face again.

This time, the teen pushed it into the eye... ever... so... slowly...

Andy screamed as the searing heat tore through his vision and something started running down his face before...

"GODDAMN MOTHER FUCKER!"

The teen dropped the iron, clutching his hand to his face as he screamed out more profanities.

"MOTHER BITCH! TACO! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!"

When the teen had forced the iron into his eye; his eye had exploded. The heat had turned the goo on the inside to steam, or something, and it had popped out of his head.

Apparently into the teen's eyes.

He was still swearing enough to make a sailor blush as he walked out of the room towards the closed bathroom.

"Move your fucking..." he grumbled and Andy heard something sickeningly wet slide over and thump to the floor.

There was the sound of running water for a few moments, before...

" _You got the mother-fucking right to remain..._ "

"What the... PISS OFF!"

Apparently, that had been the teenager's ringtone, and he wasn't too happy about being interrupted.

"What do you mean I'm the closest? I'm in KENTUCKY! Land of the fried chicken!"

There was silence for a few moments as Andy grasped the knife in his arm with his free hand and tugged it out.

"Alright, I'll check it out,"

Andy started to panic even more, if that was possible, and just as he got the large knife free from his shoulder the teen walked back through, grabbed it, and jammed it through his throat.

"Gotta cut this short," the teen said as Andy slid down the wall, leaving two bloody streaks against the frame, "Guy I live with wants me to check something out for him,"

 **(X) 3 Hours later (X)**

Jeff walked back to the Mansion, slightly annoyed at Ben.

What he walked in on though, was almost enough to excuse what had happened.

"H-h-h-h-hey-y-y-y-y," Toby stammered, wrapped in numerous blankets and his feet in a tub of slightly steaming water. A scarf wrapped around his face left only his eyes visible, and barely just at that.

Opposite him on the other couch was Jane, who was in a similar predicament, and glowering at the air in front of her.

"What happened to you?" Jeff asked, placing the book that had taken him away from his fun down on the table in front of Toby.

"G-G-G-G-Greenland-d-d-d-d is-s-s-s-s f-f-f-f-fun-n-n-n," Toby stammered out.

At that point Liu came through, holding two steaming mugs.

He set the hot chocolate down in front of Toby and a cup of tea in front of Jane.

He turned to face Jeff as Toby reached out for the mug and Jeff caught sight of his slightly blue-tipped fingers. As he raised the cup he tugged the scarf down and Jeff could see that the same colour scheme was going on for his nose and lips.

"Hey, J, when did you get back?"

"Just now," Jeff said, tensing slightly.

Sully may be a whole lot better off than the demon that had been trying to kill him, but that didn't mean that that side of Liu was any nicer.

Sully still liked a good fight, whoever it was didn't matter to him, but Jeff was always his favourite to go against.

At least Sully knew not to go far enough to nearly kill him, unlike another person he knew...

"Anyway, where's Ben?" Jeff asked, "Ass drew me away from my fun to get this stinking book for him,"

"Still in his... never mind," Sully had started but stopped when the t.v. started flickering.

"You get it?" Ben asked, dropping down from the mantelpiece.

"Yeah, I got it," Jeff threw the old book at him, "What's it for anyway?"

"Isaac's birthday," Ben said, flicking through a few of the pages, "I figured that there's got to be some overlap from the magic world into the other, so what's stopping some guys from writing stuff down that might get omitted from the stuff that they teach?"

As Ben walked back up the stairs, uttering a soft 'Yes!' in the success of finding what he was looking for, Sully ran a hand over his eyes, closing them.

'He's been oddly active towards that bunch lately,' Sully thought.

' _Yep,_ ' Liu replied.

At times, the divide between the two when one was in control and the other was 'sleeping', as they put it, was weaker the two of them were able to talk to each other.

'Have you been thinking the same as me?' Sully asked.

' _We share a head. My head, in fact, so yeah,_ '

Sully grinned to himself, leaving Toby to wonder what was so funny.

'Wanna talk to the sprite about it later?'

' _Maybe,_ ' Liu said, ' _Right now, I just want to rest,_ '

'I can think of something a little more fun to do,' he said, casting a quick glance at Toby.

"S-s-s-som-m-m-m-m," Toby broke off as he gulped down more hot chocolate, "S-s-s-something-g w-wrong?"

"Not really," Sully said, leaning in a little closer and shifting some of the blankets away from his ear and breathing softly against it, "Me and Liu were just discussing if getting it on with someone with a split personality counted as a threesome, or not,"

Sully almost laughed out loud at the large blush that quickly rose on Toby's face and scooted closer to him, listening to Liu telling him to ease off.

At least, until Toby was better.

Before Sully could speak again, there was a trill of a hoot and Hedwig flew into the room.

Sully gave a soft sigh, putting the flirting on hold for now, and took the letter.

The owl bristled up and took off again, probably to the post in Isaac's room to rest for a bit.

Sully unfolded the letter addressed to Toby, leaving the one for Ben on the table for now, and held it up so he could read it.

Toby gave an attempt to stand up, trying to free himself from the confines of the blankets, but fell back over.

"What is it?" Sully asked, relaying the same message from Liu.

"All I asked him was for one year without getting into something stupid," Toby said, still trying to escape the blankets.

"What is it this time?" Sully muttered, skim reading the heavy paper that the letter was written on.

"He's gone and made friends with the mass murderer that broke out to kill him," Toby said, "And apparently said murdered is innocent and he's been living in the same room as the person who _was_ out to kill him for the past two years,"

Sully, and Liu, both sighed.

A tapping on his shoulder made Sully look up.

"Liu, or 'Suls'?" L.J said, "Whichever one you are," he handed him a small envelope.

Sully tried to hide the envelope before Toby saw it.

"Wait, you started a bet on this?"

Apparently not quick enough.

"We had him surviving," Sully said, trying to appease Toby.

"Damn right, you better have," Toby said, walking slightly bow-legged as he made his way upstairs.

Sully rolled his eyes and went after him before he fell over.

The resultant thud told him that he was too late.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

End notes.

Another chapter is done.

I feel like I'm going to have to start writing more things down in where I want this story to go, but at the same time, it's kind of exciting to see what will happen if I just keep writing with no proper set plan.

I mean, I know the big things that are going to happen, but other parts that aren't a part of the major picture...

'salutes Major Picture'

… aren't as fully developed.

I didn't plan Isaac finding out about Sirius' innocence so early, in fact, the original plan for this chapter had a part of Ron actually staying at Hagrid's cabin and him making a start to try and patch things over again.

But, as much as I like Ron, I need to be a little more cold-hearted when writing this.

So, I've got things going in my head, and I'm working on what'll happen to change things now.

But, anyway, that is it...

Oh, btw, take a guess at which old song I found on my laptop when looking through my files.

So yeah, I totally had Snape listening to 'You Spin Me Round' by Dead or Alive.

Oh, and... sorry about the upload being a little late... I kinda fell asleep.

I have no other excuse than that I fell asleep. Sorry.

Anyway, hope you liked the chapter, and I'll see you in the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

If any of these are wrong then please notify me of this so I can fix them.

If you have a favourite Creepypasta that has not made an appearance then message me or leave their name in a review.


	36. Chapter 36, Grim Confrontations

Chapter 36, Grim confrontations.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. Hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

I am actually scaring myself with how quickly I'm actually able to write these chapters.

I've also set myself the challenge of having the next two chapters written before I upload chapter 35.

Also, you might have noticed, but I went and put the prologue at the start of the first actual chapter, so now the page number matches the chapter number.

But anyway, I've got a chapter to write, and reviews to read...

Thunder-Death;

Thank you. I repeat what I said last time about winging things, I didn't expect Snape either, but I just couldn't get rid of the image of Snape working to the sounds of 'You Spin Me Round' out of my head.

Also, I read 'Crèatures de la Nuit'.

Not too bad, I like it.

DarkRavie;

Thanks, glad you like it.

MyraZinshu;

Welcome, always nice to see a new reviewer pop up.

I'm glad that you like how I'm varying the story from the canon scripts. I had hoped that the CP snippets would keep people interested.

I think I did a poor job of showing something why Isaac still went through with the idea in first-year. So, to clear a couple of things up, number 1; he was young, and young people are idiots. We can't deny that he thought an idea was good and went for it.

Second thing; life at Hogwarts for Isaac is... dull, at times.

He's used to living with murderers and killers, so when he's at Hogwarts he misses the rush that he would get from training with them, or getting to watch on relatively small missions, or times like when Masky took him on a job.

What I'm trying to get across is that I've been trying to write Isaac as an adrenaline junky. He loves the rush.

Lunarwolf11021;

Hehehe, Jeff is still annoyed with Ben about that and I _SO_ loved writing that scene.

Ok, you can see my notes when I actually plan things, can't you? I have that, 'L.J kill-blocks Jeff' written on a post-it note next to me, how can you see these?

All honesty with the Death Eater bit, I was low on the word count and I wanted to make it so that Isaac was starting to doubt the 'golden' image of Dumbledore but I'm glad that you thought it fit.

Sweet Smilie;

Yep, Isaac is learning that nothing is as pure as it seems with Dumbledore.

And I'm not saying anything on that part aside from I am definitely having fun with them.

Erm... what about bodies?

YinYangWriter;

No, I don't think he will like what he finds.

Trust me, I've started planning for things to do to Dumbledore. I've trial ran what I might do in 'Werewolf' on EXTRAS, but I want to be crueller, meaner about it.

I think that Dumbledore will learn just what happens when he sticks his nose into the homelife of Isaac... and it won't be pretty...

Or it might, if Sally gets a hold of him first.

Toby just wants a little bit of common sense for Isaac. I think when he was adapting to his role as a big brother he would have been very fond of the saying, "Do as I say, not as I do," which means "Listen to me, but don't copy me,".

L.J would applaud his tendencies for getting into trouble, keeps things from getting too boring. Plus, like I mentioned in a previous review answer, I'm trying to write Isaac as an adrenaline junkie.

No, you do not get to claim responsibility for Jeff saying "TACO!" as a swear.

That piece of credit goes to the fact that I have been watching too much 'Soviet Womble' and 'Cyanide' is now my new inspiration for swearing.

I'll ask Ben to stop messaging you and I think it was Sally that ate the cake.

Agent VOID;

Thank you, glad that you like it.

Ok, right, have fun with your identity crisis'.

Ok then, that's that done.

DP, my amazing Beta who I've probably been overworking lately due to writing chapters faster, how are you?

I'm good SG. How are you? Enjoy the chapter readers.

I'm also good, and I'm laughing a bit because I'm switching up the Birthday format and giving something to others for a change.

Alright, the last thing before the story.

So I was writing the end bit of the HP section and I was starting to hit that bit where I start not to care because it's pretty much copying from the book. So, like a mature adult, I wrote a bunch of deliberately garbage sentences and then mashed my hands across the keyboard so that a bunch of random letters and numbers came up.

Somehow I managed to make it so that everything was centred.

Like... I normally write with things against the left of the screen, but now everything was in the middle.

No idea how I did that.

Anyway, enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Split, Croatia.

The man walked through the back alleys, unaware of the figure watching him from above.

He checked up and down the narrow passage before descending down the stairs next to him.

The figure upon the rooftops smirked as he gracefully fell down onto the ground below.

He landed with barely a thud, stooping low to the ground for a moment to let something bright red scurry off.

As he was crouched something black climbed up his arm, coming to rest on his shoulder.

The man listened to the squeaks and soon descended after the man.

He reached a lazily locked door and slid it open.

The raucous laughter filled his ears as he walked through into the room.

Around him people were sat at many tables, hands of cards at each of their seats, and token threatening to topple haggard towers.

The man he had been following was walking to the back of the underground casino, behind a beaded curtain to where the 'high-rollers' would be sat.

He sat down at the bar, looking at the many bottles on display as he waited to be served.

The stool next to him was pulled out and he cast a quick glance at who sat next to him.

"Fancy meeting you here," Jason said, looking at the newcomer.

"それで、トミーメイカー?" his new drinking buddy asked. (So what of it, Toymaker?)

Jason let out a small huff of amusement.

"Nothing, I just didn't think that someone with your... tastes, would be interested in a place like this,"

"Aah," Kagekao said, rummaging in his pocket, "赤ちゃんからキャンディを食べるように," (Like taking candy from babies)

He set a thick roll of notes on the counter, pointing with his thumb to a bunch of people with extremely sour looks on their faces.

Just then, a large explosion rocked the room, debris and small flares flowing through from the 'high-rollers' table.

Kagekao sighed, grabbing the roll of notes off of the table, "私は飲み物を手に入れるまで待つことができませんでしたか?" (You couldn't have waited until I had gotten a drink?"

"I didn't know you were here," Jason said as Kagekao hopped over the counter, everyone else had nearly run out of the room by now as smoke started ebbing through the destroyed doorway.

Jason turned back to see Kagekao turning over a bottle of wine before making an approving hum and stuffing it into a hand sewn pocket inside his hoodie before grabbing a random bottle off the shelf and a couple of glasses.

"To chaos," Jason said, taking the shot glass of gin that Kagekao had poured for himself and Jason.

"たわごとを吹き、かわいらしい炎を作る," Kagekao said, knocking back his own glass. (To blowing shit up and making pretty flames)

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Hogwarts.

The next day Isaac and Hermione hung back after their Care Of Magical Creatures class to talk to Hagrid.

Isaac felt a slight pang as he saw the man he was getting to know so well act so... numbly.

All of his actions were emotionless. Even when Hermione mentioned the appeal, which would be the final chance to prove Buckbeak's innocence, Hagrid seemed disheartened.

He walked them part of the way back to the school before saying that he was going to go and make sure that Buckbeak was alright, that he was going to have the best few days of his life while he could, before walking back with his face buried in his handkerchief.

Isaac and Hermione watched him go for a few minutes, feeling sorry and wishing they could do more... until...

"Look at him weep," a sneering laugh came from just inside the castle doors.

Now there was just anger.

Isaac and Hermione turned to see Pansy Parkinson standing there with Crabbe and Goyle, Draco and Blaise not too far away and paused as they headed to the Slytherin common rooms.

"How the school selected such a pathetic excuse for a teacher, I'll..." she started, but was silenced a few seconds later.

Before Isaac had said, or done, anything; Hermione had walked over and slapped Parkinson hard enough that the sound echoed slightly around the room.

"Don't you _dare_ call Hagrid pathetic you vile, loathsome, evil, little..."

Isaac quickly pulled Hermione back as Pansy whipped her wand out and pointed it straight at Hermione.

"I wouldn't, if I were you," Isaac said, his hand dropping to where his own wand was and slowly pulling it out of his pocket.

"And just what are you going to do, _Potter_?" Parkinson sneered, "It's five to two,"

"So call for a few more," Isaac said, slowly, "Then you might have a chance of getting _close_ to an even match," he didn't raise his voice but somehow he spoke with something that made her feel like she was playing with fire.

"Or check your count," Blaise said, moving over and standing next to Isaac, his own wand held loosely in his hand, "Seems pretty even numbers to me,"

Pansy looked at Blaise with undisguised disgust, "You would dare side with a _Mudblood_!"

Her head whipped around and looked at Draco, who was still stood off to the side.

Draco looked between the two groups of three.

For a moment, Isaac thought that he might have walked over to join Pansy.

Instead, he backed away from her and stood on the other side of Hermione.

Pansy's face went red with rage.

"And what just will your _Father_ say when he hears about this?" she hissed, trying to threaten him.

"Well done for siding with the side that would have won," Draco said.

Pansy glared furiously at him before turning and storming off towards the Slytherin common room, Crabbe and Goyle lumbering after her like overgrown, lost, puppies.

Isaac tucked his wand back in his pocket.

"We've got Charms," Isaac said to the two Slytherins, "See you after lunch,"

The two of them nodded and walked down towards their own class.

When Isaac turned and looked for Hermione she had, once again, disappeared.

Isaac let out a soft sigh, almost growl, and re-adjusted his bag as he set off for the Charms classroom.

Hermione's disappearing acts were starting to bug him to the point where he was going to set Fizz on her as a tail to find out what she was doing.

And that was just what he had done that morning.

After Charms, where Professor Flitwick had them practicing Cheering Charms on each other, Isaac helped the now gleefully giggling Seamus who he had partnered with down to the Hall for lunch the pair of them sat down and tried to eat some of the apple pie that had been set out; the two of them kept having to take breaks because one of them would laugh and set the other off.

After the effects of the charm started wearing off Isaac started to worry about Hermione.

She hadn't turned up at Charms, or for lunch.

He wished that he still had the map so he could find where she was in case Parkinson sought revenge for that morning.

Isaac quickly got through the remainder of the pie that he had before grabbing a couple of apples and hurrying up to the common room to try and find her.

He let out a soft sigh of relief when he found her lying face down, asleep, on a heavy looking book at a table in the corner of the common room.

"Hermione?" he said softly and quietly, gently shaking her shoulder, "Hermione..."

Isaac glanced around the nearly empty common room.

He held out a single finger and let a small blue flame flicker into existence on the end.

He held the burning finger for a few more moments before quickly putting it out and pressing his finger to the back of Hermione's hand.

"GYAH!" she yelped, flailing slightly before grabbing her hand and glaring at Isaac.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," Isaac said with a merry grin.

"Why did you... what if you had damaged the book?" she quickly checked over the page that she had been using as an impromptu pillow before she caught sight of her watch.

"How is it... did I miss..." she spluttered.

"You missed Charms, but..." Isaac was cut off by Hermione's slight wail as she packed the book up.

"Hermione, no, calm," Isaac grabbed his friend by the upper of her arms, "Deep breathes, in... out... in... out," he repeated until Hermione calmed.

"I took notes, I'll let you see them after... after," he shushed her again when she tried to grab his bag," ... dinner when you've had some rest,"

"No, if I've missed... what did we... you do?" she asked, not really hearing Isaac.

"I'll tell you... after you've had a drink and something to eat," Isaac said, guiding her over to a chair.

"No, Isaac, I need..."

"A break," he interjected, making her sit down, "There's no point in studying that hard when you can't remember any of what you go over,"

Hermione gave a slightly anxious whine but collapsed in the chair.

Isaac handed her a bottle of water and one of the apples.

His original plan for the apples had been to use against Parkinson if she had gotten Hermione. What he would have done with the apple he had no idea, but he would have thought of something.

Worst case scenario, stuff it in Parkinson's mouth and call home to tell E.J that he made him a roast dinner.

As Hermione ate she didn't see the small, midnight-blue, wind-up mouse that crawled out from her bag and over to Isaac.

Isaac smirked to himself as he gave Hermione the second apple.

Before she had finished the second her head nodded over and she ended up dozing off.

Isaac waited for a few more minutes before grabbing the book she had been using and tapping her over the head with it until she woke up and the two of them headed down to Ancient Runes.

Hermione was in a slightly grouchy mood for the rest of the day, but Isaac would take that over a Hermione that could faint at a moments notice.

Hermione's mood seemed to almost level out slightly as Ancient Runes progressed. It was only after the class had ended and Isaac was on his way down to their next class, and after Hermione had disappeared again, that Isaac found something out that really threw his head in a spin.

As he was walking down the stairs he passed Lavender and Parvati who had just come from Divination and overheard a piece of their conversation.

"... believe that Hermione just walked out of there,"

"... Trelawney said she would be leaving,"

Isaac did a double take and looked up at the stairs that would lead to the Divination Tower.

'What the hell have you gotten yourself into?' he asked himself as he made his way along the corridor after the pair to hear more of their conversation.

"... stress, probably. Might have been because of what she saw?"

"... you know... I think she and Isaac..."

"No, he's never looked at her in that way... or anyone actually, now that I think about it,"

'What the hell are they talking about now?' Isaac thought, half debating to abandon this idea.

"Well, she might," Lavender said, "That might have been why she reacted so badly,"

"I think anyone would react that way when they hear that a Seer has seen a Grim stalking a friend of theirs,"

Isaac froze in the corridor; letting the two that, thankfully, hadn't noticed him following them walk away.

He let out a soft sigh as he ducked down a tapestry to get to his next class.

He didn't need more of that Grim showing up, not right now.

Unfortunately, his attempts to find out what Hermione was up to, and everything else he had on his mind, were sidelined as the final Quidditch game of the year loomed closer.

Oliver seemed to be going overboard and at one point Isaac thought that he might have been able to out chatter even L.J he was mumbling to himself at rapid fire as he looked over dozens of parchment with little doodles and letters signifying which dot was who.

Isaac was fully expecting him to have a nervous breakdown at some point in the near future as the days ticked down.

The other thing that was keeping him on edge was that the animosity between Gryffindor and Slytherin was reaching its boiling point.

Isaac had heard about a scuffle between two students that had resulted in the two of them being sent to the Hospital wing with leeks growing out their ears.

Crabbe and Goyle seemed to be stalking him through the school now. Or, rather... attempting to.

The rare times that they managed to find him he was always in a spot where they couldn't do whatever it is that they were planning.

All the other times it was almost as if he had vanished into thin air.

They had been sure that they had cornered him in an empty corridor, with no way out, but when they rounded the corner he had vanished.

As they looked around the room for him neither of them noticed a cloaked figure silently lower himself down from above the doorway and slink around to the other side.

The next time they had cornered him in that corridor Crabbe had waited outside the door so that he couldn't slip past them again.

Goyle looked for five minutes before leaving and shaking his head like a dog trying to shake water out of its ears and the two of them sulked away.

Meanwhile, Isaac was sitting up in the rafters doing his Transfiguration homework before climbing out through a window and onto a catwalk where he was able to get down by using a tree next to the Greenhouses.

As the days ticked by, Isaac almost thought that things calmed down until he returned to the dorm room one day to find Dean bandaging Seamus' hand.

"What happened?" he asked.

Seamus shook his head in confusion.

"Dunno, man," he said, "Bend down to tie my laces and when I get up something cut into me,"

Isaac looked at Seamus' slightly bloodied hand and over to a few droppings of blood in front of his trunk.

"Maybe you caught it on something," Isaac suggested as Dean finished.

"Aye, maybe," Seamus said, standing up and walking out.

After Dean followed Seamus out Isaac bent down to his trunk and opened it.

There, on the top of his Firebolt, was Fizz.

Fizz squeaked happily, as if proud of himself, and Isaac saw a few flecks of blood that stained his front.

"You bit Seamus?" he asked Fiz, picking him and carrying him to the bathroom so he could clean him.

'Squeak' Fizz squeaked, sounding happy with himself.

"Ok, thank you for protecting my stuff, but no attacking my classmates," Isaac said, running the tap so that warm water streamed out.

Fizz dipped his nose in the water, shaking a little, and Isaac wiped at the droplets.

"You gonna stop attacking my classmates?" Isaac asked.

'Squeak' Fizz shook to remove any of the remaining water droplets from his face before scurrying up his arm and nestling in Isaac's hair.

Isaac rolled his eyes and stroked Fizz's back as he sat on his bed and started reading a book.

Isaac wasn't sure when he fell asleep that night, though the slightly bizarre dream of turning up late to the game and was facing a team of dragon riding Slytherins was certainly amusing after the fact, he awoke with a slight jerk.

The curtains around his bed had been drawn by someone else and the book he had been reading was still across his chest. The small weight on his head told him that he hadn't moved enough to dislodge Fizz.

He carefully slid his fingers through the tangles that were his hair and gently pried Fizz up and off of his head.

He leaned forward and settled Fizz in the small divot on the pillow that his back had created that was still warm to the touch.

Isaac let out a yawn and stretched as he stood up.

He fumbled with the curtains slightly and walked over to the window, wincing slightly at the cold floor.

He leant against the windowsill and looked out over the grounds.

There was hardly a breeze, the moonlight casting a silver glow over the grounds.

He was about to pour himself a drink from the jug there when he spotted something prowling across the lawn.

He paused a moment, looking closer to see what it was.

He let out a nearly silent huff of laughter as he recognised the bottle-brush tail of Crookshanks.

He returned to pouring a glass of water.

When he looked back up something had joined Crookshanks on the lawn.

Isaac nearly dropped the cup as Crookshanks started walking over to a large, black, dog on the lawn.

"Oh come on," Isaac groaned as he watched Crookshanks head off with the Grim, "... Fuck it, I'm getting L.J to send me enough salt to turn this place into the dead sea,"

He returned to bed, too awake now to try and get back to sleep.

The next morning Isaac joined the rest of the Gryffindor team as they walked into the Great Hall to tumultuous applause.

The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were cheering for them, three-thirds of the school looking forward to Slytherin's winning streak being broken.

Soon Oliver ushered them out so that they could get an idea of the conditions they would be playing in and as he completed his lap of the pitch, muttering to himself the entire way around, the school doors opened and the flood of students that came down looked like a flow of black lava or tar.

Oliver seemed to be losing his voice as he led them to the changing rooms.

The sounds of footsteps thundering around them shook the stands as they got changed and soon they were walking out to roars of applause from three-quarters of the stands.

When Madam Hooch called for the captains to step forward it looked for a moment that when they shook hands they were trying to break the others hand.

As the captains returned to their team's various shouts of encouragement came through the stands and as soon as Madam Hooch blew into the whistle they shot off and the roars were near deafening.

Isaac spun and looked down at the pitch.

Blurs of green and red shot around and he began keeping an eye out for the snitch, Oliver's persistent words of 'Don't catch it until we're fifty points up!' echoing in his ears.

Things seemed to be going alright until the point when Marcus Flint, the Slytherin captain, rammed into Angelina. Fred threw his beaters bat at the back of his head in retaliation and the resultant penalties managed to put them into a twenty to nothing lead.

Three more goals and he would be able to catch the snitch and win them the cup.

A cry of outrage from the crowd drew his attention away and he saw that Gryffindor was once again being awarded a penalty.

Thirty points up, two more to go.

Isaac let out a quick laugh as he heard Lee's commentary once again being reprimanded by Professor McGonagall.

He spotted a glimmer of gold near the Gryffindor end of the goals but since he couldn't catch it yet he sped off towards the Slytherin end, a look of hyper-focused determination masking his face.

He heard the tell-tale whistling of bludgers closing in and he spun around, looping over the first and rolling out of the way of the second.

As he rightened himself he saw the two Slytherin beaters speeding towards him and Isaac smirked to himself.

He slowed down and when the two of them were about to hit he shot upwards, leaving the two of them collided painfully in the air.

Isaac euphoria was short lived as Lee swore bad enough for Professor McGonagall to attempt to take the microphone away from him and now they were only in the lead by twenty points, needing three more goals.

Isaac couldn't help himself a few minutes later as he stopped and watched the chaos that ensued.

It was turning into the dirtiest match that he had seen yet and Isaac was sure that, if he were here, Jeff would be cheering them on while eating a large tub of popcorn in hand.

Isaac snapped out of it when they scored again and they were now only two goals away from being able for him to catch the snitch again.

Slytherin fouled again, attacking Oliver, and they were awarded another penalty and now they were only one goal away.

Isaac started circling the pitch like a shark as he searched for the snitch.

Another loud cheer went up and Gryffindor now led seventy to ten.

Isaac gritted his teeth and started looking harder for the small golden ball.

He raised a hand to brush the strand of hair that had gotten stuck in his glasses away when he spotted a glinting flash of gold from about twenty feet above him.

He quickly halted on his broom and shot up to chase after it.

Many in the crowd were roaring for him now as Draco started following after him.

Isaac could hear the whistling of bludgers behind him and he flattened himself as much as he could against the broom.

He was forced to break off however when a bolt of bright yellow light shot through the air and nearly hit him.

Outrage thundered from all around the pitch and Lee Jordan was howling into the megaphone.

"YOU CHEATING SCUM!" he screamed as he danced away from Professor McGonagall's reach.

But he didn't have to, even she was shaking her fist at the Slytherin portion of the stands and shouting furiously.

Isaac took a hand off of his broom as he felt it heat up slightly before he accidentally set his broom on fire and looked through the stands. He had no idea who had shot at him, but he had a sneaking suspicion who it was though.

The match resumed with another penalty for Gryffindor, and fifty points from Slytherin, but Katie was so angry that she missed.

Isaac gritted his teeth and wheeled his broom around and resumed his search for the snitch.

Unfortunately, the caster's goal of making him lose sight of it worked and now the Gryffindor team had started to lose their focus in their anger.

Isaac hissed out a low stream of swears when Slytherin scored again and he had to wait until they gained another goal to be able to catch the snitch.

Thankfully he didn't have to wait long as he helped clear the way for Angelina to score and as he returned to circling the pitch to find the snitch he caught sight of a golden flash and raced after it.

Draco was soon on his tail and for a moment they were neck and neck before both of the bludgers came flying towards them.

Draco swerved out of the way, but Isaac had had enough.

He quickly put his feet on the broom and pushed off.

He flew completely airborne without his broom for a moment and his hand closed around the swift golden ball.

As he started to drop down he hooked his arm around his broom and ran on the wall of the stands for a moment to help him swing back on.

If he thought that the stands were loud earlier then he was sorely mistaken.

He clutched his free hand to the ear that was the closest to the source of the noise that exploded around him.

The next thing he knew someone had grabbed him. Howling with pride and happiness, Oliver buried his head into Isaac's neck and happily wept.

The twins came next, patting him heavily on the back, and then Isaac realised something.

Oliver's broom was on the ground and the only thing keeping him up was their shared grip on each other.

"Oh shit," Isaac muttered as when he tried to get a response from Oliver he found that he had either passed out from excitement or from hyperventilating.

The twins took mercy on him and took the dead weight from him just as Oliver woke up.

As they approached the ground wave after wave of Gryffindors were flooding onto the pitch but just as soon as they had reached the ground they were immediately hoisted up onto the shoulders of the many Gryffindors.

Isaac laughed, hearing his team mates do the same as they were lifted up as well, until...

"OI! HANDS!" he cried, jerking slightly as he was carried.

Eventually, he was lowered to the ground with his team in front of Dumbledore, the silver cup in his hands gleaming in the sunlight.

A still sobbing Oliver passed Isaac the cup he lifted it into the air to more joyous cheers.

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Isaac groaned and let his head hit the table he was sat down at.

The euphoria of victory had lasted him throughout the week... but now he was wishing he could be back on his broom instead of reading until his eyes watered from the strain of revising for the exams.

Hermione was sat next to him and Isaac was finally able to fully appreciate his friends studying habits.

By the end of the first week of studying he had gotten through he had turned on the Gameboy and collapsed on Ben.

The exams were coming faster than Isaac had realised possible, and the tensions were starting to run high as everyone was studying as much as they could.

Even the twins could be found with ink splodges on their cuffs as they worked to write out study notes.

Adding onto Isaac's anxiety about the exams was the fact that the date for Hagrid's appeal was set for the day of their final exam and both Isaac and Hermione were hoping that there wouldn't be any hold ups so they could go and support Hagrid.

Hermione handed him the letter to read.

Isaac felt his blood boil slightly and he let go of the letter before he accidentally burnt it.

Aside from someone from the Ministry to check Buckbeak out they were also bringing the executioner with them. Isaac didn't have to have it spelt out for him that the case was already decided, no matter the outcome of the appeal.

When Isaac went to bed that night he took with him a hand sketched drawing of the grounds and started planning for how to sneak Buckbeak away before everything went wrong.

With everything that was going on around him, Isaac felt like he needed a way to relax...

L.J style.

The next morning he and Hermione were sat in the Great Hall, Hermione had a book for Arithmancy propped up against a milk jug, and the two of them sat in peace for a few minutes.

Until...

Small mutters seemed to ripple down the table as somebody walked into the Great Hall.

Isaac looked up and watched as a figure with a hood drawn tightly around their head walked into the Great Hall and sat down at the Slytherin table.

Isaac smirked to himself, knowing that it had worked. But he would have like to see the...

He sent a silent 'Thank You' to Draco.

The aforementioned Slytherin had started talking to the hooded figure.

"How bad could it be?" Draco said, just loud enough for it to be heard across the Hall, and pulled back the hood.

Pansy Parkinson was sitting at the Slytherin table with mucus yellow hair.

The shade had come out horrible as her hair hadn't been bleached first, but that just made the overall effect much, _much_ , better.

Parkinson went bright red, clashing horribly with her new hair colour, and raced out of the Hall amidst pearls of laughter; even a fair few of the Slytherins were laughing as well.

Isaac watched her run out before returning to his morning waffles and pancakes, still smirking.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder and he cocked his head to the side to look at Fred.

"Isaac... did you..." Fred started but Isaac just smirked harder, "You plead the fifth, don't you?"

Isaac gave him an innocent, tooth-filled, grin that did nothing to fool the twin and he returned to his breakfast.

The exam week started the week after and, to Isaac's slight irk, the combined efforts of Madam Pomfrey and Professor Snape managed to finally return Parkinson's hair to her natural shade.

Well... close enough that it _looked_ like it was her natural shade, parts still looked slightly yellow.

Isaac shook his sore wrist as they left the Transfiguration exam, listening to the mutterings of others as they lamented about where they felt like they had gone wrong.

Lunch that day was rushed by all as they had the Charms exam afterwards.

The next day provided Isaac and Hermione with the chance to talk to Hagrid as they sat through the Care Of Magical Creatures exam, which was easily the easiest that Isaac felt he would ever sit through as they had been tasked with keeping something that needed minimal care alive for an hour.

Hagrid seemed to be losing heart the closer it got to the day and Isaac wished that the appeal date was later so he would have more time to plot his break out.

So far he had been planning it with Ben almost nightly as they looked at a miniature version of Hogwarts. BRVR treating the entire thing as one big play house.

"So... Toby's a little annoyed," Ben said, crouching down and looking at the main entrance to the grounds.

"Why? What's happened?" Isaac asked, trying to tug the small miniature that Ben had made to represent Buckbeak from BRVR who was trying to use it as a chew toy.

"Really?" Ben looked up at him, "The dude who's been trying to kill you ring any bells?"

"Oh, right," Isaac said as he finally got the Buckbeak model from BRVR, minus a wing, "He was walking in the dorm room with a knife, it would have been a big problem if I hadn't done anything since he was apparently trying to kill me,"

Ben rolled his eyes and smiled up at his best friend.

"So what are you going to do?" he asked.

"Well, since the only person who would be able to prove his innocence is Pettigrew, who has vanished and can turn into a rat, if we can't find him then I have no idea.

But the back-up plan is just have him send letters in proclaiming his innocence until they agree to give him a trial under truth serum,"

Ben looked up at Isaac.

"They have actual truth potions?" he asked, looking torn between worry and wonder.

"Yeah," Isaac said, looking at paths through the forest, "But since the Dementors have been told to 'kiss on sight' I doubt that they'll ever listen to him,"

"Wait... 'Kiss' on sight?" Ben said as he stood up, "What does that mean?"

"From what I read, it's their biggest weapon," Isaac said, "The sort of... latch onto someone and suck their soul out,"

Isaac glanced over at Ben.

It was almost like he had frozen, only the faintest movements showed that he wasn't a statue.

Isaac reached over and shook him gently by the shoulder.

Ben started like he had been shaken awake from a deep sleep.

His hands fritzed and sheared like a broken video and Isaac caught the briefest glimpse of red in Ben's eyes.

"S-sorry. Zoned out there," Ben said.

"You alright?" Isaac asked as BRVR poked his head out from a tower's window and looked out to see what was happening.

"Yeah, just..."

What Ben was about to say Isaac didn't know because at that point a loud bang woke him and he jumped in his bed in Gryffindor Tower.

"BEN!" he cried as he bolted into an upright position.

He looked around to see that the noise had been the door being slammed shut and he groaned as he fell back onto the bed.

The smell of something burning filled the air and he quickly yanked the top drawer open to find small wisps of smoke coming from the Gameboy.

"Shit," Isaac said as he turned it off.

He closed the drawer back up and laid back on the bed.

He'd have to wait until the morning the next day to send the Gameboy back home to get fixed.

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Ben shakily righted himself as he clutched his head.

Not too far away BRVR was calling out in irritation at what had happened.

As soon as his headache had vanished Ben looked around the streaming lines of code and found that the pathway that he could use to get to the Gameboy fritzing erratically.

It sparked for a few more seconds before disappearing completely.

"Shit!"

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Isaac watched as Hedwig left with the small box containing the Gameboy as he turned to his toast and tried to remember what exam they had next...

Isaac left the Potions exam with a headache from the various fumes that had filled the air.

The exam had been halted temporarily when a cauldron, being manned by a certain red-head, let out a foul smelling and acid-green cloud that seeped through the air.

After that Isaac cramped his hand as he wrote down everything he knew about witch burnings in the History of Magic exam. As he left he sent a silent thanks to L.J as the clown had supplied him with a few interesting anecdotes from the time period, courtesy of Candy Cane and Candy Pop.

Isaac's last and final exam of the year came and, against all his beliefs, actually enjoyed this one.

Professor Lupin had assembled a sort of obstacle course out on the grounds.

They had to make it across a deep paddling pool that contained a Grindylow; get past a series of potholes filled with Red Caps; navigate a marshland and not get lured into a trap by a Hinkypunk, and climb into a trunk and fight a new boggart.

Isaac made it through everything with ease, even the Red Cap that jumped up at him didn't pose a problem as he kicked it across the field of potholes on reflex.

He made it to the end and climbed into the trunk.

It was dark inside, just how Boggarts liked it, and Isaac muttered Lumos to see.

He frowned for a moment as he faced a mirror...

Then he realised that the mirror wasn't frowning.

"Were you expecting something else?" the Boggart asked in his own voice.

"Holy crap," Isaac muttered, "Is my hair really that messy?"

The Boggart growled.

"Oh don't try scaring me," Isaac said, "Not going to work, faced worse, seen worse, live with worse,"

"And will _be_ worse," the Boggart said, "You really think you won't lose yourself?" a nasty sneer appeared on Boggart Isaac's face, one of his eyes sunk into nothing and left an empty hole in his head, "Your time is limited already, you know it, Toby knows it, it's only been his pity that _ever_ got him to care for you.

Ben knows it. He even wants to be the one to do it, you know. Put you down, I reckon he'll enjoy it," the Boggart let out another short and cruel huff of laughter, "Why you ever thought that he'd ever feel the..."

" _Ridikulus_!" Isaac hissed and where the Boggart once stood was a small circus monkey bowing with a tiny fez in his hands.

Isaac snickered with laughter as he climbed back out of the trunk.

Professor Lupin gave him a helping hand out and a small congratulatory smile.

Isaac hung around to watch Hermione go through the course.

He laughed as he watched Ron get lured into a rather muddy part of the swamp by the Hinkypunk and emerge covered head to toe in mud.

Ron left to go shower after he had faced the Boggart and, Isaac had no doubt about it, the boy was furiously red underneath.

He leant against a stone wall and it was only a muffled shriek that got his attention when Hermione came out of the trunk.

Professor Lupin managed to calm her down as Isaac came over and the two of them set off towards the castle.

"You alright?" Isaac asked, "What was it?"

"P-Professor McGonagall," Hermione squeaked, "She said – said that I failed everything,"

Isaac let out a small snort of laughter.

"Help me understand why that was so bad," Isaac said.

"If I... If I failed everything, I'd... I'd have to leave Hogwarts," Hermione said, shaking slightly, "They... they'd take my memories..."

Isaac turned and stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

"Hermione, I promise you, that you are way too fucking smart for that to ever happen," Isaac said and Hermione started blushing, "And if something ever happens that it would happen, then I won't let them,"

If Isaac thought that Hermione was blushing before then she most certainly was now.

The two of them started walking again when Isaac saw someone on the stairs.

"Oh... fuck all kinds of duck," he groaned.

Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic, was on the stairs to Hogwarts.

Isaac hoped that he and Hermione would be able to slip past him without getting noticed but, by the way that the man started, that was hoping or too much.

"Harry!" he said, overly cheerful for Isaac's mood.

"One," Isaac said, Hermione hovering slightly awkwardly behind him.

Fudge looked confused, "One... one what, Harry?"

"Two,"

Fudge looked very confused now.

"Alright... I take it that you've just had an exam,"

"Yes, Minister," Isaac said and Fudge seemed to inflate slightly at finally getting him to say something other than a number.

"Yes, well. I suppose you've heard about the appeal for the Hippogriff? Nasty business, yes.

Needed to check up on the Dementors situation on Black, you see," he said, sounding like it was a task beneath him, "Can't let Hogwarts go undefended, you know, not with _him_ on the loose. Might go after you and your friends, Harry, and..."

"Strike three, you're out," Isaac said, walking away from the man and into the entrance hall.

Hermione started a few seconds later, muttering an awkward hello to the flabbergasted Minister, and hurried to catch up with Isaac.

The two of them passed the other party members of the appeal group, a wizard that looked like a waft of wind would be too much and die from it, and a strapping man with a large blade hanging from his belt.

Isaac suppressed the urge to ram the shining piece of metal into the man's back as he and Hermione made their way into the Great Hall.

"He's already got the thing sharpened," Isaac said as they sat down.

Hermione gave some encouraging words but Isaac was only half listening as he planned how to kill the man.

True he probably wouldn't be able to do it... but it was fun to think of them anyway.

Isaac finally managed to get Hermione to relax a little before her Muggle Studies exam, she had taken that class just out of interest of how the Wizarding World views Muggles, and he was able to finally relax.

Hedwig still hadn't brought the Gameboy back and he wanted nothing more to collapse into a good sleep and chat with Ben.

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Professor Trelawney leaned back in her chair as she watched the last student she had to give the exam to leave.

She sighed as she stirred another lump of sugar into her tea, but before she could raise a hand to bring the cup to her mouth, she collapsed in her chair.

The room was empty as she spoke, no one there to hear her warning.

She jerked awake a few moments later, muttering to herself about dozing off.

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Isaac looked down at the note from Hagrid.

Blotchy writing, smudged by tears, told them of the failed appeal. Warning them not to come.

"Come on," Isaac said, giving the note to Hermione, "We're going to see him,"

Hermione watched her friend go upstairs, leaving her with a slightly smoking piece of parchment.

Needless to say, Hagrid wasn't too pleased that they had snuck out to see him but he didn't reprimand them further than saying that he had said not to come.

The helplessness in Hagrid's voice was worse than his crying, Isaac thought, and Hermione had to take over the tea duties when Hagrid dropped the milk jug when he tried to pour them a cup of tea.

Hagrid told him of how Dumbledore was coming down, how he didn't want Hagrid to be alone when it happened. Isaac asked if Dumbledore had managed to do something to help but Hagrid told him that Dumbledore didn't have the authority to overrule the committee.

There was silence for a few more moments as fat tears leaked out of Hagrid's eyes, the man doing nothing to stop them, not blinking or moving or speaking.

Isaac felt his hands heat up and he quickly hid them on his lap, below the table.

He liked Hagrid. True the man could be a little dim at times, but his passion for animals and overly kind nature was... Hagrid didn't deserve to have this happen to him.

He turned his hand over as a small flare of green rippled around his hand.

He jumped up, the flames going out, when Hermione shrieked.

"What is it?" Isaac said, looking around the room for any danger.

"I.. I don't believe it," Hermione turned around, a milk jug in her hands, "Isaac... it's _Scabbers_!"

Isaac did a double take and looked into the milk jug.

True to her word, Scabbers the rat was scrambling around the inside.

'Gotcha!' Isaac thought.

Hagrid leapt out of his seat at that point, pointing out the window.

"They're comin'," he said hoarsely.

Isaac looked out his front window and out to the grounds.

A small party was making their way down, and that beard was unmistakably Dumbledore's.

"I'll let yeh out the back," Hagrid said, pushing the two of them towards the door.

"No, Hagrid, listen..." Isaac started.

"Yeh've seen too much of this already," Hagrid said, crouching down so he was closer to their height, "God knows yeh shouldn't have, but I don't want yeh seeing this,"

Isaac gave a withering sigh.

It was pointless getting through to Hagrid now so he ended up being dragged out the door by Hermione.

The two of them waited for Hagrid to answer the front door before running around and back up the path to the castle, Buckbeak's cry following them as they did.

They reached the top of the hill, leaning against some of the large rocks there to catch their breaths, the milk jug holding Pettigrew as Scabbers still clutched to Hermione's chest.

Isaac lifted his head off the rock as a large number of crows took off into the air, accompanied by a loud thudding.

"They did it," Hermione said softly, putting the jug down.

Isaac nearly lost his footing as she threw her arms around his neck and cried into his shoulder.

Isaac patted her back as she cried and looked out towards the grounds.

A hollow sounding thud caught their attention and they looked over to see the jug fall over and Scabbers scramble out.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no," Isaac said in quick succession as he and Hermione chased after the rat.

He darted to the side, favouring Hermione in position, and she was able to dive and grab the squealing animagus.

"Don't worry, Scabbers," Hermione said and Isaac realised that he hadn't told her of who Scabbers really was, "There are no cats, you're..."

Hermione broke off with a gasp, pointing behind Isaac.

Isaac spun and there, standing on a boulder, was a large black dog.

"Oh, not now!" Isaac said through gritted teeth.

The Grim started barking and ran towards the two of them.

Isaac threw an arm up to try and push the dog away, but it was stronger than he had expected, and Isaac was knocked over; the dog's hot breath washed over him and caused his eyes to water slightly.

The dog leapt off Isaac and over him.

Isaac turned in time to see the dog grab Hermione's leg with its mouth and start dragging her away.

"No! No!" Hermione screamed, holding Pettigrew tightly with one hand, and reaching out for Isaac with the other, "ISAAC!" she cried as she was dragged towards a large tree that Isaac had seen on the grounds.

Isaac leapt forward, his hand just missing Hermione's.

"No! Hermione!" he shouted as he watched Hermione get dragged into a small hollow near the tree.

Her hand grabbed a root near the entrance as she was pulled inside but it snapped and she vanished.

Isaac scrambled to his feet and ran towards the tree.

Before he could get close to the hole something whipped around and he was thrown back.

Isaac jumped back to his feet and was about to try again when he saw what hit him.

He looked up at the tall limbs of the Whomping Willow, the incredibly angry tree that stood on the school grounds.

"Oh... shit,"

Isaac gritted his teeth and darted forwards again, aiming for the hollow.

He jumped and ducked between the branches as much as he could, Hermione's screams faint and distant now, but there were too many branches to dodge and another caught his legs before he was swept away.

Isaac stood up, rolled his neck, and flexed his hands.

Blue and green flames roared into existence and circled around his hands.

"I don't have time to deal with this, you over opinionated piece of kindling," Isaac growled.

Crookshanks darted out of nowhere, running straight at the tree.

Before the tree could hit him he had swatted at a root on the tree and the branches stopped, the tree frozen.

Crookshanks turned and meowed loudly at him.

Isaac hurried forward, his hands extinguishing themselves.

"Shut up," Isaac said, pointing at Crookshanks.

Isaac hoisted himself down into the hollow, the tight space under the tree led to a passage of filthy cobblestones, ancient and rotted leaves, and roots reclaiming the space.

Isaac held a hand out in front of him, the blue flames returning, and he used it to light his way forward.

The pale blue light flickering from a slight breeze told him that he wasn't trapped down there, there had to be an opening at the other end for the flames to be rippling like that in the slight breeze.

He came to the end, a trapdoor that was ajar slightly, and waved the flames away.

He quietly pushed the trapdoor open and looked around.

He was inside an old, dusty, damaged, and creaky house.

Fresh marks on the ground showed the way that Hermione had been dragged and the muffled sobs only confirmed it.

Isaac quietly ascended the stairs, finding the door that Hermione was behind.

He took his glasses off and stowed them safely in his pocket.

He shook his hands slightly to clear them of the dust that had gotten on them and let the flames wrap around them once more.

He squared himself before kicking the door open, causing the wood to groan like a man being hit in the face, and walking in.

Hermione was curled up in a corner, her jeans torn slightly and stained red from where the Grim had gotten her.

He hurried over to her, stopping just in time to not burn her before waving the flames away, and grabbed her by the shoulders. Crookshanks opted to jump up onto the bed against the wall of the room.

"Isaac!" she gasped, "No, you need to go, he's the Grim! He's an animagus!"

The door closed and there stood Sirius...

Clutching his face with both hands as something red leaked out from his nose.

"Did dou hav to kick it dat hurd?" he asked, muffled slightly by his hands.

"Did you have to stand behind it?" Isaac said, standing up and blocking Hermione from him.

Sirius tore a strip of fabric off his tattered robes and tied it around his head as a makeshift bandage for his nose.

"Ok, right," Isaac crouched down and turned to Hermione, "Listen, I need you too..."

"What have you done to him?" Hermione screeched at Sirius.

Isaac sighed and let his head drop down.

"You – You've confunded him!" Hermione said, pointing at Isaac, as she tried to stand.

"Stay off the leg," both Sirius and Isaac said.

"I... I don't believe this, Isaac, he's after you, why..."

"Who's Isaac?" Sirius asked, looking at the two.

"That would be me," Isaac said.

"Harry? Why are you..." Sirius started.

"I'm not Harry!" Isaac snapped at him, "Haven't been for years, my name is _Isaac_!"

Sirius looked sadly at him and Isaac rolled his eyes.

A frantic squeaking got his attention and he turned to talk to Hermione.

"Ok, you need to trust me, but give me Pett... Scabbers," he said.

"Scabbers?" Hermione said in a strained voice, looking more and more scared by the moment, "But..."

"Enough!" Sirius growled, "Just grab the rat so that I can finally end this once and for all!"

"Will you can it you bloody, overdramatic, hobo!" Isaac said, whipping his wand out and pointing it at Sirius.

He had been about to turn back to Hermione when the sound of running footsteps approached and Professor Lupin ran into the room.

" _Expelliarmus_!" he cried and Isaac's wand flew across the room.

"Oh for the love of..." Isaac trailed off, this was getting out of hand.

Hermione started getting close to hyperventilating as she saw Professor Lupin and Isaac crouched down on the floor next to her and tried to talk her through catching her breath.

Just as it looked like she had finally caught it again she looked up and started panicking again.

Isaac looked over and saw that Sirius and Professor Lupin had started hugging.

"No... no..." Hermione whimpered.

Professor Lupin let go of Sirius and turned to face them.

"Hermione..." he started but was cut off by the aforementioned girl.

"I... I can't believe it!" she sounded close to shouting.

"Hermione – " Professor Lupin started.

"You – You and... You and him..."

"Hermione, calm down," Isaac said in sync with his Professor.

Hermione grabbed Isaac and tried to pull him away from the two adults in the room, despite them being stuck in the corner.

"Hermione, please..." Professor Lupin said, sounding very tired.

Isaac took the chance to wriggle out of Hermione's grip and stand back up, the position he had been crouched in was hell on the knees.

"No! Isaac, get away from him, he's a _werewolf_!"

Isaac frowned down at Hermione and looked at Professor Lupin.

The faintly sheepish look on his Professor's face that mingled with a type of sorrow that sunk deep into his eyes was all the confirmation that he needed.

"Ok... coming back to that later..." Isaac said and Hermione looked at him like he was crazy, "Hermione, do you trust me?"

"W-what?" Hermione looked at him.

"Do you trust me?" Isaac asked again, slower that time, looking her in the eye.

She glanced around the room for a moment before closing her eyes and giving a quick, shaky, nod.

"Ok... then give me Scabbers," Isaac said and the rat went ballistic.

"W-what?" Hermione said again.

"Hermione, please, give me the rat," Isaac said, holding his hands out.

Hermione had been holding the rat close to her chest, tight enough so that he couldn't run away.

But now, she slowly held it out for Isaac. The squeaking intensified.

"Thank you," Isaac said, taking the rat and being careful to hold him in a way so that he couldn't get bitten.

"A while back," Isaac said, "I woke up when... when I dreamt that I was falling and I went to get a drink. When I got back I saw Sirius walking across the room.

I told him to go down, out of the dorm, and when I followed him he told me something.

Hermione, he didn't betray my... parents, Peter Pettigrew did,"

Hermione could do nothing other than look at him quizzingly, her urge for knowledge overriding her fear temporarily.

"Sirius tracked down Pettigrew to get revenge for my parents.

Pettigrew shouted that it was Sirius that betrayed my parents before blowing the street up and escaping as an animagus,"

"No," Hermione said softly, "He couldn't be,"

"And why's that Hermione?" Professor Lupin said, his tone as calm as it would be if they were in class.

"Because the Ministry records Wizards and Witches that can become animals, they have a register, we had a class on animagi near the start of the year with Professor McGonagall. I looked it up and Pettigrew's name was nowhere there,"

Professor Lupin nodded calmly and smiled.

"Yes, but what the Ministry didn't know was that there used to be three unregistered animagi running around Hogwarts," he said, "I won't deny that I'm a werewolf..." he grimaced slightly like even saying the word brought a foul taste to him, "... and it's because of me that they chose to become animagi,"

Isaac listened to Professor Lupin's tale of how he became friends with Sirius, Peter Pettigrew, and his father, James Potter.

He told them of how when he came to Hogwarts he had befriended the three of them and when they had figured out his lycanthropy they stuck by him and tried to find ways to make things better for him.

How they had become animagi.

"Now then, I think we had business to attend to," Sirius interrupted after a bit.

Isaac had actually forgotten that he was there, he was silent for so long.

Isaac handed Pettigrew over to Professor Lupin and he nodded to Sirius.

Lupin held the rat out on the edge of his arm and pointed his wand at him.

He muttered a spell that Isaac hadn't heard before and a bright flash hit Scabbers.

Scabbers was suspended in the air for a moment before he fell to the floor.

Hermione gasped and latched onto Isaac again as something akin to watching sped up footage played before them, the rat turning into a short, seedy, man with watery small, black, eyes.

When it was finished Crookshanks was hissing fiercely at the man before them and Professor Lupin and

"Hello, Peter," Professor Lupin said, quite calmly for the situation at hand.

"S-Sirius... R-Remus... my old friends..." Pettigrew's squeaky voice came when he stopped writhing on the floor.

He quickly tried to dart out of the room but Isaac's arm caught the back of his tattered coat and he pulled him back so he fell to the ground.

"N-no, p-please... no..."

"Shut up!" Sirius snapped at Pettigrew as Isaac let go of his collar, faint wisps of smoke floating around the side of his head.

Isaac sighed and rolled his eyes as Pettigrew tried to proclaim his innocence and that Sirius was back to kill him.

"... you've got to help me, Rem..."

He was silenced when a broken piece of an old chair leg hit him around the back of his head.

He collapsed in whimpers as Isaac tapped the scabby piece of wood against his side, waiting for him to try and talk again.

It was at that point that Hermione spoke again, asking how Sirius had known Pettigrew was Scabbers, and how he had gotten out of Azkaban without using Dark Magic.

"P-precisely, what I..." Pettigrew flinched again as Isaac raised the piece of wood.

"I was wondering about that too," Professor Lupin said and Sirius handed him the same picture that he had shown Isaac on that day.

"It's the one of the Weasley's in Egypt," Isaac muttered to Hermione who hadn't seen the picture.

Hermione let out a soft "oh," and the two of them turned back to the conversation in front of them.

"... together?"

"Yes, I think so," Professor Lupin said and the two of them pointed wands at the cowering man before them.

"Woah," Isaac said, "Wait, what did we miss and when did he get a wand?"

"It's mine," Hermione said quietly.

"And we are killing him," Sirius growled.

"Oh," Isaac said calmly.

"Y-you're going to kill him?" Hermione looked at the two men in front of them.

"Yes," Professor Lupin said, "After everything he's done, it's the least he deserves,"

Hermione looked aghast at the thought of a teacher doing such a thing.

"But... wouldn't you go to jail for it?" she asked.

Isaac was fairly interested to see where this was going so he stood slightly off to the side to make sure that Pettigrew didn't run off.

"Hermione, this man is the reason that two dear friends of ours are dead, and the reason that Isaac is..."

"Again, why the Isaac?" Sirius asked.

"It's his name, Sirius," Professor Lupin said, "Be nice,"

Sirius huffed for a moment, the only thing breaking the silence was a whimper of Pettigrew as Isaac moved the piece of wood quickly into his vision, toying with the man.

"But... then if you take him to the school... won't you clear your name, Mr Black?" Hermione said timidly.

"She has a point, Sirius," Professor Lupin said.

"I want him dead," Sirius said, "Do you know how long I've been waiting for this?"

"Sirius..." Lupin said.

"TWELVE YEARS! TWELVE YEARS OF IT! IN AZKABAN!" Sirius hollered.

By the look on Professor Lupin's face, this was not abnormal behaviour for the man.

"And him suffering that, and worse, would be hell on this earth," Professor Lupin said.

'Give him to my family, they'll show him hell on earth,' Isaac thought as Sirius looked down at the man in deep thought.

"Fine," Sirius said after a moment, throwing Hermione's wand back to her.

Professor Lupin nodded and conjured thin rope that bound Pettigrew, a gag also placed in his mouth, and he tied the other end of the rope to his wrist.

Isaac helped Hermione up and put her arm around his shoulders so he could take some of the weight off of her leg.

Sirius, with not much else to do, took the other end of the rope and handed Hermione's wand back to her.

"Sorry about the bite," he said as Hermione took it from him with shaky hands, "I was aiming for the rat, but..."

"I-it's fine," Hermione squeaked, "I d-don't think it's b-broken,"

Professor Lupin cleared his throat at that point and the odd convoy made their way out of the shack, Crookshanks leading the way downstairs and down to the trap door.

Isaac stifled a yawn with the back of his hand as he helped Hermione down the stairs.

This had been a long day and he was looking forward to getting some rest.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Phoenix, Arizona.

The man ran down the street as fast as he could.

He could hear the things laughter echoing towards him.

He could see the lights of cars ahead... if he could just...

Something wrapped around his ankle and he slammed hard into the ground, his head hitting the ground.

The figure walked over, eyes gleaming, as he stood above him.

The man awoke, his wrists and legs sore.

He tried to call out but found that something had been stuffed into his mouth, and judging by how cold his feet were it was probably his socks.

"Now then..." a voice overhead said, "Where were we?"

He struggled against whatever was holding him until a foot pressed against his chest.

"Uh-uh-huh," the figure said, wagging his finger as golden light shone dimly through the small crack his lips made as he smirked.

"Now, let's... hold on,"

The figure paused as a buzzing came from his pocket.

"Yello?" he said into his phone.

The figure took the time again to try and struggle against his bonds but found that the thin strands of gold coloured string cut into him and blood started rising from the new grooves in his skin.

"Sure, I can grab some," the figure said, turning and walking the other way, pacing around the man, "Why does he..."

He broke off with a sigh.

"Can we get a timer going for the next time that something... when did that one... let me guess, L.J?

Knew it, I'll go grab the stuff,"

The figure hung up on whoever had called him and turned to the man on the ground.

"Sorry, but I gotta run off," he said, and the string started releasing him.

The man started gasping with relief before the string condensed around his neck and twisted violently.

The Puppeteer picked the body up and tossed him into the water below.

The lake they were at was pretty much in the middle of a little cul-de-sac so it probably wouldn't take long for him to be found... when the sun came up anyway.

Teer rolled his shoulders and disappeared with a flash of his eyes.

 **(X) Back at The Mansion (X)**

Teer walked through the forest until he was close enough to The Mansion to not be affected by the defences that Slendy had around the place and disappeared again.

He settled down in the living room where most of the people who were still there were sat.

He looked around for the person that would go on to become the recipient of his recent 'purchase' and it didn't take long to find him.

Toby came through from the corridor that led to the Medbay, muttering to himself.

He stuttered over some of the words as he ticked and it looked like the sleeves he wore to prevent himself accidentally picking a vein open were duct taped around his arms.

"Here," Teer said to E.J.

"Alright, you gonna hold him?" he asked Jeff and Liu.

L.J was sat to the offside, not saying anything but there was a certain gleam in his eyes.

"... a-and if he's g-g-gotten-n... wait, what are you?" Toby broke off as Jeff and Liu grabbed his arms and held him in place so that his neck was visible.

"Hold still," E.J said, tapping a syringe in his hand.

"Wait, what are you..." he broke off as E.J pushed the syringe into his neck and pressed down on the plunger.

"What was that... woah... my hand is wavy..." Toby broke off, bringing his hand up and looking at it.

"Ok, bud," Liu said, "Let's go and have a lie down,"

"Why is the lie down?" Toby asked as Liu steered him towards the stairs, "Did the lie fall over?"

"Yes, the lie fell over," Liu said.

"I hope the lie is ok... but lies are bad so I hope it hurt... hehe, what's pain?

I don't feel pain, so does that mean that pain is real? Perhaps pain is an illusion... Is anything real then? Or are we all just a part of a system to provide the entertainment for others?"

L.J looked started biting down on his finger to keep himself from laughing.

Are these stairs real?"

Toby tested the last by bringing his knees up and causing himself and Liu to topple over and fall against them.

"Yep... they are real..." Toby trailed off, moving his arms and legs like he was trying to make a snow angel on the stairs.

"Please tell me that you got more valium than that," L.J said, looking at Liu trying to drag Toby up the stairs.

"Am I flying?" Toby asked as he was pulled up a few stairs, "I can fly!" he stage-whispered to himself.

"I think it's safe to say that Toby high on valium is not allowed to leave The Mansion," Jeff said as he sat back down on the couch.

"Can I get some of that to try and turn into candies?" L.J asked, taking the bag from the table.

"Go for it, you can find a way to make it work as a candy, then be my guest," E.J said as he sat down.

L.J looked in the bag, chuckled darkly, and disappeared in a small cloud of smoke.

Jeff reached over and turned the t.v. on, searching for something to watch.

 **(X) Five minutes later (X)**

Liu came back down the stairs.

"Has anyone seen Toby?"

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

End notes.

None of you can see me, but I have the biggest grin on my face right now.

And none of you can do a single thing about it.

So, I hope you enjoyed this weeks chapter, and I hope that the seven day, or 168 hours, or 10080 minutes, or 604800 seconds, wait is enjoyable.

Consider it my birthday gift to you,

See you next time,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

If any of these are wrong then please notify me of this so I can fix them.

If you have a favourite Creepypasta that has not made an appearance then message me or leave their name in a review.


	37. Chapter 37, Let's Do The Time Warp Again

Chapter 37, Let's Do The Time Warp Again!

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

'Cackles'

'Cackles some more'

'Giggles'

Hello again, how are you?

Did you enjoy the wait?

I hope you did.

So, I've been enjoying myself lately.

Had my birthday, found out that I share the date with Colin Baker, the sixth Doctor, and got so delirious when I was sick that I ended up talking to a friend about the two of us adopting a ghost.

So, as per, I'm delaying writing the story so I can answer your reviews.

Guest;

I thought a few people might like that, I didn't really see a lot of art or stories where they appear together so I thought it'd be kinda cool to do that.

I think that E.J has eaten worse that a spoilt rich girl, he'd probably view it as a piece of exotic cuisine... though he might still end feeling a little sick afterwards nonetheless.

Ben is fine, don't worry.

I think you starve a Dementor to kill them, I don't know if that's true but since they need to feed then it's probably one way to do it. Yeah, that fan might be broken after Isaac is done at Hogwarts.

Jeff doesn't give up, he's just patient if he wants to toy with you.

Oh, did a new Dead By Daylight chapter come out, gotta go check it out.

DarkRavie;

Thanks, glad you like it.

Lunarwolf11021;

Ok, this started out funny, but now I wish I hadn't read it, are you ok?

What's happening? And don't you dare give up!

Katoptris12;

Thank you. I kinda imagine Isaac in some scenes to just be standing off to the side and treating the whole situation as a drama show and wishing he had a bowl of popcorn.

Sweet Smilie;

The punch is always going to be one of my favourite changes from the book to movie translation, but I think I'll hold off on Hermione breaking someone's nose until later... now who to have her punch?

The Gameboy broke because of the feedback from Isaac suddenly waking up without Ben knowing it was going to happen. When Ben normally wakes Isaac up that way he's able to handle the power flow, but he needs to be aware of it happening. Don't worry, I fix that problem this chapter.

Seamus had crouched down to tie his laces and when he was done he used Isaac's trunk to help him stand up, like the railing on stairs, and Fizz bit him because he thought that he was going after Isaac's stuff.

With how I've been writing them it made sense, plus it's a school, people are going to gossip.

It's been made, and recorded, just no one knows about it yet.

... did _you_ take valium there?

Aah, right, synonym, got it.

Liu just finds it fun to make people squirm sometimes.

Thunder-Death;

Thank you.

Why wouldn't I have, I think it's fairly known I'm interested in the HP/CP crossovers.

.549;

I had so much fun writing high-Toby, I had to take regular breaks to stop giggling.

MyraZinshu;

It's ok, I'm kinda glad that you posted it like that because otherwise I would have had to explain it with an offhand comment, or something, later in the chapter.

ButteredCroissan;

Thanks, now I want a croissant, I'm hungry as all hell.

I love that line, XD

" _All I know is that to me, You look like_ _you're_ _lots of fun, Open your lovin' arms, Watch out here I come,_ "

Yes, I love it when I leave things on a cliffhanger. There have been times in the past where I almost left things on a cliffhanger a few times in the past, but the word count was too low so I kept going.

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Just to let you, and everyone else, know... I'm sitting here with a very smug grin on my face and clapping with my tongue sticking out.

Thank you, kinda interested to re-read all the chapters on my laptop now and see how my writing has changed over time.

Honebar;

Thank you, it's always nice to hear that people like this. It helps me keep going.

Hehe, yeah, I really enjoyed having Isaac hit Pettigrew around the head with the chair leg.

One of the main bits I was worried about when writing this was how different I would be making Isaac from his canon self. More confident, that's for sure, more dark and grim, definitely. But it was always something I worried about.

As much as I like Ron, the way that this story has gone won't be very nice to him. I've got some ideas about what I might do, but I haven't decided on anything yet. Same goes for Draco, no idea what I might do there.

I'm glad that you think I've been doing the Creepypastas justice in all this.

I _LOVED_ writing Toby on Valium, you're getting the final bit of that today, and it is gonna be fun!

I've heard the song based off of him, 'God Syndrome', but I haven;t read his story yet... yet...

Ok, that's them.

Having fun doing... whatever it is you do when I'm not taking up your time with this story, DP?

Well, I work as a waitress and I do roller derby. What about you SG?

Me? I've just finished College and now I'm trying to find a job, going to a BBQ this weekend, managed to find my dad's metal detector so that should be fun.

Ok then, time for the story.

Hope you enjoy it,

SteamGeek01.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Hulett, Wyoming.

The masked man stood vigil just inside the doorway.

Eventually, the sounds of thuds, grunts, and...

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Oh, I also forgot that I've hit 200+ favourites on the story.

That was a nice thing to see on the page.

Thank you all for supporting me through this. :)

It was even better when I hit the 14:15 Favourite to Follower ratio.

That was awesome to see considering that the followers are in the 220's.

Ok, I'll let you get to the story now.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Hulett, Wyoming.

The masked man stood vigil just inside the doorway.

Eventually, the sounds of thuds, grunts, and roars of rage went silent.

His partner came down the stairs and tapped him twice on the shoulder.

"We good here?" Masky asked.

Hoodie nodded, adjusting his balaclava so that he could see better after it had been grabbed during the fight.

The two of them looked down the road before removing their masks and stowing them safely inside their jackets or hood pocket.

They were just about to cross the bridge that would take them back to the Slenderport when Masky's phone started buzzing.

"Speak," he said as he brought it to his ear.

Masky stopped in the middle of the road they were crossing over, Hoodie having to pull him before he got hit by a car.

Before they had reached the curb, Masky exploded.

"YOU THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO GIVE HIM WHAT?" he shouted into the phone.

"Please tell me that he's still there?" he asked, bringing a hand up to massage his forehead.

Every muscle in his body froze, his hand was stuck on his head, he tilted to the side slightly because he had been about to take another step.

The only things that moved were his eyes, widening in either shock or horror.

"Where is he?"

Hoodie tilted his head and frowned at his friend, wondering what was going on.

Judging by his attitude it was probably something to do with Toby.

He had just been about to ask what was happening when Masky hung up, grabbed his arm, and pulled him so that he had to run beside him as the two of them legged it towards the Slenderport.

"Shit, shit, shit..." Masky kept up a constant stream under his breath, "E.J for some goddamn reason thought that a good way to get Toby to calm down would be to drug his ass with valium,"

"Crap," Hoodie said.

"It gets better," Masky said, "Apparently he's snuck out, somehow, and now both him and L.J are missing,"

"Crap," Hoodie said.

The two of them had just run through the Slenderport and were halfway down the path to The Mansion when E.J, Jeff, Liu, Teer, and Ben ran out of through the doors. There was a camcorder hanging from Ben's neck.

"We found them," E.J shouted to the pair.

Masky growled in frustration as the two of them spun around, sending bits of grit and gravel flying, and ran back into the forest after the pair.

Masky and Hoodie followed them through a port.

"Alright," Ben said, part of his hand glitching as he worked on his phone, "They're this way,"

All of them ran after him as fast as their legs could carry them.

As they ran down the streets of Amarillo Masky's thoughts went back to what Liu had told him over the phone.

1, Toby was high on valium.

2, Both he and L.J had gone missing.

3, Some of the 'go-kits' that Toby kept in his room were missing.

The fact that Toby had everything from enough food to last a small family a week to enough of his own remedy explosives to level a hotel meant that they were either going to find the two of them somewhere they shouldn't be asking each other completely idiotic questions and surrounded by empty junk food wrappers.

Or somewhere they shouldn't be and surrounded by fire while they cackled their heads off _and_ asking each other completely idiotic questions and surrounded by empty junk food wrappers.

"Should be just up ahead," Ben said, turning down a road and stopping in front of a tall building.

"Hey guys!" a raspy voice called down from above.

L.J and Toby were on the top floor of the building, their legs swinging in the air as they sat on the ledge and looked down.

Masky was about to start shouting at them when something fell down and hit him in the face.

He growled again and rubbed the remaining crumbs that the biscuit had left off his face before glowering up at the pair.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU TWO THINKING?" he shouted up.

"WHAT?" L.J shouted back down.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU TWO... for fuck's sake, Teer, go get them,"

Teer nodded and just as he had been about to go up there Toby called down.

"No, no, no," he said, slurring the words slightly, "Stay there,"

If it weren't for the fact that Toby still might have a tonne of explosives up there with him then he might have laughed at the sound of Toby slurring enough to make it sound like he had a lisp and whistled when he said something.

"Y-you're just in time to see my grand reveal," Toby called down, jumping to his feet. The only thing that kept him from falling over was the arm L.J quickly threw out to stop him.

"Do we want to know what he's revealing?" Ben asked, backing away from the building on instinct.

Everyone else decided to follow suit.

"BEHOLD!" Toby screamed out to the city as he paced a wobbly path around the ledge of the building, "I AM INFERNUS! GOD OF FIRE AND... wait... IS THAT MY KING?"

Liu started blushing as a few of the bystanders looked his way as Toby started cooing down.

"YOOHOO, HI!"

"Where did he get the flower crown?" Teer asked, peering up at the colourful band around Toby's head.

"Anyway... BEHOLD, I AM INFERNUS! GOD OF FIRE AND DESTRUCTION!

WITNESS ME!"

He took a grey box with what looked like a long silver stick out of his pocket.

"Oh shit! Back up! Back up!" Masky grabbed the necks of E.J and Ben and pulled the two of them away from the building, everyone else following suit after them.

They turned just in time to see Toby slam his hand on the box.

"AWWWW..." Toby's whine could be heard from the other side of the street where they had taken cover behind a parked car.

Toby started shaking the box before hitting it repeatedly, "COME ON, YOU STUPID! USELESS! PIECE OF..."

Toby and L.J toppled out of sight as the entire building shook. Flames burst through each and every window sending shards of glass raining down to the ground below as the small amounts of people that had gathered to watch ran away, screaming in terror.

Masky stuck his head up slightly.

Toby was back on the ledge, L.J hanging over with only his long arms keeping him from falling.

"TEER, GET THEM OUT OF THERE!" he shouted as Toby wobbled again as flames slowly began encasing the building, each burst of fire danced along the outside of the building.

Teer disappeared from just behind him.

"Oh... Specs is gonna love this!" Ben said.

Masky turned to face him but the blonde had moved out into a more open part, the camcorder held to his face as he recorded the mayhem above.

"BEN!" Masky shouted.

Ben started laughing as Teer grabbed Toby and disappeared again.

The grunt and thud from somewhere to his right told him that Teet had successfully gotten him down. L.J appeared in a cloud of black smoke a few seconds later.

The flames seemed to simmer down for a moment, what felt like a breeze passed over them before another large explosion tore the building apart.

The roof caved in on itself and the resulting crash sent dust, ash, burning rubble, fire, and every other possible thing one could expect from a Toby induced explosion out into the street.

Ben barely managed to get into the camcorder to protect himself and when things had settled... well, were less likely to blow up again, he climbed back out only to come face to face with a rather angry looking Masky.

"You know... I think I'll just be..." Ben darted under his arm before he could grab him and started running back to where the Slenderport was, ignoring the angry shout of "BEN!" as he clutched the camcorder to his chest.

Masky gritted his teeth and walked back over to the group.

"Get him back to the Mansion," he told Teer, pointing to Toby who was leaning against Liu and muttering under his breath.

By how red Liu's face was getting, Masky didn't want to know what Toby was saying.

Teer nodded and carefully extracted Toby from Liu and the two of them vanished.

Hoodie abruptly turned face and stared down the road.

A few seconds later sirens and horns could be heard coming their way and they all took that as their sign to get the hell out of there.

They'd leave it to Ben to alter any footage of them being there.

With everything happening in the streets it took them little over an hour to get back to The Mansion.

Teer was waiting for them on the top of the steps as they walked down the path.

"Slendy says he's blocked Toby from leaving," he told them, "... and that the next time we plan to give anyone valium it has to be checked by him first,"

If E.J was capable of blushing out of embarrassment then he probably would have.

"So where is the drugged up idiot?" Jeff asked.

"Left him sleeping in the Medbay," Teer said, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm tired,"

He disappeared again and everyone went back to their separate things.

Masky and E.J went to go make sure that Toby hadn't gotten into more trouble with the things that he kept in there.

The two of them panicked for a moment when they found the room empty.

E.J had been about to leave when Masky noticed a green note on the desk.

He walked over and picked the small piece of paper up, reading it out to E.J.

"Got bored, decided to tidy up," Masky said.

E.J frowned for a moment before concentrating and looking around the room again.

The floor was swept.

The beds were all made.

And when he got to the cupboards they had all been re-arranged, tidied up, and organised.

Even the bio-hazard bucket in the corner had been emptied and the lining changed.

He looked over at the note that Toby had written and...

"How come his handwriting gets better when he's off his rocker?" E.J asked, astounded at the neatly written note that could almost be described as graceful.

"We should go find him," Masky said and E.J followed him out of the room, nodding.

 **(X) Half an hour earlier (X)**

Ben ran up the stairs, gasping for air for a moment before phasing into a more spectral form so that he didn't have to deal with things like shortness of breath.

He started giggling to himself as he remembered Toby's almost drunk-looking declaration of him being a god as he opened the door to his room.

The smell of something burning wafted through the now open door.

He changed back into a solid form when he saw Toby sitting at his desk, small wisps of smoke floating from in front of him.

"Toby?" Ben asked, slightly worried about what was happening.

"The... thingy had a few blown resistors, plus a couple of fuses..." he said, slightly slurred still, "So I fixed the... thingy and put an overload... I don't know what they're called... thingy in to protect it,"

Toby stood up and let the soldering iron fall onto the table, sending Ben scrambling to grab it before it swung into the fairly flammable things that were around his desk.

By the time Ben had turned the soding thing off Toby had left again.

He sighed and turned to the dismantled Gameboy on the desk and...

He frowned and ducked his head closer to look at the repair job that Toby had done.

It was... actually well done, nearly without a single flaw.

He carefully picked up the circuit board and looked it over.

Toby was no newbie to doing stuff like this, he built all the things for his explosives after all, but with his ticks, there would always be little scuff marks from where the soldering iron hit the board, or how he used too much solder most of the time.

This was... it could almost be mistaken for factory level precision.

Masky and E.J searched the entire of the ground floor.

So far all they had found was that the kitchen had been tidied up.

All the stray weapons in the 'armoury' (the biggest closet on the ground floor) had been put away properly.

Even the remote's for the t.v. were on the coffee table in the middle of the room and any magazines were stacked neatly at the side.

"This is just... weird," E.J said.

"Uh-huh," Masky agreed.

Eventually, they found Toby asleep in his own bed.

"Remind me... why we haven't killed him before now?" E.J asked.

"'cause he's good at what he does," Masky said, "Plus, it'd be pretty dull without him around,"

"Aww," E.J said, causing Masky to glower at him, "Did the wizard finally give you your heart?"

Masky responded by hitting him sharply around the head, causing E.J to headbutt the doorframe.

"Ow!" he hissed, rubbing the part that had connected with the wood, "Jackass!"

"Bite me," Masky grumbled as he walked off for a smoke.

Now though, he thought as he stood outside and watched the next build-up of ash fall away, that might not have been the smartest thing to say to a cannibal.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Hogwarts.

Isaac groaned as he opened his eyes, the lights overhead hurt to look at.

"Shocking business... shocking... miracle none of them died..."

Isaac groaned as his barely conscious mind connected the voice to a rather portly, and irritating in his opinion, man with a lime green bowler hat.

"Thank you, Minister," a second voice joined in.

Snape's.

Isaac forced his eyes to stay open and found that someone had taken his glasses off and, going by the now familiar feeling of the bed below him, he was in the hospital wing... again.

He turned to look around the room and found that Hermione was looking over at him, her eyes wide.

"... and I assume now that he has been re-captured that he will finally be given a trial?" Professor Snape's voice drifted over to him again.

"No, no, no," Fudge said, "After all he's done, he shall be receiving the Dementor's Kiss immediately!"

Isaac could just barely see Hermione's eyes as they went wide in shock.

"Sir, not that it's my place to... question you, but don't you think that it might be time for justice to..."

"You are quite right, Severus, it _is_ time for justice to be served, and Black will finally pay the penalty for his crimes," Fudge cut him off, his pompous tone slowly cutting through the last of Isaac's nerves, "After all, during the meeting when you were informed of the Dementors coming to Hogwarts, you were quite vocal of the idea for them to be given such a command in the first place,"

"Yes, Minister, but after being given time to properly consider the situation..."

"There is nothing else to consider," Fudge said with a slightly shaken tone of finality, "Macnair is getting the Dementors now, and soon the public terror that is Sirius Black will be no more,"

'Sirius?... oh, right...' Isaac closed his eyes and tried to get comfy again.

His eyes shot open and he bolted into a sitting position, everything coming back to him.

The Shack.

Proving Pettigrew was Scabbers.

Sirius joking about how his father had once suggested that he stay as a dog...

"... the tail I could live with, but the fleas... they're murder..."

How Sirius had offered for him to come live with him.

Getting out of the tunnel.

Professor Lupin transforming.

Sirius and Professor Lupin fighting in their animal forms.

Professor Lupin running off and Sirius collapsing at the lake as the Dementors closed in.

Hermione collapsing next to him as he tried to fight them off.

Dropping to his knees as one got too close.

Something bright and...

His head started hurting as he tried to remember what happened next.

"... you say that the Dementors were already back at their posts when you got down there?"

"Yes, sir," Professor Snape said in an icy tone that Isaac knew the dangers of, but Fudge didn't seem to be paying proper attention.

Isaac swung his legs over the edge of his bed and was already tying his laces when Madam Pomfrey made her way over to them through the dimly lit ward.

Across from him, he could see Hermione beginning to get up as well.

"AH! Absolutely not!" she flicked her wand in his direction and his shoes untied and flew off his foot.

Before Isaac could protest he had already been forced into a sitting position on the bed.

"No, you don't under... holy crap," he broke off as Madam Pomfrey placed what looked like a small boulder's worth of chocolate on his bedside table and broke a piece off with a small hammer.

"Eat," she commanded and held out a piece.

"No, Ma'am, I've got to... argumph!" he glared at her slightly as when he had been protesting she had pushed the piece into his mouth.

Isaac spat it into his hands and resumed his attempt to put his shoes on.

Madam Pomfrey huffed and had been about to perform the charm again when the doors opened.

Professor Snape was striding into the room, a flabbergasted Fudge that had been talking to the man moments ago following after him once he had gotten over his shock.

"Rogers!" he said sharply, getting Madam Pomfrey to turn and glower at him slightly, "What happened?"

"Really, Severus?" Madam Pomfrey said, "Can this wait until after he has..."

"He has been resting for the better portion of an hour, this matter is..."

"Ron's pet rat, Scabbers, is an animagus," Isaac said, causing Madam Pomfrey to sigh and go back to the chocolate boulder, "He's really Peter Pettigrew, Sirius is innocent,"

Hermione nodded as he spoke, "It's true, sir," and Professor Snape turned to face the minister, an eyebrow raised questioningly.

"T-t-the boy could be confounded," the Minister said, "Black would have wanted things to be easier when he tried to kill him,"

"Better than him have tried," Isaac said, "And he's innocent,"

Fudge shook his head, letting out a small chortle.

"No, Black is most definitely guilty, he..."

"And did he ever receive a trial?" Isaac cut him off, "Because when I searched for one I found jack shit!" Madam Pomfrey jumped slightly and missed the boulder, turning to look at him disapprovingly, "And by what you've said to Professor Snape, he isn't being given one now either, is he?"

Fudge looked at him in what could be described as an adult pitying a small child trying to understand something that the adult thought was beyond them.

Isaac wanted to punch the man's face in until it was singed black and bruised blue and red.

"Harry, my boy..."

"Call me Harry again, and I will castrate you with _fire_!" Isaac snapped.

Fudge went extremely red in the face, he seemed to swell with indignation.

Before he could say anything the Hospital wing doors opened again and Professor Dumbledore strode slowly in.

"Aha," Fudge said smarmily, "Albus..." the portly man walked over, "You can clear this up.

Sirius Black is guilty, yes?"

Professor Dumbledore regarded the man in front of him.

"He has just told me a rather interesting story," Dumbledore said.

Fudge spluttered indignantly.

"And what would that be?

The same cock-and-bull story he's fed Potter..."

" _Rogers_ ," Isaac gritted out but was ignored.

"... and the Granger girl?

About... about... Pettigrew being an animagus, and him being the Secret Keeper for Harry's parents..."

Dumbledore's eyes briefly darted to Isaac's bed as something blue and green flared momentarily in his hands.

"That is indeed his story," Dumbledore said, "And, given the severity of if he is correct, I take it that the Ministry will be opening a court case to look into the matter?"

Fudge gaped at Dumbledore.

"Most certainly not!" he said, his cheeks shaking as he spoke, "After all the trouble that Black has caused... Dumbledore, _you_ yourself gave testimony that he was the..."

"How could I have given testimony if he has, as Mr Rogers pointed out, never received a trial?" Dumbledore asked.

Fudge spluttered.

"Now, the order for Black to be given the kiss on sight still stands, as such..."

"Perhaps the case might be better handled if I supplied Veritaserum," Professor Snape threw his two cents into the conversation, "I have a dose ready and shall..."

Fudge flapped the man down.

"T-t-t-that would be out of the question," he stammered, "The use of Veritaserum would have to be... to be decided by the Wizengamot... and to call a meeting at such short notice... not to mention the brewing time per council regulations...

The answer is no!" he said firmly.

"Sirius Black _will_ be kissed, tonight! On Hogwarts grounds, and that is final!"

His jowls quivered as he spoke, small bits of spit forming on the edges of his lips.

He jammed his lime green bowler on his head and left without another word.

"Severus, Poppy," Professor Dumbledore said once the portly man had left the room, "Might I have a word with Mr Rogers, and Miss Granger, in private?"

"Headmaster," Madam Pomfrey said, sounding slightly agitated, "They need rest," she protested.

"This shall not take long," Professor Dumbledore promised her.

Madam Pomfrey regarded him with pursed lips but retreated to her office nonetheless.

"I shall go and see if I can delay the arrival of the Dementors," Professor Snape said, leaving the room.

"Sirius is innocent,"

"Professor, Mr Black is..."

Professor Dumbledore raised a hand to silence the two.

"I believe you..." he said, to which Isaac muttered a barely audible 'Thank fuck,'.

"... but his actions are not those of an innocent man.

I have no authority to overturn his sentence and, in the eyes of the Ministry, the testimony of two children will not hold much to sway their minds,"

"But what about Professor Lupin?" Hermione asked, "He was there, he can..."

"Mr Lupin's affliction will cause many of the Wizengamot to look down upon him, worse than they would do you two; and the man would not be available until the morning, far too late for him to claim testimony.

What we need... is more _time_ ," he focused on Hermione.

Hermione's mouth turned into a perfect circle and Isaac looked between the two in confusion.

"Sirius Black is locked in the seventh floor, Professor Flitwick's office. Thirteenth window from the right of the West Tower.

If you should succeed then more than one innocent life might be spared this night,

But be warned, Mrs Granger, you know the law – you know what is at stake... _you – must – not – be – seen._ "

Isaac looked at Hermione, dumbfounded as he did not have a clue what was going on.

"It is now... five minutes to midnight," he said, checking his pocket watch, "I am going to lock you in, three turns should do it. Good luck,"

Isaac watched him go and as he approached the door Hermione pulled out a fine gold chain from around her neck.

"Isaac, come here," she said as she pulled the chain out until it was long enough to go around both their necks.

"Erm... Isaac is confused," he said as Hermione tugged on his arm to get him to stand up, "Isaac is very confused,"

Hermione stuck the chain around their necks and Isaac caught sight of an hourglass pendant.

When he tried to pick it up to examine it Hermione slapped his hand away.

She picked it up and turned a small dial on the side, causing the hourglass in the middle to turn three times, and then...

"Woah, what the..."

Isaac looked around the Hospital wing as everything seemed to be blurring out. People passed by once or twice, but they were moving backwards.

The whole thing was tied together with the sensation that he was flying but his feet never left the ground.

The light seemed to flare and flash for a moment before things returned to normal, except...

"Wait... it was night, and now it's day," Isaac said.

"Come on," Hermione said as she pulled on his arm and dragged him towards a nearby supply closet.

Isaac jerked out of her arm, looking at the sunlight streaming inside.

"Explain, now," he said carefully.

Hermione looked around.

All of the colour seemed to drain out of her face as footsteps started echoing down the stairs.

"Isaac, please," she begged, eyes wide as she grabbed his arm and pulled him into the closet.

"Explain, now," Isaac repeated.

Hermione fumbled with the chain and pulled out the hourglass pendant.

"Isaac, this is a time turner," she said, "I've been using it all year, it's how I've been getting to classes all year,"

Isaac held up a hand to stop her.

"Wait, a time turner?" he said, "As in... it turns back time?"

"Yes," Hermione nodded, "Professor McGonagall vouched for me to get it and said I couldn't tell anyone..."

Isaac thought back to when he had asked Fizz what Hermione had been doing and he had jumped between the clock on the wall to his books before climbing back up to the clock and jumping again.

Made a lot more sense now.

"... that going to help Sirius?"

Isaac shook his head a little as he realised that Hermione had kept talking when he hadn't been paying attention.

"Ok, right, well... what did he say?

More than one innocent life might be saved?

Well... who else was going to die?"

He saw Hermione's shadowy face screw up in concentration.

"Buckbeak!" she said suddenly before she clamped her hands to her mouth, "Isaac, we can save Buckbeak!"

Isaac nodded.

"Ok, how does saving a hippogriff save Sirius? Unless..."

A light bulb went off in Isaac's head and his small frown split into a toothy grin.

Hermione looked slightly fearful at him.

"Oh, I really don't like flying," she said softly.

The sound of footsteps on the floor outside passed them by and she moved past Isaac to look out the door.

"We're gone," she said, turning to Isaac.

"Wait, 'we're' gone? What does that... oh, right, back in time," Isaac said, "So was that us going to Hagrid's?"

"Yes," Hermione said, "We've just left the hall,"

"So we're going to follow ourselves down to Hagrid's and free a hippogriff, awesome," Isaac said.

"Yes, but we can't be seen," Hermione said.

"Wait, what does that mean?" Isaac asked, 'Why does time travel have to be so complicated?'

"Isaac, what would you think you would do if you saw yourself?" Hermione asked.

Isaac thought for a moment.

"Knowing me... probably flirt with myself,"

Hermione scoffed in laughter against her will.

"What? C'mon, look me in the eye and tell me I wouldn't," Isaac said before sighing, "But yeah, nothing good would come of it,"

"Exactly, there are stories of wizards who have tried to change the past, and none of them end well. Awful things happen to them," Hermione said, "We need to get to Buckbeak, get him out of there before he's killed, and after the appeal group have seen him so they know that Hagrid hasn't set him free, then wait until Sirius has been locked up... fly..." she gave a small shudder, "... and then set him free,"

Isaac let out a low whistle as he and Hermione snuck across the flagstone floor, "This is gonna be fun,"

Isaac and Hermione paused by the large rocks that stood on top of the hill that overlooked the area where Hagrid's house was to check how far behind themselves they were.

Seeing that the coast was clear they moved further along, sticking to the treeline.

"Yeh shouldn've come," Hagrid's hoarse voice came from his house before he shut the door quickly.

"Oh, that's weird," Isaac said as he watched himself sit down at Hagrid's table.

"I know," Hermione said, "And then Hagrid breaks the milk jug,"

True to her timing a smashing sound came from the house.

"And then you go get the jug that has Pettigrew in it... man, why couldn't we be able to lure ourselves and Hagrid out and then torch the place to kill that rat?" Isaac lamented.

"It's _Hagrid's home_! Would you really do that?"

"There's nothing wrong with a little cleansing fire to help the spring cleaning along,"

A few minutes later the chatterings of the appeal group drifted to them and they were forced to hide in the trees to avoid themselves running into them.

Isaac was starting to get a headache from all this.

"Right, come on," Isaac said as the door shut.

He hurried forward towards the paddock where Buckbeak was chained.

Buckbeak let out a low squawk as Isaac approached.

It was a tense few seconds before Buckbeak bowed back to him and Isaac was able to move close enough to untie the chain from the post.

"C'mon," Isaac hissed at Buckbeak, tugging on the chain to get him to move.

Buckbeak squawked again and snapped his beak at him, getting up reluctantly.

"Come on, Buckbeak," Hermione said, joining Isaac at his side. Around her neck was a string holding dead ferrets, the same that Hagrid had been using to reward the hippogriffs on the first Care of Magical Creatures class, "Come and get the nice, dead, ferret,"

She tossed one to Buckbeak and the hippogriff started moving faster under the prompting of treats.

For a moment it looked like they wouldn't be able to get away as the committee opened the door but, by luck, Dumbledore distracted them for a moment by pointing out a ling of strawberries planted by a previous headmaster and they were able to sneak Buckbeak into the Forbidden Forest and out of sight.

They were able to get Buckbeak to hide behind a small divot in the trees that might have been a long dried river as they listened to the angry noises coming from Hagrid's house.

"Where is it?" a reedy voice called through the trees, "Where is the beast?"

"It was tied here! I saw it! Just here!"

Isaac bit down on his tongue to stop himself laughing at the furious shouting of the executioner.

"How extraordinary," an amused Dumbledore said.

A loud thudding came through the trees and Isaac could just see the axe of the executioner stuck in a post in Hagrid's fence.

Isaac's face split in a wide smirk as he watched the small glimmer of the man's outraged face as Dumbledore pointed out the flaw in the man's plan of searching the grounds to find the man that had freed Buckbeak.

"Macnair, if Buckbeak really has been stolen, do you think the thief will have led him away on foot? Search the skies if you will...

Hagrid, I could do with a small cup of tea, or a large glass of brandy,"

"Yeh'll find no small glasses in here, Professor,"

Isaac tapped Hermione on the shoulder to get her and Buckbeak moving again just in case that Macnair searched the ground anyway.

"Right, we've got Buckbeak, what's next?" Isaac asked.

"We wait until Sirius is in Professor Flitwick's office, get him out, get back to the Hospital Wing before anyone can figure out we're gone," Hermione said, flinching as Buckbeak made a quick grab for another ferret on the string.

Isaac let out a sigh.

"Wish we had some cards,"

As they moved closer to the Whomping Willow to be able to see when they would emerge later on they heard the cheery singing of Hagrid as he made his way back to the castle.

Buckbeak squawked sadly as he tried to get to the giant of a man that had been taking such good care of him but Isaac and Hermione held him back.

Buckbeak whined and started pawing at the dirt when Hagrid had passed and Isaac took up stroking him to keep him appeased enough to not run off.

"ISAAC!"

Isaac jumped at the sound of Hermione screaming his name in fear before he realised it wasn't Hermione, but Hermione... well, the past Hermione was the one screaming his name right now, not the Hermione that had travelled back with him, but they were the same Hermione so it was...

Isaac sat back down again as his head started to hurt.

"We're in the tree?" he asked Hermione, refusing to think about it again.

"I've just been pulled in... your hands are on fire," Hermione said.

Isaac frowned and looked down at his hands.

He made a low hum of realisation when he realised that while Hermione was talking about him, she was, in fact, talking about...

Isaac shook his head before his thinking gave him a migraine.

"And now, we wait," Isaac said, moving to sit next to Hermione.

Buckbeak gave another squawk as he realised that he was no longer receiving attention and returned to pawing at the dirt for worms to eat.

As the night got closer Isaac lit one of his hands to keep them warm and they hid the flames mostly from sight by the sitting at the base of a tree.

"Isaac..." Hermione asked a few moments later, leaning around the tree to see what was happening.

A few minutes earlier Professor Lupin had come running onto the grounds and immobilized the Whomping Willow before moving into the small tunnel at the base. Now they were waiting for their Professor to come out.

"Yeah?" Isaac asked as he switched hands to try and keep his hand from burning too badly.

"When... when we were by the lake, and the D-Dementors were coming... what happened?" she asked, stuttering slightly at the quick mention of the event.

The flames on Isaac's hand dimmed for a moment as he thought back to what happened.

It was just after Professor Lupin responded to a challenging Werewolf call and ran off to the Forest.

They had run down to where Sirius had been thrown off and when they had gotten there he had been too tired to turn back into his dog form and there was what looked like the entirety of the Dementors posted at Hogwarts gliding towards him at high speed.

He and Hermione had been able to fight them off for a few moments.

Hermione fell first, still feebly saying the name of the spell, leaving just Isaac.

The Dementor had made a sort of brushing motion to remove his attempt at a Patronus.

Then his Patronus had failed and he dropped to his knees, the Dementor moving closer and closer until it's foul breath was upon him.

Isaac had dropped to his knees at that point, unable to find the strength to keep standing.

"... _Harry..._ "

Isaac's eyes glazed over slightly and Hermione looked worryingly at him, the flames in his hand dimming further still as the memories came back to him.

"... _him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off..._ "

His father's voice. The first time he had heard it.

" _All that awaits you is painful, slow, death,_ "

" _You matter so little..._ "

Just before Isaac had passed out something bright and white had flared at the edge of his blurred vision.

Everything was going blurry, but... for a moment...

"Someone..." Isaac said, causing Hermione to jump as he had been silent for the past couple of minutes. The fire was now a tiny flame on his palm, "... someone was there,"

Isaac looked down at the small flame on his hand before sighing and shaking it a little.

The flames came back, as did the warmth, and Hermione looked at him. A studious look on her face with her brow furrowed.

"Who?"

Isaac shrugged.

"I don't know, but... for a moment, it looked like..."

"Who?" Hermione asked when he trailed off into silence.

"As stupid as it fucking sounds, it kinda looked like my dad,"

Hermione looked at him with owl-like eyes.

"Isaac... you know he's..."

"As dead as a guy who thought that a grenade would be the perfect thing to fix his toothache?"

Hermione frowned at him.

"I know he's dead, which is why I said that it was... you hear that?" Isaac paused and put out his hand.

He moved around the tree and looked over at the Whomping Willow.

A head had just come out of the tunnel.

"Showtime," Isaac said.

The two of them moved over to a bush a little in front of them to get closer.

"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked him, pointing to his past self and Sirius.

"Oh..." Isaac said, knowing full well what had been happening there, "He... erm... he's inviting me to live with him when... if we had proven his innocence..."

Hermione made a soft hum.

Isaac nodded.

When that conversation had first happened Isaac's mind had been to get Ben to help him start planning his death and spend the time waiting for his... his snapping at The Mansion.

"ISAAC!"

Isaac jumped and looked at Hermione, the past one.

Professor Lupin had gone rigid, his form shaking.

"Hello Moon-Moon," Isaac muttered as he watched his Professor's body change.

"RUN! RUN!" Sirius shouted to them, Peter throwing the rope that had bound him away and transforming back into a rat.

He was long gone as Sirius leapt into a fight against the werewolf, the two of them colliding in a flurry of snarls and claws.

Isaac winced as Sirius was thrown away, bumping and rolling down the hill towards the Black Lake.

"OI! KIBBLE-BREATH!"

"Oh... that sounds lame from here," Isaac moaned, it had been a good idea at the time.

Hermione was frozen in shock as she saw the werewolf lumber towards the past Isaac.

"AWOOOOOOOOOOOH!"

Isaac did a double-take and looked at Hermione, her hands were cupped around her mouth.

"AWOOOOOOOOOOOH!"

"ARGWOOOOOO!" the werewolf's answer rung out across the grounds.

"Oh, that was you," Isaac said, "Thanks for that,"

"Anytime,"

Isaac turned to face her.

"We should probably start running,"

"Yeah,"

The two of them ran into the woods, sticking close to each other to try and not end up splitting away from each other.

Isaac gave a quick glance behind him before grabbing Hermione and pulled her towards a large tree.

They tried to slow their breathing, Hermione struggling more than Isaac.

Snapping bits of old wood reached them and they flattened themselves against the tree.

Isaac craned his neck to hear for which way the werewolf was moving and he carefully pulled Hermione in the opposite direction, keeping the tree between them.

As he carefully crept around the other side he let out a little tension and tugged Hermione to move a little faster.

He was about to start pulling her away from the direction that the werewolf had gone when a snarl had him pulling Hermione behind him.

The werewolf crouched low to the ground as it stalked forward.

"Stay behind me!" Isaac hissed out and he took a half-step towards it, Hermione's hands on the back of his shirt to pull him back.

Blue flames, tinted green, wrapped their way around his hand.

The werewolf snapped his jaw at him, snarling harder now.

"Don't make me do this, Professor," Isaac said as he looked into the black eyes.

The werewolf crouched lower and Isaac braced himself, bringing his arm back as if he was going to throw a punch.

As the werewolf got ready to pounce Isaac flung his arm forward and few of the flames spun away from his hand.

The separated flames flared slightly and dissipated about a foot away from where his hand was outstretched.

"Damn it..." Isaac muttered.

The werewolf snapped it's jaw again and leapt forward.

Isaac ducked and pulled Hermione down just in time for Buckbeak to soar over them and swat at the werewolf, his talons catching it in his face.

The werewolf let out a spitting snarl and ran away.

Isaac felt his knees give out slightly and, behind him, he felt Hermione nearly ready to do the same.

"You alright?" he panted, receiving a sort of wheeze of affirmation in return.

Buckbeak turned and gave a low squawk, tilting his head to the side.

"We're good," Isaac said, holding a shaky thumbs up.

Buckbeak shook his head to free his neck of the dirt that had built up and returned to pawing at the ground as a cold wind started to blow through the trees.

Isaac and Hermione looked up to see a small swarm of Dementors high above them crossing the Forest.

"Sirius," Isaac said before turning and running in the direction the Dementors were heading.

Isaac could hear Hermione fall slightly behind as he weaved his way through the trees with next to no difficulty other than the occasional root that came from the ground; the trees back home at The Mansion were closer than these and he could still run through them.

He stopped at the edge of a stone bank on the edge of the lake, pebbles flew as he skidded to a halt and the furthest ones came to rest just on the edge of the frozen water.

Across from them were their past selves trying to repel the Dementors.

Isaac watched as Hermione fell and he could tell that he was struggling too.

'Any moment now...' he looked forward to the small rocky ledge that stuck out into the lake.

'Any moment now...'

Behind him, he could hear Hermione catch up.

He turned back and watched as a Dementor started reaching for his head.

'...'

'...'

"I fucking hate time travel,"

Isaac leapt forward, coming to the edge of the ledge as Hermione called out to him.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

Isaac whipped his wand out, pointing it at the Dementors that were closing in on him and Sirius.

For a moment things seemed to still before the now familiar white spiral formed from his wand before it seemed to coalesce and something shot out.

He heard Hermione gasp from behind him and he squinted to look at what the thing was.

It was vaguely hard to see what it was as it bounded over the water, leaving no changes on the ground frozen by the Dementors.

As it got close to them the Dementors flinched away, flying away like they were pieces of paper and the Patronus was a blazing fire.

The Patronus rounded on the Dementor closest to the Isaac in the past and it leapt over them as it charged it down, the Dementor flying away in a hurried flapping of dark cloth.

The Patronus stopped now, looking as if it were standing on the ice.

It turned it's head back to Isaac and it walked back towards them.

A large hound, nearly big enough that Isaac could look straight ahead and be staring it in the eye, was silently moving across the lake.

As it got closer Isaac was able to take in its form in greater detail.

While the body of the hound was clearly discernible, even the muscles in the leg and eyes, there almost seemed to be a second coat of light that surrounded the body that flickered like fire.

Large fangs came to rest outside of its jaw and its eyes shone with a brighter light than the one surrounding it.

"Oh... no way..." Isaac said quietly as the Patronus walked up onto the stone bank in front of him, it's paws not making a sound.

The hound bowed it's head to Isaac and as he stretched out a hand to pet it's head it faded away.

Isaac let out a small huff of breath that he hadn't realised he had been holding and dropped his outstretched arm.

"Isaac," Hermione asked, near breathless, "What did you do?"

Isaac gave a quick chuckle.

"Oh... I fucking hate time travel,"

He pulled Hermione back to the treeline.

"Ok, so, obviously it wasn't my dad that cast the Patronus," Isaac started explaining, "It was me, I saw me. I cast the Patronus to save us, but I thought at the time it was my dad but since it was me doing it in the future I knew that I could do it this time because I'd already done it,"

Hermione looked at him with a slightly agape mouth.

A nearby, and indignant, squawk told them that Buckbeak had found his way over and was annoyed at being left behind for a second time.

"That makes... my head hurts," she started rubbing at her temple.

"Yep," Isaac said with a half chuckle, "Getting there myself,"

They ended up waiting behind the bush until they saw Snape collect them, how he had known what was going on they didn't know but Isaac figured that he'd be able to get the answer out of him later.

"Alright, now that Snape's taken us to the Hospital wing... what time did we wake up?" he turned to Hermione but found that she hadn't set her watch back like she normally did and they had no way of telling how much time had passed already.

"Ok then," Isaac said, thinking of an idea, "I'll wait half an hour then go up, we should have woken up by then, and if Dumbledore is still talking then I'll circle around and wait a bit,"

"Ok," Hermione said and Isaac climbed up on Buckbeak's back.

"Think you can get to the West Tower?" he bent low to Buckbeak and before he had time to properly brace himself he was back in the air.

He held on to Buckbeak's neck as the two of them flew over the grounds towards the castle.

Isaac pointed out the West Tower and Buckbeak glided over before coming to a stop near the only window with a light.

Buckbeak huffed as Isaac carefully got to his feet, keeping one hand on Buckbeak's head to steady himself.

"... see what Mr Rogers and Miss Granger have to say, but I cannot make any promises, Sirius," Isaac could just hear Professor Dumbledore talking over the whump of air from Buckbeak's wings and through the stone and glass.

"But... the letter! James sent you a letter, _he told you_ that Pettigrew was the Secret Keeper, not me,"

There was silence for a moment.

"I did not receive any letter, and, if I did, then I assure you, I would have brought it up in your defence,"

Isaac heard a door close and a latch shut.

Professor Dumbledore must be on his way down to the Hospital wing now.

He motioned for Buckbeak to move forward more so that he was just under the window.

He grabbed onto the window to steady himself.

He tugged on it, trying to get it to open.

It was starting to move, he tugged harder before debating whether or not he should just smash it and...

Isaac gave a yelp as the pane of glass came away.

He just managed to drop it and grab onto the window ledge to steady himself, a shattering far below echoed up.

"What the..."

Sirius' tangled hair appeared in the now empty window.

"Spanish Inquisition!" Isaac called over to him.

Sirius' face split into what was probably his first true smile in years as he climbed through the window and, hesitating for just a second, pushed himself away and onto the back of the Hippogriff.

He landed behind Isaac and Buckbeak gave another indignant squawk at the sudden increase in weight as he dropped a little before turning and flying back to where they had left Hermione.

She ran out onto the small stone bank as she saw them come down.

"You got him!"

Sirius slid off of Buckbeak's back and took a few steps back.

Buckbeak turned to look at him and he bowed as deep as he could manage.

Buckbeak ruffles the feathers of his neck before sinking down and letting Sirius approach again.

"I can't thank you enough," Sirius said, patting Buckbeak's neck to say thank you to the hippogriff.

"Eh, go on, try," Isaac said, kicking a stray stone onto the iced-over water.

Sirius let out a bark-like laugh and turned to face him.

"I don't think I'll ever be able to," he said with a shake of his head, "Thank you both, truly,"

He climbed back up onto Buckbeak's back.

He smiled widely at the two before Buckbeak shook his wings free and took off again, flying off into the night.

Isaac scoffed as he watched him go.

"Slightly overdramatic," he said to Hermione.

She sighed and looked over at the castle.

"Isaac! It's Macnair!" Hermione said as she clutched his arm.

Isaac looked over to the castle where a figure was running out onto the lawn, his shadow stretching out over the grounds.

Isaac narrowed his eyes at the man crossing the grounds as he felt Hermione grab his arm and start pulling him along the edge of the lake.

The two of them ran back to the castle, taking the steps on the front three at a time.

When they reached the Hospital Wing they could just see through the crack in the doors.

Professor Dumbledore was talking to the both of them.

They waited until he had finished and they watched through the door as Hermione pulled a fine gold chain out from around her neck and bring Isaac into the loop.

Once they had disappeared they walked through the doors and met Professor Dumbledore.

"We've done it," Hermione said.

Professor Dumbledore blinked at them.

"Done what?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and smiling faintly, "Goodnight,"

The two of them silently hurried back to their beds, kicked off their shoes, and climbed back in.

Madam Pomfrey was not in a good mood as she returned and the two of them took the chocolate they had been given without fuss.

Isaac was happily chewing on the latest lump when cries of outrage sounded through the castle.

"Honestly, they'll wake everyone up," Madam Pomfrey said stiffly as she broke off another small chunk to give the two of them.

The doors to the Hospital Wing shook as something hit against them before there was silence for a moment and the quiet click of the lock was heard.

Professor Dumbledore, Professor Snape, Minister Fudge, and Macnair walked into the room.

"You two did something!" Macnair accused.

"Did what?" Isaac asked, "We've both done lots of things in our lives, you'll have to be more specific,"

Macnair looked like he had been filled with boiling water.

"You two've done set him free!" he spat, "I saw the way you's were looking at me this evenin', and I'll bet you two were behind that beast gettin' loose as well!"

Isaac and Hermione shared a glance.

"Ok, now I'm lost, who are you?" Isaac asked.

Macnair somehow got more red in the face.

"You..." he took a step forward but was stopped by Professor Snape's arm holding him back by the shoulder.

"Sirius Black has escaped again," Professor Dumbledore said.

"Has he?" Isaac said, taking another bite of chocolate.

Macnair glared at him.

"Unless you are suggesting that two underage school students were able to evade Madam Pomfrey for long enough to free a man under lock and key in a tower on the opposite side of the castle, then I fail to see why we must have come here," Professor Snape said and Macnair wheeled around to glare at him.

"Madam Pomfrey," Professor Dumbledore said, "I locked the door when I left here, as Macnair demonstrated moments ago, have they been out of this room at all in the time since my last visit?"

"No, Professor," Madam Pomfrey said, glaring at the man with dirt under his nails who would dare try to threaten the students under her care, "They haven't even left their beds,"

Professor Dumbledore turned to face Macnair.

The man glared at everyone present, lingering on Isaac, before storming out of the room.

Minister Fudge had been standing to the side the entirety of this before excusing himself in a rather awkward fashion, muttering about how the entire thing had been an utter fiasco.

The two Professors bade Madam Pomfrey a good night and left her to deal with the two students under her care.

Isaac sighed as he let his head drop down onto the pillows.

This had been a fairly exhausting day and he was looking forward to relaxing during the last few days before going home.

He was looking forward to telling Ben about this one.

He gave another sigh as the lights went out, rolling over and getting comfy.

He was done for the year, no more excitement...

... or so he thought...

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The Mansion.

Toby was watching the video a few days after the event and Ben was still giggling to himself every time he heard or saw Toby mouth the word 'Infernus'.

Toby was too engrossed in the video to notice him get up and stick his hand in the t.v.

Nor did he notice Ben crawl in and disappear for a few minutes.

"School letter," he announced.

"Uh-huh," Toby nodded, his face lit up as the screen flared from the explosion.

Ben rolled his eyes and unfolded the letter.

His smirk changed to a frown.

"Erm... guys... we might have a problem..."

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End notes.

'grabs a tub of popcorn'

So, another chapter is done, and this one certainly was fun to do.

I hope that Toby's little demo was worth the wait and I do, sincerely, hope that you enjoyed this weeks chapter.

Anyway, I've got to go to bed before writing the next chapter, and I'm all done with College, WOOHOO!

And to add on that, I got a job! I'm now earning money and I'll be able to fully fund my snacking habits whenever I'm writing (I've got a big bag of Mint Imperials sitting next to me as I write the next chapter!)

So, I hope that you enjoyed, and I'll see you in the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

If any of these are wrong then please notify me of this so I can fix them.

If you have a favourite Creepypasta that has not made an appearance then message me or leave their name in a review.


	38. Chapter 38, Of His Own Choosing

Chapter 38, Of his own choosing.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

'munches on popcorn'

Hi again, how was the wait?

I think it's safe to say that I love cliffhangers at this point.

So, let's see how many reviews I got this time.

ChaosDragon25;

Are you aware, that I am aware, that I knew exactly what I was doing when I decided on that chapter title?

I also may or may not have giggled a little when typing it.

Also, I think you win the award for 'Earliest Review Ever!' on this fic so... I dunno... congrats, and what not. Just under 30 mins since the chapter went up... ok then.

MyraZinshu;

No prob.

Erm... I really want to try that now. But yeah, I think I know just what to write for that to happen.

Thank you.

.549;

Yay! Puns!

Never apologise for a pun, they shall weed out the weak.

Thank you, I should be able to keep up with the pace, yes.

YingYangWriter;

Yep, and I have no idea if I will ever write Toby on valium again.

Sorry to disappoint but I think that too much of a good thing can turn it bad.

Masky deserves all the cheesecake in this chapter, and cigarettes, and a massage, and a spa-day.

So, do you think I did well with Fudge in this chapter? In the book, he is a very cowardly person that cares more about his image and reputation than doing any actual work, so I hope that I did well.

Dumbledore's manipulative actions are starting to come into the light and, as the lyrics go, ' _Karma's gonna come collect your debt!_ '

I'll be checking it out later, still need to buy the game but I've never had enough money before now to do so.

Erm... Jeff's actually in the infirmary the now... who have you got on your couch?

Oh wait, hold on, I gotta check something...

...

Ok, right, I've erm... well, you're in an EXTRAS chapter, the erm... sixth one...

Matt (Guest);

'sighs'

RE-READ THE BLOODY PROLOGUE!

I've had that thing planned since I started this thing, and I constantly get asked, 'What letter?' so go re-read the prologue and pay attention!

Lunarwolf11021;

Hehehe, I loved that scene with Toby as well.

And I'm glad that you liked how I changed the Sirius rescue.

Though I am surprised that no one has mentioned the flower crown.

Sweet Smilie;

Ok, those first sentences after I translated them do nothing to make me think you are not on drugs.

Yeah, Isaac's head was hurting real bad after trying to go through the time-travel stuff.

It's Toby, find out how many explosives you would need, and triple it!

I have no idea why people drink other than it's fun to disorientate ourselves from time to time.

I... erm... sorry but I had a little trouble understanding what you meant by the end.

I think it's about Dumbledore trying something to make it so that Isaac is forced to move back to the UK or something and trying to get him back under his control.

Rosie and rai the kitsune;

Hehe, Toby on valium was amazing to write.

Eh, no prob. I prefer using my phone when using as well.

Also, when I read the review on my email account, it had censored the word 'Valium'.

Apparently, that counts as a swear. For some reason?

Dark Ravie;

Thanks, glad that you like it.

Thunder-Death;

Thank you, writing Toby while he was high on valium was a privilege and I truly have no idea if I'll ever write another scene with him like that.

Glad that you liked the HP part, I've been planning what happens there for a while now.

Well... actually I'm procrastinating writing this chapter by answering the reviews because I'm still working things through in my head.

I really do hope that you enjoy this.

Ceresama;

Thank you,

Hope that the waiting is worth it.

Future-Forgotten;

Yeah, not a lot have, plus it's the only other area of fiction that I'm decently knowledgeable about (Three guesses for what the first is).

If you've spent the last few days reading my stuff then I can only apologise for the earlier works before DP decided that she'd take pity on me.

Thank you, I'll take top three anyday.

Well, I hope that the waiting was worth it.

Ok then, that's that handled.

DP, the beta who has to put up with my very weird subject titles whenever I email her the next chapter, how you doing?

I'm doing really good SG. How is it going for you across the pond? It's raining in my part of the US.

How's it going for me?

I've finished my first ever work week.

MY LEGS HURT!

But, I'm getting money for this, so it's good.

That being said, since I do have a job now I _might_ , just might, miss an upload once or twice in the future while I get used to working from 7:30 in the morning until well into the afternoon.

I have around a 10-hour shift, so I'm going to do my best to still work on the story but I'm sorry in advance if I ever miss any.

Ok, that's everything, I can no longer stall any further.

Here's the next chapter, enjoy.

SteamGeek01.

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"Erm... guys... we might have a problem..."

It was those words that got Toby to look up.

"What's wrong?" he asked, thinking back to what Ben had said.

His eyes went a little wider when he remembered who Ben had said the letter from.

"Apparently, 'Due to unfortunate circumstances, students are being sent home earlier than planned.

Apologies in advance for any scheduling conflicts that may have arisen because of this,'

Signed, the lady that can turn into a cat," Ben finished.

Toby took the letter from Ben's hands and read it over.

"Want to come with us to go get him?" he asked.

Ben smiled widely and ran to go get his coat while Toby went to find Masky and show him the letter.

They would have some things to say to Isaac when he got back.

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Ron Weasley walked alone through the streets of Hogsmeade.

His hands were stuffed as deep in his pockets as he could manage, and he glowered at the ground as he walked.

A rattling in a nearby alleyway got his attention.

He paused for a moment, looking down the dark space.

He thought about leaving it for a moment, that it was more of the stupid thing that Isaac would have stuck his nose in and gotten into another adventure.

He bristled at the thought of his ex-friend and looked down the alleyway again.

If that jumped up idiot could handle himself in a mess, then he could too!

He set off down the alley.

"Hello?" he called.

A rather short, balding, man with mottled grey skin jumped and turned to face him...

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Isaac and Hermione had gotten let out of The Hospital Wing that morning and, thankfully, it seemed that everyone had either forgotten about or never knew of their parts in the whole thing.

No one asked them any questions other than what they thought had happened.

Isaac, in more than one way, was thankful for the calm they had been presented with and he and Hermione decided not to go with the masses to the final Hogsmeade visit.

Instead, they took the chance to lounge outside under a tree.

Hermione was sitting in the shade of a tree, reading to relax instead of the near-frantic revision she had been doing all year. She had handed in the time-turner earlier that day; not keen on going through another year like that.

Isaac was ankle deep in the water, shoes and socks on the grass with his trousers rolled up, as he skimmed stones across the rippling water that had thawed out overnight.

"Eight," he counted on that last one, "You sure that you don't want to try?" he held out one of the flat stones in his hand.

Hermione shook her head, "Dad showed me how to, but I never got into it,"

Isaac shrugged and threw another, letting his shoulders drop when a tentacle of the Great Squid rose and stopped it from breaking into double digits.

He turned back to the shore as a large pair of footsteps could be heard making their way over.

"Hi, Hagrid!" he called over, winding back his arm for another throw.

"Lo'," he said in reply, raising a hand to block out the sun and count Isaac's latest throw, "How's the two of you handlin' things?"

"Pretty good," Isaac said, bending down to look through the water for more stones, "How have you been?"

He threw another stone as Hagrid talked.

"Been out all night celebrating! Beaky got himself free before that ruddy executioner could've gotten to him," Hagrid said excitedly, "Course that news about Sirius does tend teh put a wee bit o' a damper on things, but, yeh've got to take the victories when they come,"

"Amen to that," Isaac said, standing up as he found another stone to throw and began rubbing some of the grit away.

He was half paying attention to what Hagrid was saying when he nearly dropped the stone.

"Wait, what about Professor Lupin?"

"Oh, said that he didn' take a bite out of any hippogriff in those there woods," Hagrid said, pointing at the Forbidden Forest, "Wait... did you two not..."

"We know he's a werewolf," Isaac said, shaking the last bits off the stone.

"Shouldn't be surprised, now the whole school knows, mind you," Hagrid said, "Macnair let it slip to some o' the Slytherin's this morning at breakfast. He's up in his office the now, packing an' all,"

"He's leaving?" Isaac asked, letting the stone fall away from his grip.

"Resigned first thing this morning," Hagrid said, "Says that he can't risk it happening again..."

Before Hagrid had finished speaking Isaac was out of the water and running up to the castle.

He tore through the deserted halls with ease until he came to Professor Lupin's classroom.

Before he had time to knock on the door it was opened to Professor Lupin's weary face.

"I saw you coming," he said, standing aside and letting Isaac see the Marauders Map lying on the desk.

Isaac walked into the office and looked around.

The tank that had once contained a Grindylow was now empty, the room was bare of any trinkets that the man owned, any pictures around the room had been packed away and a large suitcase with a folded up suit on display.

"I was kinda hoping that Hagrid was wrong," Isaac said.

Professor Lupin gave a half-smile.

"No. Last night was a wake-up call. Too close an encounter.

What if I had bitten one of you? Gotten into the castle?" he broke off and shook his head.

"As much as I can try to avoid it, accidents happen. And an accident with me has far greater consequences than someone ending up under the care of Madam Pomfrey for a few days,"

"But you're so _cool_!" Isaac said, "The best one so far!"

Professor Lupin gained a little colour in his cheeks as he put the final pieces of his wardrobe into the suitcase.

"I take it that you hadn't had too many good teachers for this subject then?" he asked as he closed the latches on that compartment.

"Well... the first one tried to kill me and had Voldemort's head on the back of his, the second was an utter moron and fraud who tried to wipe mine and Ron's memories, so... yeah, not the best," Isaac said, watching a set of footprints on the map as the wandered through the halls of Hogwarts on their own...

Isaac rubbed his eyes as it almost seemed like his vision narrowed and went slightly clouded around the edges.

He looked up when he felt a gentle hand being placed on his shoulder.

"You've been put through so much," Professor Lupin said, looking down at him as Isaac resisted the urge to roll his shoulder to remove the hand, "Much more than you should ever have been asked to bear,"

He removed the hand and Isaac rolled it when he was preoccupied with emptying the drawers of the desk to get rid of the tingling sensation.

Professor Lupin paused as he moved past the desk again.

"And... seeing as I'm no longer your teacher," he picked the map up off the desk, "I don't feel guilty about giving this back to you," he handed Isaac the map.

"I daresay that James would have been disappointed if his child didn't end up with one of the trophies from that era," he said with a smile.

Isaac looked up at him, a puzzled expression on his face.

Professor Lupin smiled.

"Do you remember how I told you that your Father, Sirius, and Peter became animagi to help me through the nights?"

Isaac nodded.

"Your father could turn into a stag," Professor Lupin told him, "And, therefore, he was Prongs though it took Sirius a week, and half a dozen hexes from James, to stop calling him any number of Santa Claus' reindeer, Rudolph being the primary one,"

Isaac snorted in laughter as Lupin went on.

"Peter became Wormtail, that one pretty self-explanatory.

I was Moony, also fairly easy to understand why. And Sirius..."

"You wrote the map!" Isaac exclaimed and Professor Lupin smiled, "Messyrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs! You were my dad and his friends..." he broke off as he stood a little higher and his shoulders dropped slightly as a memory of him returning to the Mansion after the plane ride came to him, "Moony... Padfoot... I remember you,"

Lupin frowned at him for a moment, before something long gone started to light up in his eyes.

"Back when I first went home, they had decided that I apparently had to get the full kid experience as quick as I could, to make up for lost time. And that included getting two stuffed animals.

A cream wolf, and a black dog. And I called them..."

"Moony and Padfoot," Lupin finished with a smile and small puff of laughter, "The mind works in many ways.

But, for now, I think that it's safe to say..." he flicked his wand at the suitcase, the last few things tucked themselves in and the front swung shut, "Mischief Managed,"

A soft knocking came from the door.

"Your carriage is here," Professor Dumbledore said, standing just in the frame.

Professor Lupin smiled once more at Isaac before picking up the empty Grindylow tank and his suitcase.

He nodded to Professor Dumbledore as the old wizard moved out of the way to let him pass.

When Dumbledore looked back into the room he found Isaac looking out of one of the windows and out onto the grounds.

"It's such a nice day out that one would think it would be better to spend it in the shade of a tree and enjoying the breeze, wouldn't you say so?" he said, coming into the room.

"Yes Professor," Isaac said, turning and smiling at the man, relaxing his body as he walked past the man and towards the door, "Professor?"

Dumbledore paused at the now empty desk and turned to look at Isaac.

"When... when we were walking back through the tunnel, back to Hogwarts from the Shack, Sirius... he mentioned a letter,"

Isaac looked up at the man.

"He said... that my Father had sent a letter to you, about the change in secret keepers.

Did you... ever get that letter?"

Dumbledore looked Isaac in the eye.

"No, I am afraid that I did not," he said serenely, "I fear that if I perhaps did, then quite a bit would be different,"

Isaac nodded.

"Yes, sir, things would have been different," he said before walking down the stairs.

It was when Isaac reached the doors to the classroom that he glanced back as he exited the doors.

Dumbledore was standing at the small landing that was just outside of the office.

As he left the room, one thought was going through Isaac's mind. Over and over...

'Liar,'

Dumbledore was lying, and Isaac knew that he was. Every nerve in his body told him that he was.

How he knew, he didn't know how... but he _knew_.

Isaac rounded the corner, thinking about what reasons that Dumbledore could have for lying about the letter.

"Oh! Have you lost your shoes as well?"

Isaac jumped as a dreamy voice broke through his train of thought.

He turned for the source of the noise and found a girl with a slightly dazed look on her face, and when he looked down he found that yes, he was not wearing any shoes.

His bare feet seemed to catch up at that point and started to get cold and when he looked over at the girl... yep, she wasn't wearing shoes either.

"Erm... no, I've just left them by the lake," Isaac said, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb.

"Oh, that's always good," the dreamy-voiced girl said, "It's always better to know where things are when you're looking for them, the nargles are never that considerate whenever they take something of mine,"

Isaac blinked and screwed his face slightly in confusion.

"The what-les?"

"Nargles," the girl said, "Tricky little things, like to be mischievous," she pointed up to where a pair of red trainers were tied to a rafter on the ceiling.

Isaac frowned even deeper as he looked at the slightly swinging belongings.

"Ok... give me a moment..." he backed up and looked around the corridor.

"Alright,"

He took off at a run towards one of the stone walls, reaching up and grabbing the stone ledge where a window was situated.

He pulled himself up and spun around on the balls of his feet and looked up at the beam that was just above his head upon which, halfway across, were a dangling pair of shoes.

He reached up and pulled himself up onto the pillar before walking across and sitting down.

"Give me a few more seconds," he called down.

After fiddling with the knot for a few moments they came undone and he let them drop down to the mildly amused looking girl.

Isaac looked around for a way down.

"Would you mind opening that door?" he pointed to one on the opposite end of the wall.

The girl didn't take her eyes off of him until she reached the door and opened it out wide for him.

"Thank you," Isaac said.

He got up carefully and moved closer to the wall.

He crouched down and pushed himself off, grabbing onto the mirrored alcove on the other side, before he dropped down onto the door frame.

He took a quick step onto the door as it swung shut and used the door handle as a step before dusting himself off.

"You know," he said as the girl looked at him curiously, "That hurts a lot less when you've got shoes on," he shuffled on the tips of his toes.

"Thank you," the girl said, "You're rather an odd one, aren't you?"

"That's one way to put it," Isaac said cheerily as he made his way back towards the lake to get his shoes...

... and rinse off his feet from the dirt on the floor and any scrapes that he had gotten in his little free-run.

"Oof!" Isaac staggered a bit as a man walked into him.

"Watch where you're going!" Macnair growled down at him, "Oh, it's you. Gone to see that half-breed off, have you?" he sneered.

The man looked like he was on the verge of spitting down on Isaac as he walked away, cackling, and...

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Isaac started a bit as he sat up a little straighter in the chair, his head bumping against the glass of the train window.

"You ok?" Hermione asked, her face incredibly pale.

"Yeah, just... must've zoned out or dozed off," Isaac muttered.

"I don't blame you, after what happened I've been feeling a bit off as well," Hermione said, holding Crookshanks in her hands, "Are you alright? You look a bit peaky,"

Isaac wiped his face with his hand.

"Yeah just... give me a moment, need the loo," he said getting up.

He staggered a little as he walked out of the compartment and down the corridor to the toilets.

He locked the door behind him with shaky hands and made his way over to the sink.

He grasped the cool porcelain and looked at his ashen complexion in the reflection.

He wiped the small sheen of sweat that had started forming on his forehead and looked down at his hands.

Red waves, burns, rippled over his fingers and palms.

Isaac winced as they started to sting and he ducked them under the cold water tap to cool them down.

He turned the tap off and flicked his hands into the sink to get the majority of the water away before drying them on the back of his trouser leg.

"What the hell did I do?" he asked himself as he looked into his reflection.

Everything seemed to shake for a moment and...

Isaac winced and clutched his head as his knees buckled slightly.

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That evening.

Having got his shoes back from Hermione they were sat down at the Gryffindor table for what was almost the final time that year.

Hermione was sat not too far away from him, chatting happily to Ginny Weasley.

The two had been getting along fairly well since after Ginny's first year, and whenever Isaac was out at Quidditch practice he normally found Ginny working next to Hermione and asking for help whenever she was confused to needed a double-check on how to spell something.

Further down the table, a good couple of rows from them sat Ron.

The moody teen had scoffed at Isaac telling him that Pettigrew had actually been Scabbers, and how Sirius was innocent, before the lanky ginger had gone to Hogsmeade and now he had started avoiding them more than he had been before.

Many were chatting happily around them and Isaac was finally glad that the year was going to be over and he would be going home soon.

Soon that was exactly what everyone started talking about, what they would be doing when they all went home.

"I know exactly what's going to happen," Isaac said, "Most are going to be out working, Sally's going to run down the stairs at like eighty kilometres an hour, Ben's going to ask if I've seen a dragon yet, then I'll be told of Toby's latest mess that gave M... Tim a migraine.

And Brian won't say anything," he finished.

"Me mam'll have made a..."

Seamus was cut off when a loud clanging came from the table at the top of the room.

For some reason, Dumbledore had allowed the members of the committee to stay for a night and search the grounds until they were sure that Buckbeak was nowhere to be found.

Now, Macnair was standing on the table and pointing at Hagrid furiously.

"I know you let him go!" he spat, his voice sounding throughout the now quiet Hall.

"Mr Macnair," Dumbledore said, standing as well though nowhere near as disruptive, "If you continue to threaten my staff, then I shall have to ask you to leave. As you are aware, from being there yourself, Hagrid was present when Buckbeak escaped. I would suggest that you either sit down peacefully or remove yourself from the Hall,"

Macnair looked furiously at Dumbledore and Hagrid.

He kicked his chair out of the way and walked down and out of the Hall.

Isaac's eyes narrowed as he watched the man walked down the far side of the wall, many watching the man now.

Just as he reached the entrance he turned and faced Dumbledore again.

"I'll find what he's done with the beast," he pointed in Hagrid's direction, "You mark my word,"

With that he turned and left, his boots echoing as he rounded a corner out of sight and up the stairs.

Isaac's hand clenched under the table and people were too preoccupied with chatter amongst themselves to notice the brief flare of blue and green light.

 **(X) Time Skip (X)**

Walden Macnair threw his cloak onto the chair as he stormed into the temporary room that had been set up for him.

His situation had not improved in the slightest as his search for the hippogriff had yielded no results.

His rage at the injustice of not being able to complete his job had caused the portraits outside to temporarily relocate themselves at night as his angry shouts kept them awake.

Plus the man's general disposition was unnerving to be around and even his co-workers tended to avoid him.

He glanced over to the sharpening stone he had set up to sharpen the blade of his axe, it's low grind as it rubbed down the surface so it was free of any defections filled the room with a grating noise that was oddly relaxing to him.

He threw open the door that led to the barely used bedroom and made his way over to a small cabinet in the corner.

He reached under and pulled out a glass and a large jar containing a sloshing amber liquid.

Macnair poured himself a generous helping from the jar and left the stopper off.

He knocked back that cup full with practised ease and filled another, the amber liquid running down his chin after missing his mouth with the second.

Macnair shook his head as he turned the glass over in his fingers.

With a sudden fit of rage, he threw the glass as hard as he could at the wall.

Glass exploded all over the room, the little liquid left running streaks down the wall.

He picked up the jar and took a swig straight from the bottle before jamming the stopper back down and letting it fall back onto the table.

"Damn the bastard!" Macnair growled, rubbing his brow.

"Oh, he thinks he's a smart one, doesn't he?" he scoffed, "Leavin' the chain loose and... and... bastard!"

He debated picking up the jar again but left it sitting on the table.

He preferred the silence there was now.

"I'll get him up on his wee tricks," Macnair said, spitting out a large build up from his throat onto the floor, "I'll get him and his beastie!

First, I'll cut the fucking pony's legs off. Fry up its wings and feed it to the overgrown bag of shite,"

Macnair gave a low, cruel, laugh as he planned out his fun.

He sat on the bed, miming out the ways that he would slice the beast's stomach open, and took in the silence of the room.

Silence...

"Fucking... useless, cheap!" he broke off as he realised that the grinding of his blade should still be going on.

"Last time I trust something of Fletcher's to actually work," he grumbled to himself as he got up with a slight stagger.

He kicked the door open again and made his way to the small sitting room.

He stumbled as he stood on something.

He crouched down to find the enchanted grind-stone sitting on the floor.

"Useless... piece off..."

He broke off as he looked up when he reached the table.

He had taken his wand out to re-enchant the stupid thing to sharpen his blade, but...

It wasn't there.

The blade that had once sat upon the table top was missing.

Macnair spun around, whipping his wand around as he heard something behind him move.

"Who's there?" he slurred out, the drink taking its hold.

Another sound of movement, like a cloak swishing through the air, sounded behind him and he collided painfully with the table in his haste to turn back around.

He gave a brief gasp of pain as he turned into the room.

" _Stupify_!" he said, aiming for anything.

The spell hit the cushion on the armchair.

" _Stupify_!" he cried again, this time hitting the stone windowsill.

This went on for three more times until he was certain that he would have hit something by now.

"Tsk-tsk-tsk..."

Macnair spun as he searched for the source of the speaker.

"Missed me,"

Macnair looked up.

There, sitting in the rafters, was a crouched figure.

A pair of eyes glared down at him through a pair of blue-tinted lens and the person's face was obscured by a facemask that had a solid grey bar across the black fabric that covered their mouth.

He raised his wand again but the figure had dropped down, grabbing onto the beam of the ceiling, and kicked out hard against him.

One foot kicked the wand out of his hand, the other landed square in his chest.

Macnair was forced back, the air rushing out of his lungs and struggling to get back in. Just as he scrambled back to his feet as the figure dropped down.

He picked up a lamp on the table and swung it at the person.

The person dodged with ease, ducked under the second swing, before he charged at Macnair.

The taller and older man hadn't prepared himself for such a move and found himself back on the ground.

He reached for his wand which lay close by and when he got back to his feet the figure grabbed his arm, keeping the wand pointed away towards the ceiling.

Macnair growled at the smaller and, judging on his height and the grunt he had made when he had attempted to kick the masked figure, younger boy before him.

Macnair tried to angle the wand to point down at the boy...

"W-wha- AARGH!" Macnair dropped his wand before he started clawing at the blue and green flames that had started up around the boy's hands and, subsequently, his torso and arm.

He scrambled to his feet as he tried to fan out the flames, falling backwards again as he lost his footing.

His back hit the door out of the room as he tried to smother the flames that were searing his skin.

"Hey!"

He looked up at the person.

They were now holding the blade of his axe in his hands.

Macnair cried out and raised his hands as the person swung the blade.

He screamed out in anguished pain as the blade impacted across his face; from above his left eye to the bottom right of his jaw.

The door behind him gave way and he stumbled back.

Through blood-drenched eyes, he looked back at the figure for one last time as he started running towards Macnair.

The person leapt up and kicked hard on Macnair's chest again as he collided with the bannister of the staircase and he was pushed over.

Walden Macnair felt the air whip past him as he toppled over in the air, turning over just in time to see...

With a sickening thud he collided hard against the ground, the bade being forced a few inches further, and his spine bending until it snapped and his body flopped to the ground. A pool of blood forming at a steady pace around him.

Isaac looked down from the top of the stairs as he saw a growing red mark appear around the crumpled figure stories below him and...

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Isaac staggered as the train carriage rocked to the side and he fell slightly as his knees buckled.

Breathing heavily, he got back to the sink and turned the taps on.

He cupped his hand under the stream of water and crouched over the sink as he brought his hands to his face.

The sensation brought feeling back to him and he shook his head as he wiped the last few remains of water away.

He turned the taps off and made his way back to the compartment just in time for Hermione to sit back down.

"You've got a letter," she said, holding out a...

"How... ok, is that owl a newborn or something?" Isaac asked as he looked at the tennis-ball sized lump in Hermione's hands; thankful for the distraction from the fact that he felt like he was going to throw up.

Isaac gave a quick huff of laughter as he caught sight of the letter that was far too big for it to be carrying.

He released the owl of its burden and flicked the letter open.

"Hey! He got my name right," Isaac said as he sat back down, "That's good, good," he nodded.

"Who?" Hermione asked, stroking the owl.

"Sirius," Isaac said with a forced chuckle.

He read the letter out loud to Hermione.

How he was in hiding with Buckbeak.

How he had sent the Firebolt.

"Told you so," Hermione said triumphantly.

Isaac rolled his eyes and scoffed at her before returning to the letter.

"He's said sorry for scaring the hell out of me as a Grim throughout the school year, how nice of him,"

Isaac turned the letter over to show Hermione.

"Oh, hold on... there's a p.s." he said, taking the letter back, "Oh..."

"What is it?" Hermione asked him.

"Well... erm... I thought your friend might like to keep this owl, as it's my fault he no longer has a rat," Isaac read out the message on the back of the letter.

"Oh..." Hermione said.

"Well... I think sod him," Isaac said, "You want to keep him?"

"Me?" Hermione asked, looking down at the furry lump that bobbled around in her hands, "But I... if it's for Ron..."

"What he won't know, can't hurt him," Isaac said, "Plus I think he'd probably tell me to 'Get stuffed' if I tried to talk to him about taking the owl,"

Hermione frowned and looked down at the owl.

"I guess I'll have to keep him then," she said.

She paused for a moment before holding the small owl out to Crookshanks.

"Definitely an owl?" she asked.

Crookshanks sniffed the owl before curling back up on the cushion and resting.

"Good enough for me," Hermione said.

Isaac smiled as he folded the letter away and awaited the arrival of the sweets trolley.

When the trolley came Isaac ended up buying a few boxes more than he needed of Bertie Botts Beans.

He had just emptied a small handful into his mouth to avoid having to talk, his head shaking slightly as the taste of tuna, mushroom and leek soup, chicken, asparagus, three different kinds of mint, strawberry chocolates, and what he thought might have been cardboard was not the best combination that he had ever had.

He gagged slightly as a knocking came from the door.

He looked up to see a confused pair of Slytherins at the door.

He nodded, trying not to spit up the beans, and Draco and Blaise came into the compartment.

"You alright?" Blaise asked the now pale-red Isaac.

Frowning heavily, his face screwed from the unpleasurable taste, Isaac managed to swallow the beans.

"Peachy," he coughed, "Wish I could say the same about the taste," he broke off into a series of small coughs, "How's you?"

"Pansy's insufferable," Draco said, "Since the hippogriff got away she's been moody about how Dumbledore plotted the whole thing,"

Isaac gave an over-exaggerated frown and offered the Beans around.

"Tripe," Blaise said, passing the box to Draco, "So, did any of you hear about what happened?"

Macnair's crumpled body flashed before Isaac's eyes.

"Apparently someone fell to their death," Hermione said, declining the box of beans from a sour-faced Draco who had gotten lemon.

"I heard," Draco paused for a cough, "That someone had been stabbed, what did you hear?" he asked Isaac.

Isaac paused for a moment, trying to think of something to say that wouldn't place him as the one behind it all.

"Pretty much the same, but that both of what you two said had happened," he said, fiddling with the box.

He closed his eyes and savoured the taste as salted caramel drowned out everything else.

"Oww!" he jolted forward.

The train had rocked again and his head had banged against the window.

As he rubbed his head Draco caught sight of the small owl that was nestled in Hermione's lap.

"When did you get an owl?" he asked.

"Oh... well... since Owl Mail is faster than the Post Office I thought I would save up throughout the year and get one," Hermione said.

Isaac gave her a subtle nod in response to her cover story.

"Oh, so what's his name?" Blaise asked as the small owl flew up towards Hedwig's cage to see the larger owl.

Hedwig ruffled her feathers and clicked her beak disapprovingly at the overly-excited ball of feathers that had landed next to her cage.

"Hmm..." Hermione tapped her chin as she thought, "I was thinking of 'Archimedes'," she decided.

The little owl fluttered back down to her and landed on Hermione's outstretched arm.

"So, would you like to be called that, Archimedes?" she asked the little owl.

Archimedes chittered happily and danced around on Hermione's palm.

"That is odd one little owl," Draco said with a slight laugh.

There came another knock at the door.

"Everything alright?" George asked, sliding the door open enough for him to lean in. Fred just behind him.

"Yeah," Isaac said, "Just catching up, want to join?"

The twins looked at the company in the compartment.

"Alright then," they said, moving into the compartment and closing the door behind them, "Exploding snap?"

"Do they always talk like that?" Draco asked, leaning over to Isaac as Fred sat down next to him and George next to Blaise and Hermione.

"So," George said, passing out the cards, "Anyone planning on going to the Quidditch World Cup this summer?"

"Father will be getting tickets through work," Draco said, shuffling through his hand.

"Maybe, I dunno," Blaise said, looking through his cards.

"There's a Quidditch World Cup?" Isaac asked.

"Do you get the Daily Prophet?" Draco asked.

"No," Isaac said, "It'd be a little costly to get it to America,"

"Keep forgetting you live there," George said, tossing a card down onto the empty seat they were using as a table.

"I'll send you a paper that'll tell you how to get tickets when I get home," Draco said, gingerly putting a card down.

That turned out to be the right move since when Hermione placed her card on the pile it blew up and they restarted the game.

Draco and Blaise stayed for a couple of games before heading back to their compartment to get changed for travelling home.

The twins stayed for another game before leaving to do the same.

"Oh, guys," Isaac called to them as they stood, "Before you go..." he rustled around with a few sheets of parchment in his trunk.

"Here," Isaac gave Fred a few pages, "That toffee recipe I told you about," he said with a wink.

Fred gave him a toothy grin.

"Cheers for that," he said, "Probably keep Mum happy since we'll be too busy to actually annoy anyone,"

As he and George left Isaac felt a slight shiver make its way through the cabin.

He had enjoyed having the twins there, for a moment he was able to forget about his...

"I'll give you some privacy," Isaac said, leaving the compartment so that Hermione could change in peace.

While he was outside the compartment he tried to get his breathing back under control.

Had... had he snapped?

He... he didn't remember much of it, just the moment when he had killed Macnair.

He didn't remember getting into the room, or how he had gotten back, or what he'd been doing before he woke on the train.

Hermione knocked on the glass to let him know she was done and the two of them swapped places to change.

Isaac hesitated when it came to knocking on the glass for a moment.

What if he blacked out again, what if...

He shook his head, like trying to clear himself from a daze.

He winced as a long strand of hair caught him in the eye. Somehow it had looped over his glasses just to stab him.

He knocked on the glass as he brushed his hair out of his face and Hermione came back in, pulling Crookshanks onto her lap, and looking out the window.

"Isaac... can... can I ask you something?" she said slowly.

Isaac's heart skipped a beat and he looked over at Hermione.

"Y-yeah," he said, stuttering slightly.

"Isaac, I'll understand if you don't want to talk about it," Hermione said, "But... what happened..."

Isaac's heart skipped again.

"... when you were eight? Did they... ever find him?"

Isaac almost collapsed then and there out of relief.

"I'm sorry, it's just..." Hermione started. Evidently, some of that relief had been taken the wrong way.

"I-it's fine," Isaac said, waving his hand to stop her, "But, erm... no, they never found him, he's... he's still out there, somewhere... ticking along..."

Hermione nodded.

"I... I just thought that... _this_ would have been... harder on you," she said.

A loud whistling broke through the air, causing the two of them to jump, as the train started slowing down.

"And we're home," Hermione said softly.

"Speak for yourself," Isaac snorted, "I've still got an ocean to cross,"

Hermione couldn't help but burst out in laughter as the train came to a stop.

Isaac broke out in a smile too, it felt like he hadn't done such a thing in ages.

As Hermione replaced Crookshanks back in his basket Isaac looked out the window as the train slowed to a stop.

A patch of blonde hair and green clothes caught his eye and he did a double take to look out on the platform.

"What is it?" Hermione asked as Isaac twisted in his seat to look out the window.

"Thought I saw Ben," Isaac said, craning his neck as he tried to look out again.

Hermione smiled at her friend as he nearly fell off of the seats when he overstretched.

"Well, I think that Ben would appreciate you in one piece," she said as Isaac picked himself up.

He stuck his tongue out at her, his cheeks burning slightly, as she laughed some more and the two of them wrestled their trunks down.

Isaac carried Crookshanks' basket for her as they got off the train while Hermione tucked Archimedes safely in her jacket pocket.

The small owl hooted happily at the comfy, warm, interior and soon settled down.

She took the wicker basket from Isaac and they made their way down the platform to find the nearest exit.

They waited their turn to use the barrier before leaning through, making it look like they had been chatting casually.

Once they were through the barrier they moved so they wouldn't block the next group and started looking around for...

Isaac paused for a moment.

Up ahead Tim was making polite chatter with an eager Mr Weasley while Brian and Mrs Weasley were keeping a lookout for their respective pickups.

But talking to Toby, with his back to him, was Ben.

Toby glanced past Ben and smiled.

He bent forward slightly and said something to Ben.

Even though he was facing away from him, Isaac could tell that Ben was frowning.

That changed, however, when Ben turned to see what Toby was talking about.

Isaac had started running over the second that he had seen Ben.

Ben's face cracked open in a wide smile and he started running to Isaac as well.

"Sup Specs!" Ben said gleefully as the two of them collided in a hug that threatened to topple them, "Wait until I tell you what... wait... when did this happen?" he cried, looking up at Isaac.

Isaac started laughing as Ben started ranting.

"No! No! No, no, no, no!" Ben said as Toby started walking over, noticing, and laughing as well, "No! I refuse to the shortest again!"

"You're still taller than Sally," Tim pointed out, taking the trunk from Isaac as he and Brian made their way over.

"She's eight! She doesn't count!" Ben said, turning back to Isaac.

"Are you ok?" he asked, tilting his head as he looked into Isaac's eyes.

Isaac stalled for a moment.

"Y-yeah, j-just l-looking forward t-to g-going home," Isaac said, closing his eyes after speaking and sighing.

He opened his eyes as Toby put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him a little closer.

"Then let's get you home," Toby said, "And you can tell me all about how you _didn't_ have another school year that sounds like it could be a quest for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign,"

Isaac shrunk a little.

"Sorry,"

Toby sighed and rolled his eyes.

"See next year, I'm sending you a wiffle-ball-bat," he pointed at Hermione, "... and if at any point it looks like he's about to go off on another grand adventure, then you will have my permission to hit him around the head as many times as it takes for him to put the brakes on,"

Hermione, who had been off to the side looking around for her parents, went a little red in the face.

She nodded with a small smile playing on her lips as she heard her mother calling her before saying goodbye and making her exit.

"We'd better be going too," Tim said, frowning as the redhead that normally got along well with Isaac glared slightly in their direction while his mother was otherwise distracted.

Isaac nodded, picking up his trunk again.

"You alright?" Ben asked, stopping him with a hand on his wrist.

"Home first," Isaac said, jumping slightly at a horn from a nearby train.

Ben nodded and kept at his side as he took Hedwig's cage from its perch on the top of the trunk.

"Oh! By the way..." Ben said as they made their way through the crowds, "... Toby's now been officially labelled as a domestic terrorist,"

Isaac did a double-take as he looked at Ben, "What?"

"I'm not a terrorist," Toby _almost_ whined, "I'm just... not allowed to be left alone when I'm on valium,"

"W... why was he on valium?" Isaac asked.

"Well, you see..."

"Enough," Tim said, not wanting to talk about Toby's classification following his little display in public.

"I'll show you when we get home," Ben said.

"You said you deleted it," Toby hissed.

"It's the internet, nothing ever gets deleted forever,"

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

End notes.

Ok, that's another chapter done, and I'm feeling pretty good about it.

So, Isaac's getting a little closer now...

... and I'm not confirming anything... but I might have started writing down possible ways that he'll snap for when the time comes.

But, as usual, I'm happy with how I've done things this time.

Definitely starting to change some things, but there are still some things that I'm keeping the same.

Sorry that I missed my usual upload time, the website kept crashing when I tried to check the chapter before uploading.

But who to bring in this time...

So, I hope that you all enjoyed,

And I'll see you in the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

If any of these are wrong then please notify me of this so I can fix them.


	39. Chapter 39, Can I get my card stamped?

Chapter 39, Can I get my card stamped, please?

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

{sarcastic response to last weeks chapter}

{A little bit about life}

Ok, now that I've run out of things to say, let's see what you lot have said;

Lunarwolf11021;

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Wait and see...

Dark Ravie;

Thanks, glad you like it.

MyraZinshu;

...

I had forgotten about that for a while.

It took me a moment before I remembered, I was fairly confused for a moment.

However, I did do something a little... dumber.

I may or may not... have two Tesla coils in my room, both around 4 inches, but one of them is designed so that I can play music with it.

So... like any normal, sensible, mature and responsible person would do when playing with small lightning generators... I bought a bag of mentos and put one between the prongs that create the spark gap...

My room smells really sweet now...

And it tastes wonderful.

.549;

I actually haven't had much, if any at all, reviews that are like that.

I'm always open to hearing the ideas of others, where do you think a few of the EXTRAS chapter's come from?

I think I'll keep both those suggestions for if I ever do an 'Alternate Snaps' chapter. I'm going through a few ideas, but I already have a favourite.

OH!

And congratulations for being the 200th reviewer.

Sweet Smilie;

For the man in the alley, wait and find out.

Percy's owl was called Hermes, who was the messenger of the Greek gods.

I was erm... I was kinda watching 'Watchmen' when I finished that scene and... the flying owl ship is awesome, alright.

But, Archimedes is also the name of Merlin's owl in Disney's 'The Sword in The Stone'. So that worked out rather nicely.

Eh, the Ministry will take care of it. They won't want a panic and will probably put it down to a drunken accident.

Hehe, writing those two is fun.

And I can't wait until the end of the next school year...

Erm... yeah... I have no idea what the end of that review is.

Thunder-Death;

Bonjour,

Thank you!

Hehe, I think I threw a couple of people with a curveball on that one.

A little bit of a teaser, yeah, but I'm thinking that I might try and delay the whole HP side of things for a bit so I can do more CP centric chapters for a while.

Yep, Dumbledore's lies are finally starting to show.

And Isaac's not going to be too happy about how much meddling the man has done in his life.

Rosie and rai the kitsune;

Me neither.

Like I said in another review answer I'm planning on writing a bunch of alternate snap scenes so I'll probably write one where Isaac snaps a little earlier on.

Katoptris12;

'munches on popcorn'

Did you enjoy the wait?

You'll find your answers this week, enjoy.

DarkDragonessFliesEveryWhere;

Well, that name was a mouthful.

Hello, welcome to the story dearie.

Thank you.

I'm still working through what, if he has one at all, Isaac's Creepypasta name will be.

And I am totally open to suggestions, it's just har dot think of one that doesn't come across as slightly cringy and what a preteen would call a character to try and seem edgy.

Oof (Guest);

Hehehe.

And that was the last for that week.

DP, my wonderful beta, how are you, things going well over in your little bubble?

Things are going well for me. How are you and your bearded dragon Toby?

I'm pretty well, gotten over my cold.

Toby… I might have to get him checked out, he's a little lethargic and hasn't been drinking when I've been giving him his baths.

I would also like apologise in advance in case I make any mistakes with places, and buildings, and other things like that.

All I know about the places that I chose to have them visit in this story is that they exist on Google Maps.

If I get anything wrong with how a town actually is, or say that it has things that it doesn't, then I'm sorry.

Ok, that's that.

Onto the story,

I hope that you enjoy,

SteamGeek01

Oh, one last thing... the alternate title for this?

'The Doctor will see you now.'

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Hogwarts.

Albus Dumbledore looked over the edge of the staircase as a pair of Aurors cast spells over the area that had once held the body of Walden Macnair.

He closed his eyes for a moment as they agreed that while the body had died there, it was not where the battle that had cost him his life had taken place.

He bowed slightly to the pair as they passed him while they made their way up to the room where Macnair had been staying.

His fingers curled around the bannister as he tried to think about what had happened.

His first thought had been that Black had gotten a piece of revenge about the Ministry trying to take his soul without a trial, but he had been sighted miles away at the time by an old lady who had called the Muggle Police.

Between the call, and the time it would take to apparate to outside the grounds, sneak in, kill Macnair, get out...

No. It had been someone else.

Pettigrew?

No, the man was too cowardly to ever have the guts, or skill, to pull something like this off.

For a moment he thought about Potter.

If there was anyone that might have been angry enough to kill, it would have been him.

Dumbledore snorted in disbelief.

Potter may be more free-willed but to think that _he_ would have done something like this.

The idea was laughable.

The boy might have had the anger, but Macnair was much more a skilled fighter than he.

It took a moment, but Dumbledore actually let out a small huff of laughter.

Harry Potter, a killer...

How ridiculous.

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He had killed someone.

That thought buzzed through his head.

True, it wasn't the first time.

Petunia Dursley, those men who had gotten a hold of the sheet music...

But... but this time... it was the first time that he had killed for himself.

Petunia it had been to save Toby.

Those men it had been to save Masky.

But Macnair... _he_ had chosen to do it because the man wouldn't allow Sirius to have a fair trial.

The world tilted away from him slightly, the only thing that stopped him from falling from the shift was Ben's quick arm.

Everything normalised again and he found himself back in the Forest of The Slenderman.

"You feeling alright?" Ben asked, keeping his arm on Isaac's just in case it looked like he would fall over again.

"Erm... guys..."

Toby turned to look back, frowning.

Hoodie who was behind them stopped and Masky leaned against the tree.

"What is it?" Toby asked.

"So I was at dinner yesterday, well yesterday for me, and then..."

"If it didn't happen at the dinner, then skip to what happened," Masky said, 'Toby's his older brother? You don't say,'

"I blacked out for a good few hours and woke up on the train," Isaac said, "... and I killed someone,"

There was silence for a few moments.

In that time Masky lit a cigarette and took a quick drag.

"Did you kill them before, after, or during the bit where your memory blanks?"

"During," Isaac said, wondering what the hell had happened...

Did... did he snap?

"Well, you didn't snap," Masky said and that thought, and hope, was dashed.

"It's more like that was a build up to a snap," Toby said, "Doesn't mean that it's close, but it's closer than it was a few years ago,"

Isaac nodded to show his understanding.

"I think that I had the blackouts for the better half of a year," Masky said as they resumed walking back through the forest, "Plus a decent bout of insomnia, then visions of Slender, then he found me in time for me to go full Proxy,"

Hoodie gave a quick grunt ahead and held up two fingers.

"I lost so much time I'm not sure that I know how old I'm supposed to be," Toby said, scratching the back of his head and getting his fingers tangled in his lockes.

He paused for a moment to try and extract his hand before jogging to catch up.

"So wait... how old are you?" Isaac asked.

Toby gave a loud gasp and placed his hand on his chest.

"And I thought I raised you better," he said in an overly affronted tone.

"You taught me how to kill someone by stabbing them through their lungs to get to their heart before I had been here for a month,"

"And you still get it wrong,"

"You don't exactly take me out to get a lot of practice," Isaac muttered.

"Keep that lip up and I won't let you join me on my next job," Toby sniffed, rubbing his nose and looking around the twisting trees.

Isaac paused, his foot skiffing on the ground.

"What?" Toby asked, turning around with a smile, "You showed that you can handle yourself pretty well last summer, now we have to see if you can handle a job without burning down a school,"

Isaac gave a quick huff of laughter as they started walking again, stumbling slightly as his foot had slid under an unearthed root when he had stopped.

Ben rolled his eyes as Isaac corrected his footing.

"So... see any dragons yet?"

Isaac chuckled.

"No... but my defence teacher for the year was a werewolf..."

Before he had finished speaking Ben had grabbed him by the shoulders and screeched, "DETAILS!" in his face.

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Back at The Mansion.

Isaac threw the ball at the wall, catching it as it bounced back off the floor.

Isaac threw the ball at the wall, catching it as it bounced back off the floor.

Isaac threw the ball at the wall, catching it as it bounced back off the floor.

He sighed as he let his head fall back and hit the frame of the bed.

Right now he felt like he had ascended to a whole new level of boredom.

Everyone was out working, except for Jeff who was relaxing on the couch downstairs and taking pleasure from the fact that Slendy had sent Jane on a week-long job that had her following someone that was likely to snap and lose themselves.

Isaac sighed as he caught the ball again.

He walked over to his trunk, which had been pushed under the bed to make space, and tugged it out.

Despite it being there for less than a day a small layer of dust had already gathered that he wiped away before extracting a book from within.

He flicked through the pages until he found a few pieces of parchment tucked in between the pages.

This had taken a fair amount of his free-time that year.

He walked over and knocked on the t.v.

He waited a few moments to see if Ben was chilling in the cyberspace around The Mansion.

~Sup?~

"Want to help me with something?"

~What?~

"I may have found a way to ward my room from _anyone_ getting in," Isaac said.

The screen flashed and flickered for a moment before Ben crawled out.

"Really?" he asked as he got up off of the ground.

"Yeah," Isaac said, laying the parchments out on the bed.

Ben looked them over, his brow creasing as he mouthed the words.

"You think that these'll keep everyone out?" he asked, picking up a piece and turning it over to see if there was any writing on the other side.

"Yep," Isaac said, moving them so that they were in the order that the runes had to be drawn, "Well... it'll be able to stop guys like Teer and L.J phasing in, at the least, so the only way you could get in would be through the door or window... or through a wall, if you wanted to be that extra,"

Ben snorted in laughter as he shook his head.

"Right, well... I think we'll need some paint," he said before looking around the room.

"Yep... could I shove some stuff into your room while we do this?"

"Oh... sure, I'll go tidy up a bit,"

Isaac frowned and watched him as he left.

"What?" Ben asked as he reached the door.

"I never thought that I would hear you say those words of your own free will,"

"Oh, fuck you!"

It was Isaac's turn to snort in laughter as Ben flipped him off from over the shoulder.

Around an hour later they had cleared everything out of the room, the bed being the only thing that was too big to move had been propped up on its side against the wall.

When the time came to paint the area underneath it Isaac planned to levitate the bed while Ben did the actual painting.

The carpet had been pulled back and Ben had fetched two tubs of red paint, plus a couple of brushes, from the garage.

"Hey, Ben... since when has this place had a garage?" Isaac asked, remembering the small addition that hadn't been there last summer.

"Oh, A few months back Slendy had Teer, Jeff, E.J, and Clock grab a hunk of rock that he wanted to keep away from the general populous..." the two of them paused as they saluted, "... and Teer decided that he didn't want to bother with carrying the thing around with them so they stole a car,"

Isaac shook his head incredulously.

"Really? Why didn't he just phase, or teleport, or whatever it is that he does, to carry the rock back?"

"Reason Slendy wants it," Ben said, "Messes with their ability to do so,"

Another couple of hours later, and many smudges on the face, the rune circles were complete.

Isaac bewitched the bed so it was as light as a feather for Ben to hold up as he finished the runes and cast the incantations to activate it.

"Woah..." Ben's eyes went wide as the paint that they had laid down shimmered with a blue haze for a few seconds before it faded away.

He could feel a faint ripple pass through the air and Isaac stood up from where he was crouched at the middle of the floor.

"That should be it," he said, wiping his forehead free from any sweat, "You alright over there?"

"You kidding me?" Ben scoffed, "This is awesome,"

He shifted the bed so that he was holding it up with one hand.

"You gotta take a picture of this,"

Isaac laughed again and obliged Ben in taking a picture of him holding the bed up.

"I'll send it to you later," Isaac said as he rolled the carpet back out.

Ben carefully settled the bed back down and walked over to Isaac.

He stuck his finger in his phone for a few seconds.

"Got it," he said and helped Isaac flatten out the edges.

The bed was easy to move back to where it used to be, likewise for the cabinet and cupboard that Isaac had also charmed to be lighter than normal.

"Do I want to know?" Masky asked, a few blood splatters across his mask and clothes.

"Just something I designed at Hogwarts..." Isaac trailed off, "Masky... do you trust Dumbledore?"

Isaac could tell that, behind his mask, Masky had cocked an eyebrow.

"I trust him about as much as I'd trust Toby not to do anything in a room full of big red buttons that say 'Push Me!', why?"

Isaac nodded.

"Toby tell you about the whole 'Godfather is innocent, and Ron's rat was the real dickbag' thing?" Isaac asked him.

"I think he's still got a bruise from where his head hit the table," Masky said.

As they had talked they had followed him to the bathroom where he was now washing the drying blood off of his mask.

"Right, well... when I was flying Buckbeak to get to the tower where they were holding him I overheard part of his conversation with Dumbledore.

Sirius asked him about a letter that my... my dad had written to tell him of the change in secret keepers, but Dumbledore said that he never received it.

But when I asked him about it when I was with Professor Lupin, he said the same, but... I knew he was lying.

And this isn't the first time, and I've never been wrong, or... I think so, at least, but I've never been wrong when I think that someone's lying to me,"

Masky turned away from the sink and looked at him.

"Alright...

My first kill was this blonde-haired kid from Minnesota,"

Isaac frowned at him.

"Blonde, yes, Minnesota, no,"

Masky straightened up, turning the tap off and letting the rest of the water drain away.

"Denver,"

"No,"

"Chicago,"

"No,"

"Sacramento,"

"Yes,"

Masky took a step closer to him.

"The dude's whose blood..."

"Girl," Isaac said before he could finish.

Masky couldn't help but let his jaw part a little.

"Don't let Jeff hear about this, he'll try and use you to con people in the street,"

Isaac scoffed and returned to where Ben was putting the rest of the stuff back in his room.

"You get what you need from Masky?" he asked as he put the last of the boxes down.

"Yeah... well, no," Isaac said, "But I can talk to him and Toby about it later,"

"Ok," Ben said, "Think that's everything,"

"Hmm?" Isaac turned to look at him, "Oh, right, the runes.

Anyone that can teleport back yet?"

"Don't think so," he mused, "I wonder what'll happen and... wait... does that mean that I can't get in through the t.v?"

Isaac paused to think.

"It wards the room against things appearing in... it might count the t.v. as a doorway,"

Ben turned to the t.v. That was resting on the bed as they hadn't brought the desk back through yet.

"Eh, I'll find out later," Ben said before stopping and looking straight ahead, his eyes glossing over slightly.

"Clock and E.J need some footage wiped," he said, "Catch you later,"

Isaac nodded to him as he left.

It took Isaac another half hour to get everything tidied away and once he was done he flopped down onto the bed.

It was good to be home.

He groaned slightly as he heard his phone buzz from where he had set it down and had to get back up get it.

"Hello?" he asked as he dropped back down onto the bed.

#You busy?# Toby asked, the sounds of cars zooming past in the background.

"Not really, why?" Isaac asked.

#Well I said that I'd take you with on my next job, didn't I?#

Isaac sat up on the bed.

#This one ain't gonna be too bad.

Quick in, quick out. Maybe burn the place down...# he trailed off in a sing-song voice.

"Where is it?"

#Nevada, Montello, HEY WATCH IT YOU...#

Isaac listened as Toby shouted yelling at what sounded a car that drove a little too close.

#Anyway... you get a pad and pen?#

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

Isaac walked down the street, his hands plunged into his pockets.

He could feel his facemask and goggles press against him with every step he took.

He neared the small diner that Toby had said to meet him at and there, true to his word, with a plate of half-eaten waffles in front of him sat the twitchy pyromaniac himself.

Toby looked up and smiled as he pushed the chair opposite him out with his foot.

"So, how was work?" Isaac asked.

"Same as always, bro, never-ending," Toby said, "Feel like I'm burning the candle at both ends sometimes, I don't think I'll be able to handle night shifts for much longer,"

Toby gave a subtle nod of his head towards a man sitting with three others on the other side of the bar.

They were all chatting to themselves in hushed voices, their laughter being the only thing to actually make it past their table.

"What did they do?" Isaac asked.

"Well... let's just say that they want 'The Purge' to be a reality, but on their terms... they've already started making it a weekly game," Toby said, taking a drink from his soda.

"Hey! Change the channel, love," one of them called out, "Dead depressin' that..."

The bartender rolled her eyes and grabbed the remote, changing the channel away from the news to a sports channel to keep them happy.

"... still looking for Dr Evander..."

"And it looks like it's going to be another close game for..."

Isaac gave a slight huff and turned back to face Toby.

"So, how we gonna do this?" he asked, stealing a bit of Toby's waffle.

"We..." he snatched the waffle back, "... are going to follow them back to... leave my waffles alone... back to their place and either slice and dice, or just burn it down with them inside,"

He hit Isaac's hand away again.

"Get your own,"

"I didn't bring my wallet,"

"Sucks to be you,"

It took another ten minutes for the group to tire of their current residing and decide to retire for the night.

"Showtime," Toby said, wiping his face and piling everything neatly onto the tray.

He and Isaac nodded to each other and left the diner a minute after them; pausing for a moment to let a man with frizzy, dark, hair pulled back in a long ponytail exit before them.

 **(X) Scene Change (X)**

"Yo, Mick," Kyle said, "Go get the car ready for tomorrow,"

"Fuck off, Jessie's turn to tune that piece of crap!"

"Oi! I did it last week, your turn to fix it," Jessie said as he kicked an abandoned can left by the road.

"Well whichever of you two do it, make sure you keep it down. My head's banging," Adam said, rubbing his head.

"And that's why you listen when I say, 'tie the bitches wrists tighter' instead of saying that it'll be fine," Mick teased.

"Piss off!" Adam said, hitting him in the arm.

The friends laughed it off as they knocked the door open.

Jessie admitted defeat and went through the back and out to the garage.

The old mustang that Kyle's dad had left him was probably a couple of years past it's best by date.

Rust was starting to show through the edges and the scratches just seemed to get deeper and deeper.

The stairs creaked as he heard someone, probably Adam, ascend to one of the bedrooms upstairs.

He kicked the creeper board out from under the cabinet and rolled his shoulder, tossing his jacket over the nearby chair, and descended underneath.

The main problem with the car?

The suspension was close to being shot.

"Spring's going," he muttered to himself as he rolled along the car.

The door creaked open and he heard someone walk in.

"Gonna pass me the torch?" Jessie asked, peering up at the brake lines, "I think Mick did the brakes too tight again,"

He felt a tapping at his knee and reached to take the torch.

"Son of a..." he hit the torch against his palm as he tried to get it to work, "You got batteries there? Torch died,"

The sounds of someone shuffling followed by the sounds of the other creeper board being rolled over and a few seconds later someone was under the car with him.

Jessie looked over and frowned.

"When did we get blue goggles?" he asked, "Nice idea with the mask," he added on, "Knowing Mick when we try to fix this it's gonna spray everywhere,"

Whoever it was, probably Kyle, shrugged and held up his hand.

Jessie looked at the outstretched appendage and back to the person...

"Hey! Who are you?"

Beneath the mask, the person smiled before flexing their fingers.

Blue flames spun around the outstretched fingers.

The smile on the person's face seemed to grow wider as Jessie gave a shocked yelp and kicked away from the person.

Jessie pushed himself away fast enough to send the creeper board skidding as the masked person got up on the other side of the car.

"Who the hell are you?" Kyle's shout came through from the other side of the wall.

The person with the mask smiled and waved at him, his hand bursting into flames again.

Jessie's eyes went wide with fear and he started scrambling around for something to use to defend himself with.

He grabbed a heavy spanner and turned around just in time to see the person had run across the hood of the car, leaving heavy dents in his wake.

Jessie swung at the person but they jumped out of the way.

The person grabbed a hammer off of the worktop and spun it around in his hand.

Jessie gritted his teeth.

They'd been killing people for a good two months, some upstart street magician would be nothing.

"Bring it then, you little fucker!" Jessie shouted at him.

The masked person tilted his head and pouted through the mask, mocking him.

Jessie gritted his teeth and growled.

He swung with the spanner again, and again, but the person kept dodging each time.

The person stamped on the ground and for a moment Jessie wondered what was supposed to happen.

Then Jessie realised that as he had stepped forward the person had shoved the creeper board forward... under his foot.

Jessie scrambled to grab something as the board flung one of his feet forward and he fell backwards.

The person leapt forward, landing heavily with his knees on Jessie's chest.

The wind was knocked out of him and a searing pain shot through his chest, accompanied by a dull crack.

Jessie tried to swing the spanner at him again, but the person grabbed it with a flaming hand.

The eyes behind the blue tinted goggles seemed to sparkle with mischief and he spun the hammer around in his hand so that the claw of the hammer was facing down.

The person jumped up, keeping a foot on his chest, and swung the hammer at his throat.

Jessie let out a gargled scream, blood squirting up in torrents, as the most of the front of his throat was now pinned to the cabinet to his left by the hammer.

The masked person got up before any of the streams could get onto him.

Isaac sighed and pushed up his goggles, scratching an itch that had been growing between his brow.

"Thanks for that," Isaac said to the dying man, "Needed to let off some steam. Had a really shit school year,"

Jessie let out another gargled whimper as his hands fell down.

"Right, well... I'm gonna go see how Toby's doing," Isaac said, "Toodaloo Kangaroo," he waved again and jumped up the small set of stairs that led down into the garage.

Lying across the couch was another of the people, Kyle, Isaac thought, with a hatchet through his chest and a deep gouge across his eyes.

Isaac smirked to himself at the streaks of blood that were staining the couch a deep crimson, pooling slightly underneath.

"Everyone down?" Isaac asked.

A thump came from the kitchen and Isaac made his way through.

"Toby?" he asked as he rounded the corner.

"Toby... so that was his name..." a slightly growly baritone said quietly.

Isaac steeled as he clenched his fists.

"Who are you?" he asked.

A tall figure wearing a long, dark-red, coat obscured his vision and Isaac felt something stab into his neck.

"Shh..." the voice said, "Sleep..."

Isaac swung at the person, but his strength was already fading away and his fist bounced harmlessly off of the man's side.

The last thing he heard before darkness took him over was the faint laughter of the voice and the sounds of someone coming down... the... stairs...

Isaac's eyelids closed as he fell to the ground...

 **(X)Scene Change (X)**

Isaac woke to a dim, crackling, light over him.

His head pounded in pain and he could feel each beat of his heart.

He tried to bring a hand up to block out the light but found that he couldn't move it further an inch.

He squinted down at his arms, his glasses gone, and found that there were thick leather straps keeping him held to a stainless steel table.

"Oi!" a groggy voice to his left called over.

Isaac turned and saw the last person of the group of four strapped to a table.

Isaac let out a low sounding hiss as his head hurt from the strain of looking around.

"Oi! You know what the fuck's going on?" Adam asked again, hints of anger and panic in his voice.

"Erm... five... four... I think this is four..." Isaac said, the room spinning slightly as whatever he had been injected with was still affecting him.

"The fuck you talking about?" Adam said, slurring slightly, "Dumbass kid..." he muttered, "Is that guy to your right up?"

Isaac turned his head to his right and saw Toby in the same predicament as him and Adam.

"Toby?" Isaac called over, but all he got in return was a low snore.

"... marshmallows..." Toby grumbled in his sleep.

"Great! Fucking great!" Adam seethed, "Stuck here with a fucking kid, and a useless lump of shit who can't wake up!"

Just then a pair of doors that Isaac could barely make out in the dimly lit room opened.

The man with the long coat walked in.

"Two out of three... it'll do..." he said through a mask, the long nose coming down in front of his chest.

"Let us go, you freaky looking..." Adam was silenced when the man brought up a shiny, but long bone saw.

"That rude attitude of yours will not win you over any favours here," the man said, examining the saw before slowly walking over to Toby's table.

"Leave him alone!" Isaac shouted over.

The man paused and turned to look at Isaac before continuing to examine Toby, rolling up his sleeve and placing fingers over Toby's wrist.

"Good, he's alive," the man said, replacing Toby's sleeve, "I didn't expect you and your brother, I must say, it was an... interesting surprise to..."

"LET US GO!" Adam demanded.

Years with Masky had given Isaac enough experience to tell that the man behind the mask was regarding Adam with a cold, almost bored, expression.

"I'll be back in a while," the man said, walking over to Adam's table, "Try to make yourself comfortable, doctor's orders," he gave a small chuckle.

"Will do," Isaac said, happier than most would have expected now that whatever he had been drugged with was nearly out of his system, "But would you mind putting my glasses back on, I'd rather be kidnapped in a place that I can actually see?"

The man straightened up a little and walked past Isaac's table.

Isaac watched him as much as he could and saw that there was a table with what looked like all their things upon it.

The man rummaged amongst the things on the table and walked back over.

A few seconds later Isaac blinked as everything came into focus.

"Thank you," Isaac said.

Adam gaped at Isaac.

"You are taking this rather well," the man said, tilting his head to show his curiosity.

"Well, this is old news for me," Isaac said, "At least you're polite, last two were rather rude about it,"

The man made a soft hum and returned to pushing a protesting Adam out of the room.

"No! NO! TAKE THE KID! TAKE THE KID!" his shouts were muffled as he was pushed through the doors and down the hallway.

Isaac waited until for a few more seconds before he started tugging against the restraints.

"Come on... come on!" Isaac grunted, pulling at the leather strap.

He broke off with a panted sigh as the shackles refused to give way.

He glanced up for another moment before trying again.

Screams echoed down through the hall, faint and distant.

Isaac turned to look at Toby, who was still out of commission.

He glanced down at the shackle before sighing.

"Fuck..."

Isaac screwed up his eyes and soon his hands were burning again.

He tugged as hard as he could, making sure that the straps were caught in the blue, tinted-green, flames.

After a few more seconds of burning the straps gave way and Isaac's hands were free.

He waved away the flames on his hands before slapping the fire that had started spreading up his sleeves out, his skin raw.

He reached down and undid the straps keeping his legs bound to the table and pushed off onto the floor.

"Toby?" Isaac hurried over to Toby's table, hitting him in the face but he didn't wake.

He just shuffled slightly but didn't wake.

"Shit..." Isaac glanced back to the door before running over to the table with all their things.

"Come on..." Isaac said, searching through his jacket for his phone.

He sighed and let it fall back onto the table as the cover was missing along with the battery.

"Ok... ok..." he said, backing up.

'No phone... can't get Ben...' he paced a small circle.

He looked around the room and his eyes fell on a chair shaped object under a dusty blanket.

He tore it away and found an old wheelchair.

Isaac pulled it, trying to get the old wheels moving again, and after a few more tries it started to roll.

Isaac pushed it over to Toby's table and started working on Toby's shackles.

Once they were all released he started pulling Toby up.

"Geez, lay off the waffles," Isaca grunted as he finally slid him into the wheelchair.

Isaac ran back to the table and grabbed everything, Adam's things included.

He dumped them on Toby's lap and grabbed the hatchet that Toby had left, the other still in Kyle's head... he didn't know how many miles away.

He found the old belt and strapped it around Toby and the things before he checked that the corridor was clear before grabbing the handles and pushing Toby out into the hall.

The hallway was just as dimly lit as the room they were in but more sparse.

Isaac pushed him forward looking around and keeping the hatchet in hand in case the man came back.

They reached the door at the end of the corridor and Isaac looked through the dirty glass windows.

It seemed to be some sort of auditorium, seats lined in a circle around a sunken operating theatre.

By the shadows cast from below the man was down below with Adam.

Isaac carefully opened the door, mindful in case it started squeaking.

After it was wide enough to open to roll Toby through he carefully pulled him through.

He quietly rolled Toby along the path between the old, decaying, chairs; willing Toby to not make another sound.

On the other side of the room was another double door with an old, unlit, sign above it that would have once shone and lit the word 'EXIT'.

Isaac cast a quick glance down to where Adam's open body was on display, a single door at the bottom flapping closed as someone had just walked through.

Isaac sped up a little as they neared the doors out.

"Almost,"

Isaac stopped as the man, long-nosed mask and all, walked through the door.

His coat was gone and there were numerous blood splatters on his shirt and he was still holding a bonesaw.

Isaac quickly started pulling Toby back as the man walked forward, letting the bonesaw bounce on the back of the chairs.

Isaac stepped around in front of Toby, clutching the axe, as he pushed Toby back more until he felt the wheelchair get stuck on one of the chairs.

"You did so much better than any of the others that I've sealed in there," the man said, "I remember one time that someone tried to tilt the table so that they could walk out with it still on their back... they got stuck under it, face flat on the ground,"

The man chuckled at his reverie.

"But, I have work to do. A purpose to serve, and..."

The man leapt out of the way as Isaac swung, spinning the axe around and swinging it at him again.

The man kicked at Isaac, sending him backwards and crashing against Toby.

"... erm... mafug... sausages..." Toby muttered in his drug-induced sleep.

Isaac got back up as the man started coming closer and gripped the axe tighter.

"Piss off! You monologuing, druggie, FUCKWAD!" Isaac swung with the axe, clipping the man's mask.

The long nose broke and the man growled.

He tore it off his face and started swinging in return at Isaac.

Isaac easily parried each of his attacks.

Isaac kicked out at the man's leg, feeling a sense of satisfaction as he felt his foot connect hard against his kneecap.

Isaac then knocked the bonesaw out of his hand, hearing a crack as the back end of the axe collided with the man's wrist.

"This is for drugging me," Isaac dropped the axe and punched the man in the face.

"This is for drugging my brother!" Isaac grabbed the front of the man's shirt and punched him in the jaw.

The man spat out a mixture of blood and spit.

"And this is for interrupting our night!" Isaac grabbed the man's shirt with both hands and threw his head back.

He swung his head forward, connecting hard against the man's own, as the man scratched one of his arms.

Isaac staggered back, moaning and clutching his head as a searing pain shot through him.

"Bad idea..." he said in a strangled voice, "Dumb... stupid... bad idea..."

The man spat out more blood, wiping away stream coming from his nose now as well, and got shakily up to his feet.

"Such... fire," he panted heavily.

"Oh... you have no idea..."

Isaac clenched his fists, the arm that was scratched tingling still, and blue flames that peaked green burst into existence.

The man started chuckling.

He looked up at Isaac from his shaky stance.

Bright blue eyes that seemed to shine slightly amidst the man's black sclera fixed him with a calculating gaze while the man rose further still until he was standing at his full height.

"Oh... what a _fine_ specimen!" he said, glee ringing in his voice, "Oh, I can't wait to get you on my table,"

"Might want to rethink your position there," Isaac said, raising his burning hands.

"Or, do you want to rethink yours?"

The man pointed at Isaac's arm...

Where a small needle and bottle were sticking out.

Isaac looked from the bottle and up at the man as the world started to fade out again.

"Oh... you... cunt..."

Isaac felt himself tip backwards but had passed out before he hit the floor.

He woke to a brighter light than before.

He tried to raise his hands but found them restrained once again.

He glanced down, wondering why he was so cold and found that his shirt had been removed.

"Aah! Good, you're up," a baritone voice run through the silence.

Isaac tilted his head but found that he couldn't see much.

His glasses were gone again and the light obscured much of his surroundings.

Just as he tried to peer through the light it was moved so he had a clear view of the man above him.

The man looked down at him as he paced around Isaac.

"I was worried that I'd set the dosage too high," the man paused by a silver stick that was next to the table, a tube connecting to Isaac's arm came from a bag at the top.

"Who are you?" Isaac asked weakly.

"A pioneer," the man said, "One who can see beyond the boundaries of what we are limited to do, and forward to what we can achieve!

We are bound by regulation, morals, _laws_ that inhibit us from fully expanding our boundaries to become greatness!"

The man had walked away from Isaac as he talked and he could hear the clink of metal against metal.

"I tried to push for out limitations to be removed, but the mindless cattle sought to hold me back. Imprisoned me for aiding the world,"

The man returned to Isaac's table with an accompanying trolley.

Isaac was just able to make out numerous scalpels, more syringes, clamps and other things that he had seen in the Infirmary over the years.

The man let out a small huff of laughter.

"Here I am, talking about advancing mankind into the future, when you are the next step," he said excitedly, "Imagine.

A world of people with your abilities,

Chefs cooking merely by holding the breast of a chicken in their hand!

Soldiers able to eliminate threats with greater power than before..."

"Sounds like a real delight," Isaac slurred sarcastically.

The man let his head fall down in frustration.

"You're not seeing the bigger picture... just like all those bureaucratic idiots,"

"Where's my brother?" Isaac asked, clenching his fists weakly and trying to bring his head up.

"Back in his room," the man said, pulling on a pair of gloves, "You needn't worry about him, he'll be fine... as long as you co-operate,"

He picked up a scalpel and took the plastic covering off.

"Now, would you be so kind as to set your hand on fire again?" he asked as he pulled on a faceguard.

"Why should I help you?" Isaac spat.

"Because I have your _very_ killable brother strapped up," the man said, "Oh. You should have heard him, so protective of you.

Rather proud of my broken nose," he growled, drawing attention to the white bandage that covered it.

Isaac started giggling.

The man's eyes quirked slightly.

"GYAAAAAAAH!" Isaac screamed as the man sliced along the bottom of his collarbone.

"Enough of that!" he said angrily, removing the blade, "Now, tell me, how can you control the combustion?"

"FUCK YOU!"

The man growled again and repeated the process, lengthening the cut across his chest as Isaac screamed again.

"If I have to ask a third time, then I'm going to flay the muscles in your brother's arm!

How do you control it?" he shouted over Isaac's frantic breathing.

"M-magic," Isaac stammered in pain.

"Oooh," the man removed the scalpel, "You're one of _them_!

I've waited for _so_ _long_ to have one of your kind on my table," he cackled darkly, " _You_ are going to be my crowning achievement.

Now, let's see those lovely flames of yours,"

Isaac glared through the pain at the man.

"Well, if you're going to be uncooperative..."

The man lightly traced over the back of Isaac's hand with the scalpel, just enough so that small white lines appeared in his skin.

"NYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Isaac screamed as the man pressed down, slicing across the skin on the back of his hand.

"Let's see those lovely muscles of yours,"

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Author notes.

So, I hope that you enjoyed this weeks chapter.

I see a lot of flames coming my way over the ending here.

But, anyway, I still think that that point would be the perfect way to leave a cliffhanger for the next week, what do you think DP?

Darn… just when it was getting into some action….

I know, but it's such a perfect place to end...

But, anyway, that is the end, I'll see you next week,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

If any of these are wrong then please notify me of this so I can fix them.

Oh for crying out loud, I'm just pulling your legs.

I'm not that cruel...

This time...

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Toby looked around the dimly lit and rather grimy room.

"GYAAAAAAAH!" Isaac's scream tore through the air.

"ISAAC!" Toby shouted back, but doubted that he could hear him.

He started kicking and pulling at the bindings on his arm.

"FUCK YOU!"

"You tell him, buddy! You tell him!" Toby urged Isaac to hold on just a little longer.

Toby winced as another scream reached him and he so desperately wished that Isaac had his condition so that the man couldn't hurt him as much.

Toby put all his weight into pulling his arms out.

"NYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"ISAAC!" Toby shouted again, his voice giving out.

With another grunt came a crack and his arms came free.

He fumbled with the straps on his legs, his thumbs useless now that he had broken them.

He jumped down and examined his hands.

Blood was starting to gently rise from where the skin had torn.

He took a few steps towards the door before pausing for a moment.

He turned and looked at the table where the man had dumped all their things.

He hurried over and sifted through everything until he found his phone.

He groaned as he saw that the battery had been taken out.

He rummaged through everything else but didn't find a battery to use.

He grasped his hair as he heard another yell cut through the air, breaking off into gasping sobs that grew too faint to hear.

He grabbed the handles of the desk's drawers and pulled.

"C'mon!" he growled as they remained shut, locked.

Toby let them go before grabbing his hatchet as tightly as he could and swinging it at the desk.

He pulled on it again and found it came free rather easily this time.

He gave a sigh of relief as he found the batteries the man had taken.

He jammed one in his phone and started hitting the table in frustration at how long it was taking to load.

As soon as it was open he rushed through putting in his password, getting it on the third try because of his tick, and nearly broke the screen as he opened contacts.

"Pick up! Pick up! Pick-k up!" he said.

#What?# Masky asked as he answered, #Toby, where are...#

"SOME MAD FUCK DRUGGED ME AND ISAAC AND..."

Toby broke off as another painful scream came from beyond the corridor.

#WAIT THERE!# Masky's voice yelled through the speakers before another told him to put the phone on the ground.

Toby dropped the phone as it was pushed away from him and Ben's arm came through, shortly followed by the rest of him.

Ben quickly got to his feet and looked around.

"Where's Isaac?" worry overpowering his words as he looked around.

"NYAAAAAAAAAH!" another scream echoed through the room and Ben's face went pale before anger laced every line on his face as a snarl built in his throat before he tore out of the room.

"Ben!" Toby called, grabbing the hatchet and running after him just as Masky appeared with L.J.

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Ben crashed through the doors, the noise covered by Isaac's scream as he looked down at the sight below.

Blood was pooling under Isaac's arm, a man crouched over him, and the faint sound of laughter rising.

Blood pounded heavily in his ears as he ran down the aisle of the seats and jumped down into the operating theatre.

The man looked up as Ben landed and was soon bowled over as Ben rushed him.

"DONT!

YOU!

DARE!

HURT!

HIM!"

Ben screamed, each word coming with their own punch at the man's face.

The man growled in frustration at being interrupted and hit back at Ben, the scalpel catching him in the cheek.

Ben gave a roar and started hitting back harder, and harder.

From his position on the table, Isaac watched through blurred and shaky vision as Ben tackled the man before punching into him while he screamed.

If he had the strength, he would have called out to him as he saw Ben get cut across the face.

If he had the strength, he would have wide eyes as he saw what looked like arcs of lightning arc off of his hand as he resumed punching the man.

"Ben..." he managed weakly as the blonde-haired boy was thrown off the man as he landed a heavy blow to his face.

Ben staggered as he tried to get up and the man took the time to get up and kick him heavily in the side.

A loud crack echoed through the room, but it didn't come from Ben.

The man stumbled backwards onto the ground as blood blossomed from his shoulder.

A few seconds later Masky dropped down, followed shortly by Toby and L.J, the barrel of his gun still smoking slightly.

"ISAAC!" Toby yelled as he ran over to Isaac, tenderly grabbing his face and looking at him.

Isaac couldn't focus on him, barely managing to mumble Ben's name, trying to get someone to help him.

Masky appeared next to Toby a few seconds later.

"It's gonna be alright, kid," Masky said, examining the bag on the stand and increasing the dosage.

Isaac just managed to turn and see L.J picking Ben up before darkness claimed him again.

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The Mansion.

Toby sat on the couch, looking blankly forward as Hoodie bandaged his hands so that they could heal properly.

As he got up Hoodie grabbed him on the shoulder and squeezed tightly.

Toby didn't react.

He didn't know how much time passed, he just stared blankly ahead.

"Toby!"

He jumped, and ticked, as someone called his name.

He blinked and looked up at E.J.

Everything seemed to quickly come back to him and he jumped up.

"Woah, easy," E.J stilled him.

"H-h-how-w is-s-s he?" Toby asked, not caring about his ticks, "C-c-can-n I-I S-see..."

"Let him rest," E.J said, holding a hand up to quieten him, "He'll be alright,"

Toby let E.J guide him back down to the couch.

Toby didn't know when he fell asleep but when he woke there was light streaming in from the window.

Across from him, curled up in a tight ball, was Ben. A white patch under his eye covering the cut.

Toby blinked for a few moments, getting used to the change in light.

"Hey,"

Ben jumped slightly as Toby spoke.

"Hey..." he replied, curling back in on himself.

"You sleep at all?" Toby asked, looking at the grey marks under his eyes.

Ben shook his head as his arm fritzed slightly, looking like a character in a game had started glitching.

Before Toby could speak again Teer came into the room.

Toby frowned as golden string was wound around the two of them.

"I know that you'll probably not listen, but if you kill him then Slendy is gonna be pissed," Teer said.

Toby frowned harder as he wondered what he was talking about before his body shook with anger as Masky walked through... with the man who had drugged him and Isaac.

Toby and Ben both tried to get up and strangle him but were stopped by Teer's string.

It took more effort to keep Ben still as he fritzed slightly, parts of him phasing out and back into a physical form.

The man looked mildly bored, strapped up in a straight-jacket, and didn't even glance at the two bound Creeps.

Toby struggled against the string for as long as he could see the man.

"Toby!" Teer growled as he forced him to keep still.

"Don't you _dare_ tell me to calm down!" Toby growled back, "So either you let me go and let me rip his lungs out, or I swear I will find a way to break this stuff!"

Teer sighed and closed his eyes.

"I'm not saying that you can't kill the asshole," Teer said, "Just not _now_.

Slendy wants to talk to him, find out who he is.

Afterwards, you'll probably get to kick his ass,"

"Good," Toby said, stopping his struggle against his bonds.

Teer nodded and sat down, releasing the string.

"You want something to do?" he asked after a bit.

Toby thought for a moment, "Sure," he sighed.

"Slendy found the guy that he was looking for," Teer said.

"He found the Orbitor?" Ben asked, breaking his silence.

"Yeah," Teer said, "Slendy needs someone to go over the shit we do with him, you want to handle it?"

"Sure," Toby said, getting up, "Where is he?"

"Out the back, with this weird horse thing that he came with," Teer said.

Toby nodded and started walking away.

"Toby," Teer said as he left the room, "Don't loop around," he warned.

Toby nodded, making his way to the back.

The man was leaning on the railing, looking out at the trees and setting sun.

He turned to see who had come out.

"The erm... tall fella told me that he'd get someone to explain... well, just explain," he said.

"Yeah, that'd be me," Toby said, walking over and leaning on the railing with him, "So, where do you want to start?" he asked.

The man pulled his long, slightly dirty, black hair back out of his face.

"I have no idea," the man said, looking back out at the trees.

"Well, I guess names would be a good place to start," Toby said, offering his hand, "I'm Toby,"

"Sirius, Sirius Black,"

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Author Notes.

Ok, _that's_ where I'm ending it.

So, I hope that you enjoyed this weeks chapter, it was probably the hardest one to write yet.

I'm seriously going to have to focus on getting this thing worked on when I get time off of work, but I promise that I'll always try to get it to you on time.

But, this is the end of this week's chapter, thank you all for reading... and I am _really_ looking forward to the reviews for this one!

Till the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

If any of these are wrong then please notify me of this so I can fix them.


	40. Chapter 40, Ooh! Drama! 'eats popcorn'

Chapter 40, Ooh! Drama! 'eats popcorn'.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Hello.

Did you enjoy last weeks chapter?

I haven't posted it when I'm writing the intro here so I'm going to assume that you all loved it and had no complaints and that none of you were annoyed by anything that I did.

So, you're probably wondering what I'm going to say this time in regards to procrastinating from writing this chapter.

I was supposed to be going to court but it got cancelled for some reason, don't know if I'll get called back.

Other than that?

Since I now have a job I wasn't able to go with my family on holiday to England this year and had to stay behind.

House to myself for a week, that was fun...

Played the Stephen King Drinking Game... it went well, did it to Carrie, not too bad, really enjoyed it... gonna try doing it to IT next time, that'll end well...

But, as per usual, I've got reviews to answer, and I'm betting that there are at least two that are annoyed by my little thing in the last chapter.

Dark Ravie;

Thanks, glad that you like it.

Honebar;

Erm... that is the complete opposite of how I thought people would be feeling after that chapter.

He's one of the many characters that I was introduced to through Madame Macabre, quite a lot of my favourites came from listening to her songs, and 'God Syndrome' is no exception.

My inner fan does a sort of odd little wiggle when I recognise things, I turn into a giggly worm.

That was more the reaction I was hoping for, I will always admit to being a little bit of an asshole and that might not be the only time I will do that in the future.

That was my first time writing a character like Doctor Locklear.

I think I did alright, nothing spectacular, but I don't think that I messed the character up. I think he'll be fun to write in the future if I keep him on.

Yeah, I think he's only 2 more stamps after this one...

Toby at the start (1)

Liu after first year (2)

Jane after second (3)

Locklear last week (4)

Yeah, 2 more stamps and he gets his pizza.

Dumbledore's in for a real treat when I get there, just you wait. I'm going to start planning a few important chapters for the future that I really don't want to mess up.

Lunarwolf11021;

THERE IT IS! That's what I was expecting.

Shit! Hold on, need to pause writing the review, my biscuits fell all over my desk.

I'm glad that you liked the chapter, it was an interesting time, writing Locklear, and I'm still deciding what to do with him.

Isaac will be fine, and I have started snowballing ideas for when he does snap.

The EXTRAS chapters are in the works, halfway through the first as I write this (a day after last weeks chapter went up) and I might have it ready soon.

Say hi for me to them too, they'll be back soon enough.

MyraZinshu;

I know, they're so cool!

Yeah, I think everyone can guess what I'm doing with Ben and Isaac at this point.

I think the bonding might have to wait a little bit, there's gonna be some drama first.

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Hehehehehe.

Yeah, I think that I threw the biggest curveball so far with the chapter title.

Katropis12;

I'd been planning to bring Sirius into The Ark for a while, but he's not a Creep, he's an Orbiter.

Paying for the popcorn? If only I had gotten a job recently?

Thunder-Death;

I've been watching 'Dead Meat' lately, they recently covered all the released Purge movies and it was in my head when I wrote that.

I'm still planning what I'm going to do to him, probably nothing nice.

I'm glad that you like the chapter, hope you like this one.

TooBad69;

I'll keep those in mind.

Glad that you like the story.

When I said that the CP-Supernatural crossover thing would be a one-shot it was because it would be a one-off thing unless I decided to write another story altogether, which won't be happening until I finish this one at the least.

YingYangWriter;

Yikes, kinda interested to see what that place was like.

Yeah, everyone was expecting another kidnapping so I thought that I might as well make it obvious in the title. Dumbledore is completely clueless and when the rug gets pulled out from under him it will be spectacular. Yeah, Jeff is only a role model in exactly what NOT to do.

Oh, believe me, I'm just waiting to start Isaac off on driving lessons.

Yeah, a nice little brother bonding experience, getting kidnapped together, and it only counts as one stamp.

Hehehehehe... I'm cackling and doing the seal clap right now.

Yeah, Ben would have smashed Locklear's head into mush of L.J didn't pull him off.

E.J is getting the carving knives ready... I think this might be the only time that Isaac would ever be tempted to try E.J's dietary habits.

Yep, I made you wait a week, how cruel of me.

Random Person (Guest);

Hehehehehehe... Yes.

Ok, that was all of them.

DP, how's America?

I'm saving up my earnings to do a little bit of travelling in the future and America is definitely on the list of places to go. Any advice for places or things to see?

SG, you should totally visit me so we can actually meet in person. It would be so cool.

That is on the list already, I'm planning it so that I'd be able to attend one of the big cons in my Eyeless Jack cosplay that I'm making.

Any advice on how to make the mask because getting ones online to modify are a ballache.

And that's everything, I can't delay the chapter any longer,

Also, the event that they go to later is purely my own idea, I have no idea if it's real but I just needed a thing to do the thing I've been planning in my head for a while.

I hope that you enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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The Mansion.

Toby looked at the man before him.

"Sirius Black?" he said, looking the man up and down.

"Yes," Sirius said with a soft sigh.

"Oh, Sirius Black, I erm... I was... you're the wrong erm... I'm supposed to be meeting... Alexander Black, I'll go get... erm... yeah,"

Toby spun around and walked back inside, straight back to the living room.

Teer frowned as he walked back in, Ben glancing up.

"Teer... do you think you could explain things? I... I need to sort through some stuff,"

Teer sighed and got up from the couch.

"Alright, you go handle... whatever it is you got to do," he said, floating so that the tips of his feet barely touched the ground.

Toby stepped out of the way to let him past.

"You alright?" Ben's voice cracked a little from lack of use.

"Yeah... no... kinda yes... maybe not," Toby decided on and ran a hand through his hair, "The guy outside, he's Isaac's fucking godfather!"

Ben spun around and looked at Toby with wide eyes.

He sat taller in the chair, looking from the corridor that led to the back door and between the wall where the Infirmary would be.

"H-He's... he's not going to t-try and take Isaac away, is he?"

Toby didn't think that he had ever heard Ben sound so... so scared before.

"If he tries to take him, then I won't give a damn about the rule Slendy has about us not killing Orbiters," Toby said.

Ben blinked away watery eyes, mumbling about dust.

"You want to go check on him?" Toby asked, nodding towards the Infirmary.

Ben nodded, stumbling a little as he got out of the chair.

The short walk to the door seemed longer than usual and Toby hesitated a second before knocking on the door.

Isaac was sat up on the bed.

His shoulders dropped down in relief as he saw Toby and Ben.

"Hey," he said, sounding far stronger than he had before.

Isaac was knocked back onto the bed as Ben rushed him, his arms pinned to his side.

Toby watched from the door as Ben trapped Isaac to the bed, burying his face in his chest and holding him tightly as if he was worried that if he let go then he would vanish.

A few things flashed through his mind at that point, but mostly that he needed to talk to Liu.

Toby tapped Ben on the shoulder and he released, hesitating for a moment, and he retreated into a chair next to his bed.

"How... how are you?" Ben asked, fidgeting with his hands.

"Good, hand still tingles a bit," Isaac ran a thumb over the bandage wrapped around his hand, "Other than that? I feel fine,"

Toby tapped his fingers together, trying to think of a good way to bring up the situation at hand.

"So what's been happening?" Isaac asked.

'Bingo,' Toby thought, "Well... Slendy found that missing Orbitor," he started, "... Teer's giving him the talk now,"

"Slendy found him?" Isaac sat a little straighter in the bed, "Where was he?"

"Dunno," Toby said, "But, Isaac, there's something that you'll need to know,"

"What?" he asked.

"Isaac, the Orbitor, The Grim... it's erm... Sirius Black,"

Isaac seemed to freeze, his eyes as wide as an owl.

"... shit..."

Toby let out a small huff of laughter, "Yeah, pretty much my reaction as well,"

Isaac nodded, clasping his hands in his lap.

"So... have you talked to him?"

"Well... not beyond a few words... and the two of you need to agree that there's an Orbitor out there called Alexander Black, but..."

"What?" Ben and Isaac asked at the same time.

"I panicked," Toby said, "One minute he's just another bloke, the next he's someone who knew you when you were small enough to be punted like a football!"

Isaac and Ben broke off in snickers.

"Thank you, Toby, for that lovely mental image," Ben said, the change in his demeanour a drastic change from what it was before.

"We, erm... might have a problem, though," Isaac said.

"When... after I met Sirius in the Shack, and we were trying to get Pettigrew back up to the castle, Sirius... he, erm... I never would have accepted," he said quickly, looking between the two, "But... he offered..."

"For you to go live with him," Toby finished for him.

Ben's hand curled on the bed, grabbing a fistful of the cover, as he looked up at Isaac, panic in his eyes.

Isaac nodded.

"Yeah..."

An awkward silence settled over the three of them, none really knowing what to say next.

"You'll have to tell him about... about your part in this," Toby said.

"I know," Isaac said, nodding, "I know,"

Another awkward silence settled over them.

"What happened to him?" Isaac asked after a moment, "The erm... the doctor?"

"Oh... Slendy's having words with him right..."

"He's still alive?" Isaac asked, a hint of anger in his voice.

"Yeah, for now," Ben said bitterly.

Isaac looked between the two of them.

"I'm getting the first crack at him," he said.

"After me!" Toby said, "I'm castrating him with a Molotov!"

"He skinned my hand!" Isaac said, "I'm getting first shot... with a Molotov enema!"

"Age before revenge," Toby said, "I'm gonna pour a few gallons of nitro' down his throat and shove a sparkler down!"

Isaac bristled in his bed, rising to the challenge.

"Jokes on you, I'll have already used his guts to make a new jump-rope for Sally!"

"Can I get a say in this?" Ben asked.

"No!" Isaac and Toby said.

"Fine," Toby said, "The two of us get him at the same time.

I'll remove his tonsils with a thermite charge, you can give him a Molotov enema," he suggested.

"We use him as a knife rack first," Isaac added on, "... and roast him on a spit so E.J can have a BBQ,"

"Deal," Toby and Isaac shook hands.

"Right, well, now that that's handled, I'm hungry," Isaac started removing the covers before quickly scrambling to put them back over himself.

"Can one of you pass me my trousers?"

Ben went red in the face and Toby laughed as he got up and tossed the pair of trousers at him.

Isaac got dressed under the covers before the three of them headed through to the kitchen.

Isaac backtracked slightly when he saw that Sirius was sitting in the living room with Teer.

"Shit!" he whispered.

"What? you gotta tell him eventually," Ben said.

"Yeah, but I don't want to deal with this right now," Isaac said as his stomach grumbled slightly, "Can you distract him?"

"Alright," Toby said, "Ben, you go through the t.v. and I'll walk in," Toby said.

Ben nodded, entering the cyberspace through Toby's phone.

"That never gets any less weird," Isaac said as he watched Ben disappear into the small screen.

"Right," Toby said, glancing back into the room, "Ready?"

"Yeah," Isaac said.

Toby nodded before walking into the room.

"Yo," he said in a somewhat cheery voice.

"Hey, Toby," Teer said.

Sirius gave a small wave.

"You find, erm... Alexander?" he asked.

"Hmm? Oh, Alexander, yeah, I found him," Toby said, sitting on the opposite couch so that Sirius wasn't facing Isaac's direction.

It was at that point that the t.v. started crackling and Ben pulled himself free.

Sirius jumped back on the couch, one foot on the cushions.

"Oi! Mind the upholstery!" Ben said as he stood up, rolling his neck and causing it to crack.

"What the hell?" Sirius said, leaning back, "Who the... how..."

"Heyo!" Ben said cheerily to the others in the room, scaring people by doing that always cheered him up, "Oh, hi Toby, you find Alexander?"

"Yeah, he's fine," Toby said, watching as Isaac carefully snuck behind the couch.

"So... who is Alexander?"

Toby and Ben glanced at each other.

Teer looked very amused, though confused, at the whole situation.

"He's the Whore," Ben said, "It's... he's like a... his title is one of the few that crossed over into the... normal world, The Whore of Babylon, for example, and he pretty much just... seduces people into fatal scenarios,"

"Oh," Sirius said, not noticing the frown on Teer's face, "Like how The Grim is an omen in the Magical..." he broke off with wide eyes.

"Oh, relax, we know of your little subspecies," Ben said with a dismissive wave of his hand, "My best friend's one of your lot,"

Sirius looked a little miffed at being called a 'sub-species' but dismissed his feelings because he didn't really want to get into a fight with a person that can travel through muggle appliances and had little bolts of lightning spark around him.

He turned around when he heard a creak coming from the stairs but whoever it was had moved faster than he had and was gone.

"Ignore that, they creak time to time," Toby said, "So... taking it well?"

Sirius turned back to them, "Yeah... about as well as discovering that you're a literal Omen of Death can go,"

Ben and Toby shrugged, not really sure what to say.

"So, got any plans for the future?" Teer asked, finally speaking up.

Sirius let out a slow breath.

"Find my Godson," he said, "Kill the bastard that betrayed Lily and James, and find Harry,"

"Eh, sounds like a plan," he said, sitting up a little and leaning forward, "You said that you were a wizard, right?"

"Yes," Sirius said.

"Oh, cool. Toby, why don't you go get Isaac?" he said as Ben and Toby shared a quick glance of panic, "He'll probably be happy that someone else from that world is here,"

"Isaac?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, Toby's little brother..." Teer said, frowning at Ben while he waved a hand in front of his neck, "... he goes to... Hogwarts, what are you doing?"

Ben let his head fall into his hand with enough force that the slap was heard around the room.

"I'll go get Specs," Ben said, getting up and trudging up the stairs.

As he ascended Masky came through.

"Slender's done with the Doc," he said, an unlit cigarette tucked behind his ear, "Your turn,"

Sirius gulped at having to face the over seven foot, faceless, being again and got up; walking slowly through to where he was waiting.

Masky took his place on the couch and picked up the remote.

"So, what we up to?" he asked, channel surfing.

"I'm thinking of ways to try and kill Teer,"

Teer and Masky looked at him.

"What did I do?" he asked.

"What's his name?" Toby asked, pointing with his thumb down the hall that Sirius had just walked down.

"Sirius," Teer said.

"What's his name?"

"Sirius," Teer said, "If this is a joke, then..."

"What's the name of the guy that was after Isaac for the past year?"

"Sirius Bla... oh," Teer trailed off, "Oh..."

Masky ket out a groan and massaged his forehead under his mask.

"Christ, this kid is a fucking trouble magnet,"

Ben's head peered down from the stairs.

"He's gone,"

A few seconds later both him and Isaac descended.

"W-where is he?"

"Dining room, with Slendy," Teer said, "Sorry,"

Isaac waved the apology away.

Masky pushed his mask up so it sat on the top of his head.

"Kid, we need to talk," he said, "Before the shit-storm that the loon in the basement caused, you asked me if I trusted Dumbledore or not, why did you ask?"

Toby looked between Isaac and Masky.

"What happened?"

Isaac took a deep breath.

"When I got Sirius out of the tower he was locked in, I overheard him trying to ask Dumbledore about a letter that... my father had sent him, about changing the Secret Keeper to Pettigrew, and Dumbledore said that he never received it.

But, when I asked him about it when Professor Lupin was leaving, he was lying about never receiving it.

I've gone through this with Masky," Isaac said, looking at Toby, "But I... I can tell when people are lying to me,"

"Verified," Masky said, "He was able to call me on my bluffs,"

Teer let out a low whistle, "Impressive,"

Toby frowned and looked at Isaac.

"Ok, so you know he was lying, he... ok, what do you think about him?"

Isaac furrowed his brow as he thought.

"I... I don't know," Isaac said, "It's hard to get a fix on him, but... there's just... things about him seem... off,"

"Off, how?" Masky asked, shifting in his seat so he could see Isaac better.

"It's... little things.

In my first year, the traps almost seemed like... like they were designed to be a test, plus he actually put the method for getting through to the stone there instead of a trick, or something, so that anyone who attempted to get through would be trapped.

In second year, Lockhart," he said spitefully, "... he didn't report anything to the Ministry more than he was forced to and lied to everyone about the severity of the situation.

Last year was a minor shit-storm.

Sirius broke in more than once, Dementors invaded the grounds, a complete fuck-up of a trial for Buckbeak... wait, is Buckbeak..."

"Weird-ass horse thing with wings is outside," Teer said.

Isaac cast a quick glance at Ben.

"I'll try and introduce you later," he said, sensing Ben's excitement, "But, erm, where was I... the lying about the letter just sort of... tied it together.

All these things that happened... it just... something seems off about him.

I don't know what, but it's... something,"

Masky nodded.

"Right, well, looks like I'll be giving you more stuff to do on making good lies, and keeping them,"

Isaac nodded.

"Also, you're going jobless for a while, even shadowing us,"

"What!" Isaac said, almost a whine... almost, "Why?"

"Because until we can make sure that you can handle yourself out there properly, we're not running the risk of you getting kidnapped again,"

Isaac let out a huff and crossed his arms as he leant back.

"Fine," he said, not sounding as pleased about it.

Somewhere in the short distance, they heard a door open.

"Comeon, I'llshowyouBuckbeak!" Isaac said in a single breath, grabbing Ben's hand and pulling him off the couch.

Toby caught a small glimpse of a blush starting on Ben's face as he nearly fell over as Isaac hurried him out of the room.

"What was that about?" Liu asked, just back from his job the past few days.

"Isaac's ability to attract trouble flared again, quite spectacularly," Masky said.

"You, follow..." Toby said, standing up and gesturing towards the corridor that Isaac and Ben had gone down.

Liu frowned, dumping his bag behind the couch, and followed him.

Toby led him so that they were in one of the unused rooms at the end with a window that he opened.

He carefully peeked his head out and looked around.

He motioned for Liu to do the same.

Liu frowned at the back of Toby's head and leaned out.

A good few metres away Isaac and Ben had their backs to them as Isaac slowly approached what looked like a grey horse with wings.

"Toby, what's..."

"SHH!" Toby hissed, "Look at them," he whispered.

Liu frowned harder before his face relaxed in realisation.

"Oh..." Liu said.

"Ok, you see it too, right?" Toby said, not taking his eyes off of them.

Liu let out a sigh.

"Dude... please tell me that you noticed before today?" Liu said.

Toby turned around and frowned at Liu.

"What?"

Liu sighed again.

"Toby, how is it that you can be as blind as E.J sometimes?" Liu gently pulled Toby back in through the window.

"Wait... you knew?" Toby looked at him, his head tilted and eyes wide, "How long?"

Liu gently steered him back towards the living room.

"Kinda thought that they were already a thing for a couple of days when I first got here," Liu said, "When I really noticed? Just after the new year, when Ben suddenly got moody after playing dream-invader with Isaac,"

Toby did a perfect imitation of a goldfish as Liu walked him back through.

"What's up with him?" Masky asked as Toby sat back down.

"The benefits of being an older brother," Liu said.

Masky frowned between his mask and gave a barely noticeable shrug.

Before anyone could start a new conversation E.J came through.

"Grub's up... where's the Ben and Isaac?"

"Out the back," Teer said, "I'll go get them,"

Teer disappeared as everyone milled through.

Sirius was sat rather close to the end nearest the door, watching them pile in with shock, curiosity, and fear.

Toby gave an internal groan.

With him sat that close to the door, there was no way that he'd mistake who Isaac was.

At that point, a mop of black hair came in, but it was only Jeff.

His hair was weighed down from what must have been a recent shower and it blocked his face from view.

'Oh sweet Jesus, this is going to be great!' Toby thought as Jeff sat down in the empty seat next to Sirius, 'NO! Wait, I'm supposed to be panicking at Isaac having to explain this to Sirius! Shit!'

A scarce moment later Teer came back through.

And a few seconds behind him were Ben and Isaac.

Sirius' eyes followed Teer, watching him with a sense of morbid curiosity; focusing on the large, and new, cut on his jacket.

As Teer sat down next to Helen, asking to borrow some thread and a needle, his eyes snapped up to the newcomers, barely glancing over Ben, and he did a double-take when he saw Isaac.

"HARRY!"

A moment of silence settled before it was broken by a raspy voice.

"Ooh! Drama!" L.J said in a sing-song voice, slowly putting a tub of popcorn on the table next to his plate.

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Isaac kept a hold of Ben's arm, Ben's slower reaction caused his grip to slip down so that he was holding his hand, as he pulled him from the living room and out to the back garden.

Isaac fumbled a moment to open the door and continued to pull Ben out towards Buckbeak.

"Woah..." Ben said.

Buckbeak looked up from where he was pawing at the ground.

He let out a rattling squawk at the pair that had approached faster than he had liked.

Isaac quickly stopped himself and Ben, moving him back to a safe distance.

"Erm... what was I doing?" Isaac frowned as he looked around.

"You were introducing me to... Buckbeak?" Ben said, wanting to make sure that he had heard him right.

"Oh," Isaac said, glancing down.

When he saw that neither had let go of the other's hand a vibrant blush grew on his face and he slowly let go.

"Right... so, erm... Hippogriffs get offended easily," he started, "When you're trying to approach them, you don't blink and maintain eye contact.

Then, you approach slowly, bow really low, and see if he bows back," Isaac finished.

"You go first," Ben said after a few moments.

Isaac took a few slow steps towards Buckbeak, bending his back down low and keeping his head up so he could look Buckbeak straight in the eye.

Buckbeak let out a soft trill and bent down before trotting over to meet Isaac halfway.

"Hey, bud," Isaac said, scratching the feathers under his neck.

Buckbeak let out another trill and bumped into his side, exposing more neck to scratch.

Isaac smiled and turned to Ben.

"And that's how you do it," he said to a mildly awestruck Ben.

Buckbeak gave Isaac a quick glance to see why he had stopped stroking him before turning one of his large eyes on Ben.

Ben gulped and took a slow, slightly shaky, step towards Buckbeak.

Buckbeak raised his head as he took a few more before stopping and bent down low to the ground.

'Don't blink,' Isaac mouthed as Ben and Buckbeak made eye contact.

Buckbeak let out a rumbling, but low, squawk and took a step towards Ben.

Isaac felt his heart clench for a moment and he was about to dart forward and pull Ben away but Buckbeak slowly bent down and returned the bow.

Isaac let out a breath that he hadn't realised he had been holding as Ben carefully got back up and closed the gap between himself and Buckbeak.

Isaac smiled as Ben carefully reached out and clapped Buckbeak on the neck.

Ben let out a small huff almost disbelieving laughter as he felt the soft wings under his hand.

"I can see why you keep going back," Ben said as Buckbeak gently closed his eyes till they were barely open, still keeping an eye on Ben.

"Yeah... plus, he fits in," Isaac said, "An escaped convict Hippogriff from the death penalty,"

Ben let out a snicker and gently scratched the underside of Buckbeak's neck.

Buckbeak ruffled his neck against something irritating and a lone, grey and white, feather fell away from the many others on his neck.

Ben was careful to keep petting Buckbeak as he reached down and picked it up.

He showed it to Isaac. a merry grin on his face.

Just as Isaac smiled back a flash of gold appeared in the edge of his vision.

Buckbeak let out a challenging, loud, squawk and swiped at speeds Isaac had only seen once at the newcomer.

"GAH!" Teer yelped, just phasing himself out in time so that the piercing talons only caught the edge of his jacket, "The fuck!"

"Dude!" Isaac said as Buckbeak paused before swiping again, harder, at the odd thing he couldn't hit, "Never startle a Hippogriff,"

"Excuse me if my knowledge is a little rusty," Teer said, looking at the large creature that was now pawing at his feet, "I'll be sure to brush up my knowledge on giant chicken-horses,"

Teer flinched slightly as one of Buckbeak's claws went through his face, thankfully he was still phased out.

Buckbeak flared his wings, knocking Ben and Isaac over, as he tried once again to attack the newcomer.

Ben scrambled back as Isaac got back to his feet and tried to calm Buckbeak down.

Honestly? He rather liked Buckbeak.

Riding the gorgeous creature before him had been one of his favourite memories from last year.

He'd not exactly be too thrilled to find out that E.J had found himself a new snack.

"Yeah, well... dinner's up, come on," Teer walked away, Buckbeak still trying to swipe at him until the tether that he was on prevented him from moving any further after him.

Isaac watched Teer walk back inside as he suddenly found that his mouth had gone rather dry.

He jumped a little as he felt someone tap him on the shoulder and turned to find Ben standing next to him.

"You ok?" he asked, giving Isaac a gentle nudge with his shoulder to get him going.

"Yeah, it's just... for so long I've tried to keep this life and... _that_ life separate.

With... with Macnair the line got blurred, but with Sirius...

I've already decided that, well... I'm leaving that world when I'm done with Hogwarts, but... I have a feeling that it's easier said than done,"

Ben gave a solemn nod.

As they came to the door Ben stopped Isaac by grabbing him by the hand once more.

"When the time comes," he said, a faint tinge growing across his freckled face, "I'll be right by your side, they ain't keeping you,"

Isaac gave Ben's hand a quick squeeze.

A thought... a question that he was slightly scared to ask Ben entered his mind, but before he could ask it Teer stuck his head out back through the door.

"You coming or what?"

Ben's hand quickly let go of Isaac's and the two followed Teer back inside in silence.

Isaac's heart felt like it had leapt up into his throat, and his lungs seemed to be under that assumption as well.

"Just say the word and I'll get L.J or Teer to get you out of there,"

Ben's voice seemed faintly distant as he nodded.

His eyes were glued to the crooked end of Teer's coat as they rounded the corner into the dining room.

Everything was silent for a few moments, then...

"HARRY!"

Isaac winced as that name rung in his ears, he barely registered what L.J said.

"WHAT ARE YOU – GARUMPH!" Sirius was cut off as a bleached-white hand clamped over his jaw.

"Headache!" Jeff growled quietly, "Shh!"

Sirius shook slightly as Jeff removed his hand, his hair still falling down and obscuring his face.

Sirius took shaken breaths as he looked at Isaac.

"Harry, what... what are you doing here?" his eyes darted around in fear.

The one in the white mask had said something about... about _tests_.

Was... was killing him one of them?

"It's Isaac," he corrected Sirius, "... and I live here,"

Sirius' eyes widened slightly if it was possible considering how wide they already were, and he glanced around again.

"You're... you're like me? An... an Auditor?"

"Orbitor," Isaac corrected him for a second time, "... and no. I'm a Proxy,"

Sirius glanced at him and back around again.

"A... a Proxy... like... like a Lord's Proxy?"

A snickering filled the air.

"If by Lord you mean the tall, suited, and faceless being..." L.J said, leaning across the table so his face was a foot from Sirius', "... that you nearly shat yourself at the sight of?

Then yeah, he gets to make the deciding vote on matters concerning budgetary drains upon travel expenses connected to working times that over-run the predetermined..."

"Not the time, L.J," Masky said, unscrewing the cap of an orange bottle.

He tossed a small, white, pill towards Jeff who caught it without glancing up.

Sirius looked at Isaac with pity filled eyes.

"No... no... no..." with each repetition of the word his tone got stronger, angrier, "No! This life is not for him!"

There were a couple of soft snickers from around the table.

"That's not your choice," Isaac said, trying not to let any emotion show in his voice, "It's mine, you don't get to decide anything to do with it,"

"I'm your godfather," Sirius almost hissed, "Lily and James a-apointed me..."

"Convictions of certain crimes give court cause to terminate custody rights.

These can be crimes of child abuse, endangerment, sexual acts.

Or more violent crimes such as murder," L.J rattled off casually, sticking a finger through a cob of corn and gently coating it in butter, "What?"

Everyone was looking at him now.

"How do you... never mind," Masky said, "However, point still stands.

All your rights as a guardian were revoked when you did your little stint.

Toby gets the deciding say now,"

Sirius gained a faint red tinge in indignation as he glared slightly at Toby.

"All in all," Toby said, "He's one of us,"

"Amen to that," Jeff said, "I've even thought about giving him the family make-over,"

He threw his head back, his hair falling away, and Sirius caught his first sight of the pasty-faced killer.

"Get him to really fit in," he said as he licked a little sauce that had gotten stuck along the edge of his scar.

Sirius jumped back, launching himself out of his chair.

"No!" he was shaking out of fear and anger now.

Isaac let out a quick sigh at the fact that Jeff had somehow made the whole situation worse than it was and closed his eyes.

"No! My – my godson will not... he will not become one of you freaks, he..."

Isaac's eyes snapped open.

"... he's not one of..."

"You _dare_ say that about my family again," Isaac growled, his hand slowly clenching.

Sirius flinched slightly at the harsh tone that had escaped from the thirteen-year-old.

"Harry..."

" _Isaac_!

My name... is _Isaac_.

The name Harry has... shit. That's all that name means to me, has brought me, and that's it's worth, to me.

So don't you dare think that you know what's right for me,"

Isaac turned without another word to anyone else and left the room.

If anyone called after him he didn't hear as he took the steps two at a time and didn't stop until he was leaning against his bedroom door.

He slid down until he was sitting on the floor.

A small burning got his attention and he glanced at his hand to see a small blue flame dancing on his palm.

He idly moved it around his hand, running it around his fingers, as he let his thoughts of what had happened fill his mind.

He was just wondering if he could convince Slenderman to let Teer wipe Sirius' mind and have him forget everything when someone knocked on the door.

"Specs?"

Isaac didn't say anything.

"Masky's having words with Sirius... there might be a right shiner on his cheek from where Jeff punched him,"

Isaac let out a small huff of laughter as he shook the flame away.

"And I'm talking to an empty room..." proceed the sound of a hand meeting Ben's forehead.

Isaac opened the door and Ben quickly got to his feet.

"How hard did he hit him?" Isaac asked.

"Knocked him flat on his ass," Ben said, the edges of his mouth curling upwards gradually.

Isaac gave a slight nod.

"Good, he deserves it,"

"You don't feel sorry for him?" Ben asked.

Isaac screwed half of his face as he thought.

"Nah, well... I kinda feel sorry for _anyone_ who gets on Jeff's bad side, 'cept maybe Jane, but... nah,"

Ben fidgeted nervously with the hem of his shirt.

"Do you want to head back down, or..." Ben left the question hanging for Isaac to give his own idea.

Isaac sighed.

"I wanna get out of here for a bit," he said, "By the sounds of things I'm going to be under house arrest for the future until they think I'm going to be able to stop getting kidnapped every year...

So I wanna go out and enjoy freedom for a little bit longer,"

Ben nodded for a moment.

Then his face split in a wide smile.

"I've got the perfect idea.

Go grab your wallet and hoodie,"

Isaac frowned but complied as Ben went downstairs to tell Toby where they were going.

"Ok," Ben said when he joined Isaac at the door, a camera bouncing against his chest, "Come on, and for the love of god, don't get kidnapped.

Toby's promised to let E.J find out how a ghosts kidney's taste if I lose you,"

Isaac snorted and closed the door behind them.

"So, where are we going?" Isaac asked as Ben led him down the path.

"Wait and see," Ben said, adjusting the camera strap so it lay more comfortably around his neck.

Their first stop was to grab a couple of burgers to go from the burger place in town.

"Ok," Isaac said through a mouthful of chicken burger, "Where to now?"

"Follow," Ben said, grabbing Isaac's wrist and pulling him through the trees.

Isaac shook his head to clear it from the slight dizziness that had grown and found that the sun was higher in the sky.

"Opposite coast?" he asked.

"Yep," Ben said, "Three hours,"

Isaac nodded and set his watch back.

"Ok, so what are we doing... here..."

Isaac trailed off as they came out of the trees and out to what looked like a large stadium, a banner across the front.

Isaac started laughing as he looked at the people around him.

"Really?"

"What? It'd be a crime if you never went to a Con," Ben said, "So, Specs, welcome, to your first Comic-Con,"

Isaac looked around at the many people in costume walking around.

Ben handed him a small printout, his ticket, and the two of them walked into the fray.

Thankfully, there was a cash machine nearby that Ben casually brushed his hand against and soon the two of them were armed with a couple of a hundred dollars each.

The attendant scanned their tickets and soon there was a green wristband strapped to the two of them so they could come and go as they pleased.

As they entered the main hall Isaac saw many stalls set up with things, from little knick-knacks that you could attach onto your phone to a stall that looked like it sold brooches made from clock parts.

There were a few dotted here and there that held home-baked snacks and sweets and their first stop was to buy a bag of rock candy that was nearby.

Isaac crunched on a small piece as they weaved through the crowds, pausing to get a few pictures of some rather impressive costumes.

"Wait, wait, Ben, give me the camera," Isaac said, pulling his arm and taking him towards a stand of Funko figures.

He picked up one of the figures and held the box out to Ben with pleading eyes.

Ben chewed the inside of his lip as he looked down at the box holding the small figure of Link.

"Fine," he said after a moment, "For you,"

Isaac gave him a small smile, another red blush growing again, and took a step back to take the picture of Ben.

"Oh! Sorry," Isaac said as he bumped into a person refilling a display of home-baked confectionary.

"Oh, it's fine, dear," a woman with neat, short, brown hair.

Isaac quickly glanced into the woman's dark green eyes and could almost see a deep sadness that had settled in them, though it looked like she was unaware of such a thing or she was a really good actor.

Isaac pushed the thought to the back of his mind as he turned back to face Ben.

"What?" he asked, looking at the odd look on his face.

Ben's slightly glazed over eyes blinked and he focused on Isaac again.

"N-nothing, you gonna take the picture before I change my mind?"

Isaac rolled his eyes at Ben and quickly took the picture.

After that, they spent another good few minutes just trying to get through the crowds and Isaac wondered if a few of them had heard of deodorant.

"Wait! Wait!" Ben paused him and dragged him towards a stall of drawing.

"Oh, awesome," Isaac said, looking at the pencil sketches of a few of their friends.

They ended up buying a couple; one showing Toby, Masky, Hoodie and a couple others that Isaac didn't recognise, in front of Slender and one of Jeff being clawed at by a girl with purple highlights that Ben said he would be using to get back at Jeff for a few 'elf' jokes.

Time seemed to get the better of them as a couple of hours later it was announced that the centre was closing.

Isaac and Ben made their way out, managing to keep together in the bustling crowds, and bumping into each other as they joked and made their way through the car park out front.

Ben had stopped without telling him so that he could tie his laces and Isaac continued on for a few more steps before he felt that something had changed and turned to see where Ben had gone.

He found himself bumping into someone for a second time that day.

"Oh, sorry... again," Isaac said as he crouched down to help the same woman he had bumped into earlier pick up a few extra boxes of cookies that he had accidentally knocked out of her hands.

"It's fine," she said again, "Let's just try to not make it a habit,"

Isaac laughed as he picked up the remaining boxes.

"Do you want a hand carrying them to your car?" he asked, there were more than she should have been carrying by herself shared between them and he had sort of knocked them all out of her hands.

"Oh, it's quite alright, this is mine," she said, gesturing with a nod to a blue sedan just two spaces away.

"Well then I'll help you put them in," Isaac said.

The woman let out a laugh and a smile that only deepened the laughter lines around her eyes.

"Well, thank you," she said, "It was nice meeting you... I didn't get your name?"

"Isaac," he said, putting the last box in the trunk.

"Well, thank you, Isaac, I'm Connie," she hesitated a moment before grabbing a box on the top.

"Here, they'd just go to waste otherwise," she said, holding it out for him to take.

Isaac smiled at the woman and slid it into the bag of other things he had bought.

As he made to turn the necklace charm that Toby had given him all those years ago caught in the once again setting sun.

Connie's eyes focused on it and, for the briefest of seconds, something akin to recognition flared in them; before she turned away, brushed her hair out of her face, and got into the car, driving away without another word.

Isaac adjusted his grip on the bags and turned back to find Ben watching him with... a slightly pained expression on his face?

"Something wrong?"

Ben shook his head to snap himself out of it.

"Nah, just... spaced out for a moment," he said as he jostled the bag full of second-hand games that he had felt were in good condition, "You ready to head home?"

"Yeah, I'm getting tired," Isaac said, a yawn rattling up as he spoke.

"Let's go then," Ben said.

It was quiet when they got back to The Mansion, it didn't look like anyone was up and about, but the sounds of something grating in the basement brought Isaac's frustration back to the front of his mind.

"This was fun," Ben said as they made their way up the stairs, their arms starting to sore from the weight of their burdens.

"Yeah," Isaac agreed with a grin, "Yeah, it was,"

"I'll have to take you out some other time, then?" Ben said as they reached the top and walked down the corridor to their rooms.

"I'd like that," Isaac said.

He had turned to put down his bags so he was able to open the door to his room so he didn't see the glow that rose on Ben's face.

"Oof!" Isaac staggered a little as Ben hugged him from behind.

"It's good to have you back, Specs," he said.

"It's good to be back," Isaac agreed, patting Ben's arm as he was unable to hug him back.

Ben held onto him for another second before they split into their separate rooms.

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End notes.

So, I hope that you all enjoyed this weeks chapter.

I don't really have much to say this time at the end this time since I'm sending this off to DP at 5 in the morning like... _this_ morning, when it goes up.

I'm still doing my best to get these out for you guys, but I still apologise in advance if I miss an upload.

But, that being said, I hope you did enjoy, and I'll see you in the next one.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

If any of these are wrong then please notify me of this so I can fix them.


	41. Chapter 41, I feel better now

Chapter 41, I feel better now.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Another chapter, another week.

And I think it's time to take a step back from Isaac's perspective and let some of the others that I haven't allowed into the spotlight back in for a while.

So, you lot up for a CP killing spree?

Well, if you are, good.

If not, tough, my story, my rules.

So, which ones haven't I had a look at in a while and let's bring them back into the story.

Ok, I actually have a list of the characters I've added, and yet to add, on my wall and I'm going through them... got at least 10 that haven't been a big part lately.

Well, you knew it was coming, no point in delaying it any further.

The Reviews...

Lunarwolf11021;

Yeah, would kinda be odd if he was completely fine with his once godson being raised by sociopaths, psychopaths, and murderers now, wouldn't it?

Ben and Isaac need a really long closet to be locked in, unfortunately, they're both in separate ones right now. L.J would probably be the prime candidate to do that to them.

Are they watching me? Uh-oh... erm... did they take any pictures? Cos... kinda gonna want them burned...

Katropis12;

Yeah, Sirius was a little hard to write in that because, well, exactly what you said.

His godson is being raised by killers, monsters, and he failed him.

I'm glad that you think I did well... did you actually cry, I'm claiming that as an achievement in writing.

Ooh! Blue cookies! Takes me back to my Percy Jackson days.

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Thank you.

I'll be looking into more of his work, I'm mainly relying on my readers for introducing me to new Creepypastas.

Thunder-Death;

You laughed? That was... kinda not what I was expecting.

Awesome? That I can work with, thank you.

Dark Ravie;

Thanks, glad that you like it.

MyraZinshu;

Hehehe, it's so fun to write them, though I'm worried that I'm getting a little too OOC for Ben at times; but I actually have an explanation for that.

To save time from having to write it into the story I'm just gonna post why Ben might be a little OOC lately here; he's causing his body to change to grow so it's at the same age as Isaac, meaning that everybody change is going on as well, and since he spends so much time in the digi-space it's not being spent as quickly as it normally would so it's having a longer effect because it's taking longer to get out of his system.

Is that how biology works? Hopefully, cause if not then I wasted an entire year on Higher Biology...

But, anyway, where was I... oh, yeah, the drama is a good way to bond, I agree.

Sirius will come around, he's just going through a little bit of a shock. He's still got one more act of utter stupidity before things mellow with him.

Yeah... I can't really defend myself against that statement. I might not like killing in real life but in a realm of fiction? The gorier the better!

Dr Locklear is... it's heads and tails at the moment, I haven't decided what I'm going to do with him yet, he's too popular to kill off... but I can't have him get away without some punishment... I need a cake, this is too stressful.

Thanks, I'd been meaning to have Ben take Isaac for ages.

And yes, she was.

I haven't decided if she'll come back, maybe mentioned in a way later, but I'm planning on explaining some things later this time.

Thank you, and I hope you enjoy this one.

.549;

Yes, yes I have.

I mean, look at what I've written, do you think _anyone_ can be sane and come up with what I can?

But, I was careful, I didn't do it to IT, I did it to Carrie. Much shorter run time and a lot less of the cliches popped up... but I did lose count of how many I actually took, and I did get through pretty much both of the bottles of Gordon's and Captain Morgan's that I was using... plus a Wicked... it was fun though.

You met Ray Park? Awesome! High five!

'hits laptop screen'

Oh shit I think I broke something...

Sweet Smilie;

... ok...

Yeah, E.J is waiting for a good BBQ one of these days.

Yeah, the convention was fun to write, I think that that suggestion will have to be another EXTRAS chapter.

Yeah, they're getting there...

Zekedavis;

Well... to quote Daithi De Nogla, in one of his Mario Kart videos;

... no...

Ok, that was them, onto the next thing that you were all expecting,

So, how's America? Also any recommendations for a cake to get, I'm feeling particularly gluttonous.

DP?

She isn't replying... can someone check on her, I think I finally worked her to death... who's going to give me cake recommendations now?

Alright, that is everything,

Hope that you enjoy the chapter,

And remember...

Pop

Six

Squish

Uh-uh

Ciscero

Lipshitz

SteamGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

Albus Dumbledore sat behind his desk as Ministry officials all concluded the same statement.

An intoxicated Macnair had jumped at shadows, fired a stunning spell that ricocheted around the room, that hit him as he was swinging the blade of his axe. Once the spell hit him he was blasted out the open door and it was unfortunate positioning that caused him to land face-first on the blade.

"Yes, yes," a worker with a large bald spot and long, willowy, hair as white as snow said as he peered at sheets of parchment through enormous glasses, "We all agree that the unfortunate incident with Mr Macnair was terrible, yes, however, we see no reason to delay the planning and event, the Triwizard Tournament may continue as previously planned,"

Dumbledore gave the man a curt nod.

"Yes, thank you, Mr Wallings," he said as the well-aged man gave a small bow before shuffling to the fireplace.

A few seconds later the man was gone in a flare of green fire and Dumbledore leant back in his seat, deep in thought.

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The Ark.

The door was kicked open with a loud crash.

"Sup bitches?" Clockwork called as she dumped her bag behind the couch.

She frowned when she looked around and found that there was no one else around.

She shrugged off her jacket and tossed it over her bag and made her way through to the kitchen, finding it empty she tried the dining room.

"Where is everyone?" she asked herself, leaving the second empty room.

She headed to the Infirmary to see if everyone had somehow come down with the flu at the same time but it too was empty, though the bed in the far corner looked slept in.

She closed the door to that room and headed out back.

Maybe Toby had gotten bored and stolen a bunch of fireworks that could put Michael Bay to shame.

To her not-surprise, there was no one outside either... but...

She did a double take when she saw that there was some sort of horse standing there, a pair of human legs behind it next to two bright yellow basins of soapy water.

"Hello?" she called over.

A head of messy black hair peeked up from behind... was that a wing?

"Hey, Clock," Isaac said, gently rubbing down the... bird/horse thing with a wet sponge that steamed slightly.

"W-what is that?" she said slowly, taking careful steps towards where it and Isaac were stood.

"His name is Buckbeak, and he's a Hippogriff," Isaac told her, sponging the joint where his wing met his body, "He was... he was with Sirius when Slendy brought him here, and now I'm looking after him for a bit,"

"Serious?" Clock asked, pausing as the Hippogriff gave a warning call when she got closer.

Isaac's face went stony.

"The Grim, the Orbitor that Slendy was looking for... and my godfather..."

Clock's eye went wide.

"What? C'mon dude, deet's man?" Clock said, trying to edge closer without Buckbeak noticing.

"Sirius was found by Slendy, and he was brought here to be told about... this side of the world," Isaac's face still hadn't changed in expression as he continued to sponge down Buckbeak, reaching down for a hose that had been disguised in the grass and washing away the soapy remains.

"Ok, so why do I get the feeling that you're keeping some things back?" Clock asked.

Isaac froze as he let the water cascade down.

"He wants to take me away," he said after a few moments, "Away from... all this," he gestured at the back of The Mansion.

Clock looked back at the imposing building and back to Isaac.

"Y'know that Toby's not gonna let him," she said, edging forward further still.

Buckbeak snapped his beak and tapped his claws on the ground and she stopped.

"Bow, don't blink, if he bows you can come closer," Isaac said, turning off the hose and letting it fall down again as he rinsed out a sponge, "If not... I don't know, Hagrid never explained?

Clockwork cast a wary glance to him before she shakily got down and bent towards him.

Buckbeak didn't move for a few moments, save from turning his head to look at Isaac, before he got down on one knee quite slowly.

Clockwork got back up and carefully walked towards him, aware of the large eye watching her as she moved.

"So this is the Hippogriff that sliced up that brat in your class?" she asked as she lightly touched his back.

"Yeah," Isaac said, pushing a basin under Buckbeak so that Clockwork could work on that side.

She gently lathered his back as Buckbeak shook some of the water droplets off of his neck.

"So, you gonna catch me up on everything I missed?" she asked as Isaac showed her how to clear the dirt from between Buckbeak's feathers.

"Well, aside from getting kidnapped again..."

"Again? Dude, you got crappy luck,"

"I know," Isaac said, a small smirk that he couldn't help flitted across his face, "But, aside from that..."

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Two days earlier.

Isaac descended down the stairs, his hair a mess, and yawning mutely.

As he came to the bottom of the stairs he paused and opened his eyes, he could feel the tension in the air.

Upon opening his eyes he found Toby, Masky, Hoodie, and Sirius sat down in the living room.

He looked around the scene for a few more moments before walking through to the kitchen.

"Hey," L.J said, stirring a large pot on the stove that bubbled slightly.

"Hi," responded as he pulled out a stool and jumped up to look in the higher-up shelves of the kitchen, "We got any jam?"

"No, used it all," L.J pointed to the pot on the stove.

"What for?" Isaac asked as he jumped back down.

"Well, it might not work, but I might have found a way to make jam that expands and clogs the intestines,"

Isaac frowned as L.J took a small teaspoon and scooped a small amount out before he threw it onto the counter.

The small glob of what once was strawberry jam started inflating until it was around the size of a small, though deflated, football.

"So you've turned it into strawberry flavoured expanding glue?"

"Pretty much,"

Isaac shrugged and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl, taking a bite as he walked back through.

Things hadn't changed a bit since his brief moment there before and Masky looked tired.

Isaac strode past them, smiling at Toby when he looked up as he passed, and knocked on the t.v.

"So, how long have they been like this?"

It took a moment for the reply.

#Don't think they went to bed#

Isaac snorted in laughter as he took a step back to give Ben space to come through.

"Thanks," he said as Isaac helped him through, "B'V's asking for you, by the way, think he misses you,"

"Anytime and I'll catch him after this movie,"

Isaac took another bite as the two of them sat down, Ben snatching the remote away and immediately flicking through to some sci-fi thriller.

"It's in the air vent," Isaac said.

"Behind the cargo-containers,"

"It's always the air vent," Isaac said, shaking his head.

"That's why it'll be behind the cargo-containers," Ben disagreed, "Throw a curveball,"

Isaac scoffed.

The two of them stopped and frowned as a pustulous alien creature crashed up through the floor panel before it dragged the unaware soldier down into the dark hole.

There was finally a change in Toby's posture as a smirk swept across his face.

"Shut it," Isaac and Ben said.

That broke Toby and he started giggling at the pair of them.

Isaac threw his apple core at him, before rolling his eyes as Ben laughed as he had to get up and go get it from where it landed a good few feet away from where Toby had dodged.

All the while, Sirius was sat in silence watching them.

He licked his lips nervously and looked around the room.

"Could... could I have a word with... with Isaac?" he asked hesitantly.

Toby's smirk was replaced with icy indifference as he looked between Sirius and Isaac.

"Sure," Isaac said after a moment, nodding in the direction of the Infirmary.

Sirius nodded and walked after Isaac.

Unbeknownst to the man; Ben had seen Isaac tap his pocket, where his phone was.

When the two had gone Ben walked over to the t.v. and pushed his hand into the screen.

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Isaac let Sirius catch the door as he walked over and sat down on the bed in the far corner.

"You wanted to talk?"

Sirius glanced around, unsure if the... rumour, that the monochromic clown had put out about the Infirmary being a frequent place to find the resident cannibal was true or not, but his gaze snapped back to Har... Isaac when he spoke.

"Y-yeah," Sirius scratched his face, seemingly absentmindedly, as he sat down in the chair next to him, "Look...

I won't pretend that I think you deserve better than... all this...

But, you need to understand..."

"No, _you_ need to understand," Isaac cut him off, half expecting that that was where the conversation was heading, "This place? It's my home.

These people... plus extra? My family.

"You? Next to a complete stranger, in my eyes,"

Sirius chewed his lip, glancing around again.

"Har... Isaac," he fixed quickly as Isaac raised an eyebrow, "Isaac... I know that you might not... not trust me, _but trust Dumbledore_ ,"

Isaac blinked...

Then he snorted in laughter.

"I'd sooner trust a bear not to eat me after I'd had a bath in gravy,"

Sirius sighed in annoyance, " _Listen to me_!" he hissed, "Dumbledore can help us, he can help _you_!

He can get us out of... of this madhouse,"

Isaac sat a little straighter.

"I'm going to make this quite clear.

This place is my home, I'm not leaving, and I really don't think that even that... old goat could do anything against them,"

Sirius' face grew a sort of grim pity as he looked at his once-godson.

He turned quickly to face the door as the sound of footsteps approached.

He stood up and glanced back at Isaac.

"I _will_ get you out of here," he promised.

Isaac rolled his eyes as Sirius prepared himself.

Honestly, if he thought that he could take on Masky, or Hoodie, or Toby then he would need one hell of a trick up his sleeve to...

"Ah," Isaac said as when Masky opened the door a large black dog rushed past him and down the hall.

A sudden shout told him that he had gotten as far as the living room, and by the sound of broken glass, out the window.

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"He did what?" Clockwork said a little too loudly and Buckbeak squawked in protest, shaking the wing that she was working on and soon her face, and clothes, were flecked with soap suds.

"Yeah, forgot to mention that little thing, there's an ability to turn into an animal, they're called Animagus'... Animagi? One of the two," Isaac said, wiping some of the soap that had hit him away, "My Transfiguration teacher can turn into a cat,"

"You gotta tell us about these things," Clockwork said, wiping most of it away before returning to washing the last of the dirt away.

"That's what Masky said,"

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Masky swung into the room, keeping himself upright by holding onto the frame.

"You wanna tell us something?" he asked, rubbing his shoulder from where he had hit the wall when the small bear of a dog had rushed him.

"He might be able to turn into a dog," Isaac said.

"You gotta tell us about these things," Masky said, rubbing his brow in a way that suggested he would be raiding the fridge for a beer soon.

"I thought you knew," Isaac said in earnest, "I mean, you knew about Prof McGonagall,"

Masky sighed.

"Buddy, what did I tell you? Never assume, it makes an..."

"Ass out of you and me," Isaac said in sync with Masky.

"Right, now I gotta go find the boss,"

He pulled himself out of sight with a sigh and Isaac got the impression that Masky's packet of cigarettes would be a little lighter by the end of the day.

Isaac got up and walked back through to find Hoodie throwing a brush and pan at Toby.

Toby ended up catching them without really paying attention, it had become second nature to him to have them thrown at him because of all the chaos he got up to around the place.

He had just started sweeping the broken glass away when he looked up and saw Isaac walking in.

"Ben got the message, we listened," he said.

Isaac nodded.

"So what happens next?" Isaac asked, looking out the broken window into the twisting trees.

 **"What happens next, I handle,"**

Isaac barely flinched when Slendy appeared in the room.

 **"Mr Black's actions were far from predictable, but I had hoped that he would have been mature enough to listen and think things through,"** Slenderman said as his blank face turned from a tidying Toby to Isaac, **"He apparently forgot that these woods are mine, he's now running through the same group of trees endlessly until I see fit to release him,"**

Isaac snorted at the idea of Sirius, or anyone really, being trapped in Slendy's forest and slowly losing their mind while trying to find the exit.

"So... your Dog-father's a bit of a bitch," Ben said, pulling himself out through the t.v.

Isaac's head dropped down and he half-glared at Ben.

"... good one," he admitted a few seconds later.

Ben gave him a cheesy grin as he passed.

Isaac settled down back on the couch, "So what you gonna do with him?"

 **"Keep him there until he figures out that I'm looping the space around him.**

 **Then I'm going to take him to one of the other locations until he accepts his new fate,"**

Isaac sighed as he rubbed the spot on his forehead where he could feel a headache building.

"So much for keeping my two lives separate," he muttered.

 **"It was bound to cross over sometime,"** Slenderman said, **"However, I believe that there is a proverb that best fits this situation...**

 **Life's a bitch,"**

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"He really said that?" Clockwork said, dropping the sponge.

"Yeah," Isaac said, a large smile growing across his face, "And then he just ported out, didn't say anything, just..." he clicked his fingers...

After a few tries, they were pretty slicked up from the soapy water.

"Sounds like I've missed a lot," Clockwork said, letting the sponge fall into the basin as she rinsed off Buckbeak's wing.

Isaac quickly took a few steps back and Clockwork frowned.

"What are you..." she cut herself off in a sudden, but quick, squeal.

Buckbeak had spread his wings out as wide as they could go and shook them free of any remaining moisture, raining drops of soapy water down on Clockwork.

"You could have warned me!" she hissed, shrinking into herself at the sudden cold.

"Could have... this was funnier," Isaac said with a pronounced shrug.

Clockwork slowly raised a finger and pointed at Isaac with a glare.

"You have until I've showered to hide,"

Isaac watched her go back inside, not sure if she was joking or not...

He quickly ran back into The Mansion.

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"You know, hiding in the living room isn't really..."

Clockwork frowned.

The t.v. was on, a show Isaac watched regularly on the screen, but he himself was not in the room, and she could have sworn that she had heard his laughter a few seconds ago.

She frowned and walked away.

Underneath the invisibility cloak, Isaac was biting his hand to keep himself from laughing.

Isaac managed to keep it together until he saw something change on the screen.

BRVR had crawled up onto the screen.

Ben had been going through the digital version of house training with BRVR and he was only recently allowed out into the digi-space around The Mansion.

BRVR's face crumpled in a scowl and it almost looked like he was scratching on the screen... trying to get out.

Isaac felt a pang of pity well up inside him.

He knew why Ben was able to traverse between both worlds, he had actually been born before getting stuck in the game which turned him into Isaac's best friend;

But BRVR was one hundred percent digital.

No birth, just coding and script.

He wouldn't be able to get out...

Unless...

A thought crawled into Isaac's mind and he made a mental note to write a letter soon, wondering if Hedwig would be able to find him.

Isaac quickly glanced around to see if Clockwork had gone again before he took off the cloak.

The screen flared and fritzed as BRVR faded away, reappearing a few seconds later with wide eyes.

#How Izak do that?#

Isaac smiled and held his hand up to the screen, where BRVR's paw was resting.

"I'm magic, remember?" Isaac said, his hand flinched slightly when BRVR's cheeks crackled and he could feel some of it through the screen.

"Pi-pi-ka," BRVR jumped around the screen, jumping on the character's moving around the screen.

Isaac laughed for a moment at how everything was still going on in the show... except now there was a seemingly gigantic Pikachu hopping across each of their heads.

"If you were using magic to hide..."

Isaac spun around to see Clock sitting on the arm of the chair.

She rolled her eyes and snatched up the remote, flicking through channels.

"So... should I start running again?"

"Just sit down you little twerp," she scoffed, "Unless you had finished telling me about all I missed?"

Isaac sat down as Clockwork put on something he hadn't seen before, some gameshow or something.

"Well... what do you want to know?" he asked.

Clockwork thought for a moment.

"What happened to the idiot that kidnapped you?" she settled on.

"Slendy locked him in the basement for a few days... and he's one of us... unfortunately..."

"Is there anyone that has kidnapped you, that isn't one of us?" Clockwork asked, scoffing at an idiot on the screen.

Isaac thought for a moment.

"No, I don't think so," he said after thinking about it.

"Must suck, knowing you can't kill the douche,"

Isaac shrugged.

"Eh, I got over it.

Slendy had us sit down and he was forced to apologise, I swear, Slendy treats us like a reality show sometimes,"

Clockwork eyed him.

"You just let it go?"

Isaac turned to face her.

"I might have stabbed his hand with a fork when L.J distracted him,"

Clockwork frowned at him.

"... it might have been a toasting fork..."

"That's better," Clockwork said with a nod.

The two of them sat in silence for another few minutes before the show went for an ad break.

"You been bored much?" she asked as BRVR batted at a hair-care product that was being advertised.

"Eh... not really," Isaac said, "I didn't get to tag along on jobs all that often before anyway.

Got a letter from a friend that had a form to pay for tickets for a big Quidditch game that's... it's the game I play Seeker for, on the brooms... I'll get Ben to show you later, so I sent that off, haven't heard back yet.

Aside from that?

I've just been doing... I don't know, secretary work? Getting things to the guys, cooking a lot..."

"You sound like a house-wife," Clockwork said with a chuckle.

"And you look like someone with a watch fetish,"

Clockwork glared at Isaac and threw the remote at him.

"Thank you," Isaac said cheerily and changed the channel back.

Clockwork rolled her eyes and watched the screen as BRVR shook his head after the sudden change.

"So, you've been running errand boy for the others? What they been up to?"

"Well..."

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Akron, Ohio.

Isaac smiled at the elderly couple that had waved as he passed them by at the bus stop.

Fizz was poking the edge of his head out of his jacket pocket, his nose in the air, taking in the smell and sights since it was his first proper time out travelling.

He took a moment to adjust the strap of the bag on his shoulder before setting off again to the small cafe that he had been texted the address of.

Sat in the far corner a man with inky blue-black hair was quietly watching the mildly busy cafe while his hand darted across a large pad of paper.

"You took your time," Helen said as Isaac sat down.

"Well you weren't the only person who needed stuff dropped off," Isaac said as he pulled his bag into his lap, "So, who you going after?"

"Brunet, far corner opposite us, brown leather jacket, stupid haircut," Helen rattled off a few details of the man he was sketching.

He had just finished the man's face before he scratched out his eyes with thick crosses.

"You do that with every kill of yours?"

"Only the memorable ones," Helen replied, bringing the large mug of coffee he had bought to his lips.

"What's memorable about him?" Isaac asked.

"He's an artist, and a man-whore," Helen said, setting the mug back down, "Picks up women in the night, tells them they're his latest muse, takes them back to his place and then, well... I could sue for copyright infringement,"

Isaac frowned.

"How so?"

"He drugs them, straps them down, and then drains enough blood from them for him to paint with...

His technique is... well, sloppy, but effective.

Most of the girls end up needing tetanus shots afterwards, the others die off of infection, the useless idiot doesn't clean his equipment properly,"

Isaac shrugged and strapped the bag back onto his back.

"So you're going after him for creative differences,"

"Yup...

He sees himself as alive; I see him as dead,"

Isaac set the small package that Helen had asked him to bring down on the table.

"Well... have fun,"

Helen's normally neutral and impassive face shifted for a moment into a smile that just reached his eyes before it returned to indifference and he resumes sketching his target.

The aforementioned man was found two days later when his landlord came round to check on him when his employer said that he wasn't returning calls or showing up to work.

He grumbled about having to be outside in this heat instead of inside his nice and cool house as he made his way down the gravel path that ran down the middle of an unkempt lawn.

After receiving no reply the squat man used his key into the small bungalow that he was renting out and opened the door.

He immediately crinkled his nose at the smell, wondering what the hell had gone so... so off?

He had just finished checking the living room and kitchen, as deserted as the bedroom and spare room had been.

He was about to leave when he remembered that, unlike the two other places he rented out, this one had a basement.

He made his way to the entrance, covering his nose with his jacket lapel as the stench got stronger.

He had barely made it halfway down before he felt the need to vomit, the smell overpowering every other sense he had.

He turned to quickly glance around the room and the sight that met his was the thing that sent him scrambling back up the stairs, vomit spraying over the walls as he ran for the door out.

The artist was lying backwards over one of his easels, impaled.

What looked like every brush in the room had been crammed into his mouth until it had torn, mingling with the blood that would have already been running from being impaled, and the palette had been rammed harshly into his throat.

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"Well, you can't deny that he's creative," Clockwork said, tossing him a can that she had gotten from the fridge, "You said he wasn't the only one getting stuff, who else was there?"

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Oakland, California.

Isaac had to push Fizz back down into his pocket after the small mouse had tried to go after a cat that had run across the road.

Isaac checked his phone to confirm the address and soon found himself outside what looked like a small dessert shop.

"Heyo," Toby said as he exited, an ice-cream cone in hand, "Found the place alright?"

"Yeah, thought you would've been at the pancake place down the road," Isaac said, looking at a sign not too far away.

"Closed for refurbishment," Toby said, "You get the thing?"

Isaac swung the bag around to his front and rummaged inside.

He pulled out the longest thing there and handed it to a grinning Toby.

"Perfect," he said, giving it a little shake that had Isaac take a quick step back, "Thank for this. You been alright back... hold on..."

Isaac held his hand out to take the cone from Toby so he could answer his phone.

"Hello?" Toby asked, "... no... no I haven't... no, I have not been mis-sold PPI... no, my name is not Rebecca Charl... no..."

Toby growled and hung up, turning back to...

He glanced up and down the street, looking for Isaac.

His phone buzzed again.

~Thankx 4 the cone :)~

Toby jutted his chin out as he stalked down the road, tugging on a baseball cap he had lifted from a delivery worker on his way.

Two hours later Toby was looking at the bound form of a barely clothed man as he tried to plead through a few layers of duct tape across his mouth.

"If you be quiet, then I'll take the tape off," Toby said, getting tired of the muffled screams.

The man pathetically glowered at him for a few seconds before he fell silent.

"Good, now... I have a thing," Toby put the box that he had gotten Isaac to bring him on the table next to the man, "A thing that I've been wanting to try for a while now, in fact,"

Toby crouched down and slowly started peeling the layers of tape off... before yanking harshly and ripping them off with a fair bit of hair and skin.

"Hold on..." he said over the man's pained screams, "Missed a bit,"

Toby tore the single layer that had stuck on off and turned his attention to the box.

"What do you want? Piss off, you bloody freak!" the man screamed at him, his voice breaking and cracking from the screaming that he had been doing with the tape on, "My wife will be back soon, you had better..."

Toby silenced him with a well-placed foot to the ribs.

"I think your wife would be telling me to hurry up, considering that you've been screwing her sister," Toby nodded to the upstairs bedroom where her corpse now lay still in a pool of her own blood, "Now...

I made this, quite like it... but I've never been able to test it before, never had a chance really... until today,"

He pulled out what looked like a firework on a stick, but instead of a firework, it looked like someone had wrapped a few layers of duct tape around an empty tube from a roll of kitchen roll.

"Now, you can probably guess where this goes," Toby said with a vicious smile that pushed his facemask out.

He grabbed the man's throat and forced his head back.

"Open wide," Toby said in a sing-song voice and he plunged the tube on a stick down the man's throat.

He then forced the man's mouth to close and rushed another round of duct tape around his head to keep it closed.

'Gotta be quick! Gotta be quick!' Toby thought as he quickly took out a lighter and lit the fuse.

He stepped back a few metres, tugging his goggles down.

This explosive was a doubler.

Two explosives combined into one.

The fuse would ignite the first, and the amount of packaging he had placed on the second _should_ make it so that it would go off a second or two later after the first one had run out of energy to try and blow it's prey to pieces.

Toby's grin grew wider, if it was possible, as the fuse disappeared from sight as the man started to stop struggling...

The man's body shook and his jaw was forced open as the first explosive went off, a fairly large amount of spit, blood, and vomit flew upwards onto the ceiling as a result.

He barely waited a couple of seconds before...

Toby staggered backwards a little, closing his eyes on reflex and screwing his face.

He opened his eyes to see blood splattered goggles and he took off his facemask as he could feel something wet spreading over it.

He looked down at himself and it looked like he had been stood on the side of the road in front of a large puddle that had just been driven through by a speeding car... if the puddle was of blood, that was.

He caught sight of himself in a mirror that had escaped most of the carnage and saw that there were lines of red mist sprayed across his face in the gaps that the goggles and facemask hadn't covered up.

The man's body was mangled beyond instant recognition now.

His front had a mildly gaping hole that squelched as parts of it fell from the charred insides.

His head had been forced all the way back and was hanging on with half of his neck.

Toby wiped the blood away from his face and took off his hoodie, thanking his foresight to wear dark trousers that hid the sight of blood.

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"Sounds like he was a right mess," Clockwork laughed, "C'mon, there's got to be more, who's next?"

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Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Isaac made his way through the amber-lit streets, twitching slightly since Fizz had gotten bored and chewed a hole into his shirt and was now running up and down his back.

"Knock it off," Isaac hissed under his breath and Fizz retreated back into the pocket.

"Talking to yourself is a sign of insanity,"

Isaac jumped slightly and turned to face Masky.

Isaac rolled his eyes and pulled his bag around, "Here,"

"Thank you," Masky said, sliding the clip out to check the rounds, "Did we ever teach you to..."

"No, just reloading magazines," Isaac said, "You need anything else, cos I've got three more stops to make?"

"Nah, I'm good," Masky said as he pocketed the gun, "I'll set up a range sometime soon, might as well teach you,"

As soon as Masky's back was turned Isaac did a mini fistbump in celebration.

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"So how did that one go?" Clockwork asked.

"Well, Masky went to the guy's house and knocked out the lights.

The guy started panicking like crazy and started swinging at shadows with a cricket bat before Masky even got inside.

When he had gotten in he went up the stairs after him and he was just in time to see the guy try and grab a rifle that he had on the wall from his Father's hunting days from the upstairs study.

He slipped off the desk and ended up falling through a window,"

Clockwork, who had just taken a drink snorted and started coughing as a little went up her nose.

"R-r-really?" she asked between coughs.

"Yep," Isaac said with a grin, "When Masky got to the window he found that the guy had landed pretty hard on his bins and his head was facing the wrong way,"

"Ouch," Clockwork said with a wince, "Comical, yet pretty dumb..." she shrugged, "Any others, you said that you had three more to do?"

"Oh, yeah, next was actually Ben,"

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The Mansion.

Isaac had just sat down in his room when his phone went off, disturbing Fizz who had been resting on the top of it a few moments ago.

Fizz scurried up Hedwig's post, she wasn't there at the moment, off hunting, and settled on one of the small stands as he went back to sleep.

"Hello?" Isaac asked as he brought it to his ear.

#Hello, is this... Isaac?#

Isaac frowned and looked down at the number.

It wasn't one he recognised, though the only two he knew were Ben's and Toby's.

"Who is this?" Isaac asked, looking around.

#My names Adam, there's a package that's been left here for you, by a... Ben Lawman?#

Isaac frowned and looked at the screen again.

"Erm... I do know a Ben, what's the package?" he asked the worker.

#Let me check,#

Isaac waited a few moments before the worker spoke again.

#A phone,# Adam said a few moments later.

Isaac frowned deeper still; wondering why Ben, if it was his Ben, would send him a phone.

The worker read out the number on the phone and Isaac sat upright.

"Yeah, that's mine, using one of my brother's spares until it came," he told the worker, "Can I get the address of the shop?"

Fifteen minutes later Isaac was walking into the store that the worker had given him.

"Hi, I'm picking up a phone?" Isaac said to the teenager manning the front desk.

"Isaac, right?" the nametag on his front read ~Adam~, "Yeah, we were just talking on the phone,"

Adam ducked under the counter and held out a plain white box sealed in tape.

"Here you go," Adam said.

"Thanks, how much?"

"Paid online," Adam said with a wave of his hand, "Have a nice day now,"

"Thank you," Isaac said as he closed the door.

Isaac walked a little ways out of the store and found a secluded part of a park.

He cut open the box and picked up a mildly transparent blue bag that held Ben's phone.

He ripped open the bag and placed the phone down on the ground.

A few seconds later, a pale hand pushed its way out of the screen and Isaac helped Ben to his feet.

"Thanks," Ben said, bumping his wrist against Isaac's.

"What did you do?" Isaac asked, picking up the phone and handing it to Ben.

"Well... I might have had a job where I had to kill a guy..." Isaac raised his eyebrows, it wasn't all that often that Ben got a job, normally he just wiped away the digital evidence for the others, "... and after he'd run into my knife... ten times... I had to hide and I, well... I ended up in a phone that couldn't connect to the web... that got placed in a faraday bag... STOP LAUGHING!"

Isaac had started giggling through Ben's story...

... and now he was sideways on the ground laughing uncontrollably.

"S-SHUT it..." Ben broke a few seconds later and joined Isaac on the ground.

A few more moments of laughter and the two were side by side in the dirt, slowly giggling.

"I've still got a couple of things to do," Isaac sighed, "I'll see you back at The Mansion?"

Ben nodded, "Yeah, gotta check if BRVR's broken anything,"

Isaac got up and dusted himself off before offering Ben a hand up and pulled him to his feet.

"Hold on, dirt on the back," Isaac muttered, patting Ben down.

"T-thanks," Ben said, "Here," he gave Isaac the phone, "Can't take things into the digi-space with me,"

Isaac nodded and held his phone out so that Ben could travel through it.

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"You're never gonna let him live that down, are you?" Clockwork asked.

"Nope," Isaac said with a grin.

"Alright then, four down, who's next?"

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Corpus Chisti, Texas. - See end notes marked %.

L.J tapped his foot as he waited outside the house of his latest 'playmate'.

A rustling in the trees behind him got his attention and he turned to see Isaac pulling himself free from the edge of a holly bush.

"You took your time," L.J grumbled.

"You weren't the first stop, just be thankful that you're not the last," Isaac glowered at him, pulling his bag around, "I know the bush was spiky, you didn't have to jump into it," he muttered to a squeaking Fizz that had climbed up his trouser leg and was now buzzing on his shoulder.

Isaac fished out a dark glass container and handed it to the, impatient, monochrome clown.

"If you needed that stuff that much, then why didn't you just pop to the carnival?" Isaac asked, closing the bag and swinging it back around onto his back.

"I'm out and need more, and I thought that you would have liked something to do, being trapped there for so long," L.J said, opening the jar and taking a whiff.

"I'm not locked in, I just can't go on jobs for a bit," Isaac said indignantly.

"Yes, well, I've got it now, thanks ya Chuckaboo," L.J said before bowing with a flourish and disappearing in a twirl and puff of black smoke.

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"What does Chuckaboo mean?" Clockwork interrupted his story.

"I looked it up, it's apparently slang from the mid Eighteen Hundreds for a close friend,"

"Aah, sorry, go on?"

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Laughing Jack sat invisible to all but the two children at the table, a plate of food he hadn't eaten from to keep up the ruse.

He felt a little uncomfortable being back in his colourful outfit, but it was necessary to keep the children from freaking out; the monochrome that he truly was now hidden behind a glamour.

"So, Katie, Annie," the bottle-blonde mother said, "Did you have fun playing with your friend, Jack?"

The two children, a year between them, nodded; smiling happily at Jack.

"Yep, Jack even helpeded us made dinner," Annie, the younger of the two, said.

"Well... that's very... kind of him," the only man at the table said with a forced grin.

Katie picked up her glass to take a drink but a quick shake of the head from Jack had her put it down, frowning slightly.

Jack sat silently as he watched the four of them eating.

He paused for a moment, taking his eyes off the man, to pick at the cuff of his shirt.

It had been years since... he shook his head.

There was no point in hoping, it hardly happened.

Suddenly the man stood up sharply, slamming a hand on the table and clutching his throat.

Jack watched as his hand went to his mouth and beige-orange chunks of vomit squirted through the gaps in his fingers.

The mother and her two children screamed, the mother hurrying around and took her two children away from the table as the man collapsed on it, slumping to the ground as his body twitched.

Jack disappeared from the view of the children and appeared in front of the man as his bulging eyes started to lose focus.

"You know," Laughing Jack said in his raspy tones, his colour fading away like wet paint on a wall under fire from the rain, "Some men just can't handle their arsenic,"

The man tried to reach out at Laughing Jack, but his hand fell away, landing limply at his side.

He now sat on the picket fence on the opposite side of the street, watching the two children as they, in turn, watched the white ambulance drive off with the now dead body of the man their mother had started seeing.

He watched the two children with half-closed eyes as their mother talked to the officer heading the call telling her that large amounts of arsenic had been found in the jug of juice that had been served on the table, a subsequent bottle of the stuff being found in the man's car.

The mother's hand was at her mouth, the fear that she might have lost her children nearly overpowering as she always had a glass of water at meals to help with her headaches.

Jack was about to go over and offer the two children some of his 'special' candy when he paused.

A small smile twitched at his lips and he approached the two children as a police officer crouched down and talked with them about what they had seen.

"We – we – we were just sitting and – and – and he started – started throwing up," Katie said, holding Annie as fat, hot, tears leaked down her face, "I – I – I had been about to – to – to have a drink when..."

Both Annie and Katie's eyes went unfocused for a brief second as, unseen by all, Jack waved his hand across the back of their heads.

"... when he started shaking and – and – and..."

"It's alright," the officer said kindly, "Could you maybe tell me who the other plate was for?"

"S-s-spares, for e-e-extras," Katie said.

Jack had moved onto the mother at that point and removed any memory that she had of her two children talking about the funny clown they played with.

He then appeared in their bedrooms and gathered any and all pictures that they had drawn of him before he disappeared from the house altogether.

He re-appeared back in his carnival, the bundles of papers in his hands.

He made his way to a large, dilapidated, tent near the back.

When he went inside it seemed to stretch on, and on, forever.

He put the small stack of papers down in a box with two pens and a small bit of wood.

Faster than any would have thought possible he reached the end where a black section of wall was.

He set the box down and quickly put up a few strips of dividing, striped black and white, tape to separate this area from the other similar ones around it before he started pinning up each separate picture.

Once they were all in place he picked up the piece of wood and stuck that to the wall as well.

He clicked his fingers together and his index finger of the hand he had clicked burst into flame for a few seconds.

He shook the flame out and wrote in loopy writing.

~Katie and Annie~ followed by the date that he had first appeared to them, today's date.

He reached back down into the box and picked up one of the pens.

He had been about to write something else when he stopped and put the red pen back down and picked up the green one.

A few minutes later he was back outside the tent as a few of his past playmates ran over and tackled him in a hug.

His laughter was soon intermingled with them all as he held onto them and spun them around.

Soon, it was hard to tell who was dragging who by the hand at that point, as they delved deeper into his carnival.

Meanwhile, on the far side of the tent, he had just exited, there was a new section of display amidst the uncountable others of drawings and models.

The section bore a small wooden plaque that read.

~Katie and Annie~

Followed by the date, and a single word in green pen.

~Safe~

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"He say what happened to the kids?"

"No, he's spending some time in the carnival right now. Haven't seen him in a bit," Isaac said.

"Alright then..." Clockwork muttered something and counted on her fingers, "That was five, who's the sixth?"

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Nashville-Davidson, Tennessee.

Isaac let out a quick breath as he stepped out into the heat and quickly hurried to find where Jeff was so he could get back to The Mansion.

The aforementioned teen was waiting for him; leaning on a fence with his hoodie tied around his waist and arms stretched out in the black t-shirt he was wearing.

"How's it so frickin' hot?" Isaac complained as he reached the killer.

"Some science mumbo-jumbo about atmospheres and shit, I dunno," Jeff muttered as Isaac reached him, "Come on," he said and gestured at the house.

"So, what did you need me for?" Isaac asked as he followed after Jeff.

"Well, as I was scoping this place out for the next dude, or chick, that I would help get some shut-eye, I kept bumping into this bum, Ernie, I think his name was.

See, Ernie had this annoying gum habit, he was always chewing... no, not chewing, popping.

After the third day of getting stuck in line with this douche, I told him to quit it, and he just kept doing it, louder and louder.

So, I followed him home and decided to give him a couple of warning shots with the sawed-off he keeps lying around... just so happened that those warning shots were at point blank range right in his face and now I want to leave the body somewhere fun,"

He stopped as they were halfway up the stairs.

"This feels familiar, why do these always feel familiar?"

"Cause you've been doing this for so long, they get repetitive?" Isaac suggested.

"Probably," Jeff grunted and kicked the door to the room where a bloodied corpse with a rather deep hole in its head was tied to a chair.

"And you called me to help you move this?" Isaac looked at the skinny remains.

"Have you ever carried a body before?" Jeff asked him, "It's harder than it looks, and I can't be bothered lugging him around in a carpet or some shit,"

Isaac rolled his eyes and helped Jeff carrying him out of the room and down the stairs, "So, where we dumping him?"

Jeff thought for a moment.

"There's this pervy old dude just down the street, let's just dump the body there," he said, grabbing the shotgun and tossing it onto the body.

The two of them carried the chair-bound corpse down a few houses and into the side path oo a house Jeff led them too.

They cut the ropes off and tossed them in the bin before Jeff unceremoniously flung the body in after it.

"Right, well, I can get the perv's prints on this thing, see you back at Slendy's... Jane back yet?"

"Day after tomorrow," Isaac said after a moment.

"Alright, get outta here, shorty," Jeff said, a little chipper hearing that he had two more days without getting asked to spend an hour dodging and punching.

"You're like three inches taller than me,"

"And I will hold those three inches over your head until I need to kick you in the shins so I'm taller again,"

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Clockwork rolled her eyes and scoffed.

"Pasty-faced ass,"

"You said it, not me," Isaac muttered.

He heard a hooting from outside and moved over to the window so that Hedwig could fly in.

The snowy owl flew into the room with a twirl and landed on the back of the couch.

"Still surprised that she's lasted this long," Clockwork said, stroking Hedwig's back with a finger.

Hedwig turned and clicked her beak at her, her wings moving out slightly, and a sharp squeak.

"Ok, you can handle yourself, got it," Clockwork said with a slight smirk and raised hands.

"Hey, girl," Isaac said, holding his arm out for her to jump up onto, "Got another job for you in a bit, let's get you some water,"

He carried her upstairs, rolling his eyes and scoffing at Clockwork's declaration of being the master of the remote once again, and set Hedwig on her post so she could sip from the bowl of water and get some of the seeds left for her.

Isaac smiled softly and sat down at the desk, grabbing a piece of paper and a pen.

He twirled the pen around his fingers, thinking of what to write.

~Hey, Jason~

~Got something to ask you,~

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End notes.

Alright, alright, gather round one and all, I have a little bit of news for you all.

I might be late with next weeks chapter.

Not a hunch, but a fact.

I'm going camping with my brothers and parents Thursday through till Saturday and even though I'm taking my laptop with since it's one of those fancy places where you can get power to your site, I don't know about the internet connection so I might not be able to upload next week's chapter until well past mid-day on Saturday.

Sorry about this, but I'll try my best and even take a hike to the nearest place that had wifi so I can try and upload on time, but I don't know much about where we're going.

And if I am definitely late... you'll be getting a new EXTRAS chapter to go with it, that I _can_ promise since I've almost finished it as I write this.

Other than that?

I hope that you enjoyed this weeks chapter, next week will be something the same with some old faces popping in and talking about what they've been up to.

I've also started planning my next cosplay, Eyeless Jack.

Mainly because I want to carry around a bag of stuff that looks like bloody organs and eat them like an apple in front of people.

After that I'm planning on working on one of Jason The Toymaker, that one because we have the same name.

I like his story, but I'm mainly doing it because of that awesome coat he wears.

But, the time to end this chapter has come, and I do hope that you liked it, and I'll hopefully see you around the same time next week.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!


	42. Chapter 42, You want me to do what?

Chapter 42, "You want me to do what?"

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Is it on time?

I don't know, I'm writing this before I know for sure.

But, you know the deal by now, I ramble for a little bit before we get to the actual chapter, but I actually enjoy just putting a sort of chat with you and telling you a little about what I've done this week, it feels nice.

So, obviously I have no idea what's happened so far, but one of the hinges of my glasses broke, that was fun. Ended up fixing it with a bunch of wire I had laying around and one of those little black things that hold toys to the tag, those little things that are twisted around, you know.

Kinda looked like a mess, but I also kinda liked having the wire there, gave them a little bit of character, so I put some wire around the left leg and I kinda like it.

Said kinda a lot there, you could make a drinking game for how often I start sentences the same way.

So a few of you might have noticed, but the chapter number and page numbers now match up.

That's because I went back and added the prologue to the first chapter and now my OCD is settled... also, looking at the number of chapters I've written, I've nearly been doing this for a whole year, time has flown past and I think that my time management has actually improved from doing this.

Ok, now it's time for the reviews, wonder what I've gotten this time...

MyraZinshu;

Huh, that's odd, I wonder why it wouldn't let you.

Ok, the Ben thing is accepted, 'phew'.

Sirius is going to be away from The Mansion for a bit, he'll probably get a small segment either early on or at the end to show how Slendy is trying to broaden his horizon... but it does mean more drama, YAS, QUEEN, YAS!

I actually hit a breaking point last chapter with the Creep's killing last chapter, take a guess on which one it was, but I couldn't do it.

My limit was hit, and I don't think that I'll be able to write much with that Creep while they're working from now on, I... I just can't do it.

The Doctor was out of this chapter, so I'll probably have to do something with him later on since he's too cool a guy to just have as what would almost feel like a side-note story.

The Creeps are still a little pissed at him so there'll be a little more penance in the future, but I've started it already, I think losing use of his hand for a while was a fitting punishment to start with, punishment fits the crime since he skinned Isaac's and now he's lost one of the vital things that allow him to do what he does for a while.

The murderous montage was fun to do, anyone want to take a guess at which _fucking_ song has been stuck in my head for the past two weeks?

The camping trip should be fun, might even take my Toby stuff and find a nice forest nearby and get a few good pics while I'm there to showcase my Cosplays when they're finished...

Now that I say that I really need to find a Hannibal Lecter cosplayer when in my Eyeless Jack get up and get a picture of us eating together.

I'm glad that you liked it. The EXTRAS chapter is halfway finished when I'm writing this and I can't think of much else to put in it... also I've got the next six odd planned and I should be working on the next soon.

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

For some reason, the site didn't let her upload the review so she PM'd me.

Hehehe... that song has been stuck in my head for DAYS! I haven't even seen the musical.

Alright, let me grab a pen...

Thank you, very helpful, I'll look into them when I get a moment.

Japolo Rei Hellstinger;

You do, it's been stuck in my head all week thanks to Ijustwannahavefun.

YingYangWriter;

'dances along'

Nope, see the last review.

They are idiots, the Ministry wants to pretend like they know everything is alright and so they'll give the public a piece of bull that makes them think, "Aww, how tragic,"

Yeah, he had to deal with all that a couple of chapters back so he's safe for another year, and Clockwork was gone for a bit so I thought it'd be good to bring her back in, almost gave her Toby's part actually.

Fizz is always a little fun to write, and yes, Jason will be coming back soon.

Never hold back the smartarse within you, I haven't and it's been doing my confidence wonders.

Hehe, I get it.

Yeah, having the main character play messenger boy kinda amused me.

I don't love making Masky miserable, he just has to be the grown up to deal with Toby and Isaac... also, do you think I should have another Infernus moment for Toby?

That's kinda what he did, you'll see later.

Yeah, I mentioned in a past review that I hit my limit with those scenes, L.J's was that scene.

I actually explained that in an earlier chapter, way near the start, but I hadn't managed to use it until now.

Oh, Christ, good luck.

Wow-im-satan;

Nice to meet you, dark ruler of Hell.

Yes, yes it was.

Nobody51;

So do I, infectiously energetic and infuriatingly catchy.

TaylorToons;

Do you?

Yep, that's the inspiration... ooh, Billdip!

Matt(Guest);

Yeah, he's got some realising to do.

Honebar;

Yeah, I was giggling too.

I have no idea where the birds and feathers thing came from.

I really like The Bloody Painter too, but I'd only cosplay as him once I'd gotten good enough at drawing

Sweet Smilie;

I added the prologue to chapter 1, so now the page number and chapter numbers match, and it appeases my OCD.

Yeah, it was kinda fun to write Isaac going around as a little prelude to the kills, my favourite had to be Toby's.

BRVR trouble is getting fixed here, not to worry.

I think that before it was translated you meant to say "Don't go along in the middle of nowhere," but now it says, "Go alone into the middle of nowhere,"

I think I'll choose the latter.

Also, I'm 100% a dude, Male.

Thunder-Death;

Yeah, I tend to get a little giggly when something serious is happening as well, can't help it I'm afraid.

ViolentHappyChick;

When I first read your name I thought it said 'HappyViolentChucky', you know, as in the killer doll.

Yeah, Cell Block Tango was stuck in my head all week, never seen the musical though...

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

This one is from their review that actually got left on the site. As you can tell, I am very composed when I answer the reviews, always doing it in a calm and sensible manner...

FINALLY! FUCKING FINALLY!

HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN? HOW LONG? I'M CALLING IT! 18TH JULY AT... QUARTER PAST 12 IN THE MORNING!

Chapter 6 went up the fifteenth of December... so... 30 WEEKS! 30 WEEKS AND 5 DAYS!

So, you're probably wondering what that was about... well, to my knowledge that is how long it has taken for someone to bring this up.

'sighs'

So, yes, Matt Bright (The first Orbitor I ever introduced into the story) is said to have a brother called Jack, Jack Bright, who is a doctor.

Doctor Jack Bright? Anyone get it yet?

Ok, what if I mentioned that he has a necklace that allows the transfer of consciousness across bodies?

No, still need hints?

Dr Bright just so happens to work as a member of site command and... it's an SCP reference.

Dr Bright is a reference to SCP Containment Breach.

Bloody love that character and may also have plans to cosplay as him at some point.

Sorry, just... it took so long and... I thought no one was going to get it...

I want a cookie...

bloodydarkangel;

Hehe, they were fun to write.

Thanks, I'm glad that you like it.

Erm... this was a little harder to understand but I think the gist of it was that they liked how I didn't immediately have Isaac (Harry) start going off and killing people and how that was more realistic.

If that's the case then thank you, it made more sense since to do that since he didn't really know what he was doing at that time.

Right, that was all of them.

DP, I'm upset.

Last week it was Friday the Thirteenth, do you know how many things I could have done if I was aware of that earlier than the actual day?

I would have absolutely crammed to finish that chapter and get the EXTRAS chapter out on the same day, it would have been perfect!

I need cake again... I'm... it's not stress eating... so... I've got the Melancholy Munchies.

Hey, shame about missing that, would have been awesome, I agree. Cake? I dunno… vanilla, I guess? I'm not that super fancy. Hope that you all enjoy the chapter!

Well, better than nothing… gonna go get a chocolate one… and some biscuits...

And that is the last, I can't delay this any longer.

So, enjoy the chapter,

SteamGeek01.

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The Mansion.

Isaac watched as Hedwig took off across the forest trees that next morning and disappear as she gained height.

He drummed his hands on the windowsill for a few more seconds before reaching out and pulling the windows closed.

He gave a quick glance to Fizz, who was taking the opportunity to sleep on Hedwig's post as she was gone, before he left his room.

He wondered why it smelled like fresh paint as he started to make his way down to the kitchen.

He was met with a rather... odd sight.

Jeff was sitting in the living room, which itself was rather normal, but what made this abnormal... more abnormal than normal was the fact that he was wearing yellow latex cleaning gloves, a gas mask, and had a bottle of kitchen cleaner and a sponge.

"Erm... how was the winter holiday in hell?" Isaac asked.

Jeff turned to face him, breath heavy through the gas mask.

"There's an overwhelming stench of bullshit around," Jeff's muffled voice came through, "And I can't find the source,"

Isaac frowned for a moment; he couldn't smell anything out of the ordinary.

A few seconds later the front doors opened and someone walked through.

"Oh, there it is," Jeff's muffled voice grew irritated as Jane walked into the room, a sour look on her face and small twigs in her hair.

An infuriated, but tired, glare was thrown his way as she stalked up the stairs; her bag banging on every step as she pulled it after her.

Isaac turned back from watching her to Jeff and found him plucking strings on an invisible guitar.

"It's an ode to the death of my peace," Jeff said, his voice still muffled through the gas mask.

Isaac peered closer at the hand motions.

"That's the sequence for 'I can't decide' by the Scissor Sisters," Isaac said after a moment.

"Oh good, you've gotten good enough to recognise a song just by watching the hand motions," Jeff sounded amused through the mask, "That means I can move onto the harder stuff,"

"What you've been doing before was your beginner level?" Isaac asked, a seed of worry sprouting inside him.

"Oh yeah," Isaac could feel the grim glee that was rolling off of Jeff at that moment, "See... hold on, this thing is fogging up,"

He fumbled with the clasps for a few moments before he pulled the gasmask off and took a deep breath.

"That thing gets stuffy fast," Jeff muttered, "Oww, hair, hair,"

Isaac left Jeff to untangle his hair from the gas mask as he made his way through to the kitchen and shoved two pieces of bread into the toaster.

He was just biting into the first of the two buttered slices, Jeff had nicked all the jam again, when a loud shout echoed from upstairs.

"WHAT THE... ISAAC!"

The last word came out as a muffled bark and he had enough time to quickly take another bite before L.J appeared and the two of them were in his carnival.

"Morning," Isaac said through a mouthful of toast.

"Don't mornin' me," L.J said, a cloth wrapped around his pointed nose, "Da hell was up wiff your woom?"

"Excuse me? My what?" Isaac sniggered.

"Immature brat," L.J said as he removed the cloth from his nose, "Come on, I've got guests, and they asked how you were doing,"

Isaac chewed his toast as he followed L.J into the central tent where a familiar pair of twins were standing.

"Oh, there he is, about time," Candy Pop said as L.J and Isaac came over.

"I wasn't even gone a minute," L.J said indignantly.

"Sometimes a minute is all it takes," Candy Cane said, twirling her hammer around on the hilt and leaning against it, "So how's it going, Sparky?"

Isaac frowned as he took another bite from his toast, "Ok... that's a new one... why?"

Candy Cane flicked her hair as she replied.

"Well, your hair looks like you've had a car battery attached to your ears and, according to Lil' Jackie over there..." Jack glowered at her, "... he let loose a little secret that you could barbecue a chicken just by holding it?"

Isaac rolled his eyes and broke off a piece of his toast before moving it to his other hand.

Both the Candy's leaned a little closer and soon the blue flames wrapped around his fingers; burning the piece of toast to blackened charcoal.

Something white appeared above Isaac's hand and he turned to look at L.J.

"What?" he asked, moving the white thing into his mouth, "You never waste a good roasting opportunity," he said through a mouthful of sticky, and slightly burnt, marshmallow.

Isaac was about to stop the flames when he glanced back and found two more white things appeared above his hand.

He shrugged and took another bite of his toast as the twin jesters roasted their own marshmallows.

"You know..." the four of them jumped, "... it's quite rude to not even be there after requesting an audience,"

Jason the Toymaker walked in long strides over to where they were standing... a cloth held to his nose.

"And what was with that... interesting effect with your room?" he asked as he approached.

He stopped, a look of deep intrigue on his face.

Isaac's back had been towards him when he entered so he wasn't able to see the flames around Isaac's hand.

"Something of yours, Jack?" Jason asked, bending down and looking closer at the flames.

"Nope, all him," Jack said, swallowing the last of his marshmallow.

"Hmm," was all Jason said as he stood back up.

"What was that about your room?" Candy Pop asked with a frown that seemed to stretch to the bottom of his chin on his face.

"Oh, special ward on my room," Isaac said, taking another bite of his toast as Jason started roasting a marshmallow offered to him by Candy Cane, "Blocks anyone phasing in... unless they do it in the corner of the room,"

Candy Pop raised an eyebrow in curiosity and disappeared, the same bright smoke effect as Isaac remembered; Candy Cane as well a few seconds later.

"Is there a way around it?" L.J asked as he wafted away the remnants of Candy Cane's smoke.

"No," Isaac said with a grin.

"How long do you think it'll take them to realise?" Jason asked after a minute.

No sooner than he had finished talking Candy Pop and Cane re-appeared, cloths at their noses.

Candy Pop hit the toast out of his hand, a sour expression on the part of his face that wasn't obscured by a black handkerchief.

"Don't be rude," Candy Cane reprimanded, "You've done, and will do, worse,"

Candy Pop gave a low growling grunt as he shrugged.

"So, pleasantries aside, I wasn't expecting to run into the either of you two," Jason said.

"Bored, in the area, wanted to borrow a cup of sugar, take your pick," Candy Pop picked dirt from under his nails as he spoke, "And what about you? Can't imagine you'd be so willing to return after being kept under lock and key by Slend's,"

"I was given a rather unique proposition," Jason said, "Though I would like to hear more,"

"A bit back, Ben found another digital ghost that could use the same internet as pathways like him and brought him to The Mansion.

After a few days, Ben came to see me and BRVR, the new digital ghost Ben found, followed him, I've gotten to know him pretty well, he's a bit like a cat, a... homicidal killer cat, but a cat nonetheless.

Anyway, I saw him scratching against a T.V. as he tried to get out, but he couldn't.

I figured that that was because he's fully digital, whereas Ben was born before he became a digital ghost, so I was thinking..."

Isaac paused for his first breath since starting.

"I see, I see..." Jason said, stroking his chin with his index finger in a curling motion, "Maybe... possibly... I'd need to see what supplies I have..."

He turned and walked out of the tent, not another word to the others.

"He'll be back once he realises that he's talking to himself," Candy Cane said before sniggering, "He's always been like that, hasn't he?" she nudged Candy Pop in the ribs.

"Yes, I do," Candy Pop said, raising a hand on his assaulted side, "He's always been a rather odd little duck, hasn't he?"

"Yep, not changed at all," Candy Cane nodded, "Well... aside from the whole murder part,"

"You knew him before he, well, snapped?" Isaac asked.

"I think, that aside from the Slender, you'd be hard pressed to find Shadows older than us," Candy Cane went on.

"Shadows?" Isaac asked.

"Oh... what's the name they have for us now?" she asked her twin.

"Creepypasta," Candy Pop said with a faint sneer, "How we went from Shadow Walkers, to what essentially means Spooky Spaghetti, I have no idea,"

"Shadow Walkers? That's what it used to be?" Isaac asked.

"A long, long, time ago," Candy Pop said, "Longer than I would have thought..."

Isaac wondered just for a moment exactly how old the Twin Jesters were.

"Bet you two have quite a few stories," Isaac said offhandedly.

"Well, we most certainly do have one or two," Candy Pop said.

"Some quite old, some rather new,"

"One of a boy, speared by a bull,"

"And then another, drowned in a pool,"

"Once we had a brat, tried to run far,"

"He made a nice splat, under the tires of a car," Candy Cane finished, "Got any preference?"

Isaac thought for a moment before he gave a small scoff in laughter.

"Ever had any at Hogwarts?" he asked as a joke.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane looked down at him in surprise.

They turned towards each other and raised an eyebrow to the other before turning back to Isaac and Laughing Jack.

"Jackie? Why didn't you tell us he was a wizard?" Candy Cane asked him.

"I thought you knew," Jack said slowly, through slightly clenched teeth.

"Well you never mentioned, and I doubt the boy did either..." Candy Pop trailed off in thought.

"Well, if he is one of those lot, explains his portable s'more makers," Candy Cane said with a shrug, "So... houses, there's four over at that silly little castle, isn't there, which is yours?"

"Gryffindor," Isaac said, "Almost Slytherin, but the hat... well, it put me in Gryffindor anyway,"

"Hmm," Candy Cane said with a small pout, "Shame, back before all of this, I was once known as Rowena.

Rowena Ravenclaw,"

Isaac's eyes widened and he felt his shoulders drop as they went limp.

Then Candy Cane burst out laughing.

"No, no I'm not, oh, the look on your face," she broke off in laughter again, doubling over, clutching her stomach, and squatting down.

"OWW!" she stood back up and glared at Candy Pop, who had just hit her around the back of the head with the handle of her hammer.

"Thought I saw a wasp," he said innocently, "Besides, the boy asked a question, it would be rude not to answer him?" he raised an eyebrow at his sister.

She deepened her glare at Candy Pop for a few more seconds before turning back to the others in the group.

None of them had noticed that Jack had gone off to tell some of the children to stop climbing the framework of the roller coaster that ran along the border of the carnival.

"Fine, let me think... let me think... ah," she said after a few moments, "Oh, it was a long time ago, before this millennium... around... I don't know, I've forgotten..."

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Hogwarts... a long, long, long, time ago...

A small girl giggled as she ran through the halls, her dress whipping around her.

"Emily!" her brother called after her, "Emily!"

She giggled some more as she ducked behind a pillar and waited for her brother to catch up.

His footsteps grew nearer and she covered her mouth to try and stifle her laughter.

"Raugh!"

Emily squealed when her brother grabbed her from behind and swung her around.

"Got you!" he pulled her close and tickled her sides, the two of them grinning merrily.

Emily pouted at her brother for swinging her around and that caused him to laugh more.

"Oh, Emily, thou hast no idea how adorable though looks when thy's face is like that,"

"I'll write to Mother on you, Thackery Binx!" Emily said determinedly.

"You little carry-tale, you," Thackery laughed and started chasing her again.

Emily got a few paces away before she was stopped by a teacher that had come out from a nearby room.

"Though two are running amok in the halls, again?" Mrs Dritch, the then Charms teacher, reprimanded, "Outside, if though are to behave like frenzied cattle,"

The two siblings nodded and made their way out, sounds of laughter not too long after that.

Mrs Dritch raised her head high and looked down both ends of the corridor before she returned back into the room she had just vacated.

She closed the door, placing numerous locking and silencing charms around it, before returning to the parchments on the table before her.

She had to make this perfect, one mistake could ruin the whole process.

She had been warned off her experiments before by the Heads of Staff and the Head of the School, but she knew that if they were to succeed anywhere in life then risks must be taken.

She checked the parchments around the table, casting a quick heating charm on one that's ink was still slightly wet, and tightened the ribbon holding her hair out of her face.

She moved the parchments so that she could read them all clearly and gently waved her wand over the large sigil that had been drawn on the floor; chanting the verses that she had written.

The edges of the sigil lit up in a pale orange before dark blue flames erupted as the glow started to move further into the centre of the sigil.

She reached the end of the first parchment and switched to the next.

" _... azemoth meriden zinther averfaros morden tentiros..._ "

The orange glow was getting closer to the middle, the blue flames a mere inch behind.

"... _mezir andetere pomme de terre exizasermuth adverinox oblestii..._ NO!" she screeched as the orange glow turned violet and the blue flames flickered and died.

"NO! NO... no..." she dropped her wand and clasped her forehead.

All her work, all her hard, hard, work for nothing.

"Now..." she gasped and spun around, "That was _almost_ interesting,"

Mrs Dritch was lifted into the air by a strong pair of arms, belonging to the effeminate jester before her.

"Unhand me! Unhand me at once, you... you... you heathen!"

The pink-haired being before her merely chuckled.

"How rude," she said slowly.

Mrs Dritch was about to start calling for help when a grim thought entered her mind.

She had spelled the door locked and soundproofed the room, no sound could get in or out.

She gritted her teeth as the creature's grip tightened.

Before she burst out in full scream.

The creature had started twisting her arms in such a way that the strain was going to be too much to handle and...

She let out a piercing shriek of a scream as she heard that loud crack that signalled her bones had broken.

She felt two stabbing pains in her back before she was dropped and whatever it was tore into her back; suspending her in the air.

Mrs Dritch screamed a third time as whatever was holding her swung slightly under her weight.

She was in so much pain that she almost didn't feel the hands that grasped her legs and soon the same process that she had undergone on her arms was repeated.

Her screams were intermingled with sobs now as she swayed slightly.

The hands grabbed her again and her legs were pulled behind her; before they were impaled on something themselves and now she hung over the middle of the room, the jester looking up at her.

"This _is_ fun, how wonderful," the jester said, bring ing a hand to the front of her dress and cutting it away so her stomach was bare.

Mrs Dritch was whimpering now, the pain unbearable, she thought.

She was wrong.

Her screams tore through the small room as hands were quickly drawn across her front, crimson streaks across her stomach.

She continued to scream as her flesh was flayed away until things started to leak and her vision went cloudy.

Candy Cane stepped back as she admired her handiwork.

She turned to the door when it rattled in a way that suggested someone was knocking on it so she grinned to herself and disappeared, a faint crackle as the smoke dissipated.

"Mrs Dritch," the investigating teacher said, "The Headmaster hath warned you about these..."

He stopped when he saw the flayed and mangled corpse of his now departed coworker hanging from the chandelier like some sort of morbid and grotesque decoration and stumbled backwards.

The image of one Ellanoir Dritch left in such a way forever in his mind.

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Laughing Jack's carnival.

"So what had she been doing?" Isaac asked, grinning from the story.

"I can't remember..." Candy Cane said, "All I can recall is that whatever she had been doing was causing one hell of a power flare, it would have been gravely foolish to let whatever energy she was trying to release happen,"

It was at that point that Jason and Jack walked back in, a large bag at the side of Jason.

"Well, I haven't tried anything like _thi_ s, but I relish at the chance," he said, "I'm ready to start, and I think we should bring your little blonde friend into this, he has... more experience with these things than I do,"

"Ok," Isaac nodded before turning to Candy Cane and Candy Pop, "Nice seeing you again," he said to them before going off back to The Mansion with Jason.

"Well, he's doing well for himself," Candy Pop said, "Now, what is it that you said you had to tell us?"

"Oh," Laughing Jack cackled, "Just you wait, I have the most _delicious_ bit of gossip,"

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The Mansion.

Masky looked up as he heard the door open and frowned when he saw Isaac walk in with Jason the Toymaker shortly behind him.

"Toymaker," Masky said with a nod of his head.

"Mr Wright," Jason returned the nod.

"Wasn't aware you were dropping by?" Masky said as he sat forward.

"Well, this was all rather spur of the moment, and blame him, he's the one that wrote to me," Jason jutted his head towards Isaac.

"I thought it would take longer for Hedwig to find you," Isaac said, frowning when Jason scoffed.

"The Slenderman's forest is connected to every piece of woodland in the world, and beyond.

My realm is accessible from here, though it is harder to get to without his or my permission, as is the Laughing Jack's carnival.

She is fine, by the way, Liquorice guided her through to my workshop and she left minutes before me,"

Isaac nodded, he would admit that he'd be upset if he lost Hedwig. His flying companion seemed more at home at The Mansion than he would have ever thought an owl would have been.

"Well, anything else, or can we get to why I was summoned?" Jason asked and Isaac led him up the stairs.

Jason grimaced when they came to his door and looked between the floor and ceiling, looking for the warding that had blocked him.

"It's under the carpet," Isaac told him.

Jason merely raised an eyebrow at him before putting the bad onto the bed.

"Where is your digital friend?" he asked.

Isaac walked over to the screen and rapped on the glass.

When no reply came he knocked again.

Isaac frowned and made picked his phone up off the bed.

#Hey, where U at?#

He paced for a moment while he waited for Ben's reply.

#Somewhere in Canada, server farm had some footage of Jeff and Teer, why? What's up?# came the reply barely a minute later.

"Jasn's here, gonna help me with a thing, need U 2#

#Give me two minutes#

Isaac put his phone back down.

"He's just scrubbing some footage," Isaac told the awaiting Toymaker.

Jason stood up and took out a pad of paper from within the bag, as he did so Isaac caught sight of a few layers of yellow fabric and a few mechanical parts.

"Well... are you able to get... what did you call him? BRVR?"

Isaac nodded.

"Are you able to get him?"

Isaac turned to the t.v, knocking once more on the screen and calling BRVR.

So far Ben had been able to train him so that he would turn up whenever someone called him, by it seemed like he preferred to stay in either the t.v. downstairs or the one in Ben's room.

#Izak?# the writing appeared on the screen and soon BRVR was sitting in the middle of the screen.

"Hey, buddy, how are you?" Isaac asked, taking his seat and watching BRVR amble around.

#Bored, Bin is away, BRVR cannot follow#

"Yeah, one day, though," Isaac said.

"A remarkable little creature," Jason said, peering over Isaac's shoulder.

BRVR crouched down, his cheeks sparking, as he looked out at Jason.

#Who he?# he asked through a small growl.

"BRVR, this is Jason," Isaac said quickly, Ben had already gone through a t.v. after BRVR had a small meltdown, "He's... a friend of some of the guys that work here and he wanted to meet you,"

BRVR didn't stop glaring at Jason but his cheeks did stop sparking so he guessed that that was a step in the right direction.

#What Jsin want with BRVR?#

Jason frowned slightly.

"It's illiterate," he stated.

BRVR snapped at him as Jason moved back to the bed.

He flipped open the pad of paper and soon his pencil was darting around the page.

#What is Jsin doing here?" BRVR asked Isaac as the digital sprite's eyes never left Jason's back.

"He's helping me with something," Isaac told him.

BRVR shook his head like he was clearing water away and started chasing around a ball he had made, Isaac throwing it with the cursor.

After a minute Ben ended up joining BRVR, being tackled by the aforementioned sprite, and spent a good minute dealing with BRVR running up and down him before settling on his back, holding his head up on his shoulder.

"Hey, Specs," Ben called after BRVR had calmed down, "What's up?"

"Is the data-ghost back?" Jason asked, returning to Isaac's side.

"What's he doing here?" Ben asked, looking out at the two of them.

"He's helping us," Isaac told him, gesturing for Ben to come out.

Ben managed to get BRVR settled and was soon with them on the outside.

"So, what's he helping us with then?"

"You noticed how BRVR tries to get out sometimes?" Isaac asked him, "Well, I talked to Jason about it, but what if we built him a body?"

Benn frowned and crossed his arms.

"Then we'd probably have to deal with L.J doing an impersonation of Colin Clive going 'It's alive! It's alive!' but we could probably do it, what you got?" Ben asked Jason as he picked up the bag.

"Servos, mountings, all I really needed was to see... BRVR, for himself, to see what he looked like and work out the dimensions," Jason replied as Ben took out some motors.

"Looks like we got what we need, would probably need to get him a speaker so he could talk, well, go 'Pika Pi'," Ben said, "I think I got a few in my room,"

"Well, I'll handle actually building the body, you'll have to find a way for the data-ghost to be able to possess the machine and use it," Jason said, "Well, if that's all, you should have it by the end of the day after tomorrow, regarding that nothing goes wrong,"

Isaac nodded and thanked Jason as he took the bag back from Ben, before they discovered that the sigil under the carpet also made the room a pretty good cage since they couldn't phase out either.

Isaac held the door for a grumpy Jason before he turned back to Ben.

"So... you been up to much?" he asked Ben.

"Eh, same as always, scrubbed some footage, may have popped into some customer returns service and crashed their servers because I was bored, not much really," Ben said as he sat down on the bed, "You?"

"Hardly anything," Isaac said, "You scrubbed some footage, who for?"

"Want to see?" he asked, pointing towards the screen.

"Go for it," Isaac grinned as he reclaimed his seat.

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Eau Claire, Wisconsin

The lone guard was making his nightly round of the storage warehouse, the beam of light from his torch dying since it was nearing the end of the batteries lifespan.

He thought that he had the easiest job sometimes.

Not many tried to break in because of the barbed wire that was still there from before, the place had once been a military storehouse before the base was relocated and subsequently turned into a shipping depot.

He started to whistle to himself as he reached the centre rows.

He frowned when he heard a rattling from within and gave a sigh that bordered on a groan.

So much for no one breaking in.

He held the torch up as he peered through the darkness towards the source of the noise.

"Damn kids," he muttered to himself as he got closer to the sounds.

He reached the area where the noise was coming from but, to his surprise, there was no one there.

He frowned and looked around some more, only finding dirt that had been tracked in by workers and dust.

He crouched down and shone the torch through the shelves on the lower levels, trying to see if he could find a pair of legs; but he found nothing still.

He jumped slightly when he heard something drop behind him and, shakily pointing the flashlight, he turned to look.

A bottle of pills, he couldn't read the label from where he was, rolled away from him.

Frowning deeper still, the man looked up.

The flashlight dropped, as did his jaw.

A pair of golden eyes looked down at him... a pair of golden eyes belonging to a man with skin as grey as an elephant's, with long black hair, who was crouched horizontally on one of the shelves... out over the aisle.

A bag was in a hand outstretched to the floor, a few seconds later another bottle rolled out.

There was a tense moment between the two as nothing was said.

"So..." the golden-eyed man said.

The night guard, who was borderline hyperventilating at this point, turned and ran.

The Puppeteer rolled his eyes and dropped to the floor, placing the bags he had been holding onto the floor, before he took off after the man.

He easily caught up to him and the man was soon bound in golden string.

The man struggled as he stumbled slightly, falling against a row of shelves.

"Hold still," Teer commanded as he got closer.

The man started to throw things at him, he dodged them easily but it was still annoying.

"Stop it," Teer said as what looked like a pack of balls for a dog flew past his head.

The man didn't let up so Teer raised him into the air and threw him against one of the shelves, knocking a loosely stored pallet closer to the edge.

As Teer hit him against it again the pallet fell and the pots that had been stored upon it fell away, landing with a crash.

Teer raised an arm to cover his face as the pots of paint burst open, coating a large section of the floor and himself.

He let the man drop away, unconscious, and shook a large amount of paint off of his hands.

He heard the sounds of more footsteps and groaned to himself.

He phased himself back to where the bags he had been told to grab were and quickly gathered them, scooping the fallen bottles as he passed, before phasing back to The Mansion.

He made a quick stop to dump the supplies on one of the beds in the Infirmary before he re-appeared at the top of the stairs and started stripping before getting into the shower.

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Ben gave Isaac a few moments to stop laughing at the sight of a blue painted Puppeteer.

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Sirius Black followed the tall figure before him as he walked him through a town he didn't know or recognise as the sunlight began to dwindle.

It had been three days since he had left The Mansion, though one of those days was spent lost in The Slenderman's forest, He had managed to find refuge in what looked like an old toilet block.

After that he had awoken to a painful buzzing in his ears and scrambled into a sitting position; his head cradled in his arms.

 **"Get up,"** the voice of the Slenderman had told him, **"I have something to show you,"**

Sirius gritted his teeth through the last of the pain and gotten shakily to his feet.

An ice-cold hand had grasped his shoulder and his legs gave out from under him, as did his stomach of its little contents.

The Slenderman waited for Sirius' stomach to settle before he picked him up once more and told him to follow.

Where he had led him was what looked like an old, rundown, cabin in the middle of a forest.

When he went inside he found a supply of firewood next to an empty fireplace and he could just see the edge of an iron-frame bed through an open door.

 **"Since you have proven that you cannot stay at the central residence, this shall be your dwellings,"** Slenderman had told him, **"Until such a time that you have accepted your place, you will not be able to leave,"**

"You can't keep me prisoner here," Sirius said through gritted teeth.

 **"I think you'll find I can,"** Slenderman said, his voice monotonous, **"You have not yet accepted your place amongst the world.**

 **Your attempts to flee to the Headmaster of Hogwarts would have spelt absolute chaos, for both the worlds,"**

"I don't care," Sirius spat, "I just want what's right for..."

 **"Your Godson?"** Slenderman cut him off and Sirius was sure that if he had had a face then he probably would have raised an eyebrow, **"As it has been made clear to you, your Godson is no longer your responsibility.**

 **He is a part of our world, more so than you are.**

 **If you continue to try and resist your place, or threaten his as well, then I will make this** _ **quite**_ **clear.**

 **I will end you,"**

Sirius gulped as a sharp ringing sensation filled his ears and The Slenderman was gone.

He didn't see him at all the next day; he spent it getting used to his new surroundings.

He was contemplating what to do about the firewood and food, he had no wand so he couldn't duplicate it, as he was running out rather quickly when the Slenderman returned.

 **"Follow,"** had been the only word the being had said before walking out of the cabin.

Sirius had done as he was told and when they entered the forest his surroundings gave way and he stumbled to the ground.

The Slenderman waited for Sirius to regain his sense of balance before he led him out into the city they were now at.

Sirius had gone into his animagus form on instinct but The Slenderman forced him back out of it and told him to stay that way.

As the sun dipped lower into the sky Sirius found himself unable to prevent himself from asking the question that was on his mind.

"Where are we?"

He paused a moment and looked up at the towering figure.

It was only now that he noticed that The Slenderman's appearance had changed so he no longer stood out as the towering faceless being.

The man before him had hollowed cheekbones and his hair was so dark it seemed like it had been made from shadows themselves.

Dark eyes that seemed to swallow any light that hit them peered down at him in an almost bored expression.

 **"The 'where we are' does not matter,"** was all he said to answer, **"But the better question would be, where do you want to go?"**

Sirius frowned at him, wondering what sort of question that was.

He wanted to go home... he wanted to... he...

Sirius paused for a moment and turned towards a small road that they had just passed.

Without waiting for the Slenderman's permission he set down it, on a quick glance back he saw that The Slenderman was indeed following him.

His bored expression seemed to have a hint of curiosity now.

The soon came to the end and Sirius looked both ways before feeling that going left was the better option.

He followed this feeling of instinct for a while until they came to a narrow street that had dingy houses on either side.

Sirius stopped in front of a house near the end, trying to look through the dirty windows to see what was inside.

 **"Any reason for picking this house?"**

Sirius didn't answer.

He felt like he was being drawn to the house... but... there was something missing.

He stood straighter and looked down the street.

There was a small side-lane that led away from the street to... he didn't know.

But there was something calling to him.

Before he knew it he had transformed back into Padfoot and was running down the street in the direction that his gut was telling him to run.

He kept up the chase of this feeling for a few more minutes before he came to a rather gaudy looking pub a good few streets away.

He was so busy looking into the tinted windows that he didn't notice that throughout the entire thing The Slenderman had never lost him, not once.

 **"See anything? Or, rather, see anyone?"** Slenderman asked.

Sirius couldn't answer in his animagus form, but sitting at a table with a couple others, laughing obnoxiously loud, was a man that seemed to be the only thing that drew his attention.

Sirius let out a low howl and the man looked over, muttering to his friends about stupid mutts, and returned to his drink.

Slenderman reached down and nudged Sirius in the side.

With a silent nod of his head, he got Sirius to start walking again over to a nearby bus stop.

 **"That man, why did you choose to go to him?"** Slenderman asked Sirius when they were away from prying eyes.

Sirius got up, having changed back from his animagus form, and looked up at Slenderman.

"I... I... I don't know..." he admitted, "Just... just that I was... drawn? Drawn to him..."

Slenderman regarded the man before him.

 **"Have another look around the pub, at the other guests,"** he suggested and Sirius did so.

Upon looking around he saw a few staff members taking drinks about the place, numerous patrons... but one mousy haired teenager sitting by himself, drinking some sort of fizzy drink, caught his attention.

There was something... familiar about him, but what? He could not say.

 **"It would appear that you have found Jeffrey's latest prey,"** Slenderman said and Sirius started.

" _Jeff?_ " he asked in a stupified voice, "You mean... you mean that... that _kid_... that he's that pasty..."

 **"Just know that he can probably hear you,"** Slenderman interjected.

Sirius scoffed.

"He's over at that table, how can he..."

"Someone talking shit about me?"

Sirius leapt about a foot in the air as Jeff made his presence known.

 **"Good evening,"** Slenderman said, having seen him approaching.

"Heya, so what's the mutt doing out?" Jeff asked, "He trying anything?"

 **"Not yet,"**

"Good, now, if you'll excuse me, I have... _business_ to attend to,"

With that he left, following the man that Sirius had spotted as he made his way back down the street that they themselves had come down.

There was silence between them for a moment.

"So he... he's going to die?" Sirius asked after a moment.

 **"That man, yes,"** Slenderman said, **"Do you know why?"**

Sirius shook his head.

 **"Because that was his fate,"** Slenderman said, **"For untold centuries, The Grim has been viewed as a sign that a mortal life is about to come** **to** **an end.**

 **This has apparently crossed over into the magical realm as it would appear that it has become 'confirmed' as an omen of death.**

 **While not entirely wrong, their understanding of it is what is incorrect.**

 **They view it as a figment of Death itself.**

 **It is merely... an alarm bell.**

 **It signals that life is about to come to an end, but it itself is not the direct cause... most of the time,"**

Sirius started at that... then he remembered the stakeouts he had done with James.

How he had nearly given their position away a few times before a raid when a Death Eater had passed them by and he had wanted to start barking or howling at them.

James had always recognised the signs and tugged sharply on the leash that they had to use for the cover disguise and gotten him to stop... most of the time.

Some raids he was able to recognise a fallen Death Eater or two as ones that had caused such a reaction within him.

 **"That is the... assignment of The Grim.**

 **A forewarning of death.**

 **Sometimes it may be for the victim of one that may lose themselves fully to the darkness, other times it may be for one of our victims, like that man.**

 **Do you see now?"**

He looked back down at Sirius, who had taken to resting against the wall of the bus stop.

 **"In the past, The Grim has always been a man with a dog. A handler and the omen.**

 **The man and the dog almost functioned as a singular being at times, the last man was blinded in an accident at birth and his guide dog became the omen.**

 **But now, it would appear that, in this scenario, the omen and the handler are one and the same.**

 **Your animagus form is the omen, and you yourself are your own handler,"**

Sirius found himself unable to speak, just letting everything sink in.

This... this was going to be his life?

Forever finding people who are going to die and... and he was unable to do anything about it?

 **"Any questions?"** Slenderman asked him, **"The last wondered if he was going to be moving around all the time to find those nearing the end of their lives.**

 **No, for the record, you do not,"** Sirius let out a soft sigh of relief, **"You will feel stronger pulls for those that will lose themselves, in which case you send word to me and I delegate the task to one of the residents,"**

Sirius raised his head at that.

"Harry..."

 **"Isaac,"**

"... Isaac," Sirius said in a low voice, "He'll..he'll be out there, killing?"

 **"One day, he's currently grounded to the best of my knowledge,"**

"What did he do?" Sirius asked with a soft huff of laughter.

 **"Well, so far there has never been a summer after his school in which he has not been kidnapped,"**

Sirius looked up at him in shock.

 **"No serious damage was ever dealt, though this last one was a little worse than the others,"**

Sirius opened his mouth to speak but no words would come.

"I... I've messed up with him, haven't I?" he asked.

 **"If by messed up, you mean insulted those he calls family, insulted him by using the name that refers to his past life, one he wishes would have remained in the past, and tried to take him away from said family?**

 **Then, in a word? Yes,"**

Sirius sighed and let his head drop down into his arms.

"What am I going to do?"

 **"That is not for me to answer,"** Slenderman said, **"But I do know that the** **Orbiters** **have not always had easy relationships with ou** **r** **kind in the past.**

 **There have been disagreements, worse than this one, but parties always came to an understanding.**

 **The job mattered more, so even if it was for a short amount of time, they came to agreements,"**

Sirius nodded.

He knew that he would probably never be the godfather he wanted to be for Har... Isaac.

And that H... Isaac would probably be pissed off at him for a long time about what he had said and done, or tried to do.

He hadn't realised that as he was thinking Slenderman had been walking him back to the cabin in the woods until his legs gave out as the world spun around them.

When he returned he found a lumber axe leaning against the couch for him to use, and a whole lot of logs piled next to the cabin.

Sirius let himself drop down onto the couch and buried his face in his hands, bringing them down so that they were clasped and covering his mouth.

His mind was buzzing with everything he had just gone through.

How he wasn't sure where he fully fit in anymore.

How he now knew he wouldn't be able to take Isaac from this life... Isaac's life... and now his...

He didn't know when he dropped off to sleep; dreams of back when he was staking out Death Eaters and feeling a morbid pull towards them...

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End notes.

Ok, this is finally done and I'm sending it off to DP as soon as I can.

I'm sorry for the delay, but I just got back from camping with my family about an hour ago and had to put everything away.

The EXTRAS chapter I mentioned as compensation is nearly done as it should be up by Monday at the latest.

One other thing I'd like to add is that once I got back I decided to check the site to see how the follows and favourite stats were like.

I decided to put the numbers into a ratio calculator and I got the results.

As of this chapter, the story is sitting at 256 follows and 248 favourites.

Put that into the simplest ratio and you get 32 to 31.

So that means that for every 32 follows, there are 31 favourites.

That's awesome in my mind!

Thank you all so much for supporting me through this;

And thank you as always for reading, and I hope that you enjoyed.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!


	43. Chapter 43, The Return

Chapter 43, The Return of The Mandatory Filler Chapter,

Filler Chapter Mk2 – Babe in New York.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Sorry for last weeks chapter being pretty late, I got it to DP as soon as I could and we actually chatted while she went over the last part... think her cat shoved it's ass in her face while she was trying to work.

And... I'm out of things to say here... until I get something funny through at my work.

The last thing that made me laugh was a German sex manual.

Other than that? I'm out of things... and a job, actually, couldn't get my productivity up to meet their expectations... so that's fun, back to the job market.

My camping trip with my family was fun, I got a few good pictures in my Toby hoody on the water edge and out on those little rock outcrops so that was good.

In other words, Loch Lomond looks gorgeous, and paddle boarding is awesome.

Ok, I'm out of things to say, which must mean it's time for the reviews;

acherongoddess;

Thanks, hope you like the future ones.

Lunarwolf11021;

Yeah, the twins never fail to brighten things up, os it seemed like a good idea.

L.J's scene broke me for a bit, I don't think I'll be able to write kills for him for a while.

I figured that they'd have heard of it at some point, who knows how old they are, so it made sense to me.

Yeah, I'm finding a way to bring BRVR out of the t.v.

I'd been wanting to do a thing where one of them got covered in bright paint for a while now, the dark clothed Puppeteer seemed like the best candidate at the time.

Sirius needs to get his act together, but he's getting there, a little more time for now.

Yeah, I can't remember who it was, but they had some trouble leaving a review as well... was it you? Might have been you, hold on... no, it was 'rosie isis and...' seems like it wasn't just you then.

Firehedgehog;

Thaanks!

Sweet Smilie.

Oh, that was what you meant. I did... ended up getting lost along the shore of Loch Lomond.

Yeah, I think I confused one or two people with that.

I'm not skinning a cat to give BRVR a body... Jason might though... maybe... it'll definitely need a really good battery though.

That was the general gist of what the ritual would have done.

I totally forgot about that cat that goes around visiting the near-dead people in a hospital, he'd just keep stalking them until something happened that caused them to die.

Yeah, I wondered what gender people thought I was, and age, now that I think about it...

Ja Ne! - finally found out what that means.

DarkRavie;

Thanks, glad that you like it.

Reidar7;

Yeah, I've had that same feeling, all the others are either one-shots, _really_ short, take a long time to update, or possibly abandoned.

Thanks, it's always nice to hear what people think.

Though if it was any longer I would really struggle to get chapters out on time than I already am.

I've already started planning what I want to happen, I'm actively changing parts of the story in the future so that I can do what I wanted to... so I'm not spoiling anything yet...

Yet...

If you want to see one idea that I snowballed a little but decided to ditch then go check out 'Werewolf'.

Thanks, always nice to read reviews.

MyraZinshu;

Not sure about what?

The bit with Sirius was fun to write, got to explain what 'The Grim' is in the terms of the story.

Me and DP ended up laughing over that when we went over it. Kinda took a little inspiration from Warehouse 13 for that scene, props to you if you know what episode I'm talking about.

I am, it's gonna be a while before I do a proper L.J kill again.

I think I'll definitely have to bring The Good Doctor back at some point, he's too interesting to leave out for long. I think that L.J will have had his fun with E.J when they were patching up his hand.

The twins are fun to write, Jason is a little harder and it feels like I'm talking in the third person whenever I write him.

In my head, if Jeff doesn't like you, but has to put up with you, then he just get's uncontrollably petty. Plus I don't know if anyone noticed, but back when Jane first got to The Mansion and Kalakuta was found on her bed, Jeff was the one to place him there.

I thought that that one would have gone over everyone's head, well done on spotting that.

Let's face it, we'd all do it, they're just more honest and forward.

He's gonna be in... you punny little... 'clap clap'

The new EXTRAS chapter should be up soon, just waiting on getting it back from DP.

CirrusSeaEagle;

Yeah, he needed it.

Yeah, that was fun to write, you know he's gonna heat things up before eating them with that.

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Thanks, thank you, thank you... I waited for so long...

I'm glad that you liked the chapter.

Matt (Guest);

Sirius is coming around, but he's getting there.

Dumbledore will get what's coming, that's for sure.

Twin Fangs of Chaotic Insight;

I _really_ want to make the car that Impala, but... hold on, I actually forgot that I gave them a car... what was I going to make it again? Damn, need to go back through my notes...

I may have lost the note that had the make of the car on it...

Thunder-Death;

Sirius is coming around, he'll be a little off coming to grasps with it fully, but he's getting there.

UnknownReader00;

Thank you!

'Stitchers & Synthetic Prosthetic' and 'Flamefreak' I'll make sure to check them out, putting them on the list now. I'll give them a read once I finish this chapter, or when I'm struggling to write.

Grinny, that's another that I haven't actually read, I'll have to put them on the list, but even then, no, Isaac already has Hedwig... but let's say that the mass majority of students there either got a cat or an owl, who would notice another running around?

While I think that the rules state it has to be an attending student, don't worry, I have an idea... I have a cunning plan so cunning that it came from a fox that once was a professor of cunning at Oxford University.

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

I've been told that re-reading it is fun, yeah, might do it as well sometime, maybe take the first chapter and compare it to how I write nowadays.

What joke, hold on... oh, right, yeah, that was fun to do. I actually hadn't reached the episode of Supernatural where we learned that little fact yet actually, only reached it a few weeks ago, I only knew about it because I saw a thing on Facebook.

YinTYangWriter;

Hehehehe.

I may have had to take a break after writing that to laugh.

I think that the 'armoury' they've got would have a gas mask or two. I'm also pretty sure that he has one marked as his for when he has to clear his room out of onions after L.J has his fun.

I'll listen to those songs when I get a moment, they sound good.

I'd been planning that scene ever since I made 'Werewolf' for EXTRAS.

And of course, you never waste a good marshmallow roasting opportunity.

I'd been wanting to do a story with those two for a while now, did anyone see what I did with;

A, the children?

B, how the teacher died?

C, the Teacher's name?

I'll add 'A Gorey Demise' to the song list as well.

BRVR is going to be getting a body fairly soon, have faith in Jason's skills.

Yeah, I had a little fun with BRVR's illiteracy, I feel like he was a very young Pikachu when everything happened.

Hehehe... that last part made me want to go check if there's a Pinocchio style Creepypasta out there.

Teer is waiting for the washing machine to finish before going shopping, and Helen is getting his cleaning supplies ready.

Sirius is getting there, not too long now.

I have a plan for The Yule Ball and I'm not spoiling...

I really want to write a scene where L.J infiltrates a fancy dress party dressed as Laughing Jill now.

Raining? Good for you!

I'm in the centre of a heatwave.

It's HELL! I stick to my chair! My bed is a water bed! From how much I sweat!

So you enjoy your flood, just know that I would be swimming in that, and enjoying it!

Ok, that was them all.

Sorry that this one was a little late, still trying to get back on schedule.

Ok, that's everything, back to the story.

Hope you enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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The Mansion.

Ben drifted aimlessly through the digi-space around The Mansion; BRVR zipping around him.

It felt like he had spent a week in there and now, with everything that was now buzzing on his mind, he needed some time to just... do nothing.

He had been doing clean up on the whole Locklear situation for Slendy and now... doing nothing sounded wonderful, actually. Just drifting around with no real direction, not having to do...

He was knocked out of daydream by an odd buzzing that came through.

He sighed and rolled his eyes as he diverted the latest payment from someone at The Mansion to one of the many accounts that he knew of that could lose a few bucks and no one would notice.

One the buzzing was gone he tried to get back to whatever state of relaxation he was in before, but found that he couldn't.

He groaned in frustration and if he could have in the digi-space then he would have been tugging on his hair.

He sighed and let himself drift around the space for a few more moments... he wanted to sleep.

He shook himself out of his temporary stupor and made his way to the t.v. in his room, pulling himself out with minimal effort from having done it so many times before.

Now that he actually had a physical body, he realised just how tired that he was.

He barely managed a few steps before he stumbled out of tiredness and nearly fell flat on his face.

He somehow grabbed the frame of the bed in time to catch himself and he pulled himself up onto the covers, kicking his trainers off across the room.

He wrenched his head onto the pillows and dropped down.

He was out like a light in seconds.

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Isaac patted his hands against his legs as he waited.

A hooting came from somewhere outside and he turned to look out over the trees.

A white speck was getting closer over the surprisingly cloudless skies, given the weather over the past few days looked like it was one slight breeze from a total downpour.

He fidgeted with his sleeves as he waited for Hedwig to swoop through the window... hopefully with tickets for the Quidditch World Cup in tow.

He had sent the forms off and now he was hoping that he had been successful in booking one of the sections right at the top of the stadium, away from most prying eyes.

That way, even if he got the five tickets, more than that could come along and enjoy the match.

Hedwig landed on the bed and he removed the thick pad of parchment from her leg before she took off on another short flight to her post, knocking Fizz off as she landed.

Isaac opened it up and read over the letter addressed to him.

He raised a clenched fist in celebration but dropped it slightly as he read on.

Due to the popularity of the event, he had only managed to get four out of the five tickets he had asked for.

His smile dropped a little since he had planned on asking Ben to come with him since he automatically assumed that the other three would go to Masky, Hoodie, and Toby.

He knew that they would be able to sneak Ben in through the Gameboy, or something, or have him phase in with the others, like Teer or L.J, but he had still wanted to ask Ben to come with him anyway.

His mood picked up, however, when he realised that he'd effectively be doing the magical equivalent to sneaking a bunch of people into a concert for free.

He shook the four tickets, scoffing at how the parchment had been charmed to look like golden tickets, and stuck them on his desk while he stuffed the letter into his pocket and went over to knock on his t.v. screen.

He waited a minute.

He knocked again.

He frowned as normally Ben would have at least put some words on the screen to say that he'd be there in a moment, or that he couldn't get away from what he was doing.

Isaac picked up his phone to check if he had any missing texts but found his unread empty as well.

He closed his phone and drummed his fingers on the desk a moment before getting to his feet and walking out of the room.

Isaac paused a moment before knocking quietly on Ben's door, listening for signs of movement or anyone there.

When he heard none he debated with himself for a moment before opening the door and peeking inside.

A smile crawled onto his face as he saw Ben sleeping peacefully on the bed.

Passed out, probably, from how he spent so much time in the digi-space that he wasn't able to tell when he was getting too tired as it took longer to affect him in there.

The smile dropped slightly, however, when he saw Ben shiver and twitch in his sleep; for a moment the peaceful expression on his face screwed up in mild discomfort before turning to what could be described as indifference.

As quietly as he could, Isaac pushed the door open wide enough for him to get through and slowly made his way into the room; taking a long step so that he could get closer to the bed, meaning that the floor would creak less.

One of the handy hints he had been given on stealth was that the floor around heavy things that had been there for a long time, like beds or cabinets, were less likely to creak under the movement of someone walking next to it.

When he reached the edge of Ben's bed, Ben had started to curl up into himself to try and stay warm, he carefully picked up the comforter that was folded on the end and, as soft as he could, draped it over the blonde.

Ben's expression softened and relaxed almost instantaneously as he pulled it closer instinctively.

Isaac's smile came back as he quietly left the room.

He knew the comforter would be good for him, whenever they had hugged Ben always felt... cold, even on warm days.

He tucked his hands in his pockets as he made his way down the stairs, trying to remember what he had gone into Ben's room for in the first place.

He frowned as he felt a piece of parchment scrumpled into his pocket.

A different kind of smile etched it's way onto his face when he remembered that there was also four tickets to one of the most coveted sporting events in the magical world sitting on his desk and that he would probably be able to sneak most, if not all, of everyone to go see it despite that.

"Well, that's a cheery walk, what's got you so happy?" E.J asked him as he came down into the living room.

"Nothing, just that... hi," Isaac finished coldly.

Sitting next to E.J, with a bored expression on his face, was Doctor Locklear.

He was wearing a neat, black, waistcoat and a sling was across his left arm from where Masky had shot him in the shoulder.

"Hello," he said, turning to look at him, "Long time, how's the hand?"

"Could ask you the same thing," Isaac said through slightly clenched teeth.

"Yes, well, whereas yours would be from malevolence, mine is from curiosity.

After the... Slenderman's rather world tilting explanation about how things go here, I now find myself with a rather interesting new clientele.

Essentially, I'm to serve any and all medical _emergencies..._ " he stressed, "... that may befall the rather interesting inhabitants here," he regarded Isaac with eyes that looked him over with a scrutinous gaze.

"Abused? At a guess, if I were to bet," he said after a moment.

He sighed when he saw the expression on Isaac's face.

"Your height and weight, I noted during our... little encounter, are below the average that someone in your age group, I'm assuming thirteen near fourteen at youngest, mid fourteen at oldest, as well as previous scarring, that one on your left arm intrigued me.

Plus, despite things having definitely changed and you have bulked up after the times, I doubt that someone from a happy and pleasant childhood would end up in a place like this, so how did I do?"

Isaac glowered slightly at the man and he took that as confirmation.

"Well, you'll be pleased to know that whatever progress that has been taken to fix those times is working and, in a year or two, I would never have been able to tell the difference,"

He frowned a moment before continuing.

"To satiate my own curiosity, what happened to your abusers?" he asked, "If you'd like proof to my... coming around then, if they're still about, I'd be happy to pay them a house call?"

Isaac regarded the man through slightly closed eyes.

"Two are already dead, cousin's in the foster system somewhere, probably, doubt that anyone would want to keep him for long, and the last's locked up in a loony-bin for raving about 'The magic freaks that are abnormal and ruin the world'," Isaac said after a moment.

The doctor smirked and a dark shadow flitted across his face.

"Then take it from me, there is nowhere worse for the last.

And my opinion comes from personal experience," he said, twirling his head towards Isaac.

The two of them turned to E.J when he chuckled.

"Don't know about that, think the basement here would be a worse place for him.

It'd be nice to have a feedbag permanently around here," E.J said with a sigh.

The doctor raised an eyebrow and turned back to look at Isaac.

"I thought the... er... clown, was joking, is he..."

"Cannibal? Yeah," Isaac and E.J said nearly at the same time.

That caused the doctor's expression to finally shift.

His mouth hung open slightly and he tilted his head from side to side as he debated with himself, one eye squinting.

"... alright..." was all he said after a while.

Isaac smirked and moved past them as he made his way to the kitchen.

It took him a few tries to find Masky or any of the others but he eventually found him and Hoodie lounging outside, a cooler of beers between them.

After explaining what the tickets were for, and his plan to try and smuggle everyone else there, Masky gave him the go ahead.

"Better go tell Toby then," he said, waving Isaac away, "And when's the thing anyway?"

"Erm... Isaac fished the letter back out of his pocket, "August, eighteenth," he said.

"Plenty of time then," Masky muttered as Isaac handed him the letter and made his way back inside.

Once he was gone Masky looked over the letter.

"Me and you'll go scope out the place tomorrow," he said, taking another sip of his beer.

"Mh-hm," Hoodie hummed, finishing another and 'resting' his eyes.

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Back inside.

Isaac made his way back up the stairs as he tried to find Toby.

He let out a soft sigh when he remembered that Toby was out on a job and would probably be back later that day.

He paused in the middle of the hall, drumming his fingers on his side as he thought what to do next.

He figured that if it was a big event then there'd probably be vendors there selling a bunch of stuff so he pulled his trunk out from under his bead and started rummaging through it for the bag of coins he had.

He tossed the Pocket Sneakoscope, that had a large crack in its side, in the bin and frowned when he pulled out a brown paper bag that he couldn't remember what he had put inside.

He unrolled the bag and shook its contents into his hand.

Out came a piece of bone with a few small teeth embedded into it.

He remembered where it came from, The Chamber of Secrets.

It was the piece of Basilisk jaw that he had taken when he had gone exploring with Kagekao.

He weighed the piece of bone in his hand for a few seconds before he got back up and made his way down to the living room.

"Yo, Doc," Isaac said.

"Hmm?" Doctor Locklear raised an eyebrow and turned to face him.

"You any good with teeth?"

Doctor Locklear switched eyebrows.

"Not an area I'm all that versed in... feel like I'd be able to tell you if you had a cavity or not, why?"

Isaac tossed him the piece of jaw.

"Think you'd be able to get those out? Without breaking them?" he asked.

Doctor Locklear turned the piece over, looking at it and giving each of the teeth a small prod.

"Shouldn't be too hard... would need some tools," he looked up at Isaac.

"Infirm's free, go see what we got," E.J said, pushing his mask up to take a drink of soda.

It took Doctor Locklear a few seconds to remember what he had been doing as his head slowly tilted as he looked at E.J, taking in the tar-like substance that filled his eye sockets.

He shook his head as he got up and made his way through to the Infirmary.

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2 Hours later.

Toby sighed as he tossed the duffle bag on the ground and stretched his arms out.

He groaned as he heard them pop and he shook them free of any dirt as he made his way into the living room.

"You are not going to win," a voice he had come to hate said smugly from the next room, "This is literal child's play, to the tasks that I have performed,"

"Yeah, well, you've got painkillers in your system, how jittery are you?" the last voice he would have thought to hear joking with him, Isaac.

"My mind is as clear as it always is," Doctor Locklear's voice dropped to a low hiss.

Toby frowned heavily as he walked through.

Doctor Locklear's working hand was hovering over the small tower before them.

"Not even if I do this?" Isaac asked, a devious grin on his face.

Doctor Locklear's look of concentration changed to indifferent frustration as he glanced over the top of the tower at Isaac.

"Stop it,"

"No," Isaac paused in his distraction.

Doctor Locklear turned back to the tower.

"Stop it," he growled.

"No,"

Doctor Locklear let out a low growl.

He closed his eyes and steadied his breathing... slowly moving his hand closer... gently easing... until...

"HA!" he exclaimed, waving the Jenga block at Isaac.

He placed it on the top of the tower and leaned back in his seat, a victorious expression on his face.

Isaac groaned and leaned closer to the tower.

"Damn, my plan didn't work," Isaac muttered as he looked the remaining pieces over.

"Yes, well, the proper application of Rick Astley can be quite off-putting... unless you've had to deal with idiotic interns who refuse to leave their phones behind, or put them on silent," Doctor Locklear said with a sneer.

His victorious expression returned a few moments later when the tower toppled over, ending the game.

"Well, that was an excellent way to kill half an hour," he said as he watcher Isaac pack away the pieces.

"Yeah, so what was... oh, hey, Toby," Isaac said, noticing him for the first time.

"Hey... how's the hand?" Toby asked, squinting at Locklear.

Locklear, in turn, groaned and turned to E.J.

"And you're _positive_ that they're not related?"

"Not by blood," E.J said and you could hear the grin on his face.

Toby frowned again and shook his head.

"So, what I miss?" he asked as he sat down next to Isaac, handing him a piece that had fallen on the floor.

"Not much.

Oh! I did get the tickets that I told you about, the ones for the... you know about the magical world, right?" he turned to Locklear.

"Yes... does the word 'Quick-ditch' mean anything?" he asked.

"Quidditch?" Isaac asked, at receiving a nod he continued, "Yeah, it's a sport think... think football, but combined with dodgeball and a little of baseball... except it's on brooms and about thirty feet in the air,"

"Well... that would do it.

I once had a little girl come through with a broken arm. Her mother had told me that she had fallen off a ladder, but the girl did let slip before that something about playing... Quidditch, that's how you pronounce it?

Aah, well, she had been playing it with her brother when she had fallen, so definitely explains some things,"

"Oh, cool," Isaac said once Doctor Locklear had finished his little anecdote, "Well, anyway, the tickets for the Quidditch World Cup came through.

Enough for me, you, Masky, and Hoodie to legally go... though I may have gotten the tickets for one of the spaces that's high up and won't have many people there so we could probably sneak anyone else who wanted to see in through L.J or Teer,"

Toby temporarily forgot that there was someone who he wished to use as a sharpening stone sitting a few seats away from him and his face broke out in a wide grin.

Ever since Isaac had told him about his position on the team, and the mini-game that he had seen last year when Isaac was staying with his friend... ex-friend, he had been fairly interested in seeing an actual game for himself...

Mostly the bludgers, they sounded awesome to him.

"Alright, when's this?" he asked as he pushed his, in desperate need of being cut, hair out of his face.

"August, a bit away... seventeenth? Maybe? I can't remember, Masky's got the letter," Isaac said.

"Ah, well, plenty of time to get things sorted.

Masky and Hoods'll probably check the place out before we go... OH! Almost forgot..."

He turned to Locklear.

"You're no longer on house arrest... well, you can't leave yet, but you can go to the town now,"

Locklear sat a little straighter, a look of intrigue on his face.

"That's... pleasant to know... why?" he asked.

"You're cover's pretty much set in stone," Toby said, "To the world, Doctor Evanescence Locklear..."

"Evander,"

"Whatever... no longer exists.

But Doctor Ethan Collsmith, however, died trying to break out of the asylum he was in after killing a few convicts that he was supposed to be operating on after they were heavily injured in a prison riot, thank god for rowdy inmates, made that so much easier," he broke off in a mutter.

Doctor Locklear was now looking at him with a hard to read expression.

"So... to the world... I've never existed?"

"Nope, you're completely erased, and a cover story for you has already been set out.

Troy was a little busy with family stuff, so you've got the stylings of The Bard to thank for that, given you a story to act as your cover and Teer and Ben have been pulling double time to make everyone think that it's been out there for a year or two, plus changing the memory of anyone who would have raised any alarm bells...

How is Ben, he seemed pretty tired when we last talked?" Toby asked Isaac.

"He's K'O'd upstairs," Isaac said, "Must have been, fell asleep on top of the covers... had to pull the comforter over him to stop him shivering," Isaac added the last part on more as a side note.

He missed the glance that Toby and E.J gave each other.

There was silence for a brief moment that was broken by Locklear.

"Oh, while I remember.

I saw a rather curious news article a while back, before I made my escape.

That, erm... domestic terrorist? Infernus? Was that perhaps something to do with the magical world?" he frowned since once he had finished speaking both E.J and Isaac had dissolved into giggles.

Toby, meanwhile, looked annoyed.

"Oh, no, Infernus wasn't one of the magic lot," E.J said.

"In fact, he's in this very room!" Isaac said dramatically.

Locklear turned to look at him.

" _You're_ Infernus?" he asked, a look of disbelief on his face.

"Me? No," Isaac said, "Though I do like to think that I inspired that style,"

He made a quick flash of flame.

"But credit for..." he broke off in giggles again.

"Stop it," Toby said over the laughter.

Isaac, unable to get the words out, pointed with his thumb at Toby while mouthing, in a squeaky voice as he tried to get air into his lungs, "Him!"

"Stop it!" Toby seethed with crossed arms, "It's not funny!"

"No, you're right," E.J said, catching his breath for a moment, "It's fucking hilarious!" and broke off into peals of laughter again.

Toby growled at him.

"I'm still wondering where the hell the flower crown came fro-pff- Ha-HA-HA..." Isaac couldn't stop laughing long enough to speak and faltered back into laughter...

That was, until Toby started hitting him with a pillow.

"Oww... hehehe... oww..." he hiccupped as both he and E.J regained their breaths.

...

"WITNESS ME!" E.J fell over in a relapse fit of wheezing laughter as Toby tore after Isaac, who was trying to run and laugh at the same time.

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Jason the Toymaker, a bag dangling loosely from one hand, had been about to knock on the door when he heard a rather curious event happen from within The Mansion.

Someone yelled, in a giggly voice, "WITNESS ME!" followed by what sounded like a dying vacuum cleaner then two pairs of rushing footsteps.

A frown now adorned his face as he raised his fist once more and knocked sharply.

He waited a few moments before a pair of approaching footsteps came from within and the door was opened.

He looked down at the man with hair that was far below his shoulders that had answered the door.

There was a tense, silent, exchange between the two before the man stepped aside.

"MOVE IT! MOVE IT!"

Jason and Locklear turned to see Isaac running pell-mell around the side of the house before he leapt past the two, pulling Jason with him, and slammed the door shut.

He started running back through to the living room, when...

"ROOKIE MOVE!" Toby dived at him, coming from the dining room.

He missed and Isaac slammed into the wall before he scrambled up the stairs; Toby not too far behind him.

Locklear and Jason watched the frantic pair as they disappeared up the stairs, the only sound now coming from the wheezing cannibal rolling on the floor.

The two men glanced at one another.

"Doctor Locklear," he offered his hand.

"Jason," he said as he shook it once, "The Toymaker,"

The doctor raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything and reclaimed his seat, drumming his fingers on the arm of the chair.

"So, you're new?" Jason said a few moments later.

"Hmm?

Oh, yes, I'm... rather new around here," Locklear said.

Jason nodded, giving a slight hum of acknowledgement.

The two of them sat there for a few more moments before a grumbling Masky dragged both Isaac and Toby through by their ears and a handful of hair.

Isaac had tried to escape through his bedroom window by using his broom but Toby had jumped after him and dragged the two of them to the ground.

At that point, Hoodie had confiscated Isaac's broom for the time being and was shutting it up in the cupboard under the stairs.

Masky shoved the two of them onto the empty couch and stalked off, grumbling even more to himself about being surrounded by children.

As he passed he hit a still giggling Jack around the back of his head, knocking his mask off.

Jack glared at him and scooped his mask off of the ground.

There were a few more moments of silence while Toby and Isaac traded elbow nudges against each other.

"So," Jason said, breaking the silence, "It was a rather... interesting task, but I think this version should work the best,"

He put the bag he had brought onto the table and took out what looked like a robotic cat.

"The servos are for rapid switching positions of high-voltage circuits, so they _should_ give... BRVR... some of, if not mildly reduced, the same movement capabilities as he would normally have,"

Isaac crouched down as he looked at the construct before him as Jason went on more about the strength, durability, and power storage.

"... all that's left, really, is for your... _friend_ to see if... BRVR can use the system without it breaking,"

Isaac nodded as he turned what could be BRVR's new body on the table.

"What's this number?" he asked, running a finger over an etching on one of the support pieces.

"That particular construct is the fifth version I have made, I wanted to make sure that it would work properly... well, as properly as I could without the actual pilot to use it," Jason said.

A few heads turned to look at the thumping noise that had come from the stairs and they were treated to the sight of a blurry eyed Ben walking down, his hair bedraggled from sleep.

He shuffled through to the kitchen, muffling a yawn with the back of his hand.

"Here," Jason said, giving Isaac a small, plain brown, folder, "It's the schematics, in case something breaks.

If you cannot fix it then send it back to me," he fixed Isaac with a serious look in his eyes.

He took the welfare of toys very seriously after all.

"Thanks," Isaac said.

Jason made his farewells and as they heard the closing of the front door Ben came back through, a slightly steaming mug of cocoa in his hands.

Isaac moved out of the way as Ben shuffled down and sat in his seat.

"... that the thing for BRVR?" Ben asked in a slightly sleep-slurred voice.

"Yeah, Jason just dropped it off," Isaac said softly as he sat down between him and Toby.

Ben made a soft humming noise as he sipped his hot chocolate, getting some of the marshmallow fluff stuck to his lip.

".. we'll get him to try it out later," Ben said, still sounding more asleep than awake, as he tried to lick the marshmallow away.

"Yeah," Isaac said, a small smile tweaking at his lips as Ben gave up and wiped the marshmallow away with the back of his hand.

Ben made a soft humming noise as he shuffled closer to Isaac.

Isaac frowned as his cheeks lit up before he made a quick grab at Ben's mug as it started to list out of his grasp.

As he made to put it on the table he was knocked over slightly as all of Ben's weight fell against him.

His cheeks were bright red as Ben gave a soft snore and he realised that he was now acting as an impromptu pillow for him.

Toby took the cup from his hand and placed it on the table for him.

"We're gonna go grab some lunch," he said in a quiet whisper.

Isaac nodded as Ben shifted in his sleep and he had to steady him with a gentle hand to keep him from falling off the couch.

Toby rummaged in his pockets for a few moments and pressed a couple of notes into Isaac's hand so that they could go get something later when Ben had woken up.

Isaac glared at Locklear's amused smirk as he and Jack joined Toby as they left.

Once they had cleared the front door Jack and Toby bumped fists as they dropped down onto the gravel path.

"We are so winning this!" Toby said cheerily.

Jack grinned as he stowed his mask away before he groaned.

He grumbled as he dragged a collapsible stick out of his pocket.

"Alright, who wants to act as my guide dog?" he asked as they made their way through the forest.

Locklear watched in fascination as Jack's skin tone lightened to a delicate tan and the tar-like substance disappeared, leaving two hollows where eyes should have been.

Toby sighed and stepped next to Jack.

Once they came to town, and signs of life became evident, Jack grabbed Toby by the shoulder and followed behind him.

There was silence for a few moments before Locklear began to speak up.

"So... your brother and his friend seem fairly... comfortable with each other, how long have they..."

"Oh, they aren't dating," Toby said.

Locklear's foot skiffed as he took a misstep.

"Y-you're sure?" he asked, thinking back to how furious the blonde had been when he had attacked him.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, there's something there alright," Toby said.

"Just neither of them have done anything about it," Jack said, "Fucking annoying, it's like living inside a t.v. soap,"

"We had thought about shoving the two of them into a closet together and locking the door, but Ben can just ghost out and, well, Toby threw that idea out the window," Jack added on.

Locklear glanced down at Toby's involuntary clenched fists.

"So... how long do you think they'll suffer in silence?" Locklear asked.

To his surprise, both Toby and E.J turned to face him with wide grins.

"Well...

If we were still allowed to do such a thing, we would invite you to join in with a betting pool we have going, but as we're not allowed to, we can't," Jack said with a chuckle as they resumed walking.

"Though, in a hypothetical situation, me and the eyeless wonder over there might have bets for the two of them finally doing something about it within the first week that he's back from his next school year," Toby said with a wink.

"And we would probably have... oh, I don't know, fifteen bucks each in on it?" Jack asked Toby.

"About that," Toby agreed, "... and that times, for the sake of argument, everyone else in The Mansion doing the same, it would probably be... a hundred and sixty-five odd bucks between the winners?"

Locklear frowned.

"And if I threw my lot, in this completely hypothetical situation, of course, saying it would happen, say... well... around the Christmas period of this year, then... I believe that that would take the total prize to... one hundred and eighty?"

"Yeah, about that, I'd say," Toby said.

Jack frowned and turned to face Locklear again.

"Wouldn't have taken you to be this chatty?" he said, stumbling on a loose bit of log as they came to the edge of town.

"Well..." Locklear said, a faint pink tinge edging onto his face, "In a few of the departments that I worked at prior...

I might have gained the title of... 'Gossip Whore'..." he admitted.

They had to take a pause for a moment for Toby to get up off the ground from laughing.

"Ah..." he sighed a few moments later, "You know... you're kinda alright," he said to Locklear.

"Still not forgiven you for everything, but I'm not planning your death anymore,"

Locklear paused for a moment.

"Thank you?"

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

End Notes.

Ok, I hope that you liked this weeks chapter.

It's just a filler one whilst I try to get back to the schedule after the camping trip messed me up.

Somethings I'd been planning for have been coming into play and a few other things that I've been waiting to add are finally coming around.

So I hope that you enjoyed this weeks chapter, and I'll see you in the next one.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!


	44. Chapter 44, Pizza and Papers

Chapter 44, Pizza and Papers...

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Is this on time?

Is it?

I feel like I was cutting last weeks upload close, is this one alright?

I hope so, otherwise, I'm slipping up with this.

So, what's new?

Well... what is new?

I got a haircut... as dull as that is... shave as well, proper cut-throat razor, so tingly... slightly addicted to that tingle...

Yikes, I'm really running out of things to say at the start... Oh! I know...

I'm a bloody liar.

I decided to do what some of my readers have been doing and re-read the entire story right from the start, and the very first thing I see, top of chapter 1?

A note saying that I won't go into much detail about his time at Hogwarts...

I'm a bloody moron, and I apologise for lying... I feel like I need to fix that... yeah...

Also, does anyone else cringe slightly or is that only me?

But, one thing that won't be leaving, is the fact that I've got reviews to answer.

DarkRavie;

Thanks, glad that you like it.

Firehedgehog;

Thaaanks.

Guest;

Thank you, I've started going for more jobs that I would actually like to do for a change, hopefully, I hear back soon.

Guest;

Yeah, he's definitely a whole lot saner than most of them, he's just... adjusting.

Lunarwolf11021;

Yeah, they'll have to get used to him sometime.

Spoiling nothing... spoiling nothing... must... not... spoil...

I think you know why Toby objected to the idea, but there was also the fact that Laughing Jack was making about 20 'coming out of the closet' jokes a minute.

BRVR will be trying out his new body fairly soon.

I'm going to get a migraine when I get to book 4, I'm gonna stockpile painkillers before I even open a new word document.

The EXTRAS should have been up... please be up...

Sweet Smilie;

I'm going to be completely honest.

You 100% lost me for that entire first chunk of the review.

Ok, your reviews are quickly becoming my favourite thing to read, I can get the main jist, but finding a way to answer them is ridiculous.

Yeah, I'm sending a few of the Creeps to the cup.

Draco and Ron will be in the Minister's box, like the book, but Isaac and the other's will be at a place similar to where they went in the movie.

Ok, you lost me at !Teeth!

Why teeth?

Yeah, the idea of Creepypastas playing games like that, or Cluedo, or... Monopoly, ' _shudders_ ', just amuses the hell out of me.

Yeah, they both had a little HANDicap there... hehehe...

must... not... spoil...

acherongoddess;

Thank you!

MyraZinshu;

Yeah, I think the review problem has been sorted.

I didn't read the manual, it was in German, I don't speak or read German... save for Dumpkoff!

The camping trip was fun... then I saw the news about Loch Lomond a few days ago...

Sirius is coming around, and I'm glad that you liked that scene.

YES! Warehouse 13 is worth it! Find it online if you can, or get an Amazon Fire Stick and Kodi.

The main problem with L.J's kills is that it's mostly going to be children that he kills.

I can do it if I don't spend too much time on them, or don't even mention them until the actual kill, like I did in the chapter that mainly focussed on various residents of The Mansion going around.

The Doctor is someone that I have only read the origin for, not anything else that Madame Macabre has released about him.

I do plan to listen to or read what else she's done with him, but for now, that is kind of how I see him.

Mild-mannered unless provoked, curious to a fault, when you give him a patient he needs to care for, he does his best.

I'm starting to spend a good few minutes giggling at what I write, that scene with the Doc and E.J was one of them.

Jason, I feel like I need to read some more of his stories, if there's more, and see how he acts in different situations.

The Twins (The Creepypasta ones, not Fred and George... though that would be amusing to have a look at, like what I did in 'Werewolf') are a little easier since it's kind of like writing L.J if he was having a conversation with a voice in his head but just make them a little wearier since they're a whole lot older.

Yeah, Jeff hates Jane, but can't do much about it except pummel her whenever she wants to fight, so he just gets annoying, petty, and irritating... I might write a temporary truce between Jeff and L.J for them to team up against her.

Little extra thing. When I was writing that I got called away to put something back and I ended up stabbing myself in the hand with a screwdriver, goddamn I am a dumbass!

Timeline wise when they run out of sugar in Werewolf it is near the beginning or start of what would have been his fifth year. Something that I had wanted to include was a scene where L.J wanted to see his new Proxies (Fred and George) skills put to the test and set them on a very harsh pranking spree against Umbridge, but I felt like it wouldn't have fitted in anywhere without seeming like too jarring a shift in the story... might write another EXTRAS chapter for that, actually...

I loved your pun, keep making them. I want to see a pun per review from you from now on!

... sleepy 'Been'?

I want to find a way to call him a bean in the story now.

But yeah, that scene was 100% pure fluff for you guys, kinda my alternate spin on how Isaac kept dragging Ben down with him after the full moons in 'Werewolf'.

Yeah, nailed why Toby didn't like that idea like a hole on one.

Toby is _NEVER_ living Infernus down.

If Ben could, that video would be streaming 24/7 globally.

Well... he could, but he can't due to the rules.

The Doc is going to be getting to see that video fairly soon, Isaac too.

I had to take a break from answering this review to sort out my dinner, and now I'm choking to death from accidentally using too much pepper when seasoning my potato... also did anyone notice that I put 'Potato' in the enchantment last week?

There will be no answers as to where the flower crown came from because even I do not know.

It's going to be fun writing them there, and I might have a few ideas for what I do in the future...

Voldie's Lackies wouldn't know what hit them if they decided to piss off all our favourite killers, and E.J would absolutely take... his... time...

The EXTRAS chapter hopefully won't disappoint

Guest(Matt);

Hehehehe... yes, yes there would be.

Just... chaos... sweet, unfiltered, unrestricted... _chaos..._

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Thank you, I'll still use the full thing for addressing reviews, but otherwise, I'll just use 'Rosie'.

Thank you, and on the flip side reading the reviews is actually one of my highlights.

Yeah, it was a little shorter than normal.

Mostly because I didn't really have anything for that chapter other than getting Doctor Locklear a little more into the story and start getting the other's used to him.

Chapter 31, what joke did I do...

Oh yeah.

Well, if you're gonna kill someone, the least you can do is make a joke about it afterwards.

Though I think we can agree that Ben and Laughing Jack both have contests to seize the 'Pun King' crown.

Chapter 32, Are you going through all the chapters that you haven't left a review on?

Just the idea of a demon being moody after someone blessed them got stuck in my head for a while, thought it was funny and, by your response, it was.

Reidar7;

Thank you!

I had a feeling that a few people would relate to that saying.

Considering that a third of EXTRAS is kinda about them, I think everyone that reads it knew it was coming.

Must... not... spoil...

Just wait... just... wait...

I hope that the wait was worth it.

Thunder-Death;

Thank you.

The title came from the fact that since nothing really happened that chapter it felt like a filler chapter so I named it after 'The Mandatory Filler Chapter' I put out... about 40 weeks ago, yikes.

Isaac getting used to the Doc would have happened eventually, so I decided to give them a little push in the right direction.

Also because having killers play games like Jenga amuses me.

YingYangWriter;

Sleepy Ben was fun to write.

Locklear is interesting just to write. I need to look up the other stuff Madame Macabre has written for him to see just how off base I've gotten.

I've said this before, but if I ever get really stuck I just look up fanart of the guys and see what I can find and go from there. That day was them chilling with a few beers.

He is never living it down, EVER! And I think I'll keep some things for the planning stage for now.

Yep, Jason got it done pretty good, should see how it's turned out soon.

Emily and Thackery were the most on the nose one there, but I actually hid another reference to Hocus Pocus in that scene as well... also, anyone spot the monster I referenced there as well?

Ok, bear in mind that I'm Scottish, and that our summers are normally around 20*C (68*F) and we've had a heatwave that's brought us up to around 33*C (91.4*F) so for _us_ , it's a heatwave.

Rain is one of those things that makes me happy. I may or may not have gotten into trouble a few times for standing out on the little-roofed part of our garage in my raincoat whenever it would rain at night.

Do you get Hurricanes... and flash floods? Yikes, I think you win the complaining about local weather contest.

Ok... that's them, can't delay any longer.

But I do have to mention that we've broken 40,000 views!

And that the reviews have overtaken how many followers I have, so this is awesome.

Broken record time; Thank you all, thank you all so much.

Hope that you enjoy the story, and let's see if Isaac can keep his front brakes.

Also, my 2 prompts for this chapter?

Fluff... and revenge...

SteamGeek01.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

The Mansion.

Ben knew he was waking up... but part of him didn't want to...

He felt so... so warm.

He was never warm... well, except when...

He knew he was physical right now, it was the only way he could actually sleep.

He shifted under... what was he under?

It was too thin to be a comforter.

If he had to hazard a guess, then he would have said it was a jumper... or a hoody.

Reluctantly, Ben started to open his eyes, taking in his surroundings.

He was in the living room.

That was odd, he was sure that he had gone to sleep in his room...

He let out a soft hum as he closed his eyes again and moved closer to... whatever he was leaning on. Whatever it was, it was soft and really, _really_ , warm...

He frowned as he remembered that he had been awoken before by loud shouts and thunderous footsteps... at that point he had decided he might as well go get a drink or something...

He remembered sitting down as Isaac looked at the... the thingy that Jason had made for BRVR...

He supposed that he had fallen asleep on the couch...

The warm thing beneath him shifted slightly and an arm that was draped loosely over him ghosted over his arm...

The arm... that was...

Ben's eyes went wide and he threw himself off the couch, landing with a soft thud.

Isaac grunted softly in a sleep of his own, shifting and backing into the couch further at the change in weight.

Ben thought that his heart had shifted to his throat as he looked at Isaac.

He wished for a moment that he hadn't freaked out and was back on the couch.

He felt the edges of his mouth turn upwards in a small smile as he looked at Isaac as he slept.

He looked so... so peaceful.

It was hard to think of another word to describe him.

He moved forward a little as he made to brush a stray strand of hair that had fallen across Isaac's face and was lying innocently across his closed eyes.

He paused, the tips of his fingers mere inches away from Isaac's face, when he stopped.

He retracted his hand and pulled it closer to his chest.

He started to breathe hard and he quickly backed out of the room and into the hallway.

He collapsed against the wall and shook his head violently.

"You alright?"

Ben started as Liu spoke, not realising that he had been there before now.

"Yeah... no... no... yeah... no..."

"And here I thought that I was the one going between two minds," Liu said, rolling his eyes, "What happened?"

Ben managed to calm down enough to take a few deep breaths.

"I... I... Iwasslee..." he took another breath, "I... I was sleeping... and I went downstairs... and I fell asleep again..."

"You are panicking, because you fell asleep again?" Liu scoffed.

"I fell asleep on Isaac..." Ben said in a quiet, meek, voice.

Liu made a soft humming noise.

"And?" Liu prompted.

"And... and I freaked out and ran..."

Liu let his head drop back onto his shoulders and sighed.

"You fell asleep on Isaac and freaked out... why?" he asked, trying to keep the knowing smirk off of his face... he was failing.

Ben didn't say anything.

He just looked down.

"Ben..." Liu said, taking him by the shoulders and turning him to face him, "Why did you freak out?"

Ben looked up.

"..."

"Ben..." Liu said slowly.

Ben mumbled something under his breath.

"Now for the people who don't have super-hearing?" Liu knew what was coming, but he wanted to hear him say it.

"..."

"..."

"... I think I like him..." Ben finally said, barely above a whisper.

Liu's face cracked open in a wide smile.

"Ben... _like_ is a freaking understatement,"

Ben's head snapped up.

"You are head over fucking heels for him, I have eyes, that's how I know," Liu said before Ben could cut him off.

Liu had to bite down on his tongue after that to stop himself from laughing.

'Oh shit,' Liu thought as he looked at Ben.

His cheeks had flared bright red but now every colour was draining out of his face and his breathing was getting erratic.

"Ok! Ok! Ok! Breath! Breath!" he quickly said, trying to calm the oncoming panic attack.

"GYAH!" Liu leapt backwards and let go of him when his body rippled with what seemed like static before small arcs connected to his arms.

He started shaking his hands, trying to get feeling back into them, as he backed up from Ben.

"Since when can you do that?" he asked.

"I-I-I-I-I-I..." seemed to be all Ben could say.

"Ok, erm... buddy? Can... can you restart?" he asked hesitantly, edging closer, "Erm... control, alt, delete?"

He paused for a moment before he crouched down and undid his laces.

He stood back up, sneaker in hand, and cautiously approached Ben.

...

"OWW!" Ben yelped, "Why'd you hit me with a shoe?"

"You were kinda frozen," Liu said as Ben started rubbing the back of his head.

"No I wasn't, I... what was the last thing I said?" Ben asked.

"You said 'I-I-I' over and over, you sounded like you were buffering," Liu said with the faintest trace of a snort of laughter.

Ben's jaw dropped slightly.

"I... erm... so I didn't say any of that out loud?"

"Nope,"

Ben sighed and let his head drop down, sliding down the wall until he was sat on the floor.

"Alright, start again?" Liu said, leaning against the wall and looking down at him.

Ben glanced up at him before resting his head on his knees.

"It's just... he's... I'm... what... you know?"

Liu took in a deep breath.

'Oh... I'm gonna need painkillers... lots and lots of painkillers...'

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Isaac stirred awake as he stretched out his arms to try and remove the stiffness that had settled in his bones.

He let out a rattling yawn before glancing sideways to where Ben was...

He jumped a little on the couch and nearly fell to the floor in his hurry to check whether or not Ben had fallen off.

He relaxed a little when he saw the same empty, slightly dirty, carpet as normal.

He checked the table and found the mug of now cold chocolate still sitting where he had left it.

He stretched out his legs, tied his hoody around his waist, and picked the mug up as he passed.

"... hing to worry about,"

He rounded the corner and found Liu and Ben talking quietly amongst themselves.

"Hey,"

He nearly dropped the mug when Ben gave a slight scream and span around, nearly hitting the mug anyway.

"Woah! Sorry," Isaac said, checking if any of the cocoa mix had fallen out.

"Isaac! No, it's fine, fine, it's fine, I just... thought you were still sleeping," Ben said, tripping over his words.

"Yeah, I was..." Isaac said slowly, wondering what he had walked in on, "... so, you hungry?"

"Er... hungry, hunger, yeah, I'm kinda, kinda, hungry, hungry, yeah,"

"... ok?" Isaac said slowly, "I'm just... gonna go... wash your cup... out..."

Isaac slid around the pair as he made his way to the kitchen, fully weirded out.

Ben grimaced when Isaac was out of sight and turned to Liu.

Liu mimed out the motions of a steam train, before it derailed, before miming a large explosion.

"Relax," Liu said when Ben's shoulder's dropped, "Nothing goes smoothly at the start and, in the end, I'll have probably wet myself laughing,"

Ben glared at Liu as he ruffled his hair and walked cheerily away.

"You ready?"

Ben jumped again as Isaac came back through, shaking his hands to get any remaining droplets of water off of them.

"Y-yeah," Ben said, forcing himself to calm down and slow his breathing.

"Ok, let's go," Isaac said, smiling and shoving his hands in his pockets.

Ben couldn't help but smile along with him as he fell into step beside him.

"So, where do you want to go?" Isaac asked as he pulled the door closed behind them.

"I, erm... I dunno... what do, erm... what do you want to do?" Ben inwardly cringed.

Isaac sucked in a breath of air through his teeth.

"You know, I've always heard about Chicago having good pizza, but I've never had it," Isaac mused, "Want to go on a field trip?"

He turned to face Ben with another smile and Ben was sure that his heart skipped a beat.

"S-sure," he stuttered, this time from the cold.

Isaac's smile opened up into a toothy grin and Ben was sure that time stopped for a moment.

Ben, somehow, managed to relax during the walk there.

It was when they reached Chigaco that a summer breeze picked up and Ben started shivering again.

"Aah, thank fuck for that breeze," Isaac sighed, stretching his arms out.

"H-how can you be warm?" Ben asked, "I'm freezing,"

"Honestly? Most days I feel like I could cook an egg by holding it, even without going all Human Torch," Isaac said.

"Good for you," Ben seethed, thinking how lucky Isaac was that he couldn't feel the cold.

He froze and stood a little straighter when he felt something get draped across his shoulders.

"Here," Isaac said, knocking the hood of his hoody up onto Ben's head.

"N-no, it's f-fine," Ben started to take the hoody off but Isaac knocked his hand away.

"It's fine, I'm roasting, and you're cold, you need it more than I do right now," Isaac said.

Ben felt his cheeks light up again and he tugged the drawstrings tighter on the hood to try and hide his face, mumbling about the cold to cover for his actions.

He could hear Isaac's little half-laugh from within the folds and he wished Isaac would say something to make things less awkward.

"You reckon that we could find the place that they filmed Death's intro while we're here?"

Ben felt the edges of his mouth curl up.

"Good luck there, even I can't find that place," he said, thankful that they had gotten to a topic he wouldn't have trouble with.

"Really? How can you not find it?" Isaac asked.

"Because I have gone through everything short of going into the actual actor's minds to find that place, and I have had no luck what-so-ever!" Ben said.

Isaac laughed at how grumpy Ben sounded about not being able to find the place and the two of them ended up walking around for an hour trying to find a pizza place that caught their attention.

"This is Chicago, there are adverts about people bringing the ' _authentic_ ' Chicago style of pizza to the rest of the world... and we can't find a single place that does pizza... how can we not find a single pizza joint?" Isaac lamented.

"Y-yeah," Ben agreed when Isaac bumped into him, "You wanna head back, or..."

"Found one!" Isaac said, "Only took three hours,"

"It's barely been one,"

"Po-ta-to, Po-tah-to," Isaac waved his hand dismissively.

Ben scoffed as he and Isaac quickly ran across the street and walked the last half-block to the pizza place that Isaac had spotted.

"Nice place, kinda dingy lights," Isaac muttered under his breath as they found a small booth tucked in the corner.

"At least the seats are comfy," Ben added on as they sat down.

"True... so, what do you want to get?" Isaac asked, turning to him as he took the hood down and unzipped the hoody a little.

"Erm... what is there?" Ben asked, reaching for a menu.

"Make your own," he told him.

"Lemme see?"

Ben's breathing hitched as Isaac leant across him to read the menu.

"Ok, so, what do you want?" Isaac asked, sitting back up.

"Erm..." Ben shook his head to try and clear it, "... you want to go for the make your own?"

"Yeah, why not?" Isaac said with a shrug, "You order your favourite toppings, and I'll get mine... what is your favourite, by the way?"

Ben glanced down.

"Erm... BBQ base... chicken and... pineapple..."

"Alright, cool," Isaac said.

It was at that point that a server came over and asked what they wanted.

"Two make your own's with BBQ base, chicken and Pineapple, and... deep pan?" Isaac asked, turning to Ben.

"Wha... yeah, deep pan," he said with a frown.

The server nodded and once he'd gotten their drink orders left.

"You not getting something of your own?" Ben asked, pulling the hoody a little tighter around himself.

Isaac shrugged, "It's my favourite too, just... don't tell Kage,"

"Oh, he thinks pineapple on pizza doesn't go?"

"Says it's like blessing a demon after they sneeze, doesn't go together,"

Ben couldn't help but laugh, and his laughter set Isaac off, until the two of them bumped into each other.

The waiter came back with their drinks and Ben composed himself enough so that he was able to take a sip of his drink.

"So... I'm still waiting to hear about a few things that you did at school?" Ben said, trying to fill the space.

Isaac let out a small huff of laughter and put his glass back down.

"Well... how about you choose the topics of discussion?

One, my badass teacher that was a werewolf?

Two, the fact that I totally time-travelled?

Or three, something... to do... with... _hellhounds_?"

Ben's mind froze for a moment.

"Hell-time-wolf?" he said before shaking his head, "Were-travel-hound?"

He let his head drop down until it hit the table as Isaac started laughing again.

"Well... I can tye my professor into the time travel story, so I'll save the Hellhound one for when we get back..."

Ben listened with rapt attention as Isaac went over everything he did with Professor Lupin.

His lessons to make a Patronus, he promised to show Ben when they got home, to the map, another thing he would show him, and a little about how he learned that his father had been apart of a group of prankster legends within Hogwarts.

The way his voice dropped and he kept fidgeting told Ben that he was still a little awkward with talking about his parents.

"It's not betraying us," Ben interjected, "They were your family once, but things happened...

It's alright if you don't want to talk about them... but it's alright if you do as well,"

Ben couldn't help but get drawn into Isaac's smile as he turned his gaze from his lap to look at him.

"Thanks," Isaac said softly, "It's just... a little strange...

A whole life that I could have lived... never met any of you...guess it's just odd to think about,"

"And now I can't imagine a day without you," Ben said before he could stop himself.

He started to freak out internally when Isaac's foot nudged his under the table.

"Same," he said, shifting a little closer.

Ben started to relax and did the only thing he could think of.

"Stop kicking me," Isaac said.

"You started it,"

"Yeah, well I can also finish it!"

Their impromptu game of footsie was interrupted a few seconds later by the waiter bringing their food.

Ben's mouth started watering as the smell wafted over them and he eagerly picked up a slice and tore into it.

"Hungry much?" Isaac scoffed as he picked up his own slice.

"Wef, anf I'm fill..." Ben swallowed the bite, "Yes, and I'm still cold,"

Isaac glanced around.

"If only we'd ordered something to go, I'd find a place and warm you up," he did another quick check and spun a few flames around his fingers.

He quickly put them out when someone looked over to see what the blue light was and he covered it with putting his phone on the table.

"If I could? I'd tie you up in my room and use you as a space heater," Ben said as a joke.

He froze and nearly dropped his slice of pizza as he realised what he had said.

He quickly turned to Isaac with a look of panic on his face.

Isaac, however, had let his head hit the table as he laughed.

"First L.J and the twins use me as a portable marshmallow roaster, and now I'm getting tied up and used as a space heater," Isaac sighed and sat back up, "Well, I'd definitely prefer you,"

Ben gave a small chuckle that he hoped didn't sound too nervous.

Isaac smiled as he picked up his piece of pizza again, though he lowered it a moment later.

"Hey, Ben?" he asked, "What happened to Runic?"

"Hmm?" Ben swallowed another bite, "Oh, same procedure for wherever we go.

When we move out we remove any memory of us being there.

They've no idea that we actually existed,"

Isaac frowned as he remembered the rather bubbly workers before shrugging.

He hadn't really grown attached to the place, he'd only really remembered because it was the first time they'd had pizza in a while.

It didn't take long for them to fall back into their old routine of cheesy jokes and puns, talking about what Isaac learned at Hogwarts, and any interesting jobs that the others had gone on.

Ben felt ready to kick Isaac in the shins when he kept teasing him about showing him some of the new things he'd learnt.

Once they'd finished, and handled the bill.

"Now we get to keep the cash," Ben said once he'd passed his hand over the scanner and pretended to scan a card.

Isaac rolled his eyes and the two of them exited out into the street.

They were a few minutes away from the Slender port when a loud crash echoed overhead.

Isaac stuck his hand out and felt a faint drop of something.

"Gonna start raining," he muttered.

Ben glanced up at the sky and started shivering again.

He jumped slightly when Isaac tapped him on his shoulder.

He turned to find that Isaac had grabbed his hand and was pulling him out of sight down a small alley.

"Here," he said, holding his phone out, "Jump in and I'll run back to The Mansion,"

Ben looked down at the phone and up at Isaac.

"T-thank you," he said, pulling the hoody off and handing it back to him.

Isaac smiled as Ben crawled back inside.

Isaac pulled his hoody back on and tugged the hood forward.

He kept a hand clutched around the phone in his pocket for the entire run through the last stretch and soon he was back to running between the trees in Slenderman's Forest.

He partway up a tree that had been caught mid-fall by another and leapt down, swinging by the branch of another.

He dropped down and took off running once more, not stopping until he had leapt up the steps to The Mansion and resting against the door.

He took his phone out and set it on the ground.

When Ben was halfway through he offered a hand up.

"You alright?" he asked as Ben stood up.

"Yeah... so, what was this about showing me a Hellhound?" he asked.

"Oh, fuck off!"

Isaac frowned as Ben shouted at the doors.

"Fucking... moron's can't go five minutes without... I set up an alert for whenever they send me a message saying that they need me to erase some footage," Ben sighed.

Isaac snickered into his hand.

"Well, thank you for the lovely lunch," he said, "I'll show you it later,"

He held the door open for Ben.

Isaac watched as Ben climbed through into the T.V and gave him a small wave as he zoomed off.

Isaac calmly walked down the small side corridor that led to the Infirmary.

He was about halfway down the corridor when he leant against the wall.

He buried his head in his hands and let out a long groan.

"Oh...- christ!" he dropped his hands and let his head fall back, "Oh...- shit!"

He banged his head against the wall a couple more times.

"Oh... God! Oh... he knows, he knows... he knows and thinks I'm an idiot!" he slumped down to the floor.

He let his head fall down into his hands once more before he moved them so he was pulling his hair out.

He released the clumps of hair from his grip and let his head fall down so it hit his knee.

'I'm an idiot,'

'Why would he like me back?'

'What if I've freaked him out?'

'What if he doesn't want to do anything with me anymore?'

Each thought accompanied with the sound of another thud of his head meeting his knee.

He sat back up and started rubbing at the dull ache that had started to swell in his forehead...

Before he frowned and looked to his right.

"The hell are you doing?" Jeff asked.

There was a tense, and slightly awkward moment of silence between the two.

"Angsting,"

"Well, could you angst somewhere where you're not blocking the door?" Jeff asked.

Isaac turned around and looked at the wall.

He frowned and got to his feet, tripping slightly as he turned.

"When did that door get here?" he asked.

It hadn't been there last summer, he was sure of it.

"Well, since Teer jacked a car to help lug a lump of rock around, we decided to keep it," Jeff said, opening the door, "And since I was the guy who suggested that we keep it, I've landed the job of maintaining it's shit,"

Isaac followed him down a short, grey, walkway. A shelving unit holding a bunch of random bits and bobs for the car to the left.

There, in the middle of the room and raised up on carjacks, was the aforementioned car.

The bonnet was leaning on the wall and a tarp had been tucked into the engine to cover it.

It's old license plates were propped up on a worktop, upon which was a box with a bunch of tools, and its wheels were piled in the corner.

"Been working this thing over for a couple of days," Jeff said, taking off his hoody and throwing over the back of the chair in front of the desk.

"Nice," Isaac said.

The powder blue paint had been removed and a new layer of primer had been sprayed to prep it for its new coating.

"Thanks," Jeff said, "Want to know my favourite thing about this place?"

He walked back up to the shelving unit in the wall of the walkway and pulled on one of the shelves.

The entire thing swung around and he pushed it so that now if you were to open the door you would only think it was another cupboard.

"The living migraine cluster hasn't figured that out yet," he said as he slid a bolt to keep it from swinging open into position.

Isaac snorted in laughter as Jeff leapt back down.

"So where is Jane? I haven't seen her around,"

"Oh, well... there was an unfortunate problem with the lock on the actual bathroom down Jane's end of the place," Jeff said, "Apparently the little stick thing that moves the thing that keeps the door closed went missing while she was inside,"

"Really?" Isaac asked.

"Yeah.

Oh, by the way, like my new back scratcher?" Jeff asked, holding up a thin piece of rectangular metal that you normally found in the handles of a door.

He walked around the car, gently pressing his hand to parts, until he had done a complete circle.

"Right, primer's settled in, want to help with the re-paint?" he asked.

Isaac, desperate for something else to think about, took him up on the offer and was thanked with something getting thrown at his face.

"Put that on, this gets messy," Jeff said as he started to pull on a pair of speckled grey overalls himself.

Jeff tossed him a pair of goggles and a facemask before pulling on the gasmask Isaac had seen him with before and started setting up the paint sprayer.

"Go'n turn the music on," Jeff's muffled voice came through as he pulled a few tubs of paint out.

It took Isaac a moment to find the speaker that Jeff had set up and soon the traditional ballads that Jeff listened to filled the room.

Jeff handed Isaac a second paint sprayer and soon the two of them were applying even coats to the car.

"So what is it?" Isaac asked over the sounds of paint spraying and heavy metal.

"What's what?" Jeff shouted back.

"The car, what is it?"

"I don't know," Jeff shouted back, shrugging, "Teer hotwired this thing and it got hammered trying to get it out of there.

I've just finished scraping it down of any identifying markers, including those brand things that you get on the sides and back.

But I'll tell you this..."

He walked over and lifted the tarp that was covering the engine.

"Engine's something that me and Teer jacked from this rich fuck's Porsche," Jeff said, "Top speed of over three hundred kilometres an hour," he let out a quick chuckle, "I'd like to see anyone try and keep up with us in this!"

Isaac tried to whistle through the facemask but it didn't exactly work.

Jeff tucked the tarp back into place and the two of them resumed painting the car until the entire thing was coated in a metallic black paint.

"Right, if this turns out bad I'm blaming you," Jeff let him know as he took off the gas mask and set it down on the worktop.

Isaac scoffed as he started to remove the overalls.

"So, what was eating at you earlier?" Jeff asked as he flung his overalls over a wire that span the length of the ceiling.

"Hmm? Oh..." Isaac had forgotten his earlier woes after he had lost himself in painting the car, "It's... it's nothing, just... wait..."

Isaac frowned and turned to the speaker.

"Didn't picture you as a fan of that," he said, "Nothing wrong with it!" Isaac added on quickly, seeing the look on Jeff's face, "Just that... didn't seem your type,"

Jeff shrugged.

"Can't help what you like," he said simply as he returned to tidying up their mess," It reminds me of a saying from one of the baddest bitches I used to watch.

'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye',"

He chuckled, "Besides, if the other's learn about that, I know who to torture,"

"Yeah," Isaac said meekly as he backed out of the room.

Jeff sighed as he went to redo the bolt.

He patted his hands as he looked around the room.

"Oh fuck! I forgot about the bonnet,"

He groaned as he walked back over to where he had hung up his overalls.

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Isaac turned to hear the pitter patter of rapid feet.

"ISAAC!" Sally squealed and leapt into his arms.

"Hey, Sals," Isaac laughed as she nearly bowled him over.

"Did you see any unicorns? Did you see a dragon? Did you..."

"Maybe if you let me speak, I'll show you something I learnt?" Isaac said and Sally gasped and started squirming to be let down.

She ran over to a chair and sat on it, leaning forward eagerly to see.

She pouted when Isaac made her wait for Ben while he went to go get his wand.

By the time that Isaac made his way back downstairs a few others had joined in waiting for him.

"Right..." Isaac said, looking around at the others that had shown up, "Well...

If you read my letters, then you would have heard me complaining about the Dementors that had been posted there.

After a while, I'd gotten sick of them and decided to speak to Professor Lupin, yes, he was the werewolf," he said before Ben could cut him off, "... and he agreed to teach me a charm to repel them...

And that charm may or may not look really cool when you get it right,"

Isaac turned his wand over in his hand as he cleared his throat.

He cast a quick sideways glance at Toby and Ben.

Their smiles firmly in his head he flicked the wand forward.

" _Expecto Patronum_!"

The large Patronus shot out of his wand and turned to face the others in the room.

Sally's mouth and eyes seemed to be growing wider and wider as she took in the sight of the giant, shimmering, ghostly-blue Hellhound before her.

The others in the room shared looks of wonder that they couldn't help.

The Patronus looked around the room before walking on air over to where Ben was sat on the couch.

The Patronus almost seemed to try to rub it's head against Ben's outstretched hand before it slowly faded out of sight.

"Dude... you have a _Hellhound_!" Ben seemed to slowly come back to his senses.

" _I know_!" Isaac said in the same shocked whisper tone that Ben had used.

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A diner somewhere in town, and earlier that day.

Toby looked up out of habit at the sound of the door opening.

He relaxed and allowed a small smile to grace his lips as he saw Liu walk in.

It turned to a slight frown, however, when Liu hurried over to their table with a terrifyingly wide grin on his face.

"Guess what! Guess what!" he said as he pulled a chair out and sat down.

"Someone replaced the sugar in your coffee with adrenaline?" E.J said, rubbing the part of his leg where Liu's chair had hit him.

"No, no, no," Liu said, "Ben likes him!"

E.J and Toby shared a quick glance.

"Yeah, we know, it's..."

"No, no, no, no...

I found him mid panic attack after he'd woken up from his little nap, _and he admitted it_!"

Toyb and E.J sat up a little.

"Those words?"

Liu nodded at E.J.

"Those words _exact_!"

Toby sighed and started to bite the edge of his thumb.

"What about Isaac?" he asked, "Did he say anything?"

Liu shook his head.

"Don't think so, last I saw them they were heading out to grab some lunch,"

Toby sighed and resumed biting his thumb.

"Right... what do you think we should..."

"Toby, thumb," E.J said suddenly.

Toby took the digit out of his mouth and looked down at it.

A small prick of blood was starting to flow out of a small dent in the side.

"It's hardly a break," Toby sighed as he grabbed a napkin and wrapped it around his thumb.

"Yeah, well after the last time we let you nom on your hand you ended up needing stitches," E.J sighed, reaching for the coffee pot.

He frowned when his hand was met with empty air.

"Here," the pot was pushed into his hand by Doctor Locklear.

Toby jumped slightly.

"I totally forgot that you were here,"

The rest of lunch passed without such further excitement, though there was a moment where Toby accidentally ended up getting a fork stuck in his arm and didn't notice until he went to look for where his fork had gone.

Liu quickly took a picture and could already hear the sigh from Hoodie about losing another twenty bucks.

When they got back home they found Isaac sending Hedwig off with a small package in her talons.

Toby smiled and returned the wave he received when Isaac saw them approaching.

He dropped his hand down and stuffed it into his pocket as he made his way down the path.

Once Isaac was back inside his smile changed to a smirk.

As much as he would like to win the bet about when Isaac or Ben would admit their feelings to each other, he wouldn't have minded it if it happened a lot sooner if only for Isaac's sake... plus none of them had chosen them admitting their feelings before the start of what would be his fourth-year so the bet would be cancelled.

He let out a small hiss of laughter.

Knowing with how impulsive Isaac could be sometimes, he almost expected him to say something before his birthday.

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Three days before Isaac's Birthday.

Toby hit his head off his desk.

Aside from neither Ben or Isaac opening up to each other, Isaac's birthday was in three days and he was struggling for the first time on what to do for his birthday.

He was now hoping that his brother's impulsiveness would hold off until after the next year of school... and hoping that he'd think of something to do or get Isaac for his birthday.

He frowned when he heard a knocking at his bedroom door.

He got up, kicking his axe by accident as he walked, and pulled the door open.

"I... I need your advice on something... something to do... with... Isaac..." Ben said, looking up at him, a few pieces of paper in his hands.

Toby's face split open into a smile at an almost worrying speed.

"Come in! Come in!" he said eagerly, standing aside to let a slightly frightened Ben in.

"So, what can I help you with?" Toby asked, sitting down on the bed.

Ben looked around the room for a moment and back to the papers in his hands.

"I... I erm... recently discovered something..." Ben started, shuffling the papers in his hands, "And... that something... has a lot to do with Isaac..."

Toby glanced down at the papers.

'Has... has he written him a poem?' he asked himself.

"Right, go on?" Toby leant forward slightly.

"It's... well... I... I'm just wondering if I should tell him that... that I... that I found out that..."

"Take your time," Toby said, "Take your time,"

Ben fumbled over his words for a few more moments before he shoved the pages towards Toby.

Toby took them with a grin and started reading...

His smile dropped off his face when he realised what they were.

"You sure about this?" he asked in a quiet voice.

Ben didn't say anything, he just nodded.

Toby sighed and put the papers to the side, burying his head in his hands.

"You're sure it's _him_?" Toby asked.

Ben nodded once more, "Yes,"

The two of them sat there for a few more moments.

"Don't tell him," Toby said, a fire lit in his eyes.

"But, shouldn't..."

"No!" Toby cut him off, "You don't tell Isaac _anything_ about this...

I'll handle it," he said, a new light sparking in his eyes.

"Toby?" Ben asked, slightly worried.

"I've got this," Toby said, standing back up and taking the papers to his desk, "I'll message you when..."

"No, Toby, you're foot's bleeding," Ben said.

Toby glanced down and saw that there were a few red splodges on the floor from every other step he had been taking.

"Damn it," he muttered as he realised he had cut himself when he had kicked his axe.

 **(X) later that day (X)**

Toby sat at the table with Jeff, E.J, L.J, and Teer.

The papers that Ben had given him on the table before them.

"This old fart, really?" Jeff asked.

"Yep," Toby said, looking down at the papers in disgust.

"Can I skin him?" Teer asked.

"After I've turned him into a candy-stuffed turkey," L.J said, letting a spinning top travel along his fingers.

"Guys!" Toby said over them, "I think... that I have a perfect plan.

After everything that fuck has done, _we_ , are not doing anything..."

Toby leant in closer to them and told them his idea.

"I'm game," Jeff said.

"Standing by," E.J said.

"You have my carnival at your disposal," L.J said, sending the spinning top curving around the table and back to him.

"And my axe!" Teer said in a put on gruff voice.

"What?" Teer said when they all looked at him.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

England.

"I have sight on him... shitty suit," Teer said, his position on the slate roof hidden in shadows.

"Alright," Toby said, "Can you check as to whether or not..."

"See if he's been lying through his ass? Don't have to ask me twice," Teer said with a growl.

Toby meandered amongst the stands as he waited.

"Bastard knew damn well what he was saying, and doing, and he'd been playing it up all nice and innocent to save himself,"

"Get what L.J needs," Toby said with a growl of his own and he waved over to L.J.

"Yo?" L.J said, taking the phone, "Hold on, let me get a pen,"

Toby left L.J to take down the measurements he had been given by Teer.

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Eyeless Jack walked the streets of the small town upon the outskirts of London in his glamoured form, Smile pattering calmly along in front of him.

To his side, Liu was holding a leash that ended at Eris and to anyone watching it merely looked like a new guide dog being trained.

Liu kept up a mindless chatter as they rounded another corner.

"I counted three cameras, four guards, and one doctor on standby," Liu said after they had passed.

"I agree on cameras, but there was another guard in the upstairs of the place," E.J said, who knew being blind could make you so observant?

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England, one day before Isaac's Birthday.

The man acting guard checked the door before opening it.

"Eh... Guten Morgen," the man before him said in a thick German accent, his long, black, hair pulled into a sleek ponytail that disappeared beneath his coat, "Doctor Evan Lockder, you called about... Magenschmerzen? Stomach pain?" he asked.

"Yeah, he's in the dining room," the man said as the Doctor walked in and he closed the door behind him.

"Danke Schoen," the Doctor said, unbuttoning his coat and picking his briefcases back up once he had done so.

"Aah, und here is ze patient," he said with a wide smile.

"He was getting a little restless so we had to put him under," another guard said.

"Bah, no problemo? That is how you say it?" the Doctor asked.

He set the briefcase on the table next to the drugged man.

He opened it up and the faint sound of something clicking could be heard.

"Hey, erm... Doc? Didn't you have two?" the first guard asked.

"Ja," the man said, his accent sliding back to American as he pulled out a gas mask and slipped it on, "I did,"

The guards went for their tazers but a large plume of green smoke erupted from the briefcase.

The two guards, plus the third that had come through from making a cup of tea in the kitchen, choked and spluttered before they lay unconscious on the floor.

Sounds of two men tumbling down the stairs crashed through the wall and Doctor Locklear smirked under the gas mask as he knew the second briefcase had gone off.

Say what you will about L.J's mental state, but the guy sure knew his concoctions.

Doctor Locklear, breathing hard through the mask, looked at the man he had taken the call for in place of the other medical officer, who he had ever so kindly filled in for that morning.

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Laughing Jack made a mock picture frame with his fingers as he looked around.

"I think we've done a rather bang-up job, jolly ol' pal o' mine," he said, turning to Toby.

"L.J, you sure can deliver," Toby whistled as he looked around.

He cast a quick glance over to the sleeping man with grey hair who was lying unconscious on a stretcher that L.J had produced from somewhere.

He could feel his hands start to shake from how hard he was clenching them and when he brought them up he found deep gouges that were a few more seconds of pressure away from bleeding that his nails had left.

"Make sure he stays out," he hissed to L.J before he made his way back to The Mansion.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Isaac's birthday that day started the same as any other.

He was woken up by an excited Sally, the guys that were there wished him a happy birthday as he passed.

Even Jane gave a grunt of acknowledgement towards the entire situation, having been released from the bathroom after someone found that the stick that moved the little lock had broken and trapped her inside.

Jeff lamented the loss of his back scratcher.

The presents that day were as they normally were.

Mostly clothes, however since he had outgrown a good bunch of them he was rather grateful for them, a new throwing pick for his guitar after his old one had snapped, and a few other things that only made the smile on his face widen.

Hedwig handled collecting the gifts from his other friends and he couldn't help the slight laugh that he saw when Hedwig, proving that she could handle such a feat, hauled in a large sack of items.

She brustled her feathers at his laughter and took back off, stopping to clip him slightly with her wing in jest.

Inside the sack he found a selection of sugar-free sweets and snacks from Hermione, whose parents were dentists; a bag of rock cakes from Hagrid, he put those aside, having a fair bit of experience of Hagrid's cooking, L.J tried one and said he shouldn't take them for 'granite'; and, perhaps most surprising of all, a cake from Mrs Weasley?

A note had been attached saying that whether or not he and Ron had a little falling out, he would always be welcome for tea.

Plus another card from the Weasley twins thanking him for the help he had given them with the toffee.

Inside the box that Mrs Weasley's cake had come in was another small bag of brightly wrapped toffee's.

Inside that bag had been a small note.

Isaac quickly read through the note before grinning and tossing a toffee to L.J.

"Hmm!" he said, chewing, "Not bad, very good... why is my..."

He couldn't speak much after that for what looked like a black and white striped python was forcing its way out of L.J's mouth.

He went wide-eyed and stared down at his now two-foot tongue and Isaac burst out in unhampered laughter at how ridiculous he sounded when he tried to talk and laugh.

Eventually, when his tongue stopped at five and a half feet long, he pushed down on his head and caused it to zoom back in like when you let go of the end of a measuring tape.

"Isaac, despite how many times I may beg to be, don't introduce me to those two.

I don't think the world could survive," he said with a shake of his head.

"Defcon three if you're ever in the same room," Isaac promised him.

In the rest of the bag had been two cards that he didn't recognise the handwriting of.

He opened the first to find it was from Blaise, who had sent him a small and enchanted model of The Impala.

Smile watched as Eris chased after the small black car and Isaac amused himself by thinking of Dean and Sam's reactions to being chased by a large two-headed dog.

The second card was from Draco, who had sent him what looked like a postcard.

Isaac picked the card up and handed it to Sally to examine.

The card would cycle through an array of famous landmarks from around the world, both Muggle and Magical, and would give a small blurb on the back about where they were and what significance they held.

Sally's little gasp of delight as she bounced slightly in her seat told him that he probably wouldn't be getting it back.

It was at that moment that L.J snuck away without him noticing.

Around lunch, however, Toby threw a little shift into the works.

He had been playing games with Ben and the others for the better part of the morning, and Isaac had taken an offhand comment told to him by Jeff to heart.

He couldn't help what he liked, or who he liked.

Though he still couldn't help but feel a small sense of panic when he was around Ben in case he didn't feel the same way; and by the looks of things that was making Ben a little awkward as well.

"So where are we heading out for lunch?" Isaac asked since there was nothing to eat in the fridge aside from a few slightly out of date pieces of broccoli, "The burger joint in town?"

"Nope, I've got another surprise for you," Toby said.

With that he got them all to follow him up the stairs and towards L.J's door.

"Took you long enough, the show's about to start," L.J said, ducking back inside.

It had given Isaac just enough time to see that there had been a slight change in his clothes.

The feather's ruff was gone, in its place as a pinstriped coat with a tail down to his calves.

Isaac piled through with the others and soon they were making their way towards the large and dilapidated carnival.

The zombie children around them seemed to be chittering with a type of energy that Isaac hadn't seen before.

Before any of them could react the zombie children had swept them towards a large tent in the middle of the carnival.

They didn't stop until they were all pushed into a raised section of the stands near the front of the stage.

Large spotlights blocked out anything from the stage so they had no idea what was on there.

Soon what seemed like every zombie child in the carnival had filed into the tent and were all sitting, chittering away, in the surrounding stands.

The rhythmic beating of a large drum started to echo around the tent and the zombie children all quietened down.

A few of the spotlights that had been blinding them shifted onto the stage to reveal Laughing Jack with his head bowed down on a pedestal and a black tophat obscuring his head, a thin band of white around the base.

His leg was cocked to the side and he was leaning on a black cane rounded with a silver top.

"Ladies...

Gentlemen..."

He straightened up with a flourish and threw his arms out.

"WELCOME TO THE SHOW!"

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End notes.

Right, I'm sticking to my guns this time.

I'm ending it here, I do hope that you all enjoyed.

And I am saying NOTHING about what is to come.

Also, I need some help.

I was going through some post-it notes I had lying around and I found one that says "Zippers;- room 42"

I have absolutely no idea what that means, but it's annoying me too much to leave alone.

If you've got any idea what it might be about then please PM me or leave it in a review.

It might just be something that I've done in those sleep addled states when you can't remember anything, but it's annoying me too much to leave alone.

See you next week;

SteamGeek01

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!


	45. Chapter 45, Best Birthday Ever!

Chapter 45, Best Birthday Ever!

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Aren't cliffhangers lovely?

Just sitting here... at the top of a cliff...

Oh look, there goes Percy and Annabeth.

Oh! And the season 2 finale of Alphas.

And, of course, my story.

Well, time for reviews.

Katoptris12;

Seriously?

Have you... you do know that I've written 2 chapters with them as a couple in EXTRAS, right?

Plus I've been building the two of them up for... you know what, this is a troll review, isn't it?

Reidar7;

I know, I'm such a cruel writer, but hey, be thankful that I'm not as mean as George RR Martin.

Yeah, it wouldn't be a proper bit of fanfic if there wasn't an annoying dosage of angst thrown into the mix now, wouldn't there?

Well, the only one that you could really push into a closet would be Ben since Isaac's still in one right now.

If you think that the waits are worth it then that must mean I'm doing something right.

Yep, Isaac's birthday is getting to be the main focus in this chapter, and I wonder if anyone will have been able to guess who that man was?

Firehedgehog;

Thaanks.

Ok, what are we doing?

Lunarwolf11021;

This is handy, you've numbered your points.

First,- 'Insert Frankie Boyle mocking laugh from his Erectile Problems joke on Mock The Week'

Second,- Getting closer, definitely getting closer.

Third,- wait and see...

Thank you, and I _love_ being evil, it's so much fun!

DarkRavie;

Thanks.

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

THANK YOU!

Ok, my torment is over, Room 42 is a Creepypasta I was recommended and wrote on the wrong bit of paper.

Thanks again.

You tried putting the review down as a guest and then put your name at the top or bottom of it?

.549;

No, apparently it's a Creepypasta I was recommended by Rosie.

Honestly?

I'm weird enough that that could also be the reason for the note, I've got the most cluttered workspace ever.

2 Tesla coils, a dismantled hand-crank lamp, a spare light bulb for Toby, manicure kit, a box of crickets, a small green bottle of bubble mix... the list goes on and on...

Wingzero512;

Yeah, it kinda gets hard to keep up with who I have in the story sometimes, hard to think of a way to work them into the story that doesn't feel like they're just a footnote somewhere.

Acherongoddess;

Thank you! Hope the weekend was fun!

MyraZinshu;

Yeah, I wonder if I will ever learn another language, would help with that trip I mentioned a while back.

L.J's I'm going to have to keep as small as possible in the future, if I spend too long on them then I'll not be able to do it. I'll most likely solve that problem by having the chapter from a parent or someone else's p.o.v.

I think Madame Macabre needs more attention, she's so talented.

It hurt... definitely hurt, though if we were to go into a list of things that I have ended up stabbing myself with this chapter would have another 1000 words added onto it.

I'm adding that chapter to the list... think I'll call it "Trials".

He is never living it down... EVER!

I'm not done having Isaac freak out.

Right now he's at that point where he knows that he likes him, but doesn't know that he _like_ likes him. I've got a scene in my head and I think it will be glorious.

It was so fun to write them going out for pizza since I also got to vent my frustrations at not being able to find where they actually filmed Death's Entrance in Supernatural.

I really want to visit that street on my trip around the world.

There will be more suffering in the future, probably. It wouldn't be a fanfic if we didn't torture the main characters with feels.

Wait and see who it was...

Awe, now I feel special.

Yeah, I feel like I should make a few more references here and there... wait... I have the perfect idea...

Thunder-Death;

Thanks,

I've been building their relationship for a while now, all that's left is to torture them a little with feels and add some more fluffy padding.

I have been waiting to do this for a while, I had thought about leaving it until after his fourth-year... but then I decided on something better... no spoilers...

Thank you, hope that I can.

SweetSmilie;

Me? Get lost? Naw (Scottish for No)

I think Ben looks like himself.

When he's in the cyberspace I see it as if he's Gary from Alphas, if anyone ever watched that show (I loved it!)

How can teeth be a style?

Welcome?

'Covers ears'

Yes, Ben and Isaac's date was so cute you had to squeal... I will admit that I did a little as well...

If being cute was a crime then those two would be public enemies 1 and 2.

Having Liu say that was one of the things I'd wanted to do for a while, the other idea I had for it would have been L.J handing him a cord to a keyboard while he pressed the buttons.

I had to take a break from laughing before I wrote the next part.

I think you've given me a few ideas for future chapters... so many possibilities with cheesy jokes like that...

You're not too far off, actually.

Toby doesn't pay attention to things, he's used to just getting on with it despite if he's hurt himself.

I hope you like this chapter.

I think I should write an EXTRAS chapter for having the Creeps and Death Eaters duke it out in a free-for-all at the Quidditch campsite.

'Another laughing break'

Toby being oblivious to the carnage somehow fits in perfectly in my mind.

Just him sitting there, roasting a marshmallow over the fire, and not noticing until someone falls face-first into the fire.

Of course, he'd make sure that the marshmallow was roasted properly before going to see what was going on.

YinYangWriter;

Yeah, I think Kagekao would act like a drama queen and break a glass if he heard that. Pineapple and Onion don't sound that bad, might try it sometime.

Hehehe, writing Ben's little 'crash' was so fun. To me, that happens whenever he has a panic attack.

I kinda left that open so whatever you think he doesn't like could go in there and still fit in. But, if you want to know what I thought it was, then something that sounds vaguely classical that's purely instrumental and you might hear being performed by an orchestra... Or 'In Regards to Love: Eros' either or works fine in my head.

Toby's a clutz. If it's possible, or even mildly improbable, he'll find a way for it to happen.

Spoilers...

I haven't seen it yet, I've seen the 'Cinema Sins' video for it, but I haven't actually watched the movie yet. It's on my list, but just not yet.

Well... I'm kinda tempted to go there just because I love writing when it's raining.

I'll move to the conservatory when it's raining over here, but we still haven't had any rain yet.

Ok, that's it.

Did everyone see the EXTRAS chapter? I think it went over well but I'd like to get your opinions on it.

DP is enjoying their vacation so I'm handling the next few chapters on my own.

Anyway, back to the Carnival... and for anyone interested the alternate title for this chapter was... "Gauntlet"

SteamGeek01.

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Laughing Jack smirked to the small crowd that had been shoved in by his playmates.

A small chuckle escaped him as he took off the hat and spun the cane around.

"Guests!"

He gestured with the cane towards the residents of The Mansion.

"My esteemed friends!"

The zombie-child hordes chittered more.

"Jeff," he said flatly.

"Today! Is a monumentous day!" Jack lowered the cane so it hit the ground with an echoey pang that reverbed around the tent.

"For the time has finally come!

Six years ago, and five-ish months, life at The Mansion changed in a rather... _magical_ way, shut up, I'm hilarious," he said quickly at their groans, "... and things have been wonderful... except... for one... small... little thing..."

All of the spotlights faded away, throwing the tent into pitch black.

"Someone got away," Jack's voice crowed out of the darkness.

A red-tinted spotlight shone over Jack as he moved the cane so he could rest both hands upon it in front of him.

"One... over-inflated... over-opinionated... piece of _filth_... got away...

Granted, yes, we did throw his fat-ass into prison, and then Sally and the Eyeless Wonder over there tag-teamed him into getting locked up in the loony bin...

But a little Elf brought the news that apparently, he was getting an appeal and had to be moved to a safe house since apparently the general populous hate child abusers as much as we do...

But then we found out, that the tub of lard had been lying through his teeth to get out of there in the first place...

SO!"

He tossed the cane in the air as it spun fast enough to make a whipping noise.

He caught it again, causing it to slide to the end of his grip.

"His time has finally come...

If the... "Justice" system isn't going to bother to even try anymore, then, I'm afraid, that it falls to us..."

Jack smirked to himself.

Ever since Toby had brought the idea to him he had secretly been getting suggestions from each of The Mansions inhabitants on what to do.

"So sit back, relax, and please, in your seats!

Kick your feet up and grab some popcorn!

OH! And of course...

Enjoy the show,"

The spotlights turned themselves off and a large screen was lit up.

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The man woke slowly as light a dull light started to shine through a grate in the wall.

He tried to sit up but his head collided painfully with something and he hissed in pain.

He tried to shift himself into a comfier position slightly but all that caused him to do was gasp from further pain in his side.

"What the?" he asked himself as he raised his hands to find what he had hit.

Rough, wooden, edges met him.

He felt around in the darkness for a moment until he turned to the grate on the wall.

He started feeling around the wall and found the definite edge of a door.

He pushed as hard as he could, the pain in his side hampering what was left of his strength until he heard the crack of wood and whatever was locking the door gave way.

He tumbled out onto the familiar carpet.

He gasped as he looked around.

It was... it was his house... same wallpaper as he remembered, the scuffs on the floor, the picture of his family...

He huffed and reached up to the glass covering the picture and ran a hand down the picture.

He retracted his hand when he realised something.

There... there was something... off...

He turned back to the space he had been stuffed and found it was the cupboard under the stairs.

He shouldn't have been able to fit in there, even with the weight he had lost being locked up...

He gasped as he looked around.

Everything was... it was like he had shrunk.

He backed up into something and jumped slightly.

A red cord was hanging from the ceiling, a scratched note saying ~Pull Me!~ in loopy writing attached at eye level.

He ignored the note and cord for the time being and moved towards the living room.

In here, everything was how it should have normally been sized... all the way down to the skeleton of a woman sitting on the couch.

Judging by the decayed clothing the woman had once been rather obese.

He hesitated a moment before turning to his left and found the skeleton of a woman laying on the ground.

The ground crunched underfoot from old and crusted blood as he knelt down to the skeleton made up to look like his deceased wife.

"Petunia..." Vernon Dursley whispered to himself, "WHO IS DOING THIS!" he let out a bellow to whoever might be listening.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?" he roared at the ceiling.

Unseen to him was the small, blinking, red light of a camera embedded on the ceiling.

He got back up, casting a glance to the skeletons that resembled his dead wife and sister before he stormed back through to the dilapidated entrance hall and reached for the cord.

He glared at the childishly written note and yanked the cord.

The smell of bleach and gasoline filled his nostrils as the front door opened.

What looked like a modified water feature was assembled above the door and he felt like he could guess where the smell of bleach and gasoline was coming from.

He paced the small area once before he steeled his nerves and leapt through the spray.

He winced as his side flared in pain to protest the action and the combination if bleach and gasoline only intensified the pain.

Once he was through the spray he paused and tugged at his slightly drenched shirt to see what the pain was.

What looked like heavy duty staples were holding a strip of white, slightly bloodied, cloth to the left of his stomach.

He cast a glance at the scar that mirrored the cut on the other side of his chest.

He panted heavily for a moment through the abdominal pain that was stinging him slightly and peered around the black room he was now in.

The door to the mock of his old home had slammed and he was in near darkness once more...

Save for the button that glowed slightly blue on the far wall.

He approached cautiously, reaching in front of his face and knees for anything that he might walk into.

Finding nothing the entire way he reached the button and read the small note attached to it.

~Press for a light~

He reached out slowly, worried about what might happen.

He carefully pressed it.

A stream of bright orange fire burst out of the walls on either side of him.

He let out a piercing scream as the gasoline that he had been soaked with was lit up and he fell backwards onto the ground, writhing in pain as he clawed at the fiery tongues that seared as they spread across his body.

He gave another scream as the floor he was rolling on dropped away and he fell down into further darkness.

His foot collided heavily with something as he dropped into a vat of something.

He screamed as he felt his ankle break from whatever he had hit it against and soon started choking as something that stung and burned flooded his mouth.

He tossed and turned upon himself for a few moments as he tried to find his way back to the surface.

His mind started to go blurry and whatever little he could see in the darkness went fuzzy as his brain quickly became starved of oxygen.

He coughed up whatever the tank had been filled with was in his lungs as the glass tank broke and he was rushed out along with the escaping torrent.

He pulled himself to his knees, feeling like he was on the verge of throwing up, and looked around his new surroundings.

It seemed almost like a sort of cave, but he could feel the grain of wood beneath his hands.

As he looked around he noticed a blue button with a drop of water on it.

Wondering how this could get any worse he slammed his fist into it.

Somewhere above him a shower was turned on and water cascaded down, washing away the last of the bleach, gasoline, and what he strongly suspected was acid.

He sat there shivering until something hot dripped down onto him and he made to wipe it away.

He let out a soft retching noise as something akin to mucus was strung from his hand to his back in sticky strands.

More drops of the substance dropped down and when he looked up he found himself facing the maw of a beast six times the size that he once was.

It's jaw opened and it let out a grating roar as spittle flew all across the room.

Vernon let out a terrified scream and started running as hard as he could with a broken ankle away from the beast and down the only tunnel available to him.

The beast watched him with unseeing eyes.

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"Now, before we begin, I do have a few notes from those that were unable to be here today, but wished to pass along their regards," Laughing Jack announced to the clapping crowds.

He cleared his throat.

"Ok... Troy and Matt say hi.

They're both busy with their families and work so they couldn't come, but say have a lovely day," Jack read off of the first card.

"Erm... ah!

Next is from Jason, you'll see the little bit of handiwork he did later...

'Jack, in future, if you give me less than four days for projects as such as that, then you are volunteering yourself for'... the last is unreadable," he said quickly, tossing the note onto the ground and kicking it away.

"However somewhere in there I'm sure he wished Isaac a happy birthday," he finished with a shrug.

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Vernon Dursley was panting heavily now as he came to a rest along the seemingly endless tunnel.

"Hahaha," he paused as cheery laughter he knew well reached his ears.

"Dudders?" he whispered to himself, not believing his ears as his son's laughter echoed around him in the dark hallway.

He turned around and...

He slid to the floor.

The wall of the tunnel opposite him had shifted slightly and now, through a grey mist that was settling in, he watched as his pride, his joy, his _son_ sat at the table in their kitchen.

Petunia tenderly stroked Dudley's cheek as he happily chewed away at a slice of cake that she had set down moments before.

"Vernon?" Petunia asked, tilting her head as she looked over at him.

"Tuney?" he took a gasping breath.

"Vernon, there you are," Petunia called over to him as she walked around the table so she was closer to him.

"Vernon? What's the matter?" she asked him, a sympathetic look on his face, "Tough day at the office?

How about I fix up a nice, big, steak for my favourite executive board member?"

"Petunia..." Vernon was almost tearful now as he brought a shaky hand to cover his mouth.

"What's wrong dad?" Dudley asked, "Aren't you going to join us?"

Petunia settled down next to Dudley, reaching out to him.

"Come on, Vernon," she called out to him, "Aren't you going to join us?"

"Petunia," Vernon nearly sobbed, tears leaking their way down his face.

"Vernon," her voice was sounding distant now, "Vernon?"

"Petunia," his voice was nothing more than gasped pants now as his body shook with sorrow.

The mist seemed to roll in around them and it seemed like they were getting further and further away.

He watched through eyes heavily blurred with unshed tears until his wife and son had vanished from sight.

He sat there, letting tears fall down his face for a little while as he mourned the loss of the life he so desperately wanted back...

Before letting out a yelp at the wall behind him giving way and he fell down what felt like a slide.

He came to a stop and let out another scream of pain as he landed on something hard and sharp.

His screams got louder as whatever he landed on forced its way through the remaining fat on his arm.

He grasped whatever he was impaled on and slowly pulled himself free.

Once he had overcome the shock he looked around and found himself sitting in what looked like a giant birds nest.

He slowly got back to his feet, his ankle protesting from having to do this, and he climbed out of the nest and out into the next room.

He felt like he had been in the room for barely a minute before something was sprayed into his face and he passed out.

When he came to he was strapped to a board.

He struggled against his restraints as whatever he had been dosed with wore off and he started yelling.

"Sir, sir... SIR!" a voice broke through his panic, "Sir! Please, remain calm!

You're going to be alright, we're on our way to the E.R right now,"

Vernon looked over and saw a man wearing the uniform of a paramedic, a surgical mask obscuring most of his face.

He looked around some more and found that he was strapped to the back of a gurney in a moving ambulance.

"Sir, can you tell us your name?" the attendee asked him.

"V... Vern... Vernon..." he eventually managed to stammer out, "V... Vernon Dur... Vernon Dursley..."

"Ok, that's good, sir,

I would hate to think I got the wrong overgrown fatass,"

Before Vernon had any time to react the doors flew open and the gurney he was on rolled out onto the ground.

He grunted in pain as his ankle bounced against the gurney as he rolled out the back of the ambulance and rolled along a bumpy path.

The restraints fell away and he flipped the gurney over in his hurry to get off it.

He looked around, ready to hit someone, anyone, but found himself all alone.

There was no ambulance, even the gurney he had been on before was gone.

The only new thing there, oddly enough, was a bandage cast around his ankle to help him walk.

Panicked gasps of breath were the only thing he was able to take in now as he looked around.

He gave a groan that truly conveyed how broken he felt at that moment as he looked down the only path available to him and started to walk down it.

Vernon walked the path until he came to three doors.

On the one on the far left was two large red signs that read ~OUT OF ORDER~ with the second sign underneath that saying ~PLEASE TRY ANOTHER DOOR~

On the one on the far right was a large red sign that read ~CLOSED FOR MAINTENNANCE~ with another sign below that one that read ~PLEASE TRY ANOTHER DOOR~ just like the first.

On the one in the middle of the two was a green sign that read ~HALLWAY OF HORRORS~

Vernon let out a feeble whimper as he approached the door with the green sign and he weakly pushed it open.

Behind the door was a long corridor with neon amber lights that seemed to stretch all the way to the end of the room.

Vernon seemed to grow twitchy as he walked down the corridor as nothing had jumped out at him yet.

He was halfway down the corridor when he stopped.

Thin silver lines spanned the walls of the room, spinning slightly in small but fast circles, and creating some kind of separated spiders web of wire.

He took another step as he prepared himself for what must be the next piece of torture he was going to be forced through.

He did flinch a little, and feel subsequently silly, when a dolly pulling a lamely carved pumpkin with a cliché face that small children would think was scary that smoked slightly out of one of the walls while one of those dime a dozen 'scary noise recordings' was played.

He did jump back and fall over, however, when the pumpkin exploded and showered him with bits of debris.

He spat out a few charred seeds that had gotten into his mouth and he was starting to get angry now.

"WHO'S DOING THIS!" he screamed out into the dark tunnel.

"I DEMAND TO KNOW WHO IS... IS... IS DOING THIS!"

"WHO _DARES_ TO... TO... TO THINK THAT MY MENTAL HEALTH IS... IS... IS SOME SICK GAME!"

"Losing your marbles already?"

Vernon turned to look at a figure hidden by light at the end of the hall.

"Well then, rack them back up, let's play again," the figure taunted before laughing and walked out of sight to the right.

Vernon bellowed like a wounded bull and ran as fast as he could with his broken foot after the man that was still laughing.

He raised his hands to cover his face as the silver strings turned out to be razor sharp wires that cut into him and tore at his already ruined clothes.

One piece caught him above the eye and cut out a small section of his eyebrow; another tore a thin strip away from his arm; another took a slice of his scalp and hair.

He rounded the corner after him and looked around.

He took a few steps further into the room and the door slammed shut behind him.

He turned and slammed a fist into the door just as the lights went out.

A few more neon lights blinked into existence, marking the places of two footprints on the ground with what looked like a button in the middle of each one.

Two holes opened in the ceiling and two wires with handles on the end were dropped down until they dangled just within his reach.

A latch was flipped on the door and a panel flipped to reveal what was written there.

~Press them all and you will find~

~The task to finish, and free your mind~

~Will be closer now than before~

~Answer my question and open the door~

"AND WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT I'M GOING TO... GOING TO DO WHATEVER... WHATEVER IT IS THAT YOU SAY!" Vernon thundered at the door.

After what felt like an eternity, though in actuality it was nearer to five minutes, he decided that he had no choice but to obey the writing.

He stood on the two buttons on the floor and reached up and grabbed, he had a little trouble reaching the one on his right since that was the leg with the broken ankle, the two buttons on the dangling wires.

Once all of them were pressed a small panel slid open on the door.

"Hello!" a cheery, though slightly raspy, voice said.

"LISTEN HERE YOU... YOU..."

"I'm listening, but it really should be you.

You're in _no_ place to make demands, but I shall give you just the one.

You see, I like jokes.

Funny jokes, bad jokes, puns, _wordplay_ , all kinds of jokes.

So, to get this door to open, all you need to do is decide which you'd rather want.

Would you prefer a right rib-tickler of a joke; or a good old-fashioned knee slapper?"

Vernon glared at the unseen man, only a thin slit of a mouth could be seen through the panel, with all the pained rage he could muster.

He had half a mind to tell the man to stick the jokes where the sun don't shine and to go to hell.

"Knee slapper," he grunted out.

"Excellent choice, hold on please," the panel shut.

Vernon was left there in near darkness once again before a panel in the lower half of the door opened.

Before he had time to react something large and grey was smashed into his leg.

He let out a howl of pain as the cinder block fell with him, his kneecap smashed, and as his head hit the ground the door swung slowly open.

It took Vernon another five minutes before he was able to somewhat shuffle down the hall, tears of anger, humiliation, and pain leaking from his eyes every time he had to put even the tiniest ounce of weight onto his ruined leg.

The pain in his side was growing worse by the second, however, his anger at whoever was doing all this to him was overwhelming his senses.

He forced his body to work through the pain as he stormed down the corridor.

A good few metres away he could just see the man walk around the corner and he chased after him.

As he rounded the corner he was met with another neon sign.

~FINAL CHALLENGE AHEAD~

Vernon felt anger at being toyed with like this and let out another bull-like roar and limped faster down the corridor.

A curved entrance shrouded with black felt curtains stood ahead.

He ripped the curtains apart and found himself facing a zig-zagging path to a door with mist slowly rolling through.

At the far end was stood the man, watching him.

He let out another cackling laugh as he retreated into the mist.

Vernon felt his cheeks shake in anger as he started walking along the narrow path.

He glanced over the edge and saw sharp spikes lined up in rows all across the floor.

He gasped as he wobbled slightly, pausing to balance himself.

"Well, tubby, it looks like you're nearing the end," the raspy voice spoke through unseen speakers.

Vernon glared around the room, searching for something to direct his anger at.

"But, you didn't really think that you'd get something so... _easy_ for the final run, did you?"

Vernon turned an awkward shade of puce and turned to the ceiling.

"AND WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO DO..."

He was cut off as ropes swung down, swaying backwards and forwards in a continuous pendulum across the rest of the walkway he had left to traverse.

At the end of each rope was a bundle axes tied together so that no matter what way the rope twisted it would be near impossible not to get cut by them.

The way that the axes were staggered left barely an inch between the floor and so that there was no way he could grab a hold of the rope to try and stop it before he passed.

Vernon's face drained of colour until he looked like he had been filled with spoilt milk as he looked back to see how far he had managed to get across the room.

He whimpered when he saw that he was only about four or five steps away from the start.

He turned back to see how far he had left to go and found that the path staggered the way across a distance that looked as far as a small football pitch.

He edged his way along the path, keeping an eye out for anything else that might start swinging down.

He came to the first set of swinging axes and waited as he tried to work his timing out.

The fact that his leg would give out if he put too much pressure on it was hampering his ability to get through this trial and he felt like he wanted to rip the man that had forced this hell upon him to pieces and burn the remains.

He glanced down at his legs and let out a soft whine.

Carefully, he raised his broken leg and turned his attention back to the swinging pendulum of axes.

'One... two... three... four...'

The pendulum swished past him.

'One... two... three... four...'

The pendulum swished past him.

'One... two... three... four...'

The pendulum swished past him and he leapt forward on his good leg.

He landed past the pendulum's range and wobbled as he tried to regain his balance.

And that was how he slowly got through the course.

Timing each swing...

Leaping on one leg past the death trap...

The first time he fell he had landed forward and managed to grab onto the two sides to prevent himself from falling down onto the spikes.

His stomach flared in more abdominal pain as he stood back up, his leg felt like he was being torn apart from the inside.

He was about halfway through the course when the man spoke again.

"My... my... my, my, my, my, my," the voice quickly rattled off, "I think I almost made this one too easy..."

"I'll just have to fix that,"

The sound of a leaver being pulled echoed through the speakers as they cut out and soon the air was filled with the noise of rumbling engines that Vernon knew all too well.

This time when the ropes dropped they were dropped in sets of three, forming a sort of triangle of points with the items on the end, the two on the outside reaching the floor, and the one in the middle making it so he couldn't catch the rope and hold it out of the way.

Vernon Dursley whimpered once more as at the end of each of the ropes was a chainsaw, zip-ties tightened around the handles so the motors wouldn't stop... wait...

An incredibly smug smirk flitted across Vernon's face.

All he had to do was stand here and wait for the chainsaws to run out of fuel.

Once that happened they'd have to bring them back up to refuel them and he'd have a clean shot to get to the end.

"Now, I can probably tell what you're thinking," the raspy voice had returned, "That all you have to do is wait there and they'll run out of fuel, and when they do, you'll have an easy path to the end...

Well, newsflash for The Lord of Lard, take a look behind you,"

Vernon felt the blood drain from his face whilst he had been talking and he slowly turned to look behind him.

Back at the start of the path... wait... where was the...

Vernon's piggy eyes went wide as he realised that the path he had walked down was falling away, the axes had been retracted and the amount of space between him and the collapsing platform was shrinking by the second.

He started whimpering a stream of nonsense words as he turned back to the path in front of him.

He waited until the chainsaws had passed him and as soon as they had he leapt forward.

This time, however, when he fell his hand slipped and he wasn't able to grasp the side of the path properly.

He scrambled to grab onto the path with his other hand, just managing to grasp the other side.

By the time that he had heaved himself back up onto the path the edge of the falling platforms was a lot closer than before had he nearly fell over once more as he tried to stand back up.

His stomach and leg felt like they were trying to pull themselves free of his body as he hurried through the next two sets of chainsaws.

He let out a wounded roar as he passed the next set, the final chainsaw of that bunch had caught his elbow and was now bleeding steadily like his ruined knee.

He regretted glancing back once again as he found that the falling paths had already reached the chainsaws he had passed and, holding an arm to his side, he limped with all his might towards the next, and final, bunch of chainsaws.

He began whimpering once more as he found that this group of chainsaws were not in a group of three like the others had been in.

This time they were arranged in a group of five, forming a 'W' with a chainsaw's blade threatening to tear into his flesh at each point of the letter.

His throat started to constrict under panic now and he felt like the world was starting to tilt and twist as his vision started to shake.

His breaths were coming in quick gasps now as he glanced back and found that the path he had just walked down was already starting to fall.

The chainsaws swung past and he cursed himself for missing his opening.

The platform under his feet started to shake and he threw his arms out to try and balance himself.

If he could just... make... it... last...

The chainsaws swung past him once more and he dived forward.

He barely managed to grasp the edges of the platform as he skidded under.

He screwed his face up in pain as the edge of his foot was caught by the chainsaw, causing his only working leg to jerk and nearly kick him off the edge.

He started to pull himself forward, pushing as hard as he could with his leg, as he crawled towards the end.

The platform under him juddered down slightly and he frantically scrambled up and pushed off as hard as he could.

He landed on the edge of the exit, the lower of his body dangling over the edge as the platform fell away and landed with a crash on the razor-sharp spikes below.

His hands slipped slightly as he tried to claw his way back up.

After a few tense moments, he finally managed to get a grip and heaved his body up and over the ledge.

He rolled onto his back, panting heavily, and trembling just as much.

His breathing slowly levelled out and he was able to finally catch his breath.

His rest was short-lived, however, when the ground tilted away and he found himself sliding down a metal chute onto what looked like an old barbershop chair.

As he settled something was thrown around his arms and tightened, pinning his arms to his side and restraining him against the chair.

"Well!

Well, well, well, well," the raspy-voiced man said through speakers once again.

"RELEASE ME!" Vernon demanded, "RELEASE ME AT ONCE! YOU... you... YOU MONSTER!"

The speakers went silent.

Vernon jerked in surprise as the chair started moving forward, towards an archway covered in rainbow streamers and through which a fine mist was coming.

The low beat of drums began creeping through the air, building themselves up until they were deafening.

Vernon closed his eyes and drew into himself as much as he could as he prepared himself for what was coming.

The chair carried him through the archway and he let out another small whimper.

The drums reached their crescendo and confetti cannons on either side of him exploded in torrents of rainbow sparkles and ecstatic applause nearly deafened him as cheers went around what looked like a circus tent.

He stuttered out in short breaths, cutting himself off and stammering any words that he might have been trying to say, as the chair continued on towards the middle of the room.

More confetti cannons went off as he came to a stop before a figure holding a cane with their face obscured by a sleek tophat.

"Vernon... Dursley..." the figure said slowly with the raspy voice that had been tormenting throughout the entirety of this nightmare.

"YOU!"

"ME!" the figure squealed, twirling the cane and turning to the unseen crowds, "However, I can't take all the credit for this.

First up, we have to thanks Jason for designing, and building, that lovely monster.

Then we have to thank Pop and Cane for puppeteering that monstrosity. They, unfortunately, couldn't stay for the climax as they had a previous engagement to attend to, but..."

"RELEASE ME!" Vernon bellowed at the figure, cutting him off, "RELEASE ME AT ONCE!"

The figure's shoulder's dropped slightly.

"I would if I could... but it's not me that gets to decide what happens to you..."

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Isaac watched as his uncle was put through a custom-made level of hell that Jack had built after secretly taking suggestions from the others about what to put in it and now his ribs hurt from laughing as his uncle was burned, stabbed, broken, emotionally broken, impaled, and sliced.

He stood a little in his seat as he watched his uncle try to claw his way back up from the platform that had fallen away.

He groaned a little as Vernon managed to pull himself up before laughing once again as the ground dropped under him and he vanished from the screen.

The spotlights lit up again as the low rumble of drums filled the air and a few seconds later his uncle, battered, bleeding, bruised, and burnt was rolled unto the room on an old barbershop chair.

As confetti was thrown into the air he turned to speak to Ben, who was sat next to him, and whispered, "Confetti! It's a parade!"

The two of them giggled as Laughing Jack ran back onto the stage whilst his uncle was distracted, looking around the tent with panic filled eyes.

Jack quickly shook himself down and adjusted the top hat on his head, leaning against the cane, as he waited for Vernon to come to a stop.

Jack was partway through talking to the crowds when Vernon had shouted across him, his face turning a deep violet that clashed horribly with how pale his skin was.

Jack had turned to face him as he started shouting to be released and Isaac had to strain his ears to hear what he had said.

"I would if I could... but it's not me that gets to decide what happens to you..."

Isaac frowned as Toby tapped him on the shoulders and he turned to find that he was holding out his face mask and goggles.

Isaac looked at the offered items in confusion until the spotlights started circling the crowds again as L.J spoke.

"That little decision goes to the guest of honour,"

The gears in Isaac's head finally clicked and he quickly pulled the goggles and facemask on just as the spotlights landed on him.

Vernon's look was drawn to him but his face was obscured, he had even tugged up his hood as it had gotten a little cold in the tent.

"W-what's he going to do?" Vernon's voice shook with panic as Isaac made his way along the bench and over to the stairs that led down to the stage.

"Whatever he wants, you're not exactly in a position to say no, aren't you?" Jack said as Isaac took the steps up onto the stage, "So then... what do you think of my Gauntlet?"

"Awesome," Isaac said, keeping the American accent to hide who he was, "How the hell did you get it done so fast?"

"Well... I'm fairly sure OSHA would have my head on a pike if they saw it. But, other than that," he reached into his pocket, "Gotta love high power nailguns!" he pulled out the aforementioned nail gun, "This baby can..." he paused as it accidentally fired, "GAH! Sorry Tammy!" he shouted into the crowd when the barely visible outline of a zombie child fell over.

It was at that point that their attention was rudely drawn back to the captive participant.

"LET ME GO!" he screeched at them.

"So rude," Jack said.

"GO TO HELL! YOU FUCKING CLOWN FREAK!"

Vernon was too busy screaming his lungs out at Jack to notice how Isaac's entire being seemed to fill with anger.

"What you got around here that hurts?" he asked Jack, his voice ice cold.

"Fairly certain this would pack a decent punch," Jack said, offering him the nailgun.

Isaac contemplated the offered power tool for a moment.

"What have you got that hurts... and is fun?" he asked, looking up at him.

Jack's grin widened slowly.

"This _is_ a carnival, after all, what don't I have?" Jack countered.

With that, he walked off and whistled to a few of the children.

The children hurried off and he shouldered the nailgun.

"W-what are you going to do to me?" Vernon asked, growing more, and more, pale by each passing minute.

Jack and Isaac ignored the man as a few moments later the children came back, bringing with them a wide variety of things.

Isaac moved to the side as a large board with straps was rolled past him.

"Right-y ho!" Jack said, "From this particular selection..." his voice had changed from a raspy Estuary English to a raspy French, "We have a wonderful... Wheel of Death!"

A spotlight shifted to highlight the large board that had been rolled past him.

The lighting caused the many, many, marks in the board from where knives had been thrown into it to become small, shadowy, pockets.

"An original... William Hunt Human Cannonball Canon!"

A spotlight was shone over a large, black, cannon that was moved over to one side of the stage.

"Next up, we have what all circus' should have... A High Wire!"

The light circled around to show a ladder leading up to a thin strand of wire that stretched between four pillars around the tent.

"So then... what'll it be?" Jack asked crouching down so he was face to face with Isaac.

Isaac looked around the options that Jack had ready for him, strumming his hands against his chin.

His facemask stretched out a bit as he smiled maliciously.

He leaned closer to Jack and whispered something in his ear, all the while fixing his whimpering uncle with a steely gaze through his blue-tinted goggles.

The man seemed to be rightfully afraid for his life as Jack's smile grew predatory as he glanced over that the tied up man.

"An... _excellent_ choice," he said slowly, standing back up.

He put two long fingers in his mouth and whistled, motioning to someone or something unseen.

The lights went out all except for the ones looking upon Vernon and the one pointed at Isaac and Jack.

"Tonight!

Vernon, Ass-hat, Bastard, Dursley... shall face...

The Wheel of Death!" he shouted to the crowds and cheers, jeers, and applause cracked through the silence.

"Wha... NO... No... no... stop this... STOP THIS!" Vernon cried out as his chair was pushed over to the board, "S-STOP THIS!"

The two zombie kids that were pushing him undid the belt and in that quick moment before they could grab his arms he had swung out at them and knocked them away.

Vernon managed to take five steps towards escaping when Jack raised his hand, clicked his fingers, and called out, "Security!"

After nothing happened he turned to the crowd.

"Teer, will you get off your ass and do something?"

"Oh!" came the reply from the stands.

A few seconds later golden string had wrapped around the Vernon's struggling limbs and he went crashing down to the ground.

His panicked whimpers started up again as he was lifted off of the ground by a figure in a billowing black coat with eyes that shone with a golden light floated just above him.

He was slammed into the wheel and the... the...

His eyes went wide as he looked at the decaying children that started to strap his arms and legs to the board before they secured him by the waist and neck.

"L-L-LET M-M-ME G-G-G-GO!" he shouted, stammering over every word as his panic seemed to be nearing its climax.

Isaac slowly walked over to the board and glared at the restrained man.

"Let you go? Now... why on earth would I ever want to do that... Uncle Vernon?" he said slowly, letting the American accent slide away.

Vernon stopped shaking and looked down at him with shock, fear, disgust, and hatred in his eyes.

"YOU!" he roared.

"Me," Isaac said with a sneer, tugging his facemask down and pushing his goggles up, "Long time, no see, how you been, fatass?"

Vernon let out a stream of insults and swears at him, insults that Isaac knew well off by heart.

Calling him a freak;

Insulting his parents, which elicited an eye-roll from Isaac;

Calling him worthless;

"While this little trip down memory lane is _wonderful_ ," Isaac said, interrupting him and pouring on the sarcasm, "In case you've forgotten, you overweight oaf... you're the one strapped to a board, slowly dying... how's your side feeling?"

Vernon's piggy eyes narrowed at him and the vein in his head looked like it was ready to burst.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?" he spat at him.

"Me? Nothing... well, nothing _yet_ , anyway... but E.J... I think you might know him?

Blue mask?

Looks like he's got tar running out of his eyes?

Ringing any bells?" Isaac asked in a slightly sing-song voice.

By the way that Vernon's already ashen face started trembling he most definitely did.

"Well... you see... E.J has a _very_ specific diet... the, erm... the _Hannibal Lector_ diet," Isaac said with a cruel smile.

Vernon's cheeks blew out as he started retching.

"HE TASTED LIKE BACON!" a shout came from the stands, "OFF BRAND, AND SOUR, BACON... BUT STILL KINDA THE SAME!"

Isaac turned back to Vernon with a shrug as a small pile of something splattered to the ground from his mouth.

"But, as delightful as chatting to you is... I think I've grown bored of you... so I'd better have my fun since, well... apparently Evander didn't exactly do a proper job patching you up once E.J had gotten his fix... said you've got a couple of hours at most," he said as he walked over to where Jack had returned with a cloth covered table.

As Isaac came nearer Jack whipped the cloth off the table with a flourish and the stands went up in chittering cheers and claps at the numerous sharpened items on display.

"Well then... what do you want to start with?" Jack asked him, "We've got daggers, potato peelers, you'd be surprised how much they hurt, your standard throwing knives, axes, no idea where I got this tomahawk... or this ice-pick, for that matter," he broke off, picking the aforementioned items up before shrugging, "Well, you're choice,"

Isaac looked at the items on the table before he beckoned for Jack to come a little closer.

He whispered something into Jack's ear and he went over to a zombie kid he called up while Isaac turned back to the table.

His smirk had returned by the time that Jack came back and he picked up the throwing knives.

Jack turned to face the board that a trembling Vernon was strapped to.

He clicked his fingers and the zombie kids waiting at the side of the board grasped the edges.

He clicked his fingers again and soon Vernon Dursley was spinning around in circles on the board, his stomach threatening to give way once more.

He was about to start shouting at the freak again when something sliced along the inner of his left forearm and any words he might have tried to say were lost in a shout of pain.

"Ooh! And it looks like we've had our first hit, can Rogers follow it up with another? And..."

Another painful scream from Vernon soon rang out.

"And that's an absolutely magnificent shot on his other kneecap, I daresay that if he were to leave this place with his life then crutches would most definitely be in order there,"

The pattern of Isaac steadying himself, throwing, Vernon screaming, and Jack announcing the result continued for the last four knives, and the potato peelers, before Isaac ran his hand across the table.

A few moments later Vernon had to be re-restrained to the board as the tomahawk cut across his wrist and cut the strap in two.

The zombie kid that Jack had sent on an errand run came back and Jack waved for the two trying to strap Vernon back to the board to stop and release him.

Vernon fell to a crumpled pile on the ground, clutching his bleeding arm as his hand flopped uselessly.

The tomahawk had cut halfway through his wrist and he could see the bloodied bone through the gash.

The zombie kid ran over to Isaac and she held up what she had been sent to get.

Isaac still had his facemask down so she could see the smile on his face as he picked up the axe that Toby had given him the summer after his first year at Hogwarts.

He spun the axe in his hand and turned back to face a whimpering Vernon.

"Eight years..." Isaac said, "Eight years, stuck in a cupboard, beaten, berated, starved..." he slowly advanced on Vernon, "While you, and Dudley... and _dear Aunt Tuney_ lived like royalty while working me like a slave..."

He paused as Vernon tried to scramble away, but Teer was quicker.

Golden string quickly wrapped around his arms and forced him into a kneeling position.

The entire tent had gone silent save for the occasional, faint, tick and Vernon's whimpers.

"Eight years... then came that night... and then everything changed.

I got adopted by the best brother ever," Isaac said, dropping his voice and kneeling down in front of him, "And if there's one thing I regret about when I met him?

It was that I stayed in my cupboard just long enough to miss him killing your sister,"

Vernon's head jerked upward and he looked at him with pained, hate-filled, eyes.

"But do you know what I was in time for?" Isaac asked, a smile stretching out his cheeks as he poked Vernon in the chest with the blunt side of the axe, "I was right on time so that I could shove each and every one of those knives into Petunia's back,"

Vernon started shaking from anger as Isaac's head dropped to his chest as laughter started to build up.

Isaac let out a sigh as he brought a hand to his mouth as he finished laughing.

"You know, when I first heard about what happened to you, getting tossed in the loony bin, I mean, I ended up falling onto the bed in laughter... so, I guess... it's only fitting that it's me that does this, isn't it?"

He stood up and paced around Vernon.

"How do you think Dudley will react when he hears about what happened to you?

Do you think he even remembers you anymore?" he stopped as he was around the back of Vernon.

His uncle's body was slumped forward.

Freely running fat tears were running fast and silent down his face.

"So... Vernon Dursley..." he mouthed something to Teer, who was standing to the side and leaning against one of the poles that held the tent up.

Teer released the string and Vernon slid forward a little from being released as Isaac pulled his goggles down and pushed his facemask back into place.

"... I release you..." Isaac said softly.

Vernon started at Isaac's tone.

Gone was the sneering. Gone was the taunting. Gone was every trace of hatred that had been present before.

Now... it was kind... comforting...

He took in a few shuddering breaths.

"I release you from your life," Isaac finished a few moments later, his voice regaining the steel edge and losing any emotion.

Vernon's eyes went wide and as he turned to look in shock at his nephew something hard collided with the side of his head.

He was knocked over as Isaac hit him with the flat edge of the axe and as he tried to get back to his feet Isaac swung again, bringing the axe down hard on the back of his head.

The axe sunk in, with a sickening crack, until the blade was more than halfway inside and Isaac let go of the handle as Vernon's lifeless body slumped to the ground, a steadily growing pool of blood surrounding his emotionally vacant face.

For a second or two there was silence... then the chittering applause of the zombie kids started up again.

Isaac looked around and pushed his goggles back onto his forehead as he looked back to Jack and then to the stands in the crowd where the others were sat.

Beneath his face mask, he had one of his widest grins on and...

"Gah!" Isaac yelped as someone spun him around before lifting him up and sticking him on their shoulders.

Toby whooped and raised a fist in the air, a motion followed shortly after by Isaac as he steadied himself on his shoulders.

A few moments later he was being carried off of the stage by him and the others were all watching with satisfied looks on their faces.

"To killing abusive bastards!" Toby shouted out to the others as they filed out of the tent.

"To torturing abusive bastards!" came the reply from L.J, E.J, and Teer.

"To revenge!" Isaac added on as he ducked under the entrance to the tent.

More cheers went up around him, Ben and Toby being the loudest, and as they left the carnival only one thought came to his mind...

'Best Birthday Ever!'

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

End notes.

Well?

What did you think?

This chapter was so fun to write, I actually did the most of it over the weekend when I uploaded chapter 44 while I was out at a couple of BBQ's, one of which was a birthday party.

So I ended up writing the list for what each of the killers would have suggested, or I felt like they would suggest, on a plate after I'd eaten the slice of cake off of it.

So, if you'd like to hazard a guess at who suggested what, I'll tell you if you've got the same idea as me.

But, I really want to hear your thoughts on this one.

Did you like what I did? Think I should have had him suffer a little more?

So I've somehow managed to get Isaac's birthday to stretch across three chapters now... well, sort of 2 chapters.

But, that is where I'm ending things this week.

I hope that you've enjoyed, and I'll see you next week,

SteamGeek01

SteamGeek01

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!


	46. Chapter 46, Display and TOBY!

Chapter 46, Display and... TOBY!

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Hello, how's things going?

I'm feeling a little ontop of this story once again and now I need to decide what happens next...

I'm actually drawing blanks, what am I suppose to write?

I mean... I know what I could write, wrap up the last little bit of Isaac's birthday and then have them go to the Quidditch match but...

'groans'

That'll mean I'm back to copying from the books, and that'll mean I don't have as much control over things, and...

'groans'

You know what?

Screw it. I'm in control here, I'm changing what I want when I want!

This world is Mine!

I decide what happens!

Ok, I just scared myself a little there... I kinda like it.

And I think I've hit that point where I realise that I am basically a god to the characters in this story, what I say goes... you know what?

Bring on Goblet! Let's have some fun!

But first, the reviews... I'm expecting some good ones here!

Guest;

Hello there.

I'm glad that you like the story.

If I'm able to pull you in with a story that I'm honestly not all that focused on writing, purely becuase I'm still searching for a job and getting stuff ready for the next Comic-Con I'm going to, but I'm definitely going to be upping the ante with things in the future.

Year 4 is about to roll around and I'm gonna have an absolute ball.

Hold on, I gotta google that...

'keyboard cliking'

Erm... I never watched Naruto so correct me if I'm wrong, but the comparison basically means you're promising not to go hyper-focused ninja fangirl on me?

That's... pleasant? Though it also might be kinda interesting to see...

Thank you?

I know that writing fanfics is tough for some, I'm just happy that one of the things in life I seem to be able to do well is writing... might have to look into making something completely original sometime...

I'm glad that you like how I've written the characters, and thank you once more.

You left another review just to say how good it was, I'm blushing now.

MyraZinshu;

I'll learn Latin through sheer spite if I have to, I want to be able to cuss an ass out and have them not know what I'm saying.

Seeing the things from the parent's point of view when I do L.J's kills is how I've done it in the past, unless they're a grown up, so it's how I'll be doing them from now on.

I know, she's one of my favourite artists.

I do... I play Warhammer and you have to build each model yourself so you need to cut the pieces out from frames and sometimes the knife I'm using slips so my fingers kinda look like the coat of a tiger if you look close enough.

Trials will be fun to write, I've added it to the list.

Ben giggles as well, you're not alone.

You know what the build up leads to... just what to do with the building up...

Yet to let you down? I've started blushing again.

I'd have thought that Vernon would have been a fairly easy one to guess?

I think John Kramer would be impressed with what I came up with.

Writing that chapter was so much fun that I actually kept going back and adding to it.

Originally I had already finished that chapter by the Tuesday after chapter 44 had gone up.

Jeff and L.J have an intense rivalry going on where they keep trying to one up the other and I feel like it'll never happen.

I'll explain it a little more character wise in the future but, to me, Laughing Jack doesn't see Jeff as just another Creepypasta for that age. He's something else and he delights in winding one of our favourite psychos up non-stop.

Ladies, Gents... I think that if you'll permit it... I think I have found Isaac's 'Line'.

Honestly, the end was where I thought it would be the weakest, I was struggling with how to finish it and almost left it on Vernon falling to the ground dead so I could pick up next week when I'd have more time to work out what would happen.

I think my dad worries a little about me when I write this as well, you're not alone.

Thank you, and I hope you like everything else I put out from here on out.

Lunarwolf11021;

I'm glad that it was worth the wait.

Satisfying is one way to describe it, and I think I've pleased everyone with how I killed off one of the last Dursley's.

'Bows to the applause'

Thank you, thank you, please, keep applauding me! My ego loves it!

Like I said at the end of the last chapter, I designed each part of the Gauntlet Dursley ran to a suggestion off of the Creepypastas incase you want to try and guess who had what?

Dumbledore... I don't think I'll be able to top this.

I think... no... absolutely no spoilers about what I'll do to him... mainly because I have no idea what I'm doing as of this moment...

I hope you like it!

Sweet Smilie;

Yeah, the pain was a pretty big part of that chapter.

No! No pity for the child abosers, bad Sweet Smilie! Bad Sweet Smilie!

'raises Chancla'

Yeah, 2 Creeps is about the normal amount Slendy sends out on missions if it can't be handled solo.

There are times where they send more, like the one with Teer, Toby, and Jane near the end of 'Prisoner', or the time that they had to steal the meteor.

I do wonder what it would be like if I wrote a chapter in the style of a script for a play... maybe I should write an EXTRAS chapter like that, let you all see how I think things play out.

Yeah, Isaac got to knock off another Dursley... should I... should I go for a hat trick?

You'll see what that lemon drop addict thinks of this soon... very soon...

Dudley, I believe, got shunted off into foster care.

Either that or whoever his grandparents on Vernon's side are got custody of him.

Ok... I still have no idea about the teeth thing... erm...

Erm... er... Yeah, you lost me again.

TheMarpasChappers;

MARPAS!

EVERYONE! MARPAS IS BACK!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Hey, long time, no see!

How have you been?

Ok, that review was left on chapter 29...

Yeah, I thought that you all needed to see how Eris works when she has to do her thing.

Smile is paranoi that something is stalking you, and Eris is... I'm struggling to think of the world to use. It's like amplifying your worst fears and provoking an emotionally compromised state... induced intense depression.

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Hiya Rosie.

Thank you!

You got Jeff right, he suggested the bleach and fire.

Toby... well... not exactly. Oby was the axes and chainsaws at the end, wanting to tear the man apart and inflict as much pain with each stroke as he could.

There are some that are a little on the nose, and a few that I didn't go for what happened in their stories, but rather how I felt they would feel would be a good way to torture or antagonise someone or to just screw with their mind.

I'll probably post the list next chapter, but feel free to keep guessing.

And no, Locklear wasn't the EMT.

That was Jack, since he wanted to see his work up close and personal, plus it's his show he's running, putting Vernon through the hoops, he'd have wanted to be up there teasing and taunting the man to piss him off even more and make it more fun.

Dark Ravie;

Thanks.

TheMarpasChappers;

MARPAS!

Again, you're catching up with everything I see.

Chapter 34... what happened then... Oh! Right, Sirius and Isaac's first talk.

Thanks, I'm glad that you like it.

Sirius is someone I'd been planning stuff for ever since I first mentioned The Orbiters.

Matt (Guest);

Ok... I think this is asking for a neshot about Isaac coming out... but, just to be sure, S.O.M is just shortened 'Someone' right?

Isaac's getting there in terms of his CP side... slowly... but he's getting there...

acherongoddess;

I thank you!

Reidar7;

Yep, Vernon's kicked the bucket, he's began to rust.

He's given up the ghost now that his number's up.

Thank you, writing that chapter was fun and I really liked thinking of all the ways that the Creeps would torture someone.

I might write an EXTRA chapter for pure fluff between the two, but it might be a while, got other things I'd like to do first.

I've been told many times that the wait is worth it, so I'm glad you feel the same.

It'll be back to Hogwarts soon, might have another chapter between the game and returning to Hogwarts, but I don't know yet.

Thunder-Death;

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you again, I think that you definitely liked it.

Not A Criminal;

Do you know what you've done?

Do you really know?

You... well... you got the 300th review.

My story has 300+ reviews, I'm a very happy duck right now!

But, yeah, that would have been hilarious.

TheMarpasChappers;

And they're back once more, hello!

End of chapter 43 -

Yeah, Toby's stopped planning to kill Locklear.

The Mansion is full of killers and psychos, they're going to have a betting pool for everything at some point... unfortunately, Slendy has a ban on it due to Jeff having to rob a few places when it got out of hand.

Ben and Isaac were fun to write.

Wait... is it... can it be?

It is! It's the list!

The list is back, oh, how I've missed the list.

1,

Well... a map of The Mansion would be interesting.

Considering that it's not a fixed entity like Hogwarts castle I'd imagine it would be pretty difficult.

2,

L.J and the twins would be a headache since you've got two wizards who want to have a little bit of mischevious fun coupled with a killer clown with access to centuries worth of stuff to both fund and help them with. Plus, he doesn't exactly obey the general laws of physics.

I'd avoid that group like the plague.

3,

I know, I'm hooked on them as well.

I'm looking back into how to draw stuff so I can... holy crap... I've gone full fanboy, I'm learning something just to see one of my OTP's more...

And a list for chapter 45, alrighty then...

1,

If I were to do something with the FNAF characters... it'd have to be an EXTRAS chapter if they were actual beings... or through Ben interracting with the cyberspace to... ok, I might have an idea, but it might be a while since I'd have to look some stuff up...

2,

I honestly love the second trailer for it, the one where they try and find what happened to their friend.

To me, you make the movie all about suspense and subtle scares. Make everyhting explainable with easy logic and have it so that the supernatural explanations can all be explained with it being the main characters being paranoid.

If they try to make The Slenderman into a generic slasher then it'll fail... it'll fail _hard._

The reason that the game and Marble Hornets work so much is becuase of the suspense.

You know _something_ is there, but not _where_ it is.

3,

I've said that Kramer would probably like what I made, definitely enjoyed writing it.

4,

I've got that one on my phone, actually, that and 'A Gorey Demise'.

5,

I actually had a few other options for this story, and one of them is kinda close to what you said.

I might turn them into EXTRAS chapters in the future.

.549;

Ok, I can't write your name without it vanishing, sorry.

In this story they most definitely are anti-heores.

In their own world, they're villains through and through.

Have I ever told any of you about my personal Navy?

See over there, that massive one in front, the Battleship, that's the Victuuri.

Around it, you can see my Cruisers Otayuri, Drarry, Harmony, Wolfstar, and Billdip.

Over here we have my Destroyers Destiel, Sabriel, Moosifer, Johnlock, so forth...

Next to them, we have my Frigates H20Vanoss, Malec, Jam...

And I've currently got, on loan from a friend, The Anti-Septiplier.

So yeah, I've heard of them, and I have a feeling that I'd know just what to do...

But it'll be a while if I ever do anything.

IhaveNoLife22;

And I remember writing it, funny how time seems to get away from us, doesn't it?

I've nearly been writing this story for a year, trust me, it only feels weirder.

I have heard quite a bit about that particular troll fic, I think I'll have to read it at some point.

I'm glad that there's a noticeable improvement in my writing... I'll keep that in mind...

Though I normally prefer to shove a rusty nail down their urethra, if they're male, or pour scalding coffee down their ears, if they're female.

Ceresama;

Yeah, he'd been long overdue.

I had considered having Isaac visit him in the mental asylum where he got locked up and have Teer and Ben cause him to go even crazier, but I think I like this option a lot better.

Guest;

Back on chapter 32, what was that... oh yeah, look, I like pineapple on pizza, Kagekao is just picky!

YingYangWriter;

Yeah, he can be at times.

Making that thing would have probably been awesome, I had tried to work everyone that could have done something into the Gauntlet but I feel like I missed one or two...

I think that that is the best way to describe Dursley at the end of that... I think that I'm either going to go all out when it comes to Dumbledore or go with something simple... I don't know yet.

Ooooh... ouch... that's got to hurt. I only ever really burn the back of my neck so I have no idea how bad it is for you.

Ok, that was it.

DP is still on holiday so I'm flying solo once more, but let's do this.

Also, been working on the job front and I had a couple of interviews for possible work opportunities, so I might be in luck fairly soon.

SteamGeek01.

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Horsham, England.

Albus Dumbledore walked down the streets, ignoring the occasional odd looks he was getting because of his suit.

True he didn't think it was as up to date as formal clothing was at the present time, but he digressed.

The reason he was donning his muggle apparel once again was to visit a certain man he had thought was long gone from his view.

Late yesterday evening he had gotten wind of the fact that Vernon Dursley had re-surfaced after all these years.

He knew that if he could get to Dursley, then there might be some way to try and bring Potter back to the U.K.

Back to him.

He knew Dursley would never take the child in again, that plan had shattered beyond anything that remotely ressembles salvageable.

However, if Dursley was to go back to trial, then Potter would have to turn up to testify.

A powerful cloaking charm, as well as a few memory charms on his 'family', and they'd all think that Potter had elected to stay with his friends for the remainder of the holidays.

After that he could either use the Imperius, or a number of charm and potion combinations at his disposal, to create a rift between Potter and those damn Americans.

His beard hid his malevolent grin as he rounded the corner and...

He felt hot white anger rise again as he saw the police cars and vans surrounding the building.

He might not know much about why or how the muggle authorities used dogs in their endeavours, but he knew that they had a function for search and rescue events.

That accompanied by the fact that a sergeant was telling men a physical description of Dursley told him that Vernon Dursley had once again vanished.

He was about to lure a stray policeman over and imperio him to find out what happened when the sergeant talked into a small black box that seemed to be attached to the strap of the heavy looking vest he wore.

"Alright men, we've gotten wind of where he is.

I want a Forensics team to report to Four Privet Drive immediately, cordon off the street and await further instruction, get a move on!" he shouted out to them and the various teams disbanded.

He felt something rise up within him at the mention of Harry Potter's old home and he quickly took off down a side street before apparting to Privet Drive.

He grimaced as he saw more muggle law enforcement already on seen, however that quickly turned to a frown as large white sheets covering the front of the home.

He pulled out his wand and cast a notice-me-not charm on himself and a disillusionment charm to hide from any cameras or recording apparatus.

He strode across the street, moving past a few people that were standing by and trying to see what was happening.

He found the edge where he could get in and walked out onto the lawn.

He paused, bringing a hand to his mouth as his stomach churned in disgust.

The body of one Vernon Dursley was fixed to the door with large rusty nails going through his arms and one forced through his gaping mouth, his jaw hanging open slightly from where the spike had cut his jaw.

He looked upon the morbid display for a second longer before he turned and...

He felt something inside him chill.

There, written across the front windows in what could only be Vernon's blood was a scrawled message.

~ _And another one gets added to my collection~_

 _~Any guesses on who's next?~_

Albus Dumbledore quickly apparated away, unknowingly causing many people to panic and cower as the loud crack echoed around the street.

As he stumbled slightly whilst making his way back up the cobbled street from Hogsmeade back to Hogwarts he couldn't help but wonder what sort of sick, twisted, psychotic thoughts were buzzing around that man's head.

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"I'm thinking pasta with hotdogs tonight?" Toby said to Jeff as he twirled the mallot in his hand.

"That's great and all but can we finish nailing this guy..." Jeff broke off with a groan, "Shut up!"

"I didn't say anything," Toby said with a grin that showed all too well he had been about to say something.

Toby did, however, finish hitting the last spike through Vernon so he was nailed up to the door.

That had been the last thing they were to do as they had already left that message to keep people properly freaked out.

"And that's the last of those douchebag pricks," Jeff said, dusting off his hands.

"Yeah, well... 'cept for his cousin, but that tub of lard's probably suffered enough trying to find a family that would take him in," Toby said, tossing Jeff the mallet to shove back in the bag they had brought.

"Yeah... didn't you say you caused the kid to piss himself?" Jeff asked, "What did you say to him?"

"Oh... erm... nothing," Toby said, not convincing the grinning killer.

"Come on, what did you say?" Jeff asked, hitting him with an elbow into his ribs.

"Well... erm... I pointed one of my axes at him and... kinda growled... 'Go to sleep, little piggy' at him," Toby finished quickly before he broke out in a run back to The Mansion.

Jeff stood there for a second before shouting and running, after him.

"THAT'S _MY_ LINE! YOU BASTARD!"

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While it wasn't that an uncommon a sight, Masky was slightly confused about why Toby was the one Jeff was angrily running after instead of the usuals of either Sally or L.J.

He sighed and decided to get the last bit of rest in before he had to go deal with whatever mess the two of them got themselves into.

He sighed and pushed up his mask as he took another sip from the beer he had gotten and closed his eyes as he rested his head against the chair.

"Got the thing you asked for,"

He opened an eye as Isaac put something on the table in front of him.

He made a soft grunting noise and heaved himself forward.

The beer stood off to the side as he shifted through the heavy parchment that Isaac had gotten for him by reaching out to one of his friends at Hogwarts... Mallroy, or something like that.

He flicked the parchment into a better position to read as he looked over the printed map of, according to the notes given, Dartmoor.

That little stretch of land was where they'd be heading in a couple of weeks for the magical... thingy... he let his train of thought run away from him as he rubbed his eyes.

He might have had a little too much to drink while at L.J's carnival.

He groaned again as he heard the crash that Toby and Jeff's little chase had led to somewhere behind him.

As he made to get up he felt a gloved hand in his shoulder.

He turned to see Hoodie pull his hand back, point at him then to the ceiling with his thumb, before he pointed at himself and behind them to where they could now hear more crashing.

Masky clasped his hands together as if praying to his balaclava wearing friend and heaved himself up off the couch, heading towards the stairs.

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'Local family... probably own the land... Slendy can do something about the forest...' were just some of the stray thoughts that were running through Masky's head the next day as he stuck close to the treeline.

He watched in the distance as a group of four wizards move around a large structure, their wands out as a slight shimmer in the air passed over what he assumed must be the stadium.

He felt two fingers tap his shoulder and he turned to find Hoodie behind him.

"How many?" he asked, turning back to the stadium.

"Eighty-four workers on north and west, eleven civillians," Hoodie said, looking over Masky's shoulder at the building.

"I counted the same," Masky agreed, "What do you think?"

"Haven't got security patterns," he said.

Masky sighed, "Take it that you want to scope the place out?"

An agreeing grunt was all he got in return as Hoodie adjusted the cuffs of his hoodie and tugged his hood forward a little.

"Alright, message if you run into trouble," Masky said, zipping up his coat and turning to leave.

All he got in response to that was a mocking snort as Hoodie tugged the balaclava tighter around his head and set off towards the stadium.

According to where Isaac had told them their tickets were somewhere at the very top... which meant he had a lot of climbing to do... looked like it was time to put those old triatholon practices to good use.

He calmed his breathing for a few moments as he looked at the workers moving around the place.

It took a minute, but then he found a gap in their shifts and took off running through the trees, barely making a sound from the years of practice he had.

He slipped past a few workers, them only thinking a rabbit had dared to go a little closer, and soon he was hiding behind a large pole that held the stands up.

He waited for the next worker to pass before started making his way up the stairs.

'Toby's going to complain about all of these,' he thought as he reached what he thought was the fourteenth level.

After a solid five minutes of climbing, in which he only had to hide by hanging over the edge once by a stray straggler, he reached the top and leaned against the railing as he looked out over the pitch below.

On the far side, he could just make out three people raising what looked like a bubble wand for a giant into position amongst two others.

A quick glance at the other end revealed another set of three already standing high.

'fifty-five, fifty-six feet,' he thought as he judged the height of the smaller tower hoops.

He checked the small number that was drawn on the floor and found that the area that Isaac's tickets had booked them was a good few sections away.

He looked over and although it looked close to being a whole ring, each section of the stand had a gap large enough for a decently sized man to fall down.

He placed two steady hands on the railing and vaulted over to the next segment.

By the time he reached the area where Isaac's tickets would seat them his mind was already thinking up failsafes for how they would avoid detection.

Ben could get in and out through the Gameboy alright, Sally could phase.

Teer and L.J could bring anyone either interested or cleared to go and just as easily get them out if something happened.

When he reached the area he looked around, nodding to himself.

It was next to the stairwell, so they would hear anyone coming up, the spot was at the end and by the looks of what the latest batch of workers were doing there was going to be a rain-guard going up so essentially the area was going to be the corner of a box with the only way to look in being either eye-level on the opposite side and to actually come around from the stairwell.

In short, it would be hard to see them if they were there.

At the sounds of people coming up the stairs, he vaulted over the edge and quietly dropped down to the level below.

That pattern went on until he came back to the ground and he dusted his hands off as he made his way deeper into the trees.

He breathed in, sensing the change between English air and American.

It was good to be back home.

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"So it's good to go?" Isaac asked them at dinner that night.

"Yep," Masky said, shiftily eying the burger he had been given.

L.J had been too quiet lately.

"Spot you've gotten is well covered, hard to see us, but easy to see all of them," he went on after finding nothing, "Teer and L.J can handle anyone who can't phase out, Sally and Ben can hide themselves just fine," he broke off as he paused to take a drink, "All in all?

We should be good to..."

He started choking and spat out the swig he had just taken back into the glass.

"What the?" he asked, coughing and choking heavily, "Why the hell... L.J!"

Said clown was already hiding after Masky had found out that he had made the juice on the table with the old hotdog water from the night before.

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Toby strapped the last of their bags together and heaved one of the two sets onto his back.

"Got everything?" Masky asked, getting ready to slip back into his Tim persona.

"Got the bags, Hood's got the tents," Toby listed, patting the bags on his back, "Isaac's got the tickets that we hand into the dudes there, who'll tell us which site we pitch on, and the, heh, _extra_ stuff, so... that leaves you with the other bags," he finished as he helped Masky get the other bag settled comfortably.

"Right... Slendy's set up the link, he's waiting next to the arch thats going to take us there... where's Isaac and 'H'?"

"Getting the list of everyone coming," Toby said, "Hey! How come you don't have a nickname for me?" he asked indignantly, feeling a little mischevious from the bubbling excitement from within.

"I do, they're 'Headache', 'Migraine', and 'Pest',"

Isaac and Hoodie came through a few moments later, the tents slung across Hoodie's back as he tugged off his balaclava and stowed it away safely in his pocket.

"So who's all crashing the party?" Toby asked.

"Liu, Jeff, and E.J are being brought by L.J," Isaac listed off, "... and Teer's bringing Helen and Clock,"

Everyone else was either not cleared by Slenderman to go, i.e. Dr Locklear, or didn't want to go, Jane.

She was using the time alone to train in peace... just she didn't realise that the training dummies would be in a different state of 'piece', curtousy of a rare L.J and Jeff team up aided by a screwdriver and a whole lot of patience.

"OI! Isaac," L.J came through as they were checking that they had everything, "If you find them," he said, handing him a sealed envelope.

From where he was Toby couldn't see the names on the letter, but he figured that he could just ask who it was for later.

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Dartmoor, England.

Isaac blinked when the low sun came into sight as they made their way out of the treeline, raising a hand to shield his eyes so he could see where the roots or loose stones to avoid were.

He and the others came to a stop on the edge of the treeline, taking a break to stretch their arms.

Slendy had decided to give them a little help towards their authenticity of claiming to have landed in Exeter airport and then hiked from the nearest town by setting the portal to the forest near where Masky had said the stadium was located deep inside his own forest.

"Right then..." Tim said, picking the bags back up, "This is your territory now, where'll the guys be?"

"Ok... keep an eye out for anyone that looks like they were dressed by a five-year-old with eye problems," Isaac said, picking up the water tubs he carried through and tucking it under his arm before carefully picking up the other bag Toby had given him to carry and shouldered it as they carried on.

"Walking fashion disasters dead ahead," Toby said after a could of minutes of walking.

Whether the two men, both dressed equally ridiculously, heard him or not one of them, the one wearing what looked like a high-end, three piece, tweed suit and thigh-length wellingtons, had come running over.

"Sorry, private event, completely booked!" he shouted, his clipboard nearly falling out of his hand.

"Quidditch World Cup, right?" Isaac asked as the man nearly fell over as he stopped before them.

"Oh! You... you know?" he said, looking at the area they came from, "I can't remember a setting a portkey over there..." he broke off.

"We got a plane and hiked from the nearest town," Tim said, wanting to hurry up and get settled so he could have some coffee.

"Aah! Right... name?" he asked, fumbling with the keyboard slightly.

"Should be under Rogers?" Isaac said.

The man muttered the name under his breath as his quill trailed down the board and soon he let out another small exclamation.

"Right, field one... talk to Mr Roberts," the man said, pointing them over a hill that seemed to be getting over the last bits of its morning fog.

A short ways away they came to a little stone cottage just before the hill, a lone man wearing a weathered red hat to keep the tops of his ears warm was stood out the front.

"Hi, Mr Roberts?" Tim said as they came nearer.

"Aye, that'd be me," the man said.

After getting the payment for the site sorted, the man was just thankful for someone who gave him very little hastle with paying him, they set off towards the hill he had pointed them towards with a map of the site in hand.

Toby clapped his hands and rubbed them together.

"Well... big field, plus eccentrics that don't know how to blend in... I'm expecting some pretty interesting tents," he said in a faintly sing-song voice.

He jogged ahead of them to see over the crest of the hill and paused with his hands on his hips.

"Well...I am mildly disappointed, once again," he said with a sigh.

Isaac and the others joined him on the top and looked out over the field.

Numerous tents spanned the field, a few last remains of misty fog still lingering every so often, and with the small exception for a few here and there, it looked like any other campsite.

The ones that drew any indication that there was something out of the ordinary was that every so often they would pass a tent that had a chimney or two poking out the top, or with a section fenced off with all the features you would find in a garden.

"Now that's more like it," Toby said approvingly when they passed a tent that was shaped like a three levelled tower, including turrets, and one that was in all fucntionality a small castle that had around seven live peacocks tethered to a post in a fenced area.

"Why do they have peacocks?" Tim asked as one put up its feathers in a warning when they moved past, "I mean... just... why?"

They passed more tents than they could count and came to a small stretch of land near the edge of the treeline.

That kept Tim happy at least, he didn't want to spend too much time trying to find their exit point, and it took them little under half an hour to get their tents set up and soon they were sitting down on some camp chairs Toby had had Isaac carry as he unfolded out a portable fire alter.

"How did you fit all this into two duffel bags?" Isaac asked, looking at them and wondering what Toby could have in the third.

"When you have mastered Tetris at the age nine, you can fit anything anywhere," Toby said.

"Now if only you could do the same with your socks and the hamper," Tim said, digging through another of the bags he had brought.

He let out a soft 'aah' as he came across what he was looking for.

"Right then," he said, "Isaac and Brian are going to go fill the water tubs with water, from the tap on that map, Toby's going to go get wood from the forest so we can cook a nice lunch, and that leaves me to stay here and watch out stuff," he finished, unscrewing the tub of coffee mix he had found and taking a deep sniff.

Isaac and Brian rolled their eyes, picked up a water tub each, and set off with the map in the direction of the tap.

After a minute or two of walking, Brian stopped, blinked, and gave a soft grunt of confusion.

Isaac was mirroring the look of confusion on his face when he looked around and found that everything seemed to look like a stereotypical leprechaun fairy-tale village.

"Isaac? ISAAC!" a shout from not too far away came.

'Well... I was right in some sense,' Isaac thought as a head of sandy hair he knew well started to run towards him.

"Didn't know you got tickets," Seamus said, panting from the quick run over to them.

"Classmate, he's alright," Isaac muttered under his breath to Brian, who relaxed from the tense pose he had taken so he would be ready to knock Seamus down with the water tub.

"Hey dude," Isaac said, raising a hand to wave back at Seamus, "How you been?"

"Not too bad, like the dec's?" he asked, gesturing at the many, _many_ , shamrocks that adorned the tents as far as the eye could see.

"Well... green for go," Isaac said, "Take it that the Irish team are playing?"

A waving pair of people caught his eye and he saw another classmate of his, Dean, sitting next to a sandy-haired woman that was most likely Seamus' mother.

"Drives those Ministry blokes daft," Seamus said with a laugh, falling in step with them as they continued on to get the water, "But if you think we're bad, you should see what them down the way have done," Seamus said before going back to Dean and his mother.

Isaac and Brian were left wondering about who 'them down the way,' were and what they had done to show their support for the other team.

"What in the..." Isaac left the question hanging.

Deep crimson tents all covered with the same picture had replaced the, calm by comparison, shamrocks.

Isaac frowned as he and Brian looked at the large pictures of a scowling late-teen that were hung on each tent as they passed.

Isaac could just make out some low mutterings by some of the campers but he didn't recognise the language, though it did sound a little like Greek...

Eventually, they came to a short line for the tap, silently laughing between the two of them at the ridiculous clothing combinations that most of the wizards and witches were wearing.

Soon enough they had filled the two tubs up to the brim and decided that it'd be faster if they walked nearer the treeline.

Isaac had started up a one-sided chat with Brian, about how Quidditcch normally worked, as they walked and they were nearly back at their tent when another person called over to Isaac.

One he hadn't expected to see here.

"ISAAC!"

He turned and saw a bushy head of hair running towards him.

"Hermione?" Isaac asked, extremely confused as to why she was here.

"I didn't know you were coming," Hermione said as she threw her arms around him.

"I can say the same," Isaac said, hugging her back with the arm that wasn't occupied with the water tub.

"Ginny invited me," she said, taking a step or two back, "I'm here with the Weasleys," her voice did drop a little, maybe not noticeable to someone else but he noticed.

"Ron been alright?" Isaac asked, rubbing his thumb against the flat of his fore finger.

"Sort of," Hermione said, the edge of her mouth dipping slightly from her smile, "He hasn't really said anything to me, the twins and Mrs Weasley made it clear he wasn't to start anything, but that doesn't stop him sneering...

He hasn't done anything," she quickly added on, "If I'm being honest... he's a little too afraid of Ginny to do anything,"

Isaac and Brian shared a puzzled glance with each other as Hermione gestured for them to follow her, "Come on, our tent's over here," she said.

Shrugging to eachother, they picked up the water tubs back up and followed her over to a pair of shabby tents.

Isaac could see Mr Weasley with his back to them as he was crouched down in front of a log pile with a few thin sticks around his feet.

"Dad, why don't you just use magic, were not a muggle," came a moan from a tall red-head near him.

"Because we're supposed to be blending in, Ron," Mr Weasley reprimanded, though there was a little giddy excitement in his voice.

"Mr Weasley, I think I found someone who might be able to help," Hermione said as she stuck her head in the smaller of the two tents.

"Oh, who did... Isaac!" Mr Weasley quickly got up, leaving the small, crushed, box of matches on the pile of wood, "How are you? And... Brian? Brian! How are the two of you?" he said reaching over to shake their hands.

Ron, meanwhile, had gone an oddly sour shade and was pointedly not looking at the newcomers.

"Been alright, just been getting the water sorted out," Isaac said, letting Brian shake his hand.

"You should have sent an owl ahead of you, we could have all came down together," Mr Weasley said.

"Hey, hey," Fred, or possible George, said as he and... whichever one he wasn't, came out of the larger of the two tents.

"Sup, guys?" Isaac said, bumping wrists with the twins.

"Not much, just waiting for Dad to get the fire going," George, Isaac thought, said.

"Well, let the expert in," Isaac said, ducking down to the fire.

Mr Weasley hovered over his shoulder as he picked up the broken matches off the ground and piled them at the bottom of the fire.

He picked up the box and shook out another, striking it, and carefully setting it down on the others.

A small flare of light proceded the dry wood catching and Isaac quickly piled on small bits of wood to keep it going.

"Just build up in stages and it'll keep going for as long as you need it to," Isaac said as he let Mr Weasley in with a kettle.

"So, been up to much?" Fred asked as Isaac stood back up.

"That little 'tradition' with your summers happen again?" George asked.

"Well... kind of..." Isaac said, "I went in to get my tonsils looked at, paperwork got mixed up with another dude who was going in for a circumcision...

You don't know what that is, do you?" he sighed.

When the two of them shook their heads he sighed again.

"Let's just say it's an operation for a very private area.

I didn't get the operation, but I had already been put under the anaesthetic.

Imagine that feeling where you can fall asleep at any time, and extend it for a good few hours, that's how I felt for a good portion of the day,"

The twins had a laugh for a moment before they looked past Isaac.

"Well, here come's Mr Regulation," Fred muttered.

Isaac turned to look at where they were.

Percy was walking over towards them, accompanied by two others.

"Bill and Charlie?" Isaac asked them.

"Yep,"

Isaac nodded.

"Be thankful Ben isn't here, you'd never see Charlie again,"

That sent the twins into another laughing fit.

"That's a scary sight," the shorter of the two unknowns said, "Never met someone who could get them to laugh like that,"

"Charlie," he said, offering his hand.

Isaac gripped it, feeling the familiar sensation of holding burnt and coarse skin.

"The dragon tamer," Isaac said.

"If only it was that glamarous," Charlie said with a snort.

"So that leaves... Bill?"

"And you must be Isaac," Bill said, offering his own.

"I'd hope so, otherwise this I'm running the greatest con ever pulled," Isaac said.

Bill chuckled and crouched down next to Mr Weasley to see how the fire was coming.

Charlie struck up a conversation with Hermione, who had just come back out of the smaller tent with Ginny.

Isaac took a step back with Brian and looked at the two eldest Weasley's.

Charlie had the stocky build of a rather athletic man, which would fit what he had heard about him, and his arms were covered in an even tan, one of them sporting a large shiny burn.

Bill was the opposite of what he had thought he would have been.

From what he had heard about him, Bill had been a prefect and Headboy just as Percy had been.

But, looking at him, Isaac could only think of one word to describe him.

Cool.

Bill looked like he was fresh from a rock concert, his long hair was tied back in a graceful ponytail.

A low, grunting, hum caught his attention and he spun to find Tim standing behind him.

He was till holding the tub of coffee.

"We may have bumped into a couple of my classmates," Isaac said.

"And your classmates are more important than my coffee why?" he asked, unscrewing the cap and taking a slow sniff.

Isac frowned and looked around.

"Wait... where's Toby?"

"Back at the tents, told him to get the fire going for a cup of coffee," Tim said, taking another sniff.

Isaac frowned some more.

"You... you left Toby alone... and told him to make a fire?" he said slowly.

Tim made a soft hum of confirmation.

"You left Toby alone," Brian said, breaking his silence.

Tim made another soft hum of confirmation... then his eyes went wide and he quickly screwed the lid onto the coffee.

He threw it up in the air, Brian deftly catching it, and he took off running.

"TOBY!"

The present Weasley's looked at him in confusion...

Then a metre wide fireball erupted not too far away, climbing twelve feet into the air and dissipating, a few screams with it.

"Three guesses where our tent is," Isaac said.

"What did he do?" Fred asked, looking at the remains of the smoke plume.

"Probably gave the fire something to help it get started," Isaac said, "Oh, by the way, L.J has a letter for you, I'll go get it later,"

A couple of minutes later Tim came back into view, a slightly ash coated Toby in tow.

"Hi, hi," Toby called over to them, "If anyone asks, you haven't seen anyone with napalm around," he said, wiping soot away from his face.

"Where did you get napalm from?" George asked with a small huff of disbelieveing laughter.

"You are one of the last people that I would give the instructions that tell you to mix two litres of gasoline with..."

He stopped when Tim hit him around the back of the head hard enough to cause his chin to hit his chest.

"Enough," Tim said, "And you stop laughing," he pointed at Isaac.

Isaac and Brian had decided to start using the water tubs as chairs and right now Isaac was clutching his chest and giggling to himself.

"Infernus strikes again," he wheezed after a moment.

"Shut up!" Toby hissed.

"Infernus?" Charlie asked, "That terrorist over in America?"

Isaac laughed harder.

"I'm not a terrorist," Toby snapped, "I'm just... I need better supervision after I've had valium, that is all!"

Isaac let out another wheezing laugh as the rest of the Weasley's, plus Hermione, looked at them in slight fear.

"The building was scheduled for demolition in the first place... just... they didn't expect a guy out of his mind on anaesthetic, fresh from surgery, to find the detonator," Toby huffed.

The twins had joined Isaac in laughing.

"Oh yeah, laugh it up," Tim said, "That little stunt got me tied up in enough legal tape that I'll still be working through it when I'm ninety,"

"Well... our kettle is done if you want to stay for a cuppa?" Mr Weasley offered, wanting to move on from the conversation.

"And like that, I'm writing you into my will," Tim said, taking the coffee grinds from Brian and giving them to him.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

End notes.

Alright, this is a sort of short one.

If I'm being honest, this was the hardest chapter to write in a while because aside from a massive bout of writer's block, I've not been feeling like my usual self for a bit.

I'm getting better, and I'll most likely have next week's chapter finished without as much hassle, but I think I struggled to come up with stuff since to top last weeks majesty.

I promise that I'll try harder next week, and I'm sorry if this chapter isn't up to the usual standards.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!


	47. Chapter 47, Chaos at the Cup

Chapter 47, Chaos at the Cup.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Next chapter, I'm feeling better and I think I'm good.

I completed my Eyeless Jack cosplay, as well as Death, and I had a bag of fruit pastilles for breakfast.

Plus, I may or may not have been eating a bag of Jelly Babies when I was finishing the Eyeless Jack mask.

So what's on the agenda for today?

I have no idea, I've been free-balling this thing for a while now, but there is a structure forming in my head.

Well, with all that said, I've got a bunch of reviews to get to.

CirrusSeaEagle;

OI! Unless you've had it, you don't get to diss it.

Pasta and sausages is delicious.

Oh, a lettered list this time.

A, Latin is fun, but there is a chance that I might summon a demon trying to talk to people.

B, Isaac is going to downing headache pills by the meal during fourth-year.

C, I am going to be writing little things that I might do for Dumbledore, but yes, it is a while away.

TheMarpasChappers;

Hello, my favourite reviewer is back again, yay!

Toby is never living Infernus down, ever.

1, Sam the homicidal peacock?

Hold on, I need google...

Google had no answers.

2, ...

Let's just agree that _any_ of the Creepypastas getting into the Back's library would be chaotic.

And if I ever add that book, you can be sure that it'll make it's way to Isaac.

Lunarwolf11021;

Hehehehe... I love annoying Toby with that.

Thanks, sorry that a lot didn't happen.

STOP! READING! MY! NOTES!

MyraZinshu;

Warhammer can be fun, you get to build the models then slaughter hordes of enemies.

I guess that that would be a risk of being an electrician, the 'Soul' that I made for my Death cosplay is a few white LED's wired to a 9v battery and a switch.

Hehehe, just let your dad read the part where Dumbledore's head gets punted like a rugby ball in EXTRAS Werewolf.

If your dad wants to read it, then tell him I say hi... if anyone watches Nostalgia Critic that 'A Family Picture' thing popped into my head except it was 'A Family Fic'.

I'm gonna have fun killing him off... but how to do it...

'shrugs'

WOO! Yeah, take that Cirrus!

See, other people like it as well.

Oh, honey, you can't beat me and my brother...

I've had a chocolate spread, cheese, chicken, salt and vinegar crisp triple decker sandwich before and he's had jam, cheese, ham, lettuce, cucumber, and a sausage roll on sandwiches which is his favourite.

Hehehe, I let that build up for so long, didn't I?

Whenever Jeff and L.J team up you need to run for a nuclear bunker... and that's just step one to survive...

I think that that is the perfect way to describe their dress senses, I mean... tweed suits and wellingtons I can understand if it's at a manor and you wanted to do that thing with the clay pigeons, but otherwise...

That is a lot to feel about that, but I figure that Toby didn't get out that often since he was homeschooled, Lyra would have still had school, so he would have spent quite a bit at home.

The alternate description would have been someone made a tent out of a Leprechauns throw-up.

Tim without coffee is dangerous for many reasons... that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Thank you.

Honebar;

Jeff is always ready to help someone keep on smiling.

I need to catch back up with tribe twelve, that and EveryManHybrid.

I do actually have a plan with the spiders, but I'm hitting a bit of a brick wall because I can't find the story I need for it.

Dumb-ass-dore is gonna get a hard knock when he tries to get his hooks back into Isaac... maybe I should see how Isaac would fare with hook based things...

Toby made napalm again, you knew it would happen eventually.

DarkRavie;

Thank you.

ICPM;

Thank you... are you new?

I don't think I remember you reviewing before, so welcome, glad that you like the story.

You have nailed how Eris works, yep... Dementor blood... while that would explain a bit... I'm just gonna leave a few things open... wait, what can I do with Dementor blood?

Putting them Toby and the twins together would get those fireworks ready in a month, and three times as destructive.

Ooooh... why did you have to say that?

I can't... I can't not now, I have to!

I must... IT GOES ON THE LIST!

Awe, shucks, I'm blushing again, hope you like this one!

Ok... I've come up with the next scene with Hoodie killing a fool, thank you for that.

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Toby has had that explanation ready since the get-go, the only way they would be able to keep the footage out there, even if Ben has altered it a bit... plus he doesn't mind them bringing it up that much, he's a little proud about the fact that even drugged out of his mind he's still a badass.

Thank you.

Sweet Smilie;

Ow!

Ow!

STOP THROWING SEEDS AT ME!

Oi! Give me back my...

Threatening me with my own weapon, really?

HAHAHAHA!

You activated my trap card!

You see... without me?

 _Their_ world ceases to exist,

'Points at the Creeps and Isaac'

They need me, they can't let me die.

But, let's let bygones be bygones.

Even you forgot what the teeth were for, ok then...

Which white guy are you referring to?

Jeff?

In which case; I really enjoyed him finally learning what Toby did to scare Dudley.

Yep, a few are at the cup, and a few more are joining them at the stadium today.

I think it's a fan canon with the peacocks being the Malfoys, but it's accepted to the point where it might as well be canon.

Yeah, I think that Mr Weasley would have... oh god... I've just thought of what might happen if L.J were to be left alone with Mr Weasley... probably a trade of muggle knowledge for magical devices and stuff... oh god, what would L.J get up to...

Ron is being quiet because he can't say anything without getting into trouble, he'll be getting worse later on in the year.

The owner would have been promptly obliviated again.

Tim hadn't had his much-needed coffee yet, plus they've spent some time already awake before they travelled to the UK.

Toby is always gonna get reminded of Infernus, no matter what happens.

That crown is safe in Ben's room, he isn't gonna let Toby destroy it.

Isaac would feel the same pang that Ben did when Isaac mentioned Kagekao at the new years.

Wait... if Isaac isn't going to be as affected by the fire because of his little ability... would he be able to go full Human Torch?

Maybe, probably not, but I think I've got to have at least one scene with him completely on fire and be alright afterwards.

Thunder-Death;

Thank you, sorry it wasn't as big as the others.

Nobody51;

Thank you, I do feel better now.

I'm glad that you liked the chapter, I personally think that it was the weakest one yet, but I feel like this one will be better.

Not A Criminal;

I think that that's something we have in common, I can't sleep, my parent's room is next to mine, you can guess how annoying it can be.

Etbagel2122;

I felt like that chapter was lacking a little, and what else can bring a little flare of life like Masky screaming at Toby to try and stop, though he never will, an explosion of some kind?

Acherongoddess;

Thanks, glad that even what I think is the worst chapter can still please a few.

Guest (tearstone);

Thank you, glad that you like it.

Yeah, never leave Toby alone after telling him to start a fire.

I think I'm definitely over the writer's block...

RL?

Erm...

Oh, right, Real Life... yeah, gotcha... thought you were talking about the writer there for a moment.

It is, feeling pretty good right now... a whole lot better off than I was last week.

Guest (Random FAN);

Heyo, since you're not followed yet, I await the day I get an email saying that you have.

You know, going by the third line of the review, I think it's safe to say that they like it...

Thank you, I don't think that mass majority of my followers are aware that EXTRAS exists, shame... they're missing out on Isaac being a whole lot more CP and a few viewers requested events... I still giggle about writing 'The Potion'.

Oh, I have that problem where I've seen a fic I might read when its got like 3 or 4 chapters, then when I actually get around to reading it it's gotten around 23 chapters... it's fun... but also slightly annoying.

What is more hyperactive...

A high squirrel on 10 gallons of sugar... or Toby on a Tuesday... I can't decide...

Being mildly ADD, I can relate.

Oh, that's always good to know.

Sometimes I feel like everyone was ignoring my Author Notes, considering the follower count on EXTRAS, but it's nice to know that someone does read them.

Thank you, I'm now going to use you whenever someone says I'm not funny, thank you for that.

Thank you, I plan to, last week was a little bit of a dud and I'm hoping to give a whole lot better of a chapter this week.

Panic at The Disco is one of my favourite bands right now, and 'Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time' is one of my all time favourites, listening to it while I write this actually.

I think that that's either going to be an overarching thing for the CP chapters when Isaac's back at Hogwarts, or an EXTRAS chapter at least... it's too good an idea to pass up!

Toby seems like the person that would get taken prisoner by them... The 'Infernus Flower Crown™ ' is hidden in a secure location by Ben... under his bed behind the box where he keeps Isaac's letters to him.

YingYangWriter;

Yep, Dumbledore is getting thrown around in circles with his plans... actually, while we're on the subject of Dumbledore, how well do you all think I've done his progression from 'manipulate him to be a supporter of me in my endeavours' to 'manipulate him for whatever I need him to do, even act as a martyr'?

Because, in my head, Dumbledore's original plan was to have Isaac be the poster boy for the light and act as a supporter for him.

Now, since Dumbledore believes that the Horcrux is in Isaac's head, thank you Slenderman for locking it away in the attic, he must have Isaac die.

How well do you think I did the change in mind for Dumbledore, keen to know.

Pasta and sausages are lovely, all I'm saying.

Tim was up for a while before that cup of coffee... plus I just wanted an excuse to put another fireball in there and annoy Toby with Infernus again. If you're sharing quotes from my story, then you're required by ethics to give them the link so they may also follow.

As soon as I hit 300 followers I'm buying a cake, I'm less than 20 people away, we can do this!

Yeah, it was about time he asked, he didn't really care to know before, he was just trying to make small talk.

I think that there'll be a little bit of excitement at the cup, wouldn't do to not have a little bit changed.

Glad to hear that you're feeling better.

Alright, that's the last of the reviews.

I hope that you all like this chapter, hopefully, I'm able to do better this week.

I should give you a little heads up, I'm going to jump through the actual game.

You're gonna get a few of their reactions, but I'm not typing out the entire match... I don't have the attention span to do that...

I think I'm going to have to add a little fluff with our favourite boys, don't you think?

...

Still gonna torture them a little first though...

Also, would you guys prefer it if I put the review responses at the end of the chapter, or keep them at the front?

SteamGeek01.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Mr Weasley took the coffee grinds from Tim and set them down as he picked the kettle up and carried it through into the tent.

"Come on," George said with a grin, beckoning the others forward and holding the tent flap open for them.

"Oh what the... this is... this is cheating," Toby said, looking around.

"It's bigger on the inside!" Isaac quickly shouted, "TAR-DIS!" he said in a sing-song voice, breaking off into the intro for a few seconds before he got hit around the back of the head by Tim, who was also looking mildly awestruck.

Mr Weasley chuckled as he poured the hot water into a few slightly chipped mugs on the table.

"Well, how do you take them?" Mr Weasley asked Brian and Tim, shaking a small jar of sugar as Bill came over with a jug of milk.

"Hi, Isaac," Ginny said.

"Oh, hi," Isaac turned slightly to face her, "Holiday been good so far?" he asked.

"Yep, yours?" she asked.

"Alright," Isaac said, returning to looking around.

Ginny made a soft humming noise of agreement and went over to see what Charlie was doing.

"So, erm... what was that letter about?" Fred asked, nervously scratching behind his ear.

"Oh, I don't know," Isaac said, leaning around one of the flaps to look into the fully furnished kitchen.

"What do you mean you don't know?" George asked him.

"I haven't read the letter," Isaac confessed, looking up at the canvas roof and turning around slightly.

Fred and George exchanged a set of odd looks.

"Really?" they said at the same time, "You mean didn't open it?"

"Nope," Isaac said, absent-mindedly scratching the end of his nose.

The twins shared another set of looks.

"Really? Mr Snoops-a-lot didn't read a letter?" they asked, in sync once more.

"Listen," Isaac turned to face them, sounding suddenly deadly serious, "When L.J hands you something _you do not open it_!

It could have your name on its tag, but you never open it without wearing gloves, goggles, and inside a fume cupboard if you have to.

I have opened things from him before and gotten everything from dead cockroaches to a taffy stronger than _any_ glue I've ever used that got my teeth stuck together for three hours, to spring-loaded glitter that I'm still finding bits of _two years_ later!

If he's got a letter for you, I ain't opening that thing, even if you... well... maybe if you paid me enough," he finished with a shrug.

The twins shared one more glance before shrugging themselves.

"Isaac, would you like a cup of something to drink?" Mr Weasley asked, clapping him on the shoulder as he moved past him into the kitchen.

"Just some juice is fine, thank you," Isaac muttered, shivering and rolling his shoulders.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ron walk through and into a section of the tent that was probably his room, an icy impassive look on his face.

"How's he been?" Isaac asked, waiting until the partition had fallen shut to ask the twins about his once friend.

"Quiet," George said.

"Broody," Fred added on.

"Keeps to himself, most of the time,"

"Little snappy,"

"Even to Mum," George whispered, somewhere between mildly impressed and with slight fear for his life.

Mr Weasley came back through at that moment and handed Isaac his drink.

The twins and Isaac made their way over to the table, where Toby, Mr Weasley, Tim, Charlie, Brian, and Bill were already sat.

"So... what is it you said you do?" Charlie asked, summoning the jar of sugar with his wand.

"I didn't but..." Tim stalled slightly by taking another sip of coffee.

"Privatised Special Ops," Brian said idly, stirring in some milk.

"Oh... and what is it that..."

"Pretty much means that we're bodyguards for hire sometimes, do private investigations, ordnance testing and explosive hazard removal," Tim listed off.

This was just one of the many covers that the two of them had developed.

"Sounds... dangerous," Bull settled on after a moment.

"It can be," Tim said, "The last one especially... though, never had a challenge that Toby hasn't been able to handle yet,"

At the other end of the table, both Isaac and Toby choked on their drink.

"I'm – I'm sorry... but did he just compliment me?" Toby asked while coughing.

"He... he _did_ ," Isaac whispered.

The gathered Weasley's were looking at the Americans, confusion quite evident on their faces.

"See..." Toby started to explain, "Normally, it's 'go away' or 'shut up' or just 'TOBY'... but... this is... this is weird... no... no... no... don't like it... no... no..."

"Toby, shut up,"

Toby let out a soft sigh.

"Thank you, all is right in the world again," he said.

"Right," Tim said, rolling his eyes, "You've heard about us, what about you?" he asked, tugging at the collar of his shirt.

"It is getting a bit stuffy," Mr Weasley said, mopping his brow with a handkerchief.

Tim took another sip of his coffee before they moved outside, Charlie and Bill bringing a couple of the chairs with them so that they had enough seats for everyone.

As they sat down Mr Weasley pointed out a few faces he recognised from the crowd, like the Head Liason of the Goblin office, or a man with horns from Experimental Charms.

A little later Mr Weasley got up and walked over to a passer-by.

"Everyone, Ludo Bagman, Head of Magical Games and Sports," he said, wringing the man's hand, "... and the man responsible for our wonderful seats,"

"You flatter me, Arthur," the man chortled.

Though the man had gone to seed, Isaac could tell that at one point the man had once had a rather powerful build, he also seemed to be wearing what appeared to be an old pair of Quidditch robes. A large wasp was emblazoned across the front, it's sting swung around the front.

"... though I do miss the days where I would be flying around with them," Bagman said with a smile and Isaac realised that he had missed part of the conversation.

"Beater for the Wasps, right?" Charlie asked.

Isaac's brow raised slightly.

That would definitely explain the robes, his squashed nose, and his former body build.

"Right you are," Bagman said cheerily, "Though I think names are in order?" he peered around the many faces, "Yours, Arthur?"

"Only the red-heads," Mr Weasley said before he started listing his many children, "And some of their friends from school, Hermione and Isaac,"

Hermione said a quick hello and Isaac gave a small wave.

Bagman's eyes had passed over each of them without a second glance, though he did do a slight double take on Isaac.

Isaac smirked internally when his eyes passed on to Toby, Tim, and Brian.

That morning Clock had helped him hid the faint scar on his head with some foundation.

She had mentioned how cool it seemed, liking the lightning bolt shape, but he had told her that people ogled at him for some stupid thing back when he was a newborn so she suggested the foundation to help cover it.

Less recognisable marks made it easier to blend in amongst crowds after all.

"So, erm... who are..."

"With Isaac," Tim said before introducing Toby, Brian, and himself.

"Aah, I take it that you went to Ilvermorny?" Bagman asked with a small chuckle, picking up on the American accents.

"Nope," Tim said, taking a sip of his coffee.

Bagman frowned.

"Homeschooled?"

"Not a wizard," Tim said, taking another sip.

Bagman froze for a moment, "Squib?"

"Nah, I don't like calamari," Tim said with a faint grimace.

"What's wrong with calamari?" Toby asked Tim flatly, Brian made a soft hum to show he sided with Toby.

"Just don't like the texture," Tim said with a shrug, completely ignoring a perplexed Bagman.

"So it's not the taste that bugs you?" Toby asked, Brian turning his head to follow the conversation.

"No, the taste isn't that bad, it's just the texture," Tim said.

Meanwhile, the twins were holding their hands to their mouths to stop themselves from laughing out loud. Charlie had a small smirk hidden behind his tea, and you could see every single tooth in Bill's mouth with how wide his grin was.

Bagman stammered to himself for a few seconds before he turned back to Mr Weasley and asked what they were talking about.

"The teams," Mr Weasley said, a small smile hidden behind his cup of tea.

"Aah, yes... good odds on Bulgaria scoring first, from Roddy Pontner," Bagman said, "Want to get in on the action then, Arthur?"

"Well... go on then, put me down for a Galleon on Ireland to win," Mr Weasley said after a moment.

Bagman seemed a little disappointed for Mr Weasley to be betting so little, Isaac watched his little frown turn up however when he put the Galleon into a pocket on the inside of his robe.

From the jingle it made as it slid in there were already a large number of Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts in there already.

"Anyone else want to toss their lot into the cauldron?" Bagman asked eagerly around.

Bill and Charlie shook their heads, but the twins leant forward.

"We'll bet thirty-seven Galleons, fifteen Sickles, three Knuts, that Ireland wins... but Krum get's the snitch," they said, "Oh! And we'll throw in a fake wand,"

Percy hissed something to the twins as they pulled out what looked like any other wand one might find on a witch or wizard, but when Bagman gave it a wave it emitted a rather loud squawk and turned into a rubber chicken.

Bagman roared in laughter, blocking out the sound of Isaac and Toby's own, as he congratulated the twins on such a fine item, saying he hadn't seen one as convincing as that in years.

Percy's ears went red slightly as Bagman accepted their coins and mentioned putting them in touch with a contact or two he had at Zonko's, a rather successful prank shop in Diagon Alley.

Bagman's mood had cleared up after being temporarily sullied and was now looking like an overgrown child as he talked about the going-on's for the cup so far.

"My Bulgarian opposite's been making things tricky, and I can't understand a word that comes out of that man's mouth," Bagman complained, "Need Barty to sort it out,"

"Mr Crouch?" Percy asked eagerly, more eager than he had looked when he was preparing for exams last year.

Isaac glanced at the twins and the three of them hid their grins by turning away quickly.

One of the twins letters to him had told him that Percy had gotten a job at The Ministry of Magic in the Department of International Magical Co-operation.

And from what they had said?

Percy hero-worshipped his boss more than people had hero-worshipped him back in his first-year.

"That's the man, need his and those hundred odd languages he knows," Bagman sighed.

"Mr Crouch," Percy said, somehow sounding even more eager, "Can speak over two hundred! He knows Mermish, and Gobbledegook..." Percy ignored Toby's 'Bless you!' and carried on, "... Troll..."

"Anyone can speak Troll, Perce," Fred said dismissively, "All you have to do is point and grunt,"

Percy threw him a nasty look and stoked more wood onto the fire to bring the kettle back to a boil.

"So... other than that mix-up with the Muggle Healers, how's your holiday been?" George asked Isaac as Mr Weasley and Bagman's conversation turned to a missing work colleague, Bertha Jorkins.

"Not too bad... new housemate, though," Isaac said, putting his now empty glass on the ground.

"Oh really, who?"

"Dr Evander," Tim said, "Thalmann invited him to stay after he... helped us out with some stuff.

Kinda good that he decided to stay. Before he came along E.J was handling most of our medical stuff,"

The twins shared a glance.

"E.J... isn't that the guy who..."

"Is blind? Yes," Toby said.

"So, does the Doc keep up with the trend of you guys sharing names with those horror stories we have come to love so much?" George asked.

"Oh yeah," Toby said, "Only difference is the spelling of their surnames, 'Locklear' and 'Lockleer' but, you know, it's pretty damn close,"

A few moments later a crack sounded through the area and a man wearing a pristine suit appeared next to the fireplace.

Tim's hand immediately went to his side, but a quick hand from Brian stayed him before he put a bullet through the man's head.

"Barty!" Bagman said, "Talk of the devil, indeed!"

If this was Percy's boss then Isaac could see why Percy admired him so.

He doubted that even Tim could look at the man in the street and identify him as a Wizard.

His pristine suit, while slightly odd attire for a camping field, wouldn't have been out of place at all inside a bank, or courtroom, and his hair was neatly combed.

Percy, who Isaac knew was a fan of regulation and rules, seemed like the perfect worker for Crouch.

From what he had overheard, everyone was supposed to be blending in as Muggles and Crouch was taking that instruction to heart.

"Ludo, I've been looking for you," Isaac frowned before he realised that the man was talking to Bagman, "The Bulgarians are insisting that we add another twelve seats to the Top Box,"

"Oh, is _that_ what they're after," Bagman frowned, "I thought he was asking for a pair of tweezers. Rather strong accent..."

"Would you like some tea, Mr Crouch?" Percy asked, bowing so low that his glasses fell off.

"Huh?" Mr Crouch turned around, having not seen Percy, "Oh, yes... thank you, Weatherby,"

His ears and face were bright red as he picked them up, muttering a soft charm to clean them while Isaac, Fred, and George stuffed a fist in their mouths to stop their laughter, and busied himself with the kettle.

Conversations seemed to be drifting apart as different ones popped up until...

"Sorry, wait... go back, flying carpets?" Toby said, turning to face Mr Weasley, Bagman, and Mr Crouch.

"Yes... Ali Bashir's trying to push for a market of them in Britain... congratulations on obeying the rule to blend in," Mr Crouch said, taking in their apparel.

"Considering that we _are_ 'Muggles', I'd be confused if _we_ were the ones to stand out," Toby chuckled.

A small wave of something flitted across Mr Crouch's face and a few seconds later something silver floated out through the air.

"Barty!" Mr Weasley spluttered out, choking a little on his tea.

"I'm sorry for this, gentlemen," Mr Crouch said, tucking his wand back in his pocket, "But regulations..."

" _THEY'RE ISAAC'S GUARDIANS_!" Mr Weasley seethed at the well-dressed wizard, "They've known for years! And they don't fall under the British Magical Government!"

A small amount of colour drained from Mr Crouch's face and his jaw fell open slightly.

"Oh..." he said, his curt voice starting to become laced with a trace of embarrassment and meekness, "Oh dear, I had no..."

"Save it," Tim growled, "You want to handle it or..." he left the question hanging as Brian handed him his mug and stood up, cracking his knuckles and rolling his shoulders.

There was a tense moment as Brian stood as still as one of the many trees in the forest next to them.

"What is he..." Bagman started asking.

"Well... not to be rude, but you've called a guy over to wipe our minds, haven't you?" Tim said with a faintly dark glare at Crouch.

"Yes, but we can..." Mr Crouch started.

"I said save it," Tim growled again, "Shouldn't be needed, anyway, because do you know what you've done?

You've pretty much called in a guy, who can point a stick, in to fight a guy who is, in all but rank, a highly trained Navy Seal,"

Just then a crack sounded through the air and a man wearing plus fours appeared.

" _Obli_..." was as far as he got.

The next thing any of them knew, the wizard had been pulled from his feet in a fluid motion as fast as a whip.

His wand went flying to the ground, burying itself halfway into the dirt, and the wizard was spun around and forced to the ground.

One arm trapped beneath his body, the other twisted skyward behind him held by Brian while a solid boot was placed on the man's back, trapping him to the ground.

"And that's where I learned that from," Isaac said in an amused voice to the twins.

"Gerroff me!" the man groaned in pain.

"Stop! MacQuoid!" Bagman said quickly hurrying over to the pair, "It's all been a misunderstanding!"

Brian glanced between the three Ministry wizards before he released the man's arm and stepped back, taking his mug back from Tim.

MacQuiod stood up, quite shakily, and glowered up at Brian.

Being over a foot shorter, this wasn't exactly threatening.

As showcased by Brian when he gave a small snort into his coffee.

"JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING!" MacQuoid screeched at Brian, spittle getting caught in the man's stubble.

Brian lowered his mug and bent down so he was level with MacQuiod's face.

He leaned forward slightly and whispered something in the ear of MacQuoid that none of them could hear.

However, judging how MacQuoid's face went from blaring red with indignation and embarrassment to what seemed like _very_ spoiled milk, half of Isaac's didn't want to know.

MacQoiud frantically dropped down and tugged his wand free from the dirt, spinning around desperately a few moments later.

"Back up kids!" Mr Weasley said urgently.

"Oh what the..." Toby said, looking down.

What looked to be the remains of a leg below the knee was standing where MacQuoid had just been.

"MacQuoid's splinched himself," Mr Weasley explained while Mr Crouch sent off another patronus.

Bagman excused himself, saying he had to go sort out those seats for the Bulgarians, and apparated away himself.

"Splinched?" Tim asked, looking down at the stump.

"A possible effect of Apparation," Mr Crouch said, putting the untouched cup of tea given to him by Percy down, "Not all that common... in most cases, but sometimes it can go wrong and parts are left behind..."

"So... are all of your travel methods suicidal?" Toby asked, "Throw yourself into a fireplace and hope you don't end up burning to ashes, _that bus_ , though it is pretty fun," he said with a chuckle as he counted out on his fingers, "Brooms, falling to death, and now you've got what is pretty much teleportation where you end up losing body parts... do you need to talk to someone?"

The twin's fists were back in their mouths, even Charlie had a hand across his, while Percy gave a slight glare at Toby for talking to his boss that way.

"There are... _some_ dangers, admittedly..." Mr Crouch said, waving over a man wearing a nightcap and dungarees over a shirt that looked two sizes too small, "What did you say to him?" he asked, looking up at a slightly bemused Brian.

"Well, I think he probably told the guy, very nicely, I assume, that we may or may not have license's to kill on perceived threats," Tim said, enjoying the slight look of fear that flitted across Mr Crouch's face as he looked over the four Americans.

The man waved his wand over the stump of a leg and a puff of purple smoke, that made Isaac think that Candy Cane had appeared for a moment, plus another loud bang echoed out.

Once the smoke had disappeared the stump was gone and the wizard bowed to Mr Weasley and Mr Crouch before leaving once more, "Mr Crouch following not long after, saying he had work to do.

"Well... that was fun," Bill said, "What were we talking about?" he asked.

Talk soon turned back to the pending game and the lead up before it.

"It's been an engaging task," Percy told them, "Mr Crouch had to arrange for portkeys across five continents, after all... then there's also that... _other_ , thing that we've been busy arranging... for Hogwarts..."

Percy spoke in a mildly teasing voice that impressed Isaac, he hadn't thought Percy would have had it in him.

Fred and George rolled their eyes.

"He's been teasing us about it for _weeks_ ," Fred muttered.

Isaac glanced between Fred and George before he smirked.

"Don't worry, he's about to tell me," Isaac said confidently.

Percy snorted.

"You'd have had better luck trying to get it out of Bagman," he said with a chuckle.

Isaac merely smirked again.

"So... what's the big international game that's happening at Hogwarts?"

Percy choked on his tea, his face turning a bright red that clashed horribly with his hair, and faced Isaac with a bewildered look in his eyes.

"How did you... who told you... how could you..."

"Relax, deep breaths, in... out..." Isaac said, out of the corner of his eye he could see the twins looking at him in shock.

Once Percy had calmed himself down he looked at Isaac with a trace of fury lacing his face.

"What do you know?" he asked, forcing his voice to be steady.

"Honestly?

Nothing... well... your little reaction there pretty much just confirmed that there's some big games event going on that involves more than just Hogwarts,"

Percy went pale.

"You said 'that other thing that we've been busy arranging'," Isaac said, leaning back in his seat, "Which given the fact that your department is for International Magical cooperation, means that it involves parties from outwith the UK.

Then you said I'd have had an easier time getting it from Bagman, who is head of Magical Games, means that some big sporting event with participants from other countries is happening at Hogwarts," Isaac finished.

Percy looked gobsmacked, the twins were wide-eyed, and Mr Weasley, Charlie, and Bill were laughing.

"I do say, Holmes," Toby pretended to puff on an imaginary pipe, "I do believe you've jolly well cracked the case,"

"Elementary, my dear Watson," Isaac said, the two of them grinning.

"Well... who would be Moriarty?" Toby asked.

"Brian," Isaac said immediately, "Tim's Sebastian,"

Tim rolled his eyes.

"Well, if you're done playing Sherlock, we have a campsite to get back to,"

"Yes," Mr Weasley reached over and shook his hand, "I think Percy might explode if Isaac kept going,"

The twins immediately dove towards Isaac, grabbing a hand each and shaking it like mad, before diving back to Percy and asking him dozens of questions.

The four of them left the Weasley's like that and made their way back to where they had left their tent.

After getting rid of a dingy little man trying to see what they had brought Brian went off to get wood, Toby had used all of theirs up in that fireball, and Tim took the water tub he had been carrying back and started to prepare another kettle for more coffee.

Once Brian had come back they got the fire restarted, Toby was told to sit on his hands while Isaac got it going...

Then both Isaac and Toby were told to sit on their hands while Tim went off for even more wood and Brian kept a close eye on them.

Eventually, they were able to get a normal, boring as Toby called it, fire going and they were able to toss a few sausages on.

Isaac stuffed the letter for the twins into his pocket, figuring that if they saw them as they went to the stadium he could pass it along then.

"So... what to do before the game starts?" Toby asked.

"Well... I think I can suggest something..." Isaac said, nodding to where a crowd of vendors were now rolling through, stalls being set up with a bunch of merchandise for the match.

"Oh, Christ..." Tim said, "Well... we're supposed to be tourists, let's go do it properly,"

"You mean be mildly annoying?" Toby asked.

"Are you ever anything else?"

Isaac ended up going off with Tim, giving him a break from Toby, and the first thing he decided to grab from a vendor was a programme for the match.

"Makes sense, probably a good idea to have one," Isaac shrugged.

A little later in they came across a man selling what looked like binoculars on steroids.

"Omnioculars," the wizard manning the stall said, "The best friend of any sports fan!"

Isaac ended up buying four, one for each of them, and then they ended up in the more team based merch area.

Isaac struggled to think of anything to buy in either of the team's themed merchandise, but he did find a pin shaped like a shield. A split down the middle had both of the team's colours and what he assumed was half their logo.

He pinned it to the front of his shirt and the two of them continued to make their way around the vendors.

While there were definitely a bunch of interesting things on sale, Isaac struggled to find anything that was worthwhile to buy.

They ended up wandering around for a few more moments, only pausing to throw a few stones across the field and hit a particular ginger who seemed in a foul mood as he couldn't find out what was hitting him.

A good twenty metres away, Tim and Isaac were walking back to find Brian and Toby.

"Hey, thought it would probably be a good idea to grab one of these," Toby said, holding up a program of events for the match.

"Yeah, same," Isaac said, holding up his own.

As they made their way back to the tent Isaac showed them the omnioculars and let Toby have a go using one of the sets they had bought.

"It's like a camera attached to a pair of binoculars," he said, looking around and fiddling with the little knobs on the side.

It was at that point that Isaac felt something buzzing in his pocket and he extracted his phone from within.

#"Yo, Specs,"# Ben's cheery voice rang out, #"So Sally is getting pretty antsy about coming to see a game of magic death-ball, eta on when we can come over?"#

"I don't know," Isaac said, "I think it's still an hour or two before..."

At that point, a booming gong-like noise echoed out over the grounds and torches of green and red fire appeared, guiding the many people to the stands.

"... or it might be a whole lot sooner than that," Isaac said, Ben's laughter rippled through the phone and Isaac ended up hanging his head with a large grin on his face, "Shut up, I'll message when you guys can come over,"

#"See you soon,"#

"See you..." Isaac's smile dropped slightly as he hung up and Toby placed a guiding hand on his shoulder as they walked off towards the stands.

"You know..." Tim said, looking up at the height of the stadium, "I'm hoping that there's some sort of magical elevator,"

Brian made a humming noise in agreement as they walked around to the edge where they would be watching.

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Tim and Isaac paused for breath, leaning against the railing.

"So..." pant, "... many..." pant, "... fricking..." pant, "... stairs..." Tim said as soon as he collapsed against the railing.

They had finally reached the top of the stadium and Brian was thankful that he had thought to fill a few thermoses' with coffee when they had been cooking lunch.

"Woo..." Toby whistled as he leant over the edge of the railing and looked down, "Getting tossed over that would hurt... probably..."

Brian yanked him back by the hood of his hoody and handed Tim the first of the thermos stockpile.

Isaac sent a quick message off to Ben and placed his phone on the ground.

A few seconds later a hand was pushed through the screen and Isaac helped Ben stand up.

"Hey, Specs, long time no... Jesus fuck! We're high up!" Ben said, looking around and out over the pitch.

A whipping of the air around the preceded the arrival of Teer with Helen and Clockwork.

"Holy fuck, that's high," Clockwork said, peering over the edge, "Windy too," she added on as she drew her jacket tighter.

Helen let out a low whistle as he glanced around, looking at the large chalkboard that was advertising various items from the what appeared to be a magical weed killer to broomsticks.

A puff of smoke later and L.J appeared with E.J on his back, his arms holding onto Jeff and Liu.

"Holy fuck, we're up high," Jeff and Liu said at the same time before turning to glare, Jeff, and look amused, Liu, at each other.

Sally appeared a few moments later, Teer having popped back to get her, and she was not sitting up on his shoulders, her eyes wide and mouth a gaping hole as she took in the sight of the stadium.

"No running off," Tim said and she nodded.

She didn't want to be excluded from anything magical so she was on her best behaviour.

"So, who's playing?" Ben asked, leaning on the railing next to Isaac.

"Ireland and Bulgaria," Isaac said, leaning a little closer to Ben to talk to him, "Don't know much about the teams, but..."

"Hey, you find those ginger friends of yours and give them the letter?" L.J cut in.

"No," Isaac said a little irritatedly, "I mean, I found them, but I haven't given them the letter yet,"

"Ladies and gentlemen!" a booming voice echoed across the stadium, "Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch world cup!" Bagman's voice, magically amplified, carried around the stadium and it was soon joined in with the tumultuous roars of applause.

The blackboard was wiped away and now it proudly displayed,

~BULGARIA: ZERO, IRELAND: ZERO~

"And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce... The Bulgarian Team Mascots!"

One half of the stadium erupted in more applause as what looked like a hundred women raced onto the pitch.

Isaac frowned as he looked down at the women.

He could see that they looked beautiful, that was obvious, but he wondered what was so special about them to warrant being the mascots.

Tim and Brian wolf-whistled down the stadium, Jeff looking torn between jumping down there and disinterest as he stood next to them.

"What is happening?" Teer asked, looking at the three of them.

"I have no idea," Isaac said, frowning at them as well.

The dancing figures stopped and retreated to the side of the stadium, many shouting for them to come back.

Tim, Brian, and Jeff shook their heads, Jeff hitting the side of his head with the flat of his hand.

"The hell were those?" he asked, hitting himself once more for good luck.

"Don't know," L.J said, hitting Jeff in the head as well.

"Knock it off!" Jeff snapped, slapping his hand away.

The bickering pair stopped jus tin time for Bagman to announce the Irish mascots.

The group turned to the sky as what looked like a glittering comet made of hundreds of tiny men shot across the sky, raining something golden onto the crowds.

"Leprechauns?" Ben asked, "Those things are _real_?"

"Apparently," Isaac said, following the comet as it passed over them.

He reached out and grabbed one of the falling items, holding it to Ben.

"And they drop gold coins," Isaac handed him the Galleon.

"And that ties up the cliches rather nicely," Ben said, "Ireland is represented by Leprechauns, and the Leprechauns toss gold coins onto the crowd...

Do you know what would have been awesome?" he asked Isaac.

"What?"

"Being represented by a _dragon_ ," Ben said and Isaac let his head drop down onto the railing, though there was a wide grin on his face.

A few moments later Bagman started introducing the teams and they started all cheering as the teams flew a lap around the pitch.

For some reason, L.J was smirking and making a shushing noise out towards the pitch.

And then, a few seconds later, the match began...

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It was a couple of minutes in before the game really got going.

Ireland was easily the better team, they seemed to understand their teammates better than the Bulgarians and there was a sense that they were enjoying more.

The Bulgarians were great, there was no question, but it was more mechanical and formulaic... though if there was one thing that Bulgaria had that was better was it's Seeker, Krum, who looked like he was born flying a broom.

"So... you actually have to dodge those things?" Clockwork asked as an Irish Beater hit a bludger into the back of a Bulgarian chaser.

"Yep," Isaac said, "Think ours are a little slower, though,"

"Remind me who thought those things would be a good idea?" Toby asked, watching the bludgers rolling through the air as they sought a new target.

"Probably someone who like pain,"

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"Isaac... if you ever do that, I will turn _any_ broomstick you get into firewood," Toby said as they watched Aiden Lynch, the Seeker for the Irish team, plough directly into the ground.

"Erm..." Isaac said, "I haven't... but holy crap I wanna do it,"

"You know my threat," Toby said, "All I'm saying,"

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"Oh my god..." Isaac laughed when Clockwork pointed out the referee.

Ireland had been awarded a penalty for 'cobbing' Isaac thought Bagman had called it and the Veela were dancing on the field again.

The referee was flexing, smoothing his moustache, and trying to impress the dancing women down below.

They watched, laughing along, as a medi-wizard ran out onto the pitch and kicked him in the shins.

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"What the holy..." Tim said as they looked down at the field.

Once Ireland had scored again, their lead well and truly established, and the Leprechauns had formed a giant hand flipping the Bulgarian side off.

While that had been amusing, what followed next was a shocker.

The Veela had launched themselves across the pitch and were throwing bright purple flames at the Leprechauns.

Their physical features were morphing until it looked like some mad scientist had spliced them with vultures. Scaly wings were sprouting out of their backs.

"I don't know what they are..." Isaac said slowly, watching the flames being thrown at the Leprechauns, "... but when we get home can we kill them all? Ya know, a little mass genocide?"

Everyone turned to face him as Ben placed a comforting hand on the middle of his back.

"Don't worry," he said, "We'll get you throwing fire eventually,"

"Damn right we will!"

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"HOLY COW!" Isaac shouted as Krum pulled out of another dive, the snitch clutched in his hands.

"Geez... those two got it right," Toby said.

"Bulgaria lost... but they got the snitch..." Tim added on.

"How lucky do you have to be for that to happen?" Jeff said, "Also can we..."

"No," Liu said.

"You don't even know what I was..."

"Kidnap one of those bird-women things,

Stay for a bit before going,

Use this place for a parkour race,

Or was it find any stragglers you want to help 'go to sleep'?"

Jeff turned back to the pitch to watch the players doing a lap of victory again.

"Shut up," he muttered a few seconds later.

"I'm with you on kidnapping one of those bird-women," E.J said, "Though... I'm just hungry,"

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Teer and L.J disappeared with Sally, Jeff, E.J, Clockwork, and Liu.

Ben was able to stay for a few moments, but that was because he was able to sneak away through Isaac's phone.

"See you when you get back," Ben said, patting Isaac on the back.

"See you soon," Isaac said back, tightening his grip for a moment before letting go.

Behind them, Toby, Tim, and Brian were pointedly looking the other way and not pretending that they weren't waiting for one of them to admit that they liked the other.

Isaac hesitated a moment before holding the phone out for Ben to crawl back into, and once he had he couldn't help but give a small fist-bump through the screen at him before he disappeared back to The Mansion.

"Right... back down these stupid... fucking... stairs..." he held his hand out to Brian for another thermos of coffee.

"Final," Brian said as he handed him a small flask.

Tim ended up drinking half of it after going down a single flight.

By the time they were back at ground level night had well and truly set, stars glinting in the skies above, and many were already biding their nights to one another.

But that didn't mean that the night was over yet.

Isaac had barely crawled into his and Toby's tent before screaming and shouting voices echoed over the camp.

"Can't fake terror like that," Toby said, "Come on,"

When they came out an orange glow was spreading over the grounds, a glow Isaac knew all too well.

A chant was being called out, though he couldn't make out the words.

"Come on," Tim said, grabbing Isaac and Toby, "Brian?"

Brian was looking into the fray of chaos that was ahead of them.

"Brian?"

"Fun,"

"Oh, Christ," Tim muttered, "Be careful,"

"Wait," Toby said, diving back into the tent and grabbing a duffel bag, "Here,"

Brian looked down at the Glock Toby held out to him and the two magazines before picking them up with a smirk.

"Oh, and..." Toby held up what looked like a tin can wrapped in duct tape with a small box on the top and a piece of brown string hanging off it.

Brian smirked harder, grabbed the can, and walked off against the panicking people trying to get away from the fires.

"C'mon!" Tim growled, pulling the two of them towards the trees.

"Wait, why can't we..."

"No idea what's out there," Tim said, knowing that Isaac was wanting to go off with him, "Brian can handle his own, and I'm betting that whatever moron started this didn't expect _our_ kind of response,"

Isaac huffed slightly but didn't fight Tim as he pulled them into the trees.

When they were far enough in that there was a fair amount of trees blocking the sight of them they stopped for a breather.

"Alright, where's the Port out of here?" Tim said, talking more to himself than the other two.

The sound of cracking twigs reached their ears and Tim turned to Toby.

"Erm... I got... this," he held out a six-inch hunting knife after rummaging in the bag, "Or another one of..."

"Better than nothing, give it," Tim said, taking the knife before Toby could bring out what would probably start another forest fire.

"... your parents out there..."

"Well, if the were, I'd hardly tell you..."

Isaac frowned as he tried to put faces to the voices.

"Oh, I know them, hold on..." Isaac said, darting forward, ignoring the hiss of his name from Tim.

He rounded a tree, keeping close to its trunk.

He smirked when he saw Hermione, standing awkwardly between Ron and Draco.

By how red Ron's face was, he and Draco were moments away from fighting.

He slinked around the tree until he was in full sight, not that any of them were focusing on him.

"Anyway, as I was saying," Draco said, turning to face Hermione, "You should keep hidden until it's all over.

They're Death Eaters, they hate Muggles, and Muggleborns alike,"

"And you're here, threatening us instead of chumming it up with your parents, why?" Ron sneered.

"That wasn't a threat," Isaac said, causing the three of them to jump, "A well-intended warning,"

"Isaac!" Hermione ran forward and threw her arms around him.

"Hey," Isaac said, "So what I miss?"

"Death Eaters having a bit of fun," Draco said, moving over to them, "Voldemort's followers," he added on after Isaac frowned.

"Oh," Isaac said, "I think you might want to wait with us until it's over then.

Toby and Tim can handle anything that comes their way, and Brian's already gone out to play,"

Ron snorted.

"H... Isaac, they're _muggles_ ," he said as if having to explain something to a child, "What can they do?"

"Sever your spine before you realise that I was even there," Tim said, causing Ron to jump and fall over onto the ground.

"Or just burn this place to the ground," Toby said, juggling a couple of the tin cans.

"Toby! Put those away!" Tim scowled.

Toby huffed but replaced them within the bag.

"Spoilsport,"

"We don't need another fireball, thank you very much," Tim said.

"That was _him_ earlier?" Draco asked, looking Toby up and down, "We could see it from our tent,"

"That was a small one," Toby said proudly, "Just wait until I can get a hold of..."

" _MORSMORDE_!" a shout rung out across the forest.

"What was..." Tim started but didn't get to finish.

A large shape was rising into the air above the trees.

"We need to move," Hermione said.

"I couldn't agree more," Draco said, already backing up.

A few seconds later red streaks of light soared past them.

The only reason that they weren't hit was because Toby pulled Isaac down before they had reached them and the others had dived with them.

"Stop!" Mr Weasley's shout reached over the sounds of whizzing spells, "STOP! _That's my son_!"

A few seconds later a number of witches and wizards were rushing into the clearing, their wands pointed at them.

'Oh great,' Isaac thought.

As soon as the first wizard reached them Tim was already on his feet.

Apparently, probably for a good reason, that wizard thought that Tim was a threat and had pointed his wand into his face.

The next second the wizard was nursing a bleeding hand and his wand was a good few feet away.

"Stop! STOP!" Mr Weasley shouted again, running between them and the group.

"Drop the knife," one shouted.

"STOP!" Mr Weasley shouted once more, "Ron, Isaac, Hermione... Draco?

Are you... are you alright?" he asked, glancing between them all.

"We're... we're fine," Hermione said, Ron was busy glaring at Draco and Isaac.

"Which of you did it?" Mr Crouch asked, running forward, his wand level with all of them, his eyes darting between them all, "Which of you cast it?"

"Cast what?" Isaac asked.

"It's the Dark Mark, Isaac," Hermione whispered into his ear, "It's _his_ mark,"

"Oh, Christ," Isaac muttered.

Isaac leant back against the tree, closing his eyes for a moment.

"Isaac?" Toby asked, shaking him by the shoulder.

"Hmm?" Isaac grunted, "What's... where did that elf come from?" he asked, looking at the small sobbing elf crouched

He frowned and glanced at Toby who was laughing and had to sit down.

"How..." he couldn't speak from laughing, "How... did you... you fell asleep standing..."

His laughter turned to wheezes a few moments later... before he fell backwards and was silent save for the occasional huff.

"Oh, great," Tim muttered, "Isaac, grab your _brother_ ' _s_ bag," he said, walking over and carefully picking Toby up and slinging him over his shoulders.

"Wait... Isaac is confused... I am very confused..." Isaac said, picking up the duffel bag.

"You fell asleep standing up... they cleared all of us... Brian scared the shit out of a couple of them..." Isaac turned and found Brian standing to his side, raising a small hand in greeting, "... and they found that... elf... with the kid's wand," he pointed to Ron, "Then Toby woke you up and passed out from laughing too hard... again..."

Toby grunted in his sleep.

"... and we somehow ended up having to get the blonde kid back to his tent," Tim said, looking down at Draco.

"Oh, hi... wait, I fell asleep?" Isaac asked.

Tim rolled his eyes though Brian gave a soft snort of laughter.

"Wait..." Isaac quickly turned and jogged back to Hermione.

"Could you give that to Fred and George?" he asked.

Hermione nodded.

"Of course, Isaac," she said, putting an odd amount of emphasis on his name.

Isaac frowned for a moment before rolling his eyes.

"Oh, that bullshit again," he sighed.

"Yeah," Hermione said with a small smile.

"No, I am not Harry, freaking, Potter," he said in a mocking British voice.

A few Ministry officials looked awkwardly at the ground as he walked away.

A few feet before the treeline they could see what looked like lines upon lines of people.

"Oh, for crying out loud..." Tim said, "We're packing and leaving as soon as we get back," he told the two of them.

They ended up taking a longer route to avoid the large crowd that had gathered.

"Wait... _this_ is your tent..." Tim said as Draco led them to the large tent with the peacocks.

"Why do you have peacocks?" Toby asked.

"When did you wake up?" Tim asked, slightly annoyed that Toby hadn't told him.

"When did you pick me up?"

There was a thud as Toby was unceremoniously dropped.

Isaac told Draco that he should probably just get in, "They'll be bickering for a while, just go,"

"Thank you?" Draco said, unsure what else to say.

He kept glancing slightly frightened looks towards the others.

"No prob, see you at school," Isaac said cheerily.

"See you at school..." Draco said, walking to the tent.

As he turned back he found that Toby had picked himself up and was in the middle of dusting the dirt off.

True to his word, as soon as they reached their tents they were dismantled, packed away, and they were already walking back to The Slenderport.

"Isaac... why does everything here seem to go to shit?" Tim asked.

"I dunno," Isaac shrugged.

"Murphy's law," Toby said casually, "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. This world is filled with people who probably think common sense is a type of fragrance, it's bound to happen,"

The three of them turned to face him.

"What?" he asked, "It's my favourite law, right after that one about wearing fake moustaches in Alabama,"

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Fred and George cheered as they watched the Irish team fly onto the pitch, Bagman announcing their names somewhere to their right.

Hermione was distracted, talking to a house-elf that was reserving someone's seat, and Ron was at the other end of the Top Box, their father keeping him from starting anything.

Fred followed them with a pair of Omnioculars that Hermione had bought to watch the match, she had given the other one to Ginny, and he was following one of the beaters for the Irish team.

He paused as he tried to adjust some of the dials on the side.

He gave a small huff of laughter.

He was about to nudge George and show him that he had somehow found Isaac in the stands, but the tall figure standing next to Isaac caught him off guard.

For a moment there... it had almost looked like he could tell he was looking at them and... and it looked like he had just shushed him across the match.

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Back at The Weasley's tent.

Bill was talking calmly to Ginny, comforting the youngest as she shook in the chair she was sat on, with Hermione.

Charlie was talking to Mr Weasley and Percy at the table.

Ron had gone back into his room, shocker.

However, Fred and George were sitting in the old armchairs that had come with Mr Perkins' tent.

The letter that Hermione had brought back sitting on the small coffee table in front of them.

"What do you think is in it?" Fred asked George.

"I don't know," George admitted.

"Do we open it?"

"Of course we open it," George said, picking it up and fumbling with the edge of the envelope, "You open it," he shoved it into Fred's hands.

"No, you open it," he shoved it back.

"No, you open it," he shoved it back.

"No, you..."

"Give it!" Charlie yanked the letter out of their hands and opened it.

Aside from a large amount of glitter that fell out all over the carpet, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the letter.

Charlie skimmed over the letter and handed it back to them with a smirk.

"What is it?" Mr Weasley asked them as their eyes went wide.

"It's a letter... a recommendation letter..." Fred said.

"What?" Percy stood up and walked over and read the letter over their shoulders.

"L.J, the guy that run's Laughing Jester... wrote us a letter of recommendation and..." George trailed off as he continued to read the letter.

"Merlin's saggy..."

"Fred!" Mr Weasley cut him off sharply before he could finish.

"It's a job offer," Percy said, his jaw dropping in shock.

"A reliable source has put in a good word about your ability in designing, creating, testing, and perfecting your devices for pranks and tomfoolery.

Therefore, I would like to invite you to join in a mail-order based job in which you test out new products that I may release to the consumers," George read out from the letter.

Percy walked through into the kitchen, the tops of his ears bright red.

George handed Mr Weasley the letter for him to read.

"I think that this will definitely cheer your Mother up about your owls," he said with a smile at the twins as he gave them back the letter.

George held it between the two of them as they read a little more about the job they had been offered.

While George pointed out that they got early access to new products, and get to keep them, Fred remembered the tall figure standing next to Isaac in the Quidditch game.

For a moment, he wondered if that was L.J... but Isaac had only gotten tickets for four... hadn't he?

He shivered as a cold feeling creeped along his spine.

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End notes.

Little awkward of an ending, but it's late and I want to get this up.

Thank you all for reading, and I hope that you enjoy the next one.

I'm afraid to say that for some reason I'm still stuck in the little bit of writer's block that hit me last week.

I don't know what's going on but I'll try my best to make sure that you at least get some sort of chapter next week.

Anyway, see you in the next one.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!


	48. Chapter 48, Doughnuts and Donuts

Chapter 48, Doughnuts and Donuts.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Alright, alright,

Alright, alright,

Alright, alright, it's a hell of a feelin', though,

Guess which song is stuck in my head!

It won't leave!

GAAAaaAAAH!

I'm gonna go take my suffering out on cheesecake...

Anyway, I've got another chapter to get to... and another cheesecake to eat...

Multitasking for the win!

I'm gonna eat a cheesecake and answer the reviews, if you can't be bothered reading the reviews, then just skip past until you see the usual line breakers.

KaiRonith57;

I don't recognise that name, hello!

Welcome... oh, since year 2... well welcome to the review section.

I'm glad that I'm able to contribute to your wonderful Fridays.

I have no intention of ever stopping. Even when it ends, you're still gonna get a bunch of stuff for EXTRAS.

TheMarpasChappers;

MARPAS!

I'm glad that you liked it.

1,

The actual Necronomicon is already in the Attic of The Mansion, it was the book bound in human flesh, I don't know about where the other two are... maybe that oasis in the desert...

That was probably Jeff.

2,

Oh... pfft, I cannot stress how funny the image of Voldemort being chased around the garden by a peacock is to me.

3,

It'll bite them in the ass and leave a bigger mark that Bruce from Jaws.

4,

I have an idea...

kittyisaac;

Holy cow, it's a Neko-Isaac!

Yeah, I think I might have lost a couple of people when I did the name change, but it seemed to fit a little better, you know? He wouldn't want to be constantly reminded of all the stuff he went through.

Listen, if ANYONE wants to leave a review that is just pointing out each and every spelling error that slipped by, feel free to do it.

I can fix the chapters after they've been uploaded, I loved it when I found out I could do that, and I'll be going back over them all with a fine-tooth comb once this fic reaches it's end anyway so I might as well make a start on it.

First thought was no, I don't know much about Congenital Insensitivity to Pain, but I think it means that the nerves that transmit the feeling of pain don't work, or lack the proper connections, so I don't think it would.

.549;

Erm... I didn't have Slendy appear in that chapter... when did I have him guarding someone in a box?

I think you were sleep-walking, either that or someone has an amazing sense of balance and patience to move you.

Zekedavis;

I would do that, but I think there's a rule against that, somewhere in the bit about polls and putting yourself as a character outside of reader inserts.

DarkRavie;

Thank you.

Lunarwolf11021;

Hehehe... I'd offer you shelter in my nuclear bunker, but I don't have a nuclear bunker.

Yep, I wonder what chaos I can cause with the twins getting stuff from L.J... probably lots...

Thank you. They probably could kidnap one if they tried.

I'm still keeping it stuffed under my pillow so you can't read it when I'm writing.

I'm working on what I'm going to change with the tournament, in regards to how Isaac handles some things... probably gonna break a few laws on the handling on high explosives.

Matt (Guest);

Yep, they can be at times.

Lots... all I'm gonna say.

Acherongoddess;

Thank you.

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

You read my mind, I was planning on having them ask what happened when they got back early and then cut to Brian's pov as he entered the fray and made his way to the meeting in the forest.

I thought people would like that, just wait until you see what I've got planned for later.

Katropis12;

Thank you.

Since they wouldn't have been able to get away with it without the tickets, most had to leave, but you're getting what Brian did today.

You'd be surprised with my luck, and a pentagram is for protection and Devil traps.

MyraZinshu;

Thank you, I'm hoping that the coloured contact lenses will have arrived by now so it should look awesome!

Jelly Babies are delicious, and I think that I have a new joke for L.J.

INCREDIBLY BELATED HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Yep, take that chapter as a birthday treat.

Yeah, it's fun but also mildly tedious if you're a perfectionist with it, like me.

I've recently been making my new Cryptek, and that thing was fun... but if you want to know the model that I absolutely fucking hated to build, and I still haven't painted, then look up the "Tesseract Vault"

That bitch is a migraine and a hydraulic clamp around your throat to work with.

Nice, I recently installed a multi-coloured LED system for under my t.v where my gaming consoles sit, plus since me and my mum finally cleared out the attic I'm able to start work on my model train track again, 0-0 gauge.

I actually buggered over an Arduino kit when I was taking higher Engineering once because the day before I had been working on the track in the attic and ended up doing a little, since I had time, in the morning.

If they read it, I will send you a box of flowers, I'm nearly at 300 followers and I really want that cake now.

I actually do do that sometimes, or listen to musical songs like 'Cell Block Tango'... really enjoyed doing that.

No... can't think that I've had anything like that... though I do have a friend that is a fully licensed mortician who probably has.

Erm, my memory is bad, what did I let build up through writing? And where did I have Toby follow that motto?

Oh, cool, I don't know anyone who was homeschooled myself, save form a kid from a Beavers group I used to help out at, so my idea of how people are homeschooled might be off a bit.

Erm... I've forgotten what it was called, give me a moment... oh, right, the leprechaun movie, I'll catch it next time I can.

Well... if coffee causes you to freeze that's certainly an interesting reaction.

Right, I think I'm keeping the reviews at the top, thank you.

I am the master of writing melodramatic characters, it's a gift from being melodramatic myself.

Yeah, I liked having Brian beat a guy to the ground, plus I think it would be about time Isaac did something to try and cover up the last bit of his scar.

Hehehe... the time until I torture the two of them with feels is coming... just you wait.

Aww... I think that that's something that L.J would be likely to do instead.

I'm saying nothing about the twins, and just wait until I decide to go completely off the rails with things.

I think that it'd make a brilliant EXTRAS chapter.

I've heard about the sleeping donkeys law, didn't know about the pickle one, and I'll make sure to try buttermilk pie at some point... currently eating a cheesecake as we speak by the way.

Yep, that was certainly one hell of a review, and I'm glad that you liked it, hope you like this one.

Thunder-Death;

Thanks, glad that you like it.

Not A Criminal;

Pfft, that would be amazing,

Fleur, "Mama, zis little boy can summon ze flames, and he iz no Veela!"

Fleur's mother, "?!"

Gabriella, "Can we keep him?"

Fleur, "I've given him ze directions to our house, he should be arriving very soon,"

'knock knock'

Toby, "Hi, why are you trying to adopt my brother?"

I _really_ want to do that now... I might have an idea on how to do something similar in the actual story...

If you want to send another, either leave it in a review or feel free to PM me.

ICPM;

Lurking for about a year?

So you were there at the start, then, this story has nearly been going a year after all.

Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel about the chapters, some are better, some a little worse, and wait... which chapter did you cry on? How did I write something that brought a type of crying other than tears of laughter?

I have ideas, and I'm not spoiling.

Thank you, and I'm not denying that there's probably something mentally wrong with me, but I'm too lazy to go get diagnosed.

YingYangWriter;

Wow... I wasn't expecting you for another week.

I've tried to show his progression in thinking that way, little bits at the more key moments and skipping over the internal debates he would have been having.

This year is going to have him be a little more forceful about things, you'll be getting another little scene to show what he is thinking probably next chapter.

I think he does know about it, I tried to put the idea that repeated use of the Imperious on someone makes them mildly mentally unstable for a while, easier to aggravate, less emotionally invested in things, and so on. That coupled with Ron's temper was the catalyst for the falling out.

He's going to be forced to be a little more direct by the end of the year.

Tim and Brian might be getting their own EXTRAS chapter where they have to deal with a small group of wizards and witches that tried to take Isaac at some point, it's too fun an idea to miss.

I love that Sherlock quote, I've been meaning to use it more often in life.

Yeah, Tim was ready to pass out after those stairs.

It's not that he's unfit, he just hates climbing stairs.

I really liked writing E.J's thing there, made me giggle.

He probably knows how to cook an entire body and leave no waste, I think he could probably make jerky.

I'm working out what I want to do with Ron, just wait... I need to actually figure out what I want to do.

Peace is in pieces and the world is steady at Defcon 4.5.

I haven't seen it yet, but I'm going to go see it.

I really hope that they don't try and make it a generic monster flick.

Ben has the internet, he doesn't need your phone number, he can make someone truly disappear.

Ladyreaper1 (Guest);

More female characters, I need female Creepypastas to add to the story then.

I'm useless at finding character's unless they are the very popular, and possibly overused, ones.

Ok, that was all of them, I guess it's time to get back to the story.

Final things, when I started writing this, the story was at 49,814 total views.

So by the time I finish, I think we're going to have broken 50,000...

I'm gonna need more cake... talk about a milestone!

Anyhow, I hope you all like, and if there's any... mistakes with a certain scene later since I don't actually know how things would have gone down, so I'm totally winging it there, and sorry if I get anything wrong with the procedure.

SteamGeek01.

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The Mansion.

A breeze had picked up through the forest, and the only being not currently inside turned as he felt someone, four someone's, enter his realm.

 **"Back so soon?"** The Slenderman asked, appearing not too far away from Masky, Hoodie, Toby, and Isaac.

"Let's just say that shit hit the fan," Masky grumbled.

Hoodie took the tent and water tub that he had been carrying so that Masky could stay behind and tell their boss what had happened.

 **"I suggest you get a good nights rest,"** Slenderman said, facing Isaac, **"I have a matter that needs you present tomorrow,"**

Isaac nodded, fighting the urge to swallow, and

Toby, Hoodie, and Isaac trekked on towards The Mansion through the twisted forest around them.

"Oh... hey guys," E.J said as they walked in, the door swinging shut behind them, "Didn't expect you guys back so soon,"

"Stuff happened," Toby said, "Those groupie dickheads of... what was his name again, vole-de-mart?" he turned to Isaac.

"Voldemort," Isaac said, "I think, he didn't really pronounce the 't',"

"Well, whatever it is, his little fanbase decided that they wanted to liven things up," Toby said.

There was a small shift in tension in the room.

"I thought he was dead?" Ben said, glancing with a worried look at Isaac.

"He is... well... he's sort of this dust... thing," Isaac said, unsure of what to properly call it, "So unless I suddenly develop a rather intense allergy to dust, I'll be fine,"

Ben couldn't help the huff of laughter that escaped from him.

"So, you guys knock a few heads?" Jeff asked.

"Well, me, Masky, and Isaac, no, but Brian went out to play," Toby said, turning to face the ever silent man, "Didn't you?"

Brian merely smirked, pointed at Teer, clicked his fingers while pointing to his head, and then at Ben and the screen.

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Screams of panic were all around him as he made his way against the rushing masses moving away from whatever was attacking.

The Glock that Toby had given him, as well as the two extra magazines, were held in his hand.

Just ahead of him, he could see what looked like a group of black-clad figures wearing silver masks in the shape of skulls. Floating above them were four more figures.

He could make out the shape of Mr Roberts, the campsite manager, so that meant the others must be his wife and children.

He could see the four figures that held their wands skyward, so those ones must have been the ones holding them up there.

He smirked and tugged a piece of black and red cloth out of his pocket.

You would think having your vision partially obscured by a balaclava would have made things harder to see... not for him.

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A few hearty, and slightly drunken, roars of laughter rose from the crowd of Death Eaters as they continued their march.

Then a loud crack echoed through the air.

More laughter followed for a second as they thought that a few panicked guests had probably tried to apparate away.

The laughter died when one of them let out a strangled gasp and fell, clutching his shoulder as something red blossomed through a hole that hadn't been there before.

A few seconds later, rapid-fire cracks sounded and nearly every one of them felt a part of their body swell with pain.

Another yell caused someone else to drop, clutching the side of their head, as their mask fractured and splintered, more blood pouring out in torrents.

The four that were holding the muggles in the air let them drop, sending a few Ministry workers scrambling to catch them before they landed, and started casting a shield.

One of them wasn't quick enough and his wand broke into two shattered and cracked pieces as something faster than they could see tore through it like a hot knife through butter, accompanied by yet another crack.

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Hoodie smirked to himself as he saw the robed attackers panic and look around.

He saw the remains of a few tents had been tossed together by the fray, probably people trying to clear a path out of there, and he tore out from where he was hiding, changing the now empty magazine as he did so.

One magazine down, two more to go...

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The Death Eaters jumped as they saw a man wearing what looked like a dull yellow hooded jumper, and some sort of black bag on his head, run out from behind an overturned tent and across the empty stretch of land before rolling behind a large cluster of tents.

They had fired spells too late and nothing connected with the man who was moving faster than they had thought someone on the ground could run.

A few seconds later more cracks rang out and things barely the size of a Gobstone started shattering on contact with the shields.

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Hoodie frowned as he saw the bullet's hit the shield, not penetrating through and hitting his targets.

A creak somewhere to his left got his attention and he saw one of the tall lanterns that had guided everyone to the stadium.

The stand for it had broken and the only reason that the large oil lamp hadn't already fallen was because of a guy-line of a tent that was spanned across the field.

He raised the Glock once more and took a moment to steady his aim.

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The Death Eater's couldn't help but flinch as another solitary crack echoed through the air, but this time nothing hit their shields.

For a few moments, everything was quiet, save for the ambient burning of tents behind them and distant cries.

Then the sound of something snapping caused the two that were furthest to the right to flinch and a moment later something fell and smashed on the ground.

"NYAAH!" a few terrified shrieks were let out as a lantern smashed on the ground, the oil splashing and spilling across the ground before the flames took hold once more.

There were a few more shrieks as the Death Eaters closest to where the lantern had smashed were splashed with the oil and subsequently lit on fire.

Hurried extinguishing charms were cast and in that time one of the Death Eater's dropped their shield to help their allies another crack rang out and one of the Death Eater's fell down, clutching their knee.

At that point, more terrified screams rung out from the nearby forest.

The Death Eaters turned and their eyes went wide.

A large skull and serpent was rising above the trees... the symbol of their Master, the Dark Lord.

A few of the other Death Eaters muttered different expletives and soon the bunch of them were disapparating.

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Hoodie lowered the gun and clicked the safety on once he had seen the lot of them disappear.

He turned to what had caused them to flee and found a large symbol imposing itself onto the night's sky.

The frightened screams he could hear must have been because of that...

Why did he get the feeling that he'd find Toby and Isaac right underneath that thing?

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'Why am I cursed to be right?' he thought with a faint sigh.

He clicked the safety off the Glock as he found Toby, Isaac, and Tim surrounded by wizards and witches.

Wands were out and many looked like they were about to do something to Tim.

He cast a quick glance at the tree which Toby and Isaac were next to and...

'Wait... is he... oh for...' Hoodie resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he saw the rhythmic breathing of a sleeping Isaac.

"... well informed on how that Mark is summoned, missy," a curt voice he knew from earlier that day.

"I say we take the lot of them down to The Ministry!" one of the wizards spat.

Brian, for some reason, got the impression that Tim was to blame for the man's bleeding hand.

"Oh, you mean the _British_ Ministry, in _Britain_?" Toby said, "Yes, let's arrest the _American_ tourists and bring them down to the _British_ Ministry, what could possibly go wrong?"

The man with the bleeding hand shot Toby a venomous look.

"I see no reason why we're to blame," Tim said, " _You're_ the ones that fired upon a group of _civilians_ , I'm merely trained to handle these sort of scenarios,"

"Well, let's see how well..." the man was cut off by a hand being placed across his mouth.

"Do you mind not shouting? My brother's sleeping," Toby said, pointing with his other hand at Isaac's slightly slumped body against the tree.

"Wait, has he really fallen asleep?" Tim asked.

"Yep," Toby said, not removing his hand, "Out like a light,"

"Toby," Tim said, pointing at the man.

"Oh, right," Toby retracted his hand and wiped it against the man's sleeve.

"We didn't fire at... at you," a witch spoke, "We... we fired towards where the spell was cast, our stunners went right..."

"Wait... where's Brian?" Mr Weasley, one of the only faces he recognised there said.

"Evening," Brian said, smirking as nearly every single member of the group jumped, one even gave a squeak of shock.

"Hey, bud," Tim said, "Have fun out there?"

"No kills, set a few on fire," Brian said which got him a slightly shocked look from Mr Weasley and Hermione, if he was remembering her name right, Isaac's friend, anyway, as they probably hadn't heard him speak that much in a single go before.

The wizard with the bleeding hand was turning red and was about to speak when.

"You're the one that attacked those Death Eater's!" one of the Ministry wizards with a scrubby brown beard said, "With that... that funny little thing of yours!"

Brian held up the Glock, spinning it around a finger.

Across the group, barely heard by any of them, Tim muttered, "Showoff,"

The wizard with the bleeding hand sneered.

"And what is that little thing able to do?" the corner of his mouth twitching.

Brian raised an eyebrow and turned to look behind him.

He pointed at three small branches, barely thicker than two fingers, on a few sparse trees and turned back to face the man.

In the space of a second, Brian had spun around, fired off three rounds, and pointed the Glock at the man.

Behind him, he didn't need to turn to know, that the three branches had broken off and fallen to the ground.

The wizard fell backwards and a few in the group looked at the Americans with slight fear... fear that only made the smirk on Brian's face all the more fun.

Brian slowly lowered the gun, clicking the safety back on, and stowed it carefully inside his pocket; he had made his point.

He bent down and picked up one of the spent casings off of the ground, holding it to a slightly gleeful Mr Weasley.

"It's hot," Brian said, holding the small object out towards his flattened hand.

A soft snore from Isaac made a few more members of the group jump as there had been deathly silence from all the wizards and witches after Brian's demonstration.

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"Hold up!" Ben said, "You mean that... he _slept_ through all that?" he stared at Isaac with impressed incredibility.

"Apparently," Isaac said, muttering it into the flat of his hand, "What happened after that?"

"They decided that it might actually be a good idea to check the area where the caster had been," Toby said, "A few did the whole, 'wait, is he...' thing and Tim shut them down, they came back with Mr Rules' house-elf, woke her up, found that the wand was the ginger kids, and then I woke you up and we left,"

"Aah," Isaac said, stifling another yawn, "I'm too tired to do anything right now,"

"Alright, see you tomorrow," Toby said, patting him on the shoulder as he got up, "Don't forget, Slendy needs you for that thing tomorrow,"

Isaac let out a grumbled, and slightly fumbled, "Alright," and shuffled his way sleepily up the stairs.

Once he was out of range, Toby turned to Ben.

"Could you keep an eye on him tonight?" he asked him, "That bastard's messed with his life enough, I don't think either of us would want him stressing more then he wants to about this?"

Ben nodded, sprang to his feet, and hurried into the t.v.

Once he was gone, Toby sat back with a smirk on his face.

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Isaac slept soundly that night, save for the odd ripple that passed a few times.

Funnily enough, every time they passed through Ben would show up moments later with an anxious look on his face.

One of the odd things about those ripples was that every time it passed he got an odd, but very brief, glimpse of an old man that he didn't recognise.

What he found most annoying about them was that each time the ripple appeared it was accompanied by a dull throb of pain in Isaac's temple.

But the oddest thing was that when Ben tried to find the ripple, by 'rewinding' his dreams, he couldn't find any trace of it.

Isaac was barely able to remember what the old man looked like so Ben was planning on shoving it through a few searches later when he had time.

When he woke that morning the dull ache was still present.

He got out of bed, not bothering to change since it was still fairly early in the day, and quickly bumped the t.v in his room.

BRVR had taken to sleeping there since he had returned from Hogwarts and the sleeping data-ghost jumped up and nuzzled against the part of the glass where his hand rested.

BRVR had also been trying out the new toy that Jason had made for him.

There was definitely some glee to the murderous sprite when they showed it to him... if breaking a t.v with a power surge could be considered happy.

After it had been replaced they hooked up the battery to the...

There was still an ongoing debate about what to call it.

Isaac favoured 'Mech', Ben favoured 'Animatronic', and everyone else called it a robot.

It had taken BRVR a while to get used to controlling it, he still ended up falling over at times, but he was able to run head first into Smile on the second day.

After that, they had decided to have him practice using it inside a fully padded room.

He had almost gotten good enough that they could let him run around The mansion on his own, it was just him trying to remember that he was far, far, heavier than when he was playing with Isaac in his dreams.

Isaac smiled to himself, patted the top of the t.v, also stroking Hedwig's feather's and scratching Fizz's back before he left his room and descended down the stairs; the fuzzy, blue, dressing gown he had gotten last Christmas loosely tied closed around his middle.

The first place he went, after grabbing a waffle and cramming it into his mouth, was the medbay to rummage through the cabinets until he found a few headache tablets.

He popped a couple pills out of the foil and dry swallowed as he made his way back out into the living room.

 **"Good morning,"** Slenderman said.

Isaac didn't know when he had appeared in the corner of the room, or if he had been there when he walked through with half a waffle jammed in his mouth, but regardless; there he was.

"Mornin'," Isaac said, the last piece of waffle taking up a cheek of his mouth.

 **"Chew before you swallow,"** Slenderman said as Isaac choked slightly.

"Thanks," Isaac said, "So, what was it you needed me for?"

 **"I have recently been watching someone who has been coming to grips with a new found purpose in life, I take it you know who?"** Slenderman said with a slight inclination of his head.

Isaac's somewhat cheery mood dropped slightly.

"Sirius," he said, sounding more like a sigh.

 **"Correct,"** Slenderman continued as Isaac sat down and folded the dressing gown over himself to keep warm, **"Since coming here, and learning his new found 'purpose in life', he was rather accepting, up until the point he learnt that you were present here as well.**

 **His original plan was to take care of you, but keep you away from all of this, he has freely admitted that much,"**

Isaac sighed and let his head drop back against the back of the sofa.

 **"However, over the month, he has fully come to the terms of his life, and how he has no control over yours,"**

"Good," Isaac muttered, still feeling tired from just getting up.

 **"Yes, he is waiting in the dining room,"**

Isaac's head snapped up, he was feeling more awake now.

 **"Go on,"** Slenderman nodded towards the room, **"Go supply me with my drama,"** he added on dryly.

Isaac felt his cheeks burn.

 **"There is a reason that Mrs Williams puts 'Always Watches' on those drawings of hers,"**

Isaac nodded and got up from the sofa, drawing the dressing gown tighter around himself.

He had forgotten why he was walking to the dining room until he opened the door and found Sirius sitting on one of the chairs, his leg bouncing, hands clasped before him with a light dusting from some white powder and... a box of doughnuts on the table in front of him.

"Not that doughnuts are a bad idea to bring to say sorry," Sirius jumped as he hadn't heard Isaac enter the room, "But if you really want to say sorry, you bake them a cake,"

Sirius let out a short huff of laughter before going back to looking nervous.

"I'm an escaped convict, I can't exactly stroll into a shop and buy some eggs and flour," Sirius said.

"Well, at least you saved a few," Isaac said, picking a random one out from the box.

"I've been living on toast, ham, butter, and cheese for the past... I don't know how long... so I'm having a sodding doughnut," Sirius said.

He was looking much better than when Isaac had seen him at Hogwarts, but there was still the air of a lost man about him.

Isaac made a soft humming noise and soon an awkward silence had settled in the room.

"I will not lie," Sirius said after a minute, "This... this is not the life I could ever say that I saw for you... but I'd be a hypocrite to say I didn't understand it or if I condoned it..."

Isaac made another soft humming noise.

"I... I have no idea on how to..." Sirius let out a soft sigh, "I don't even know where to begin,"

"How about how Slender's been... I don't know what to call it, showing you how to get your Grim on?" Isaac suggested, taking another bite of his doughnut.

"He took me to this town... I have no idea where it was, but he basically let me lead the way through the place...

We came to this small pub and... there was this man... it was... it was like I was... _drawn_ to him," Sirius looked across at him, "The erm... who is it with the... smile?"

Isaac paused a moment.

"The dog, or the human?"

"There's a dog of him?"

"You're talking about Jeff," Isaac said before he stuck the last of the doughnut into his mouth.

"Aah," Sirius said softly, scratching the cheek where he had been punched, "Well... _he_ was there and..." he let out a soft sigh, "I don't know what I am anymore,"

"Human," Isaac said, "All you are, you just know a bit more than everyone else,"

Sirius nodded.

Isaac made another soft hum and there was silence once more.

"I... I'm sorry for what I said about... about your family," Sirius said after a tense moment, "You've... you've changed so much and... it'd be unfair for me to take you from them..."

"You act like you could have," Isaac said, a faint trace of a smirk starting to sneak its way onto his face.

Sirius let out a soft huff of laughter, "Maybe..."

Isaac scoffed.

"What, ' _maybe_ ', is there?" he asked, "Teer can cut through concrete with a flick of his wrist, Ben and Sally can phase out, shove their hand into your chest, and squash your heart like a water balloon, L.J only obeys the laws of physics when he wants to, most of the time, and _then_ there are the pretty much ' _do whatever I want_ ' assassins of, literally, _everyone_ else, and then there are also two hellhounds, and Slender himself,"

Isaac regarded the man before him.

"No, you'd lose,"

"I'd have the element of surprise," Sirius countered.

"What surprise?" Isaac said, laughing slightly, "Animagus form? Everyone knows.

Apparition? Slender's got wards to prevent pretty much everything magical that he doesn't want to get through, so... what have you got?"

"A surprise," Sirius said.

"Is the surprise the fact that there is no surprise?" Isaac asked.

Sirius didn't say anything for a moment.

"... maybe..."

Isaac burst out in laughter.

"Well, you've got spirit, got to admit that," Isaac said, patting the table and getting up, "I gotta go feed Buckbeak,"

Sirius figured that that was about as good as it could have gone as he watched Isaac walk out of the room.

He picked up the box of doughnuts he had brought with him and walked through the other doors on the opposite side of the room.

Slenderman was already waiting in the hallway.

 **"And?"**

"... I don't exactly know what I was expecting," Sirius admitted.

 **"That just means that you had less to be disappointed by,"** Slenderman said, placing a hand on Sirius' shoulder.

Before Sirius could say anything else Slenderman had brought him back to the small cabin he had been residing in.

There was a new pile of wooden logs next to the cabin and it looked like there were a few new bags of food on the coffee table inside.

He sighed as he leant against the door as he waited for his head to stop spinning.

Once it seemed like everything had calmed down he picked up the box of doughnuts, unsure of when he had dropped them, and settled back down onto the couch.

He frowned as he looked around the room, trying to find the source of the mysterious ticking noise.

His frown seemed to settle as his eyes landed on a clock that hadn't been on the wall before.

Underneath it was a small chalkboard, a piece of chalk hanging on a bit of string on the side, and a laminated piece of paper that bore the month and day number.

His frown temporarily rescinded as he let out a soft breath of understanding.

The Slenderman had probably put it there, he seemed to be the only one that could enter and leave this place.

A memory temporarily floated to the front of his mind.

It had been when he had first decided to try and explore the forest around him.

He hadn't gone too far before he came to something nailed to a tree.

It was a mere piece of paper, with what looked like a child's drawing in thick black pen.

His vision seemed to tunnel slightly, it was like everything else around the picture was curving slightly until it was the only thing he could focus on.

He was somehow able to close his eyes and back away until he had left the forest and was back in the clearing.

He hadn't gone exploring after that.

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The Mansion.

Masky and Hoodie dropped down onto the couch, the remote immediately being scooped up by Hoodie and he began to surf through the many channels they had access to.

They had just gotten back from a job and were slightly anxious about Isaac's trip to get his yearly supplies for Hogwarts.

They had gotten Teer to accompany Toby and Isaac in getting things, figuring that the guy who can tear someone to shreds with psycho-kinetic string can probably handle those two.

"Sup, guys?" Teer asked, dropping down onto the other couch.

"Hey," Masky said, frowning behind his mask, "How did the shopping go?"

"Pretty easy," Teer said with a shrug, "Got the books alright, got the... I don't know, eye of newt, cinnamon, pony tears, and provolone for potion stuff... oddest thing was that he was asked to bring 'dress robes'," he said, his face crinkling slightly, "that was fun to get sorted, half an hour of him standing on a stool and some witch holding various pieces of fabrics against him,"

"Sounds like you had fun," Masky said, frowning as something seemed... off.

It was... quiet... too quiet...

"Where are they?"

"Who?"

"Santa and his elves," Masky said, rolling his eyes, "Toby and Isaac, where are they?"

"Oh, they went shopping," Teer said dismissively, "We were running out of food, Jeff went with them,"

Masky sat up a little, "Toby, Isaac, and Jeff went shopping?"

"Yep," Teer said, popping the 'p'.

Hoodie got up with a slight groan and walked through to the garage.

A few moments later he dropped back down on the couch and let his head drop back until it hit the back.

"Is the car gone?" Masky asked him.

Hoodie grunted in confirmation.

"Did they leave a note?" Masky asked him.

Hoodie grunted again, this time to say no.

Masky sighed.

"Turn to the news channels," he said.

Hoodie groaned and switched away from the show he had found and started changing through news station after news station.

"You thought that they'd get up to something big enough to make the morning news?" Teer said.

Masky sighed.

" _Valium_ ," he said, disdain dripping from every syllable, as he picked up his phone and dialled in Toby's number.

He muttered, "Pick up, up, pick up," under his breath as he waited for Toby to pick up.

"Toby, what's..." Masky flung his arm as far as it could go, loud music blaring from the speaker.

#"Give me a moment!"# Toby yelled through the speaker.

Masky hit the loud-speaker button and set his phone down on the coffee table.

The loud music was replaced by whistling wind and a pair of faint sirens.

#"This better?"# Toby's voice shouted through the phone.

"What are you doing?" Masky shouted back.

#"Leaning out the window!"# Toby shouted, #"It was too loud inside!"#

"Why are there sirens?" Masky asked him, shoving his mask up onto his head and rubbing his eyes.

#"What?"# Toby shouted.

"WHY ARE THERE SIRENS!" Masky shouted at the phone.

#"Oh... because we're getting chased by the police,"#

Masky froze and it looked like, for a moment, that he was trying to tear the front of his head off as his hand started shaking from how hard he was holding his head.

"Why... are... the police... after YOU!" he shouted.

#"Well...#"

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Forty minutes ago...

"OI! Jeff!"

"Yes, line thief?" Jeff turned to face Toby.

"Where are the car keys?" Toby sighed.

Jeff sat up a bit.

"Why do you need them?" Jeff asked.

"I'm going shopping... and I'm lazy," Toby said, "Plus I've kinda been meaning to try and teach Isaac how to drive, might as well kill two birds with one hand grenade,"

Jeff sat upright.

"I'm coming with," he said.

"Alright?" Toby said, backing out of the way so Jeff could get to the garage.

"What?" Jeff asked, rummaging through a drawer and pulling the keys out, spinning them around his finger.

"Just thought that you'd prefer to stay here," Toby said, going off to go get Isaac.

"Few things..." Jeff said, following him.

"A, I got nothing better to do, B, I want more jam, and C, seeing Specs try to drive is going to be hilarious!" Jeff finished with a huff of gravelly laughter.

He smirked, as much as he could, and ducked when Isaac threw something at him.

Ben was still the only one he let call him that name.

A few minutes later Jeff was sat in the driver's seat, Toby to his right, and Isaac sitting in the back.

"Oh... listen to her purr," Jeff said as he started the car.

He pressed something on the key-fob and the door to the garage slid open.

Jeff revved up the engine and then next thing Isaac knew his head hit against the back of the seat.

Jeff let out a jubilant cackle as they bounced slightly.

A few seconds later they were driving around the edge of the forest towards a large arch made of two twisted trees.

Jeff stopped the car a few feet away from the trees.

"Go get the Port," he said to Toby.

"You go get it,"

"You get it, I'm driving,"

"Exactly, your job to get us to where we need to go,"

"Who stole who's line?"

Toby grumbled, undid his seat belt, and shut the door with a little more force than was probably necessary.

A few moments later he got back in the car, making sure to get a bit of mud in with him.

"Thank you," Jeff said pleasantly, which just caused Isaac to shiver slightly, and soon he was flooring it through the portal.

They came out onto a deserted, and quite dusty, road that joined another. A sign next to it gave direction to a town some five minutes away.

 **(X) Thirty-five minutes later (X)**

"I still don't see why you need four jars of jam," Toby said as the three of them carried the bags back to the car.

"I still don't see why you had to say..."

"How long are you going to be hung up on that?" Toby sighed, for what felt like the fifth time that day, "It was like... six years ago, get over it,"

"It's a matter of principles," Jeff said.

"What principles do you have? Other than stabby, stab, stabbity, stab, stab, stab,"

"The principle that I stab with style, and that you infringed on my copyright,"

"Ok, I call bullshit on you having copyrighted the phrase 'Go to sleep'," Toby said, popping the boot open and letting Isaac and Jeff dump the bags in.

"It is globally acknowledged that that is _my_ thing, L.J kills kids, E.J has an addiction to kidneys, and you tick and burn down forests.

So, we gonna try and teach the kid on how to drive?" Jeff rubbed his hands together.

Isaac sighed as Toby directed him to the passenger's seat.

"Why do I get the idea that this isn't going to end well?"

Toby drove them out for a while until they came to a rundown industrial estate with a large, empty, parking lot.

"Alright, this should do," Toby said.

The sound of a door opening and closing had them both turn to look at Jeff, who was walking over to a low stone wall.

"I know what is going to happen, and I don't want to be bumping all around the back because he keeps stalling it," Jeff said as he pulled himself up onto the wall and turned to look at them.

Toby rolled his eyes as he and Isaac swapped seats.

"Relax, you'll be fine," Toby said as he buckled into the passenger's seat.

 **(X) Fifteen minutes later (X)**

"Alright, you got clutch control down... and you only melted part of the steering wheel once, not bad," Toby said, looking at the still smoking part of the wheel.

"Not my fault it..." Isaac broke off in grumbles.

"If he's broken any piece of my car, I'll shave every last hair off that head of his!" Jeff shouted across the parking lot.

"Ignore the pasty prick," Toby said, "You got the clutch down, now we go onto gears and gas.

Simple way to remember?

For the most part, zero to ten, first gear, ten to twenty, change into second gear, thirty you change to third, and so on, and so forth," he said with a few waves of his hand, "Works well enough most of the time, but you learn to go up or down by the funny noises that the car makes... ready?"

"Sure... how hard do I..."

"If you think we're gonna crash, foot hard down on the brakes," Toby said, "Now, get her going,"

 **(X) One minute later (X)**

"Ok... maybe a little less force when using the brake,"

 **(X) Five minutes later (X)**

"Alright... you're getting the hang of it, not too bad," Toby said as Isaac cruised around the parking lot, "I think that's... that can't be good," he trailed off as he saw Jeff running towards them.

"Fucking GO!" Jeff said, "GO! GO! GO!"

"Why what's..."

"What part of 'GO' do you not understand you myopic moron?" Jeff said, hitting the back of the chair, "GO!"

"That means shortsighted, so you're wrong there, and what did you do?" Toby asked as Isaac revved the engine a little too much and ended up spinning the tyres before the took off out the broken gates and down the, thankfully, straight road.

"Well..."

 **(X) Just before Jeff ran to the car (X)**

Jeff was swinging his legs as he sat on the wall, watching as Isaac braked a little too hard and Toby bounced forward in his seat.

He laughed to himself as he watched the car go again, stopping a little past the broken lamp post that Toby had pointed to.

"Hey!"

"Oh, shit..." Jeff muttered as he turned and saw a policeman gesturing for him to get down, his partner sitting in an idling car a few metres away.

He sighed and jumped down.

"This area's off limits to the public," the officer said, "Just you?"

"Pretty much," Jeff said.

The officer glanced up at the wall that Jeff was on, frowning when he heard what must have been Isaac practising braking again.

"And what were you watching?" he asked Jeff.

"My friend practising driving," Jeff said, feeling in his pocket for his phone and cursing himself for not thinking to bring anything to fight with.

"So it's not just you," the officer said, crossing his arms, "I take it that your friend at least has a license?"

"Look, there's a perfectly good explanation for this," Jeff said, thinking fast.

The officer put his hands on his hips, a disbelieving look on his face.

Before he could have done anything Jeff had grabbed the front of his shirt, threw his head back, and slammed his head into the officers.

The officer staggered slightly and Jeff took the opportunity to kick hard at the man's leg, catching him just inside his thigh.

Jeff spun as the man's partner hurried over, ignoring the shout to stop, and vaulting over the wall.

"Oww..." he groaned, "There are no winners with a headbutt..."

 **(X) Now (X)**

"And that's pretty much what happened," Jeff said as Isaac took a corner, skidding into the other lane for a moment.

"Why did you have to attack the police, this isn't going to... oh for..." Toby broke off as he turned back and saw blue and red lights flashing after them, "See what you've done now!"

"This isn't my fault!" Jeff said, looking around the car, "Why isn't there any junk to throw at them?

Oh, right... I cleaned this place up..."

"Wait, you actually clean..."

"Will you watch the road!" Jeff cried at Isaac.

"Christ!" Isaac swerved to avoid a graffitied post box.

"Well... might as well make this fun," Jeff said, leaning forward and fiddling with the radio, rubbing his head where it had hit the window.

"What are you..."

Toby didn't get time to finish as Jeff turned the radio on and heavy metal started blaring through the speakers.

"Packed a couple of small sub-woofers into the back!" Jeff shouted over the music.

"What?" Toby shouted back, "You packed a double sun waffle in through Iraq?"

"What?" Jeff shouted back.

"LEFT!" Jeff and Toby shouted over the music at Isaac.

Thye skidded slightly as they rounded the corner and they were soon speeding away from the industrial estate and towards a somewhat empty motorway.

"Uh-oh..." Toby muttered, unheard by either of the two, as he pulled his phone out his pocket.

"Hi, Masky," Toby said, plugging one of his ears, "Give me a moment!"

Toby rolled down the window and leant out, pulling the seatbelt until he was leaning relatively comfortably outside the window.

It took Isaac and Jeff a couple of minutes to realise that Toby was hanging out the window, Isaac was focusing on not hitting anything and Jeff was feeling around under the seats for something to throw.

"What are you doing?" Jeff shouted at Toby as he pulled himself back in the window, "Did you find something to... OI! I was listening to that..."

#"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU MORONS DOING!"# Masky's voice yelled through the speaker.

"Crap," Jeff muttered.

"I'm innocent in this!" Isaac shouted.

#"Where are you?"# Masky asked.

"Erm..." Toby looked out the window for a sign.

#"Never mind, Ben's found you,"# Masky said before Toby could say anything.

#"Take the next turn off on the left,"# Ben's voice came through the speaker, #"I got bored one day and started mapping the Slenderports, there's one twelve miles from where you are the now, keep going, and don't take the third exit! That'll take you to the highway, no way you can get off once you're on that,"

#"When you three get back I'm killing you!"# Masky barked into the phone.

"I was dragged into this!" Isaac shouted, "Kill them, not me!"

"Oi!" Jeff and Toby said, "Jeff's the one that pissed off the cops, blame him!"

"Oi!" Jeff hit Toby in the back of the head.

"You know I can't feel..."

"It makes me feel better," Jeff snapped at him as he hit him again.

"You know, I think I'm getting the hang of this..." Isaac said as he weaved between a couple of cars to get to the exit.

"Yes you're... actually not doing that bad," Jeff broke away from any sarcastic remark that had been building when he looked out the window and found that the police had passed the exit since they hadn't expected them to cut across the car that had been in front of them.

#"Just get back here!"# Masky growled over the phone, a groan came shortly after, #"Thank you,"# the clink of metal against glass told them that Hoodie had probably handed him a beer.

#"Second exit,"# Ben told them.

A little while later and they were bumping over a bumpy dirt road, the faint drizzle of approaching rain bumping down on the car, as they made their way towards a masked man standing a few feet away.

"If there's a news report asking for information on any of you later, then there will not be enough painkillers or coffee to save you from me!" Masky said as he climbed into the back with Jeff.

"His fault!" Toby and Isaac said as soon as he sat down, the both of them pointing at Jeff.

"I don't care who's fault it is, I just want to go to bed," Masky said.

"It's like... five to three," Jeff said.

"I know... I still want to go to bed and sleep this shit storm away,"

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Endnotes.

Alright, I feel like this is...

hold on, what's...

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Hogwarts.

Dumbledore looked over the many pieces of parchments that were spread on his desk.

He laid back in his chair as he ran a hand down his long, silvery, beard.

Right now his mind was dwelling on a student from long ago, one that he had once hoped was long gone from this world, Tom Riddle.

The once model student of the school had turned into a mass murderer and terrorised the whole of the Wizarding World...

He let out a weary sigh.

His eyes fell on one of the latest issues of the Daily Prophett lying on the desk.

The symbol that had terrorised so many was on full display and people were clamouring for answers.

If only he had acted against Riddle, now the Dark Lord Voldemort, sooner; then perhaps none of this would be happening.

He knew he had to act fast to ensure that his allies were still with him.

That was why he was calling upon an old friend, Alastair Moody, to Hogwarts to teach the Defence Against the Dark Arts classes.

The ex-Auror was more than qualified to teach the subject, and this would hopefully encourage the Potter boy to stay in the Wizarding World.

His eyes darkened as he thought to how the boy that would have once been his soldier was now at the furthest reaches of his control.

From what the portraits he had posted around the school were able to tell him, the boy seemed to have a pull towards situations that seemed mildly dangerous already.

He hoped that he would one day be able to pull the little thrill-seeker back under his sight, and where he fully belonged.

If he was right in thinking that Riddle would return one day, within a year if his suspicions were correct, then there would come a time of conflict worse than before.

He had decided on a course of action, based on how he knew the public would react.

If Riddle was to return, there would be a period of denial from the public in which the Ministry would deny his return.

After they were forced to accept that Riddle had returned, then they would turn to him for leadership and support... as well as towards the one who had vanquished Riddle the first time, Harry Potter...

The name in which he refused to be called almost seemed like a curse to him now.

No matter.

He knew that he would force the boy to obey him, by any means necessary.

And if the boy died in combat?

Then that was a piece of Riddle's soul gone and saved him the trouble of killing the boy himself.

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Endnotes.

Ok... can I end it now?

'Gets knocked out of chair by seperating line'

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The Mansion.

Liu sat on the edge of Ben's bed, watching the sprite as he paced across the room.

"Have you ever considered the idea that you're overreacting to all this?" Liu asked as Ben buried his hands in his face.

Ben didn't say anything.

"How... how can I bring this up?" Ben asked him, Liu sighed and flopped backwards, "If he doesn't feel the same then it'll be a mess,"

"And what if he does?" Liu asked him, wishing that one of them could do something and end his suffering.

"Why would he?" Ben said, "He's... he's this awesome wizard that can summon flames, tame _anything_ that he comes across, he got BRVR to calm down in seconds after meeting him for the first time, and have you even _seen_ the talons on that Hippogriff?"

Ben sat down on the chair, a mildly defeated look in his eyes.

"Alright... I'll make you a deal..." Liu said.

"I will give you... just under a year, maybe a couple of weeks off at most, to ask Isaac out.

If you don't, then I'm duct taping the two of you to swivel seats, dragging your asses out to the burger place, and telling him how big a crush you have on him in the most blunt way possible, deal?"

Ben paused for a moment, having gone white at the idea of Liu telling Isaac before he was ready to do it himself, but nodded a few moments later.

"Deal..."

"Perfect," Liu said, "And hey, you got to make a deal with a demon, and keep your soul," he bumped Ben playfully in the shoulder.

"Buzz off, I got a salt shotgun fully loaded," Ben turned to the desk and picked up the orange toy up, turning back just in time to see Liu close the door after leaving.

He put it back down and smiled to himself.

Isaac had gotten it for him last Christmas, when he was... at... Hogwarts...

Ben's shoulders dropped and his eyes went wide when he realised that by the time Liu's countdown had ended Isaac would have been away at Hogwarts for his fourth year and that would give him either the remainder of this holiday to tell him... or by the end of the first week of the next.

'You...' Ben thought as he groaned and let his head drop down and hit the desk.

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Endnotes.

ENOUGH!

I'm going to be late in uploading...

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The...

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GYAAAAAAAA!

'picks up mallet'

PISS OFF!"

'smashes the line breaker into pieces'

Ok... right...

Thank you all for reading this.

And I was right!

50,000+ views on the story reached by the time it took last weeks chapter to go up!

Thank you all, I've got a long list of possible EXTRAS chapters to be writing and I'm gonna start on the next couple pretty soon.

Thank you all to everyone who has stuck around this long, and welcome to anyone that joined recently.

Thank you to everyone that has reviewed, and I'll see you all in the next one... I don't think that I can delay year 4 any longer, do you?

I could probably find a way, but I think I want to get that year done so that we can get to the _real_ fun stuff.

See you all next time,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the Toymaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	49. Chapter 49, Carriages and Conversations,

Chapter 49, Carriages and Conversations.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

My mouth is full of Jelly Babies... and I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but the contact lenses for my Eyeless Jack cosplay arrived.

I look like a demon! It's AWESOME!

And when I woke up after uploading chapter 48 I had 17 new reviews to read.

It takes up 2 pages!

Alright, I've got reviews to answer, let's-a-go!

YAHOO!

TheMarpasChappers;

Hey, Marpas, how you been?

Jeff says stop throwing things at him... and that he doesn't know where his knives are so to count yourself lucky (I hid them in the one place he'll never think to check; The washing machine).

I'm glad that you liked last weeks chapter, I hope you like this one.

The list, yay!

1,

I feel like that even if he did, I really couldn't comment on it out of fear of being thrown out a window and impaled up a tree.

But that chapter was basically him calling out everyone who said 'Slendy uses us for his drama shows'.

2,

Jeff just likes going fast... and so will Isaac...

3,

I haven't seen the show, so I have no idea what you're talking about, sorry. :/

4,

Hehe, I've been playing a little more GTA lately, kinda think it affected the story somehow.

5,

'glances at mallet'

I'll get back to you on that, I need a static bag... or a tub of goo...

Katropis12;

Hehehe, I think I might have to have a third car chase at some point.

Kittyisaac;

Thank you.

I hope that you like this one.

Yeah, I need to take a little more care with those. Since DP is still on va-kay I've been using Grammarly to spell check, but it takes a while to find all the typos, plus it crashes sometimes when I try to save and I have to restart.

Thank you, I'll do my best!

DarkRavie;

Thanks, glad that you like it.

Matt (guest);

Yep, Sirius is getting better at this, and soon we'll be having fun at Hogwarts.

MyraZinshu;

Welp, this is gonna take a while.

Cheesecake is perfect for any occasion.

Yeah, perfectionism can either be awesome or a right headache. I've given up on trying to fix that thing, it's currently in many pieces in a box.

I really want to try more weird food combinations, I'll have to get recipe ideas from my uncle.

Ah, right, I definitely let the build-up of Jeff finding out what Toby said get a bit too long.

I've got a Fire Stick, so hopefully, I'll find it.

I get really cynical whenever I have coffee, it's... very odd...

Yeah... I've been there too... youtube has a whole lot of weird videos out there...

I will have that pie, I am looking for recipes to try and make it.

Hehe, I had fun having Hoodie kick ass.

Never doubt the abilities of a very tired person... you live next to an army base? That sounds... both cool and annoying.

Yeah... I'll change that when I get around to it... really need to make a note of which one is for which.

Cake is good filler, doughnuts are just plain addictive.

Hehe... that was fun to write... really need to have him drive a little more at some point.

I really like that only Ben can get away with calling him Specs. Toby can get away with it on occasion, but Ben's the only person he lets call him it on a daily, or even hourly, basis.

Ben would be the best GPS... just imagine him giving them directions for a McDonalds and then getting them to order him a Happy Meal.

I'd call Dumbledore Fumblemore, but I like Fumblemore better, and I have a really good idea on what to do with him... no spoilers...

Liu is the only person that 'knows' about Ben's crush on Isaac, so he's the only person that he can talk to about it.

I hope you like this one, and I think my work is a little more colourful than 'grey'.

Yikes, it really showed.

.549;

Sorry about your name still being weird when I'm answering reviews.

Well... the figure was not Slenderman... so what other tall, black and white, person was there?

Lunarwolf11021;

Thank you.

Magical shields to me are basically a see-through wall, the bullet's could probably get through with enough force, but a handgun wouldn't have been able to do it on its own in that space of time.

Thanks, Sirius would have to mellow out eventually.

Yep, at least he didn't kill the cop.

Ooo... ouch...

I think I'll need to write a fan service chapter where Isaac asks McGonagall if he can invite someone from home to the Ball... I'll add it to the list under 'Fanservice'.

Acherongoddess;

thank you.

If my chapters are the best thing about your weekend then you are very welcome.

Sweet Smilie;

If you want to throw suggestions for chapters, or little things to put in, then send them over. I've got no problem hearing your ideas.

Ok... that would be a fun idea for when he gets kidnapped... I think I have an idea...

No spoilers!

Pfft...

"Hello, that'll be... £45 total for the new mask and beginners guide to the Cruciatus,"

"Hold on, I think I have a coupon..."

^ That amuses me too much.

Isaac was just a very, _very_ , tired boi.

Sirius is getting better at this, he's almost ready to be let back into the world.

Isaac driving is going to be chaotically fun and BRVR was just fun, he'll be getting better at it and soon he'll be able to jump around like a normal Pikachu does soon.

Yeah... I think it'll take a fair bit of duct tape to fix the line break...

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

hehehe... DEATH TO THE LINE BREAK.

'smashing noise'

Hehehe... wait... oh, fuck, I need it this chapter! Where's the duct tape!

Shoguncaw;

Welcome!

MORE BLOOD REQUIRED! It only looks like the elevator scene from The Shining, nowhere near enough blood!

I have a regular warrior that looks like Two-Face from Batman because of the amount of Blood for the Blood God I put on him... hehehe...

Wingzero512;

Are you new? I think so... Welcome!

Hehehe... I think that Ben sees himself as Neo sometimes.

Thunder-Death;

Thank you! I'm glad that you liked it!

No spoilers... well... you know when the EXTRAS chapter comes in... you're not getting anything between that and now though...

Thank you, I'm writing for a very small audience and I think I'm doing marvellously.

Cho-No-Iro;

Welcome...

Snape, Snape, Severus Snape, Snape, Snape, Severus Snape...

DUMBLEDORE!

Reidar7;

Thank you.

Year 4 is definitely going to be interesting.

NO SPOILERS!

Liu's time limit for Ben was fun, definitely adds a bit of pressure.

Shh... spoilers... shh...

Ben would like me to inform you that if you call him a hoe again, then he is going to break your legs had put you in a coma for the rest of your life.

Hope you like this one.

YingYangWriter;

Do you always put off reviewing till the day of upload just so that when I think I'm done, I suddenly get more to do?

No, you're not the only one that thought that. That exact reason is why I did it.

Brain kicking ass was fun, and you'll see a little of the aftermath later.

As out of touch as that distant Aunt that you didn't even know about until her grandson comes around trying to find a photo album.

The Mansion is Slendy's favourite drama show.

Sirius has fully accepted his new life, he's just getting used to it now.

Writing that was fun, I just want to have him get bored and go on a joy-ride with Ben at some point.

If you're trying to predict what I'm going to write, then I wish you luck. Even I don't know what I'm going to write sometimes.

Though I do have to admit that you do seem to have how I write Jeff whenever something goes wrong down pretty well.

'Thing happens'

'Masky get's annoyed'

'Jeff snarks and insults his way out of it'

I'll have messaged you once I've finished writing this review.

Dumbledore's grave is twelve feet deep at this point... and they'll be lucky if there's a femur left to cremate.

Liu is having so much fun with this.

E.J just shoves a few kidneys, maybe a liver, into a bag and considers that a packed lunch.

Ok... that was the last of them... 17 in total, that's a lot... onto the story!

But, first, something new... I'm gonna let Toby run around on the keyboard and not let autocorrect change anything from what he's written...

Right then, take it away, Toby,

He's just looking at me...

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

He just sat on the keyboard, typed that, and made about 5 additional pages... ok then...

Right, well... onto the story, I guess... I think I still need to fix a few bits of the line break... I think I may need more super glue...

See you in the next one,

SteamGeek01.

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Isaac groaned at the change of light as he walked through the Slenderport and raised a hand to block out the sun.

He sighed and tugged his trunk forward, looking around the busy streets, and moving to keep up with the others ahead of him.

"Well, here we go again," Tim said, walking not too far ahead, as they walked into Kings Cross.

"Do we have time for lunch?" Toby asked, looking at his watch, "I still need to replace the battery in this thing,"

"How long have you been needing to do that?" Tim asked him, checking his own watch and finding that they were actually early for once.

"I remember that on the day it stopped working, I think, I found out that magic was real,"

Tim closed his eyes and groaned.

"How is it you've managed to go six, freaking, years without getting it fixed?"

"I dunno," Toby shrugged as they made their way into a small coffee shop.

Tim took a deep breath in as the smells of various blends filled the air.

They ended up managing to grab a few muffins and drinks, having to eat while wandering around the gateway to Platform nine and three quarters since there had been no spaces to sit inside.

Isaac balanced his muffin on top of his hot chocolate as he reached into his hoody pocket to grab his buzzing phone.

"Hello?" Isaac said, bringing it to his ear.

#"You need to clean your ears better,"# Ben said.

Isaac rolled his eyes and held his phone out so he could see the screen.

#"BRVR wanted proof that you're not dead,"# Ben said, getting knocked a little out of the way as BRVR jumped into the phone screen and began scratching for a few moments.

"Hey, bud," Isaac said, pressing his thumb to the screen so BRVR could send a small shock through the screen. It was his favourite way to say hello.

#"Told you, we'll pop in to see him once he's asleep,"# Ben said, scratching BRVR behind his ears.

Ben flinched as a few streaks of lightning danced up his arm.

Isaac smirked and said a quick bye to BRVR since Tim had brought up the fact that if he wanted to get onto the train without too much hassle then they'd better get moving.

Isaac handed Toby his phone, he couldn't take it to Hogwarts with him since it wouldn't work.

A few moments later they were back on the platform, looking at the scarlet engine that would take Isaac back to Hogwarts.

"I'm looking forward to a nice year of... no... you know what? Not gonna jinx it," Isaac said, holding his hands up as Brian helped Toby get his trunk into the luggage rack.

"That's the spirit," Toby said, jumping back down and patting him on the shoulder.

"That didn't last long," Tim said, looking down the train,

"What did?" Toby asked him.

"The sun, it was clear skies a few moments ago," Tim pointed down to the mouth of the station, "Pouring it down now,"

Indeed, outside there was now near torrential rain thundering down on the ground.

Hoodie, meanwhile, was looking at a man with long, blond, hair that was standing far down the platform... he was leaning heavily on what looked like a cane.

"Yikes... I'd hate to have to actually walk to the airport in _that_ ," Toby muttered.

Tim glared at him for a second as he glanced around, seeing if anyone had heard him.

While the station was definitely filling out, a few people with damp shoulders muttering to themselves about the weather, but none seemed to be paying them any attention.

"Right... you know what you're covering this year?" Toby asked him, leaning against the carriage door.

"Erm... not really... think we'll be doing a few things that'll probably hit hard in Dark Arts," Isaac said, scratching the back of his head.

"Oh, cool... wait, I thought it was Defense against all that?" Toby said, turning to face him.

"Well... it is... I'm just reverse engineering the stuff we learn in classes for offence," Isaac said with a shrug.

Toby sighed and let a wide grin appear across his face.

"I feel sorry for anyone who pisses you off," he chuckled.

"I do too," Isaac grinned.

"Uh-oh," Brian muttered.

Isaac, Tim, and Toby followed his gaze to a group that had just entered the station.

Isaac sighed as he watched Mrs Weasley usher every other red-head, save for Mr Weasley and Percy, who would have been at work, and Hermione onto the platform.

"They're not all bad... just... Ron's a bit of a pillock," Isaac said with a dismissive wave of his hand, "But... ok, that's slightly scary," Isaac leant back as Fred spotted them, nudged George, and pointed to them.

There were wide smiles on their faces, the same kind of gleam in their eyes that Isaac normally saw either just before, or directly after, they pulled a prank.

The two of them got Bill to watch their trunks and hurried over to them.

"You are the best!" they said at the same time.

"I take it the letter was good?" Isaac said, unsure about anything going on right now.

"Very good," George said, "Got Mum off our backs,"

"She wasn't too happy..." Fred said.

"With our O.W.L's results..." George carried on.

"And was not at..."

"All pleased about the..."

"Toffee's and fake wands..."

"Flipped her lid and..."

"Freaked out, but there..."

"Was one thing that..."

"Saved our hides, you," Fred said, pointing at him.

"What did I do?" Isaac asked.

"L.J's letter?" George said, leaning on the carriage, "It was a job offer,"

"L.J gave you two a job?" Toby asked.

He had been giving Isaac his space with the twins, but with L.J's prior interest in the twins... this could either be interesting or downright chaotic and, quite possibly, an Extinction Level Event.

"Yeah, he's got us testing whatever he sends our way," George said.

"Then we send back our reports," Fred said, "After some rigorous,"

"Thorough,"

"Extensive,"

"Testing," George concluded.

"I think your Mother's looking for you two," Tim said, nodding towards Mrs Weasley.

"Thanks again!" the twins said cheerily and hurried back over to where Mrs Weasley was.

"Well... think that I'll need to invest in a bunker," Tim said, watching the pair talk to their mother.

"Hm-hm," Brian hummed in agreement.

A few moments later a whistle was blown and the call to board was shouted down the train.

"Here we go again," Isaac said, feeling something on his front shift.

Fizz had woken up, startled because of the whistle.

"Take care, bud," Toby said, clasping him by the shoulder and giving him a comforting squeeze, "And try not to kill anyone... well... don't get caught!" he said with a would-be stern finger wag if it wasn't for the grin on his face.

"I make no promises," Isaac said, bumping wrists with Brian, "But I'll do my damnest not to get caught,"

"Send us pics of the next guy to piss you off that badly," Tim said, "And write if you have any more black-outs, have Ben check your memory after sending the letter,"

"Will do," Isaac said, mock saluting him.

Tim rolled his eyes, but the small kink on his cheek betrayed his well-hidden emotions.

Another trilling whistle went out and the train jutted forward.

Isaac leant out the window and waved until it was hard to see and ducked back inside the compartment.

He reached up and smoothed a few of Hedwig's ruffled feathers, Hedwig had her head tucked under her wing and was dozing quietly.

Fizz scurried up his arm, up onto the luggage rack, and through the bars of Hedwig's cage.

Fizz had taken to sleeping, or resting, on Hedwig's perches.

Hedwig didn't mind, as long as he didn't get in her way, that was.

Isaac smiled to himself and rummaged through his trunk until he found a book wrapped in a jumper for cold days.

He smirked as he read the title, ~Firestarter~ by Stephen King.

Toby had gotten him the book a couple of years ago for his birthday, hardback and a paper copy.

Paper copy because he'd heard it wasn't that bad a story.

Hardback because that way he could hide Ben's gift.

For that same birthday, Ben had paid a visit to a custom book printing agency and used their printing press to print off 'The Anarchist's Cookbook'.

That book had given Masky his fair share of headaches and given the backyard, it's fair share of potholes and scorch marks.

Isaac thumbed through the pages until he found one that was basically a slow-burning napalm bomb that would last for a good hour.

'... got that... out of that... L.J borrowed that to make tea...' Isaac thought as he looked over the recipe.

A few moments later there was a knocking at the compartment door.

He turned his head, keeping the inside of the book hidden, and smile when he saw Hermione at the door. Crookshanks basket taking up the space under one of her arms.

"Hey, Herm's," Isaac said as she slid the door open and stepped in, "How was the rest of your holiday?"

"Good... how are you?" she asked, an air of nervousness around her.

"Pretty good, went to get groceries with Jeff and Toby one day and I was allowed to have a quick drive of the car in an empty car park nearby,"

Hermione gave a small chuckle, still sounding nervous.

"Is that nervous chuckle from a fourteen-year-old driving a car?

Or from something that Ron's done?

Or is it because of that moron that fired Voldemort's tramp stamp into the air?"

Hermione's nervous disposition cleared up nearly instantaneously.

"Do you ever take anything seriously?" she asked, a small smile of disbelief tugging at her lips.

"Oh, god, I hope not," Isaac said, a sly smirk on his face.

Hermione broke into more laughter, finally, her mood seemed to be improving.

At that moment Crookshanks started mewling from within the wicker basket he was kept in.

Hermione undid the straps and pulled him out, petting him and soothing him after the probably lengthy trip from The Burrow to Kings Cross.

"How can you not let anything like that bother you?" Hermione asked after she had calmed Crookshanks down, "I mean... last year you essentially launched yourself at Professor Lupin after he had changed, took on all those Dementors, you looked like you were just... _waiting_ for Parkinson to start something every time you passed her... then with what Ron did..."

"Herm?" Isaac said once she had trailed off, "My younger years were..." he fell silent for a moment, "... they were torture.

I had to get by without being fed for days sometimes, and I had whatever I could sneak from the first-aid kit without them noticing to fix anything they did to me...

I guess I just... I just learned to roll with the punches and stopped caring about things after a while," Isaac said, setting the book down and looking at her, "Things did get better, they got _so_ much better... but, lately... sorry, I'm just a little on edge...

The guy who killed Petunia and Marge was back in the UK not too long ago,"

It took a great deal of self-restraint not to laugh at Hermione's shocked and stunned expression.

"How... how do you know?" she asked, glancing out the window and at the door as if she expected some hulking brute to be waiting there with a large knife.

"Because he found Vernon, my once Uncle..." Isaac said in a low voice,"... and nailed his body to my old house, in Surrey,"

The lower half of Hermione's mouth was hidden behind her hands, her eyes wide in shock.

"That's... that's _horrible_ ," she breathed.

"He... erm... he left a note..." Isaac continued.

An idea for how they could get people to stop pestering Isaac about staying in the UK after Hogwarts was that they stuffed Vernon's body somewhere and made it so that the... 'murderer' that was after him was still looking for him.

"What did it say?" Hermione asked in a small voice.

"It said... ~Any guesses on who's next?~" Isaac said, trying to remember what Toby had painted onto the front windows, "But it was... erm... written in his... his blood," he finished quietly.

If Hermione's eyes got any wider then there was a chance that here eyes would pop out.

"How... how could... he's a _monster_..." she whispered in shock horror to herself.

"In all known time, there has never been a greater monster than the human being," Isaac said, "The guy also said that about miracles, but... the latter works better right now,"

Silence, save for the rattling of the train over the tracks, the faint whistling of air from an improperly sealed window, and the thuds of heavy raindrops against the roof and sides.

"Hello, hello," a cheery voice that caused the two of them to jump, Isaac's hand flew to his waistband.

Fred and George sidestepped into the compartment, taking a seat on opposite sides of the carriage.

"So, what's happening?" George asked.

"My uncle's body was found nailed to a door, and a message in blood that says he's looking for me," Isaac said, tucking the knife that had been one third out if it's sheaf back in without any of them noticing.

Fred and George's cheery demeanour slid off their faces faster than a bolt of lightning.

"You..."

"He..."

For once, Fred and George seemed to be at a loss for words.

"I'm fine," Isaac said, making it sound mildly non-convincing on purpose, "I'm just... a bit nervous about being back for a bit,"

There were a few more moments of silence from the occupants of the train compartment.

"So... what you're saying... is that you need a distraction?" George asked.

"Basically," Isaac said dismissively.

"Well then... wait until you see this!" Fred said, rummaging around his pockets.

"Why do I feel like I should be worried?" Isaac asked, subconsciously moving closer to the corner of the compartment and away from them.

Opposite him, Hermione was doing the same.

Fred shuffled in his seat... until...

"Ah-ha!" he proclaimed, brandishing a box... a box of...

"Erm... not that I don't like biscuits... but don't you think we should wait until the lady with the trolley comes around before stuffing our faces?" Isaac asked, looking at the box with a few... custard creams?

"Why would you think that these are _just_ biscuits?" Fred asked, an eyebrow raised in daring.

"They're not fully finished, yet," George said, scratching his cheek and nose, "But they're not _too_ far off what we want them to do,"

Fred tore the lid open, fished one out, and took a bite out of it.

"Erf," he said, making a face, "Need to sort the flavour out," he muttered through a mouthful of custard cream.

Isaac swapped a bemused look with Hermione's confused one.

Then a few seconds later Fred sprouted a beak and a few feathers around his head.

He made a trilling, chirping noise, that sounded like a bird being drowned before the feathers fell off and the beak crumbled away into what looked like biscuit crumbs.

"Well... like you can tell, it's not finished yet," Fred said, wiping the vanishing crumbs away.

"When it's done it'll turn you into an actual canary for a few seconds," George explained, "Right now all we can get it to do is the beak and a few feathers,"

"But that's... that's _N.E.W.T_ level Transfiguration," Hermione said in an awed voice.

"We know," George said, Fred was busy picking out the last few feathers, "Just because we've got a few O.W.L's to re-take doesn't mean we don't know our stuff,"

Hermione looked confused.

"But... your O.W.L's are supposed to show what you know," Hermione said.

"Just because we're not academically inclined, doesn't mean we don't know what we learn," Fred said, flicking a feather away.

"Look at the wands, and those toffee's," George said, "We only got our Charms, Transfiguration, and D.A.D.A O.W.L's,"

"But those toffee's needed rune work, plus a bit of potioneering skills," Fred added on.

"You got that rune stuff from me, though," Isaac said, determined to steer the conversation back to something more fun, "And L.J loved them... did I already tell you guys that?"

"Don't think so," Fred said, scratching his head, "But tell him... oh wait, we can just send an extra letter back with our reports for whatever he sends us!" he finished excitedly.

"That's right, we most certainly can," George said, matching his brother's grin.

"You guys know that you owe me a cake, right?" Isaac said, "So when you do the paycheque thing you get me a spoon,"

Fred, George, and Hermione shared looks of confusion amongst themselves.

"Would you like me to explain?" Isaac offered.

"Go for it,"

"Yes please,"

"Well..." Isaac began, stretching his arms out and cracking his fingers, "When you begin a job, whether it's your first, second, or fourteenth, whenever you get your first paycheque for that job, you go and buy yourself a cake.

The reason is to satisfy that inner child in all of us that once went 'I want cake for every meal'," Isaac finished.

"I've never had that," Hermione said with a shake of her head.

Meanwhile, Fred and George were nodding their heads to show that they had had that thought before.

"Yes, well, you were raised by Dentist's," Isaac said, "That might have had something to do with that,"

Hermione snorted in laughter while the twins swapped near silent grins, huffing puffs of breath coming fast and hard through their noses.

"Well, this was fun," George said, standing up, "But we're gonna go find Lee,"

"See you at the feast," Fred said, sliding the door closed behind them.

"You know..." Isaac said a few seconds after they left, "I feel like I've jumpstarted The Apocalypse, putting L.J in direct contact with those two,"

Hermione snorted in laughter, bowing her head as she did so.

"Thank you..." she said a few moments later.

"I have a feeling that lots of people would be thanking me for doing that," Isaac said, looking out the window and watching the landscape rushing past.

"No... not that," Hermione said, shaking her head, "With... with everything that happened last year... Ron and... things... I felt like I was panicking and... what you said, after Professor Lupin's Defence test..."

Isaac had a brief flashback to what he had said to Hermione.

"I was terrified that I'd... that I'd have to leave after facing the Boggart, and... I just wanted to say thank you," she finished, a small blush appearing on her cheeks.

"Hermione," Isaac said, "You are my best friend outside of America, and I look after my friends,"

Hermione smiled and ducked her head slightly, once more.

"So just say the word and I will bring you the head of your enemies on a pike," Isaac said.

Hermione snorted in laughter and fell back against her seat.

While she was distracted Isaac swapped out the versions of Firestarter, putting the paperback copy where the Cookbook had been moments before.

"So, what chapter were you on?" Hermione asked, pointing at the book.

"Hmm? Oh," Isaac picked it up and started flicking through a few of the pages, "I haven't started it yet, I was about to when you came in,"

"Well, I hear that he's a very good writer," Hermione said, tilting her head to read the title, "He has even made a whole universe that his books occupy, all of them in the same timeline,"

"Really?" Isaac frowned down at the book, "That's just got to be a headache to try and do something like that,"

Hermione started going on about everything she knew about the works in King's 'Macro-verse' and Isaac settled down on his seat.

Movement in the corridor got his attention and he turned, thinking it was the trolley lady.

A slight frown settled on his face as he saw the lumbering form of Crabbe walk past, the ever-present dim-witted look upon his face.

Not too far behind him was Goyle but between the two, an irritated look upon his face, was Draco.

Isaac's slight frown turned into an equally slight scowl.

By the looks of things, Draco's father was going to be having the pair of slow Slytherins try and stop Draco from doing anything he didn't approve of.

Isaac's scowl turned into a smirk.

He liked a challenge.

"I'm probably not gonna be able to read that many," Isaac said, interrupting Hermione's lecture on what work of King related to what.

"Oh, yeah... so, how was the rest of your holiday?" she asked.

A good portion of the trip was spent discussing what they had gotten up to on their holidays.

The twins popped in two more times, but nothing really happened with that. Just some more chatter about things that happened over the holidays.

They saw Ron pass by once, the tall ginger didn't look in, and neither of them made any motion to invite him in.

Eventually, the sky began to darken beyond the stormy clouds that coated the heavens and the lights flickered into life.

The lady with the trolley came around, Isaac even managed to convince Hermione to buy a chocolate frog.

The card she had gotten propped up against the box of beans Isaac had bought, he liked the risk.

They had started talking about what they thought they would be covered in classes that year. Isaac had already started flipping through one of his new books for that year, _Runes for the Researcher_ , since they'd be looking into harder translations and more advanced sigil creation.

That sigil he had made to protect his room in The Mansion had been a little too advanced and took him the entirety of the time from finding it, to finishing the modification, to complete.

A little into their discussion Isaac frowned as someone knocked the first five beats to 'Shave and a Haircut' on the door.

"Hello," Blaise said, sliding the door open.

"Finish it," Isaac said, crossing his arms.

Blaise rolled his eyes and tapped the final two beats.

"Happy?" he asked.

"You may live, for now," Isaac said solemnly.

Blaise snorted in laughter and stuck his head back out the door.

"Oh, hey man, slip Tweedledee and Tweedledum?" Isaac said as Draco entered and sat down opposite Blaise.

"You saw them?" Draco asked, rubbing the side of his head with his hand.

"If I ever miss them, feel free to hit me with something," Isaac said.

"Father, doesn't want me conversing with 'muggle-lovers and foolhardy Gryffindors'," Draco said, a sour look upon his face, "He's been in rather a foul mood ever since the World Cup,"

"Well, it's a good thing that you're hanging out with another Slytherin," Isaac pointed a thumb at Blaise.

Blaise let out a cackle of laughter while Draco put on a smile... it was essentially lying to him, he could tell it wasn't true.

"And as far as 'muggle-lovers' go, you aren't dating any muggles, aren't you?" Isaac said and Blaise began laughing harder, "So how can you have a muggle lover?"

Blaise was near about rolling in his seat, nearly falling over onto Isaac, and Draco looked fondly exasperated.

"So what has your father in such a bad mood?" Hermione asked, carefully picking out a bean from the box.

"He was... injured in the attack," Draco said after a moment, "The healers were unable to find out what broke his knee, but he's been having to take Skele-grow to heal it,"

Isaac made a soft groan of distaste.

He himself had been on Skele-grow once before... he could faintly remember the vile taste that he'd had to endure after the blond ponce messed up his arm.

A smirk flitted across his face as he remembered the hell he had forced the man through.

"So... are you two excited for the tournament this year?" Blaise asked once he had caught his breath again.

Isaac and Hermione shared a quick glance.

"What tournament?" Hermione asked.

"The Triwizard Tournament?" Draco said, "Oh... you won't have..."

"Is it an international event that involves games?" Isaac asked.

"It essentially is one big game," Blaise said, "And there are representatives from two of the other major Wizarding schools coming, so..."

Blaise and Draco exchanged confused looks as Isaac bowed dramatically to Hermione.

"Aah," Isaac sighed, sitting back up, "Pick up the phone,"

Hermione sighed and leant back in her seat, getting Crookshanks ready to go back into the carrier case.

Blaise and Draco shared another set of confused looks.

"Pick up the phone," Isaac said again.

"Why?" Draco asked after a moment.

"Because I called it!" Isaac said and a victorious grin spread across his face.

While Draco still looked confused, an expression of understanding was slowly building on Blaise's face.

"You call telephones," Hermione said to Draco, who let out a soft, "Ah," of understanding.

"So, what goes down at the Tournament?" Isaac asked, stirring through the box of beans and picking out one at random.

"Well," Blaise started as Isaac shuddered from the taste of steamed peppers, "... The Triwizard Tournament involves the three top magic schools in Europe.

Hogwarts, Beaubaxtons, and Durmstrang.

The games put a champion from each school through three tasks to win the cup,"

"It was discontinued after they believed that too many had died to it," Draco picked up where he had left off.

"Hold on... deaths?" Hermione asked.

"This was a couple of centuries ago," Blaise said, "Health and safety wasn't exactly a big thing back then,"

"Father's heard that they're imposing an age limit, to stop those who might not be as prepared to undergo the tasks from having to face them," Draco said, taking the offered box.

While Draco gagged from the taste of rotten mushrooms Blaise continued on about some of the things that used to go on in the past Tournaments.

"So, what were you talking about before we barged in here?" he asked, once he had run out of things to say.

"Runes," Isaac said, poking around the box for another bean.

"Oh... I don't know anything about Runes..." Blaise said, frowning and turning to Draco, "Erm... what's your favourite rune?"

Hermione started talking about various runes that varied in complexity and how they linked to what they represent.

Isaac shrugged and said, "The one for 'seven',"

Hermione looked shocked that he could have that simple an answer.

"Ok, any reasons why?" Blaise asked.

"I dunno," Isaac said, tracing it on the rune for 'seven' in the condensation that had been building on the windows during the trip.

"It just... reminds me of home," Isaac said, finishing the rune on the window.

"We're nearly at Hogwarts," Draco said, breaking the peace.

"We'd better go get changed," Blaise said, standing once more, "Catch you two tomorrow,"

"See you," Isaac said, raising a hand to see them off.

"My robes are back with my trunk," Hermione said, standing as well.

"I'll watch Crookshanks for you," Isaac said, reaching up into his trunk to find his own robes.

"You two not changed yet?"

Isaac and Hermione jumped as Fred stuck his head back into their compartment.

"We're nearly at Hogwarts, you know," he said with a grin.

"You nearly got stabbed in the head, you know," Isaac said, pelting Fred with beans until he left.

The rain was still thundering down upon them, the skies seemed non-existent, and many were pulling their cloaks over their heads.

Isaac patted his pocket as he set Hedwig's cage next to Crookshanks basket on the luggage racks on the train.

Fizz had scurried up his arm and was settled in his pocket, leeching warmth from him.

Isaac sighed and looked out over the sodden platform and fumbled with his cloak.

Thankfully, when they had gotten his new ones, they had decided to get a couple that came with thick hoods for the rainy days.

He let it flap behind him slightly as he walked down the platform, his face hidden within the hood.

He tucked his arms closer to his chest underneath the folds of the cloak to protect against the cold. Right now he was thankful that he always seemed to be warm.

"Isaac?"

Isaac turned and found Hermione walking towards him, her cloak raised over her head of bushy hair.

"Never skip out on a hood," Isaac said, feeling a little smug.

"I'll make sure to remember that," Hermione muttered as they made their way down the path with the other rushing students to find a carriage.

They managed into one that had only a couple of Ravenclaw third-years in it and soon they were trundling down the dirt and cobblestone path to Hogwarts.

"Still not going to get over them," Isaac muttered, more to himself than any of the others, as he looked out the small front-facing window and looked at the skeletal horse thing pulling the carriage.

The rain seemed to be coming down harder than before now, as they disembarked from the carriage and watched the two Ravenclaws hurry off to find their friends.

"Well... back again," Hermione said.

"Head's up!" Isaac quickly slid himself and Hermione out of the way of a large red item that flew past them and exploded in a splash of water on the steps behind them. A scream from a few of the already wet students that the water spray hit.

Peeves was flying above the returning crowds.

"OI! Peeves!" Isaac called out.

Peeves turned to see who was shouting at them and straightened up.

Isaac had pulled the hood back so Peeves could see his face clearer.

"Sorry!" Peeves shouted before zooming off, throwing the last of the water balloons out over the grounds.

Isaac smirked and adjusted the hood so he was once more protected from the rain.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a group of second-year Hufflepuff and Gryffindors watching him.

He raised a shushing finger to his mouth and winked at them.

He turned back in time to catch Professor McGonagall hurrying out to the front entrance.

As the many students passed she stopped two of them and a few moments later the student she had stopped pointed towards him and Hermione.

"Rogers?" she called out and Isaac paused, flapping his hood to try and get it that little bit drier.

"Yeah, hello," Isaac said cheerily as Professor McGonagall walked over, slipping a little on the wet flagstones that made the floor of the entrance hall.

"Good evening," Professor McGonagall said, looking around, "I was told you had sorted out the bother that Peeves had been causing?"

"Oh, yeah," Isaac said, "He's too scared of me to do anything when I'm around," he told her.

Professor McGonagall's brow furrowed at the statement.

"He's too scared of you?" she repeated, "And why would that be?"

"Professor, if I told you, it would ruin the effect," Isaac said with a smile.

Professor McGonagall dismissed him with a roll of her eyes, a half exasperated, half amused, sigh and a nod towards the Great Hall.

Isaac sighed as he walked across the threshold of the large doors into the warm and well-lit space.

He felt a small ripple pass through him as he entered and found that he was surprisingly warm and dry.

He did shiver slightly from the change in temperature, but he couldn't help but keep the grin off his face from no longer having to worry about catching a cold.

He sighed as he sat down at the Gryffindor table, drumming his hands on the table as he waited for the final students trundle their way into the hall and sit down.

He ducked his head and waved to an overexcited Colin Creevey, who had called down the table at him.

He let out a soft sigh as he heard that Colin's little brother would be starting this year.

Hopefully, he wasn't as excitable as his brother.

He turned back to facing the top table, waiting for the sorting ceremony to begin when he noticed something.

"Where's the new Defense teacher?" he asked Hermione.

She frowned and turned to face the teacher's table as well.

"I don't know, maybe he's been held up by the rain?" she guessed with a shrug.

A few moments later the doors to the front of the hall opened and Professor McGonagall led in the newest group of First-Years.

One of them was wrapped up in Hagrid's massive coat that seemed to swallow the entirety of the small child.

The various conversations around the hall quietened, Isaac could faintly hear something feebly calling out names barely a seat or two away from him in the direction of Seamus, and all attention was focussed upon an old hat that was sat upon a stool.

Isaac listened, he didn't have that good a view, of the sorting hat as it began its song.

"Wait a moment..." Isaac breathed, "That doesn't... does it change its song each year?"

"Yes, now, shh..." Hermione shushed him.

A few moments later the hat had finished and the already sorted students applauded it and the sorting began.

Colin's brother, Dennis, ended up being the child smothered in Hagrid's coat as the hat yelled out the boy's house; Gryffindor.

Isaac clapped politely as he watched the tiny boy make his way to the table and sit next to his brother.

Isaac watched as the crowd of first-years got smaller, and smaller, until the very last had been sorted and Professor McGonagall cleared the hat away.

Professor Dumbledore stood and smiled warmly out at all the new, and old, faces.

"New students, old hands, I merely have two words for you all... Tuck in!"

A cheer went up from a few students as the tables in front of them were piled high with food.

Isaac indulged himself for a few moments as he watched the first-years faces light up with joy at the sight of the feast appearing...

Though there was one, sat a seat across from him, that looked worried and a little sick.

"Y'all right?" Isaac asked, leaning across.

The first year jumped slightly, shocked that someone was talking to him.

"I'm... I'm fine," he said, "Just... just it's a long way from home..."

Isaac let out a soft laugh.

"I get what you mean, kid," Isaac said, smiling, "Listen to my voice.

I'm American, how far do you think I've had to travel?

But do you want to know something?"

The first year nodded.

"Your family, and friends, are just a quick owl flight away,"

"But I don't have an owl..." the first year looked down at his still empty plate.

"Well, it's a good thing that the school has a few hundred for free use by the students who don't have an owl,"

The first years face lit up.

Isaac smiled again and put a couple of pieces of bacon down onto the first-year's plate before returning to his own.

He was feeling... content.

Another year at Hogwarts, a tournament he could watch and wouldn't have to worry about entering since it sounded like there'd be an age restriction on it to stop unprepared people...

He was feeling... alright, about this year.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

End notes.

I wonder if you can notice something?

I actually finished this chapter at 12:51 in the morning of the Saturday and I'm a little drunk right now.

I went out with a few of my Network friends and it was rather fun.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you all in the next one... I think I'm going to have to make Isaac eat his words a bit...

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	50. Chapter 50, Curses

Chapter 50, Curses.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

OK!

I GET IT!

I SCREWED UP WITH 'CONTEMPT' AND 'CONTENT'!

I KNOW NOW!

I WAS ALSO DRUNK WHEN I WROTE THAT! cut me some slack...

Ok, aside from people pointing out that I mess up when drunk, what else did I get through the reviews?

iCPM;

Well, they most certainly do manage that, and with that, I do also have to say...

No spoilers...

Erm... I think Isaac adding to the Goblet's fire would end up being catastrophic and might make a large hole in the roof...

Magical Napalm... no spoilers...

etbagel2122;

Thank you, I am glad that you like it!

That part of Canon may be the last thing I add, things are definitely getting a little screwy now...

TheMarpasChappers;

MARPAS!

My week was dull until that Friday, though I'm happy that I didn't get a hangover. I actually had another date on this weeks Thursday that went really well.

Jeff is sleeping right now, not gonna chance waking him.

The list, yay!

1,

I fear every one of those in the same room together, and I don't know who Zeltretch and Richard are...

2,

I really want him to say it to their faces now... probably gonna happen.

I finished season 11 (Supernatural) not too long ago, still playing catch up so it's still pretty strong in my head.

Erm... I have no idea how to write MPREG... but, if I get enough interest from people wanting to see my take on that style, then I'll put it onto the list for EXTRAS.

Guest;

A,

I did, got drunk, went to a small McDonalds nearby, it was fun!

B,

Hehehehehehehe... no spoilers...

C,

I'll have another car chase for sure.

DarkRavie;

Thanks, I'm glad that you like it.

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune (As a guest this time, go figure);

You couldn't be bothered to sign in, well... can't fault you there.

No spoilers!

I feel like I need a gif of Edna Mode, except the caption says 'No Spoilers!' instead of 'No Capes!'.

Kittyisaac;

Thank you.

SEE THE MESSAGE IN CAPS LOCK AT THE TOP!

MyraZinshu;

I may have nicked a cheesecake from the fridge again... I can't help it...

Maple syrup and celery... I'll try it.

Still need to try to find it, kinda lazy right now.

If I ever get the cooking mood again then I'll try it.

I really want a cake right now...

Ben as a GPS would be catastrophic. Drive-throughs would be backed up, people would be directed to the place a block away from where they wanted to go, and he'd spell out rude words on highways.

Dumbledick, that's going in at some point.

Liu is awesome to write when I do that, who are you gonna get? Liu, or Sully?

I'll take blood-spattered rainbow.

I'm just hoping that the time differences don't end up screwing me over, I keep forgetting to check which one is where.

I live in Scotland, I was about to go out and then it started pouring it down and I had to go get the washing in... may have left the pegs on the ground...

Hehehehe... I have plans... though shalt not hear until they have passed.

I think a couple of other's noticed, in case you missed the caps at the top...

Hope you like it!

Guest;

Yes, he is.

IshipMaskyXHoodie;

I KNOW, SEE THE TOP!

Also, welcome to the review section, I wonder what your OTP is?

Thank you, hope you like it.

Estralde;

SEE THE TOP!

I know it's confusing, I'll go fix it when I fix CONTEMPT, SCREW ALL O...

'is sedated by orderlies'

'three hours later'

What did I miss?

I'm glad that you like it, I do need to have them a little darker, don't I...

I think that... [Redacted due to spoilers] would [redacted due to spoilers] so you have that to look forward to.

Plus, if you want to see what someone finding out about Isaac's real life would look like, check out 'Werewolf' on EXTRAS.

Thank you, I shall try to.

Acherongoddess;

I'm glad I could brighten up the day.

Thunder-Death;

Thanks.

Nobody51;

Hehehehe... I am too...

Not A Criminal did have a review, but it was for EXTRAS, so I don't think it counts.

But, I have seen it, and I've added something similar to it to the list of EXTRA chapters I've got to do.

Ok, that was the last... until YingYangWriter gives me a review on the day of upload again...

YingYangWriter;

Oh, trust me, it's a nice thing... unless I'm still writing a chapter when I get it and have to stop to answer your review.

Masky may or may not have an outstanding order at any pharmacy for some high-strength headache tablets.

Toby has a secret fridge hidden somewhere in The Mansion that is stocked full of his emergency waffle stash.

Hoodie has several of those lists somewhere in his room.

Isaac knows they won't try anything against him when he's not in the mood, because one word from him and the twins are jobless.

Aah, yes, Slenderman's favourite shows.

Isaac can either be incredibly blunt, or overly dramatic... there is no in between.

Oh... I am wondering that as well...

I think that after this chapter he's going to have done a few petty pranks, but there is definitely going to be a time when he's on a pranking warpath.

I could tell you about what would be happening, but... well... no spoilers

Ok, that's it, no more reviews for this chapter, onto the story... wait... hold on, new reviewer...

Galra-din;

Hello, welcome!

'sighs'

Did I do that thing again?

'sound of head hitting desk'

Ok, apparently the name 'Matt' is very big in Death Note... how am I able to keep doing this?

Also, every time I try and write 'Dumbledore' my laptop tries to write 'Dumbledick'... so thank you to everyone who got me to write 'Dumbledick'.

Another thing I wanted to mention was that for this chapter I'm going to 'fix' Hagrid's dialogue.

After this, I want your feedback, specifically the feedback from people who have to have this story translated so they can read it, on whether I should continue to 'fix' Hagrid's dialogue or keep it as it is in the book.

Hope you all enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

Conversations started flowing with ease as everyone steadily feasted on the food supplied.

Hermione was talking with Nearly Headless Nick about how the house elves had trouble trying to make the food that evening since Peeves had caused a bit of chaos down in the kitchens.

The seemingly endless piles of roast... roast everything eventually gave way to every dessert that you could imagine.

Around him, conversations turned to classes as people eagerly piled their plates with cakes, ice-cream of every flavour, or waffles and syrup, if you were a certain American.

As the chatter died down, and the plates of food disappeared, Professor Dumbledore stood. A welcoming smile on his face.

"Welcome, welcome...

Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out the notices..."

Isaac smiled and tuned out Dumbledore's speech as hardly anything was changing from it.

The Forbidden Forest was still forbidden.

Mr Flich's list of banned items had once again expanded.

Quidditch was cancelled... what, what?

Isaac glared slightly at the elderly Headmaster Dumbledore.

Quidditch was one of the few things that kept him coming back to this stupid castle.

It turned out that while an event that Dumbledore was going to explain, Isaac now knew it to be the Triwizard Tournament, was going on all the Quidditch games would be put on hold.

Which was kinda good, since it meant that Gryffindor would hold the cup for an extra year, but it was going to be hard to focus without that weekly rush of adrenaline he enjoyed from the practices.

Isaac started when a loud crash of thunder clashed overhead as the doors opened.

A man, leaning heavily on a staff, shrouded by a travelling cloak.

The man was being watched by everyone in the Great Hall as he walked towards Professor Dumbledore, a dull clank every other step he took.

He shook his head free from his hood and revealed long, dirty, grey hair and a gnarled face.

"Blimey, it's Mad-Eye Moody!" a fifth-year next to Isaac said.

"Who?" Isaac whispered.

"Alastair Moody," the fifth-year said as Moody shook Dumbledore's hand, gesturing over his shoulder at the ceiling, "One of the best Aurors ever! I heard that he was retired, though... he's personally responsible for filling up half of the cells in Azkaban!"

"Allow me to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody," Professor Dumbledore called out to masses.

"Ron's dad went to help him this morning," Hermione said in a hushed voice.

Isaac turned back to face the Headmaster as Moody walked over to the only empty chair at the teacher's table.

Isaac listened for a few more moments as Dumbledore started explaining about the Tournament.

Whispers of excitement broke out around the hall... thought they were suddenly dashed with protests when Dumbledore announced that an age limit of seventeen was being imposed upon the Tournament.

Many seemed to be annoyed at this, even though Professor Dumbledore had mentioned that the reason behind the age limit was because of the deaths in the past Tournaments.

Isaac listened as Dumbledore announced that the delegations from Beaubaxtons and Durmstrang would be arriving in October before he dismissed them all.

Many people were still muttering about how they thought Dumbledore was being unfair to impose the age ban so high, thinking that they should lower it so that they could compete.

Isaac ignored the muttering masses as he stifled a yawn against the back of his hand.

He was tired, he wanted his bed, he wanted to go sleep, and he wanted to check in with Ben and BRVR.

"You actually got it right,"

Isaac glanced to his left and found Fred walking next to him.

"Well, you didn't get the name... but pretty damn well close enough," George said, appearing at his right.

"Benefits of being... I can't be bothered to do this, I'm too tired..." Isaac said, letting any snarky remark drop away.

"Well... if anyone's got the right to be tired," Fred said with a shrug.

They eventually made it to the top of the Gryffindor Tower, going their separate ways as Fred and George made their way to the sixth-years dormitory, whilst Isaac trundled up to the fourth-year dormitory.

Isaac felt like he was on autopilot as he pinned up his posters, unpacked a few things for the next day, lazily brushed his teeth, turned the Gameboy on and crashed down onto the bed.

He groaned as he realised he had to change first and pulled himself back into a sitting position.

He leant over and rummaged in his trunk for a pair of pyjamas before working his way under the covers to change in peace.

He pushed his old clothes out into his trunk with his foot, tugged the curtains closed, and pulled himself up to his pillow.

"So, how's Hog-thingy?"

"Dusty, cold, and wet," Isaac said, stretching out and enjoying the warmth that seemed to surround him.

A rustling from some tall grass behind him heralded the arrival of BRVR, who leapt up and settled on his shoulder, nuzzling him before running off after a sparky, red, ball that Ben made to entertain him.

"Anything go horribly wrong back home?" Isaac asked.

"Surprisingly, no," Ben said, "Most that happened was that the onions went missing again,"

"Oh, god..."

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Meanwhile, at The Mansion.

'Stupid piece of junk...' Jeff thought, twisting the dials on a loudspeaker settled in the corner of his room.

He sighed, unplugged the guitar, turned the speaker off at the wall, and tugged it out so he had more space to work with.

He rummaged under his bed for the small bag of tools he kept to fix things that broke and couldn't be bothered going downstairs to fix.

He tapped it against the edge of his bed as he turned around to look back at the speaker, humming the song he had been trying to play.

He turned the screwdriver in hand as he started to remove the casing of the speaker.

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Liu was walking down the corridor when he heard a furious yell come from a door on his right.

He hesitated a moment before opening the door to his brother's room and...

"Want me to go get some water?" Liu barely managed to ask before Jeff knocked him out of the way as he barrelled towards the bathroom, falling against the wall as he ran.

Liu swung back, he had grabbed the door frame to prevent himself from falling over and looked into the room.

A chipped, large red, bowl attached to a spring was sticking out the top of a speaker.

Curly white strands were scattered all around the room, some hanging from the ceiling, and the smell of raw onion mingled horribly with the stale odour from unwashed clothes.

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"M-M-M-Master..." a scared voice said from the corner of the dirty, rotten, and decaying room, "T-T-The spy has reached H-Hogwarts,"

The large snake coiling in the middle of the room watched with unblinking eyes as a small, balding, and shaking man approached a high armchair positioned before the large fireplace; flames licking the logs piled high. The letter he had received moments before held in his trembling hands.

"Good... this is good news, Wormtail," a raspy, hissing, voice said, "Tell him... to monitor the Potter boy closely...

The performed of his task at the World Cup was... acceptable... but make sure he knows not to fail... we shall need his end of the plan to work if we are to succeed..."

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Back at Hogwarts.

"Well, Jeff's torture aside, anything interesting happen on the way up... that ginger douchebag need a little scaring?" Ben asked, idly scratching the back of his head and glancing around.

Isaac contemplated Ben's offer for a moment.

"Nah, I'll wait until he royally screws up before I start torturing him," Isaac said, picking the ball up and throwing it for BRVR, "Anything interesting happen at home? Or happening right now?"

"Well... I think Jeff just found L.J's gift..." Ben trailed off, turning around and looking over his shoulder.

Isaac gave a quick glance but found nothing but the expanse of field that they were stood in.

Isaac turned back in time to see BRVR chasing the ball as Ben made a few subtle swipes with his hand, sending it flying all over the place.

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The following day Isaac was torn between thankful that the storm had ended, and annoyed that there wasn't going to be any more thunder and lightning... he found lightning calming.

He changed his mind, however, when he looked at his timetable and found that his first two classes, Herbology and Magical Creatures.

Now he was happy that he didn't have to walk around looking like Palpatine all the time.

Though he was amused by the plants that they worked with that day.

Madam Sprout had them collecting the pus of Bubotubers.

The thick, yellow, ooze was apparently useful for dealing with stubborn acne, but what Isaac really liked about it was that it smelt like gasoline...

The fact he had a few sachets of gasoline stashed in his trunk so he could now terrify the others into thinking that they still had the puss on their hands and clothes was a mere bonus.

The fact that they had to wear protective gloves when harvesting the pus because it could do 'funny things' to skin only made it so it would be even more fun to watch them freak out.

The gonging bell sounded across the grounds and the two houses split, Hufflepuffs going inside for their next lesson, and the Gryffindors trudging across the still decently sodden grounds to Hagrid's cabin for their first Care of Magical Creatures lesson for the year.

After that lesson, Isaac was in a deep philosophical debate with himself.

Hagrid had unveiled a rather... interesting...

Unusual...

Exotic...

Challenging...

A very Hagrid sort of lesson, he eventually decided on classifying it as.

Hagrid had been waiting for them outside, as per usual, but what had gotten Isaac's attention was the sound of small explosions nearby. The noises seemed to be coming from the many crates that were dotted around his cabin in the shape of a horseshoe.

"Morning," Hagrid's enthusiastic greeting was far to chipper this early in the morning, Isaac thought, "Better wait for the Slytherins before we get started, they won't want to miss this, Blast-Ended Skrewts!"

"Gesundheit," Isaac said as someone else spoke.

"What?" Ron said, from the other side of the class that Isaac and Hermione were on.

Hagrid gestured to the crates and a few stepped closer to peer inside.

"Eurgh!" Lavender Brown squealed before jumping back a good few feet away from the crates.

"I think I saw something like this in a seafood restaurant once," Isaac mused.

He hadn't exactly been inside it, more watching someone for one of the others back when he was still under the 'job-ban' after bumping into Locklear for the first time.

His eyebrows shot up when one of them made a small 'bang' and propelled itself forward several inches.

"They've only just hatched," Hagrid said proudly, "... so you'll be able to make a bit of a project out of them,"

"Out of what?" Draco asked.

He and the rest of the Slytherins had finally arrived.

"Blast-Ended Skrewts," Hagrid told them, gesturing to the crates, "And the project is raising them!"

Isaac and Hermione shuffled around to make space for more to join them.

Unsurprisingly, Blaise and Draco joined them.

Pansy, who had looked somewhat cheery before, had gone back to stewing moodiness as she threw a glare at Draco and Blaise before flipping her hair out of the way and moving to another crate.

Crabbe and Goyle gave what Isaac thought were supposed to be glares, though it more looked like the sort of grimace you get when a puddle of mud is deeper than you expect and your foot sinks down below the ankle.

"Oh my..." Draco said, looking into the crate at what looked like the pale, deformed, offspring of lobsters that had mated with slugs.

"Oh my?" Isaac snorted, "Are you a noble in the seventeen hundreds?"

Draco gave Isaac a gentle nudge in the side as he leant down closer to look into the crate.

He did flinch back up a little when one shot forward with another small bang.

"Who in their right mind would want to raise _these_?" Pansy sneered, "I mean... do they even do anything?"

Hagrid looked a little caught off guard.

"You're learning what they do next lesson," he said a few moments later, "Since this is the first time I've had them, you'll be finding out what they like to eat..."

He went on to list everything that he had managed to rustle up and soon everyone was trying to coax the Skrewts to eat.

So far nobody was having any luck with getting them to eat anything.

They tried ant eggs, frogs liver, bits of grass snake... but nothing was happening.

"Ouch!" Dean Thomas yelped as he quickly withdrew his hand from the crate.

"Its end exploded!" he said, holding his singed fingers out for Hagrid, who had come over, to see.

"Aye, they tend to do that when they blast off," Hagrid mused.

"Hagrid... what's this pointy thing coming out its end?" Lavender Brown asked, leaning closer.

"Bet it's a stinger," Isaac muttered.

"Ah, some of them have stingers," Hagrid said dismissively, Isaac closed his eyes and sighed through his nose as Lavender took a big step back from the crate, "I reckon those are the males, think the females have suckers on their bellies... reckon they're for sucking blood," Hagrid mused as he continued checking the other crates.

By the end of the lesson no one had gotten any luck in getting the Skrewts to eat anything, though a couple others had gotten burned. Isaac being one of them.

As they walked up to the castle for lunch many were muttering about Hagrid's fascination for 'odd' creatures.

Isaac, however, was humming under his breath as he rubbed some cream over the small mark caused by the Skrewt.

"What is that?" Hermione asked as she sat down, piling some mashed potatoes and a lamb chop onto her plate.

"This?" Isaac pulled out the tub, "Burn cream, kinda made it a point to have some on me this summer after... you know..." he made a soft whooshing noise and quickly stretched out his fingers in the air, "You're gonna be sick if you eat that fast," he said when Hermione had managed to finish her lunch before he had even started on his lamb chop.

"Want to get to the library," she said simply, picking up her bag, "See you in Runes,"

"We haven't gotten any homework yet?" Isaac said incredulously as she sped off.

He shook himself out of his distraction and returned to the juicy lump of meat awaiting him on his plate.

More Gryffindors were piling into the hall. Mainly first-years that had still to learn their way around the castle.

Double Runes that day was just them going over what they had covered before the holidays, the first half of the class being the translation side of the class and the second half being for the side that made runes.

Isaac's hand was starting to hurt when the class ended and they joined the throes of students eager to eat.

Isaac sighed as the irritatingly shrill laughter of Pansy rose over the mutterings of other students.

"What about you, Potter?" she called out.

Isaac tensed and watched as Pansy practically skipped towards him, looking like she had received ballet lessons from that troll he had fought back in his first year.

"Any opinions on this?" she waved a copy of the Daily Prophet in front of his face.

He caught sight of the picture, he couldn't read any of the words due to the fact Pansy couldn't hold it still.

The smaller pictures around the side were the interesting parts though.

They showed either other angles of the Dark Mark in the sky... or a man in a hoodie, face obscured, as they ran past the camera and the next one showed Death Eaters fighting against some unknown enemy.

"Do you mind?" Isaac said, the American twang more evident now, "I'm hungry, and you're blocking the way,"

Isaac side-stepped around Pansy and continued onto the Great Hall.

"What's wrong, Potter, afraid of a few drunken Death Eaters?" she sneered before laughing again.

That laugh was really starting to annoy Isaac.

"Why do you think I care about anything you have to say?" Isaac asked her, "If you really think that some drunken, racist, morons who have their heads so far up their own asses that they look pregnant, then you're even more pathetic than I thought,"

Isaac turned and started walking back towards the hall, leaving Pansy mouthing 'Pathetic?'.

Isaac paused as he felt something was off.

His hand dropped to the wand in his pocket and spun as something bright blue shot past him and hit the ground.

He had just spun around, levelling Pansy with a glare, but before he could do anything a shout came across the hall...

"OH NO YOU DON'T, LASSIE!"

There was a loud bang and Isaac watched as someone limped across the hall towards Crabbe and Goyle, who had been standing next to Pansy when...

Isaac caught sight of the thing on the floor where Pansy had been stood and burst out laughing.

"Did she get you?" Professor Moody asked, his voice low and gravelly.

"No," Isaac said, managing to put a pause on his laughter to answer the professor.

Isaac did the smallest of double takes as he noticed the mismatched eyes on Professor Moody.

One was a normal human eye, that one was looking him over, the other was as large as a Galleon, electric blue, and spinning freely of its own accord. Right now it had settled for looking straight out of the man's head.

"LEAVE IT!" Moody roared.

Isaac frowned for a moment before Moody spun around and pointed his wand at the animal on the ground.

Isaac's giggling resumed when Professor Moody turned and faced a frozen Crabbe and Goyle. Goyle's hand frozen as he had reached down to grab the shaking possum on the ground.

Moody started limping towards the odd trio and the possum made an odd squeaking noise before it tried running off towards the dungeons, where the Slytherin dormitories were.

"Attacking people when their back is turned...

Professor Moody swiped his wand at the possum and it flew into the air.

"... stinking! Scummy! Cowardly thing to do!"

Each word he spoke was accompanied with the possum flying higher into the air and bouncing off the ground once more.

"Never – do – that – again!" more bouncing and Isaac's chest was starting to hurt from giggling so much.

"Professor Moody!" a shocked voice rang out across the hall.

Professor McGonagall was walking down the stairs, a small stack of books in her arms.

"Hello, Professor McGonagall," Professor Moody said, as calm as you like.

"What are you doing?" she asked, her voice starting to become edged with panic.

"Teaching," Professor Moody said, continuing to bounce the possum.

"Is that... _is that a student_?" Professor McGonagall shrieked, the books tumbling out of her arms as she ran forwards.

"Technically, it's a possum," Professor Moody said as she reached them.

Professor McGonagall's face was aghast as she whipped her wand out, there was another bang, and Pansy Parkinson was sitting on the floor.

Her hair a mess, her face scarlet, and her pride and ego bruised.

"We never use transfiguration as a punishment," Professor McGonagall said, levelling her wand under Moody's face, "Surely Professor Dumbledore told you that?"

"He might have mentioned that," Professor Moody mumbled.

It seemed that even Professor McGonagall could put the fear in The Ministry's most successful Auror.

"And you will do well to remember that," she said, waving her wand so that the books she dropped flew back into her arms.

She turned and dismissed the small crowd that had gathered at the doors and sent Parkinson down to Madame Pomfrey to be checked over.

Parkinson sent a glare at Isaac and Professor Moody before she hurried off with Crabbe and Goyle following shortly after, dumbfounded looks on the both of their faces.

Isaac felt a hand on his arm and glanced over.

Hermione had managed to make her way back to him and he had apparently gone off in a daydream again.

"You alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, she's got crappy aim, don't think she could even hit the ground if she jumped out a window, she didn't hit me," Isaac said, walking into the hall and sitting down at the Gryffindor table.

"Ok... it's just that you seemed to zone out for a bit," Hermione said, taking out a book to read as she put a few things onto her plate.

"Oh, that... kinda just trying to commit that to my memory," Isaac said, "Pansy the Prancing Possum," he finished with a grin.

"While I agree that she had something coming," Hermione said with an exasperatedly amused smile, "I think that that was a little much... what if he really hurt her?"

Isaac pretended to consider it for a moment.

"Madam Pomfrey can fix anything, so she wouldn't be that bad off, all that would happen is that her ego would be shattered for... a couple of hours before she's back as her snappy – piss-off-everyone-I-can attitude," he said, "Plus... I think anyone would rather be bounced around as a possum for a bit rather than deal with me if you get me annoyed that much,"

Hermione frowned as Isaac started cutting up the potatoes he had slid onto his plate and began eating.

"Considering that dad waited a day after you gave him that stuff to fix our hair two years back," George said as he and Fred joined the two of them, "I'd rather be bounced around the room.

"Oh, I forgot about that," Isaac said with a sigh.

"Moody's certainly something, isn't he?" Fred said.

"You're telling me," Lee Jordan, the twins friend said, "Man knows his stuff,"

"What's his classes like?" Hermione asked. She wanted to get an understanding of her new teacher before class.

"You haven't had him yet?" Fred asked.

"Erm..." Isaac said, consulting his timetable, "Not until Thursday,"

"Shame, the man's seen it all!" Lee said in an awed voice.

The days until Isaac's first Defense Against the Dark Arts class passed without any major incident.

The closest thing that happened was that Neville nearly melted another cauldron but Dean, who had been working with him and Ron, managed to catch his hand before he dropped extra beetle eyes into the cauldron.

The only reason that they had been able to prevent that disaster was the fact that Seamus was working with Isaac and Hermione and the two of them normally spent a good portion of the class chatting to themselves while working on the potion.

It seemed that word about Professor Moody's talents had spread around the school as there was only one person not early for the class. Hermione.

"Sorry, was at..."

"The library, I know," Isaac said, "You'll have to tell me what you're doing there eventually,"

"I will, I wi..."

The door opened at that point the door to the classroom opened and everyone piled in.

Isaac watched as Ron claimed a seat that was right in front of the teacher's desk while he and Hermione took one that was a little more spaced away.

It took a couple of minutes but, eventually, they heard the dull thunk of Moody's artificial leg as he walked down the corridor.

Everyone had their books out by the time the doors opened to let the gnarled Auror through.

"You can put those away," he said, his eye whizzing around as it seemed to look at each and every one of them once, "Those books, you won't be needing them,"

Hermione's eyes went wide as she slowly put her book back in her bag.

Professor Moody shook his grizzled hair out of his face as he read out the register.

His eye whizzed around and looked at each person before he moved on towards the next person.

"Right... I've had a letter from Professor Lupin regarding this class. Seems you've got a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark Creatures... you've covered Grindylow, Hinkypunks, Red Caps, Boggarts, Kappas, and werewolves, haven't you?

But what you're behind on... very behind on... is dealing with curses," he said, looking around the class with both eyes, "Now I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you on how to deal with Dark..."

"What, you aren't staying?" Ron blurted out in the front.

Moody's eyes glanced down at him.

An odd sort of grimace, that Isaac realised was the man smiling, crossed his face.

"You'll be Arthur Weasley's boys then," he said with a harsh bark of a laugh, "Got me out of a tight spot not too long ago...

But I'm here for the year and then back to my quiet retirement," he gave another harsh bark of a laugh and then flicked his wand at the board.

"Now... straight into it...

Curses. They come in many strengths and forms.

Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you counter-curses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until your sixth year... but Professor Dumbledore thinks you're made of stronger and has a higher opinion of your nerves, and I say the sooner you know how to defend yourself, the better!" he slammed his hand down on the desk, "You need to be prepared! You need to be alert!

You need to be paying attention when I'm talking to you, Miss Brown!"

Lavender had been showing Parvati something under the desk jumped and dropped whatever it was.

Moody flicked his wand at the board again and the chalk paused.

"Now... who can tell me which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?" he asked, his eye whizzing around the room.

Several hands were raised tentatively in the air.

Moody pointed at Ron, who had his hand in the air, like Hermione, though his eye was still watching Lavender.

"My Dad told me about one, the Imperius?" Ron said, sounding surprisingly confident.

"Ah, yes," Moody said, his face in another gnarled smile, "Your Father would know about that one, gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse... the first of three that the Ministry like to refer to as Unforgivable..."

Moody heavily got to his feet and took out a large glass jar.

Inside the jar were what looked like three spider/crab combinations.

Odd pincer-like claws snapped as he brought one out with his wand.

Isaac smirked as he saw Ron lean back, not subtly at all, so as to get further away from the spider things.

Moody placed the spider on his palm before he pointed his wand at it and muttered, " _Imperio_!"

The spider leapt from Moody's hand from a fine thread of silken string and began swinging backwards and forwards as if on a trapeze.

It leapt from the string and landed on the desk where it stretched its legs out and did what Isaac thought was a backflip.

Many in the class were laughing now as they watched the spider raise its legs in a tap dance.

Professor Moody, however, was not.

"Think it's funny, do you?" he growled, "Thin it'd be just as funny if I did it to one of you?"

That shut everyone up in a second.

"Complete control," Moody went on, sliding the spider thing into another jar, "That's what that curse does... complete control of another... I could make it jump down one of your throats... drown itself... throw itself into the fire..."

Isaac leant forward, interested.

"Years back, scores of witches and wizards claimed that they only did _You Know Who's_ bidding... under the influence of the Imperius curse!" he finished quickly.

"Now... who can tell me the problem?" he looked around.

When no one answered Isaac hazarded a guess.

"How could you tell who was, and who wasn't?" he asked.

Moody's eye spun around to look at him.

"Exactly!" he said, tapping his wand in Isaac's direction, "How do we sort out the liars?

Now, the Imperius curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it, to fight... which makes it easier to just avoid being hit with the blasted thing in the first place..." he had gotten steadily quieter until he was speaking barely above a whisper, though everyone hung onto his words, "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

Nearly everyone jumped at the sudden shout.

Another!" he said, "Who can name... another?"

Hands went in the air... and this time... Neville's was amongst them.

"Yes?" Moody's magical eye slowly rolled around to look at Neville.

"There's... there's the... Crutiatus Curse..." Neville said in his quiet voice.

Isaac was surprised to see Neville giving an answer since the only class he normally volunteered information for was Herbology.

"Your names Longbottom?" Moody asked, leaning forward slightly, the eye quickly swivelled to check the register.

Neville nodded timidly and Moody didn't say anything else.

He simply moved back to his desk and picked out a second spider thing.

"Needs to be a little bit bigger for you to get a better understanding..." Moody muttered to himself.

He dropped the spider on the desk and started enlarging it until it was about seven times larger.

Ron was making no attempt to hide his moving away from the desk.

Moody hovered his wand over the spider thing...

" _Crucio_!"

The spider thing immediately withdrew it's legs close to its body, flipping over before they started flailing in undeniable agony.

The spasming spider thing started jerking harder and harder until...

"Stop it!" Hermione said shrilly.

Isaac followed her gaze, he had been watching the spider thing with growing interest, but found that she had been watching Neville the entire time.

Although he had his back to them, he could tell that his eyes were wide, his face pale, jaw clenched, and his fists were tight balls on the table.

Moody glanced up at her and then back to Neville.

He dropped the curse and shrunk the spider thing back to its original size and placed in the same jar as the second.

He picked the jar with the third spider thing and carried it over to Isaac and Hermione's desk.

"And perhaps... Mrs Granger will be kind enough to give us the last Unforgivable Curse?"

Hermione had an oddly steely look as he glanced at Isaac, the spider thing, then up to Moody.

"Akada Kedavra," Hermione said in a quiet voice.

Moody didn't say anything.

He placed the jar on the table.

Pointed his wand within the jar.

" _Avada Kedavra_!" he roared.

There was a rushing of air as if something large had flown over the class.

A flash of near-blinding green light erupted from the end of Moody's wand and hit the scrambling spider thing.

The spider rolled over and wobbled on it's back. Dead.

Isaac felt an odd sense of clarity run through him.

"The killing curse..." Moody said, emptying the jar onto the desk before brushing it onto the floor, "Unblockable... irreversible... and unsurvivable... for all except... one," he said in a gravelly whisper.

Moody's eyes both focused on Isaac for a brief second before he made his way back to the desk.

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Moody roared again, causing all except one to jump in their seats.

The rest of the lesson passed with them taking notes from Moody about the curses, the punishments for using any of them even once, which earned the rest of your life in Azkaban.

Nobody spoke a single word for the rest of class... but as soon as they were out the doors everyone burst out with what they had just seen.

The only two not saying a single word were Isaac and Neville.

Isaac didn't really have anything to say.

Neville, meanwhile, still had the same wide-eyed expression that he had in the class.

"You hungry?" Isaac asked him as they drew nearer.

"Neville?" Isaac reached out and tapped him on the shoulder.

Neville jumped as if he had just been woken up.

"What?" he asked, in a shrill voice.

"You alright?" Isaac asked, Hermione jogging to catch up since she had a little trouble with getting her book back in her bag.

"Oh... yes... interesting dinner, I mean, lesson... what's for eating?" he asked, shaking slightly.

'Yikes,' Isaac thought.

The sound of Moody's leg thumping on the floor reached them and Moody limped past them at a quick pace, grabbing a hold of Neville's shoulder.

"You alright, sonny?" he asked, "Come... I've got a pot of tea in my office,"

Neville glanced, quite afraid, at Isaac and Hermione.

Isaac gave him a, hopefully, comforting smile and nodded in the direction of Moody's office.

"Come on, I've got a book on Herbology you might like... I know it's not nice, but _you need to know_ ," they heard Moody say as he led Neville back towards the classroom.

Dinner was eaten amidst hushed conversations about what they had seen in the class, Isaac opting to eat instead of talking as he was rather hungry.

Many were wondering whether or not Moody and Dumbledore would be in trouble with the Ministry if they found out how they had gone off the structure.

Isaac couldn't care less.

As far as he was concerned, he had just learnt the worst of what the Wizarding World could use and was already thinking of ways around them.

By the time that Isaac made his way back to the Gryffindor tower, Neville was already sitting on his bed.

"Y'all right?" Isaac asked him.

Neville jumped, though he seemed a whole lot more relaxed than before.

"Yeah... Professor Moody gave me this book," he held it up for Isaac to see, "He said Professor Sprout said that I'm really good at Herbology,"

Isaac couldn't help but smile at the rarely there note of confidence in Neville's voice.

"Well you are," Isaac said, "No point in denying that,"

Neville beamed and returned to the book.

"So... you alright?" Isaac asked.

"Hmm..." Neville went a little pale again, "Oh... I'm fine..."

"You want to talk about it?" Isaac asked, tossing his tie on the drawer next to his bed.

Neville thought for a moment.

"Not right now..." he said.

"Ok," Isaac started rummaging through his trunk.

Isaac grabbed the paperback Firestarter book, he had actually gotten into it, and returned back downstairs to the common room.

He settled down in an armchair next to Hermione as she started going through what Homework she had gotten that week.

"Is it alright if Ginny and a friend join us in the library on Saturday to do homework?" she asked, not looking up from her parchment.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Isaac said, thumbing through the pages.

Isaac glanced up as he searched for his page.

Dean and Seamus were scratching their heads over something that Isaac thought might be for Divination.

Fred and George were looking over a piece of parchment as they tried to, as Isaac thought, think of ways around whatever Dumbledore was using to reinforce the age limit for the tournament.

He watched as Ron left the common room, a folded piece of string tied parchment in his hands.

He glanced back at his book and sighed as he backtracked a few pages.

So far, this year was going alright.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

End notes.

Ok.

I realise that the last couple of chapters have left off at kind of awkward places, but I have a serious problem right now.

I am actually losing steam with this story.

I'm not abandoning it, that is not what I'm saying.

But I don't have the energy that I did in the earlier chapters.

I'm going to try and hammer out as much as I can tomorrow for next weeks chapter since I want to get time to make a proper plan for where I want the story to go.

I really enjoy writing this, I really do.

I enjoy seeing the reviews pour in... but I'm worrying that I might miss an upload in the future.

I really don't want to, I really like being able to release a chapter once a week. But I have no idea if I... you know what, I'm kicking that idea out right now!

Look at the chapter number!

50!

That means in 2 weeks time it will have been a year since I published the story.

I think I'm going to kick whatever's giving me this funk out the window; feed it to Smile, Eris, and E.J; get a few cups of tea on the go, and kick this story into high gear!

Thank you for reading, and here's to next weeks chapter...

I promise you, things should be getting better soon.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit so if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	51. Chapter 51, DEFCON 2!

Chapter 51, DEFCON 2.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Ok, I have quite literally uploaded last weeks chapter when I'm writing this.

I'm giving myself no breaks, I'm diving right into this.

I have no idea what you think of last weeks chapter so I'll pretend that you all think it's pure gold and smugly drink my tea.

Anyway...

I also wanted to say thank you all for sticking with me for this long... seriously, what is wrong with you all, why are you paying attention to _**me**_ of all people?

I'm kidding, I'm clearly doing something right if you all keep coming back...

So let's see if I can keep it up!

Reviews.

Kittyisaac;

I'll add it to the list right now.

Thank you.

Flippy3131;

Hello, you're most certainly new!

Welcome!

Oh god, you binged the story?

I feel sorry for you for having to read all the insanity that I've written.

Erm... wait for a chapter or two... including this one, can't really say much about that. I'm still deciding who should get closer to finding out first.

I do too!

I can't remember who suggested them to be together, but I recommend that you check out EXTRAS because I've got a couple of chapters where they're together!

It's not the anniversary yet, chapter 52 will be that.

ICPM;

Ok... I am actually crying a little.

For anyone who doesn't read the reviews, they basically sent me an entire review that's pure ego fuel, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.

I've decided that since I actually did start to enjoy myself a little more towards the end of that last chapter that I'm going to push myself so that I'll have posted a chapter once a week every week for an entire year!

Then, based on how I'm feeling, I may take a bit of a break. You might get an EXTRAS chapter from the ever-growing list on my wall if I want to write something cheesy to see if I can get my creative juices flowing again.

I feel like that posting a chapter a week for an entire year is definitely an achievement in my life.

TheMarpasChappers;

Ok... lore about the character I didn't know...

Ok... not gonna lie, 'The Troll of Clock Tower' sounds awesome.

Not the character, just that title.

Ok, I might look them up later, if I get the time.

I'm glad that you liked the chapter, and onto the list!

1,

No, it's... I know _how_ to write that... particular fic type... it's just that I kind of don't want to... I might write something like it in the future... but I think that's the closest to NSFW I'll get... aside from the murder stuff...

2,

I love storms as well.

The house next to mine was struck by lightning once! There's still a black mark.

3,

Pansy the _Prancing_ Possum, not bouncing... I like alliteration sometimes.

DarkRavie;

Thanks, glad you like it.

ShadowWolf626;

I can't remember if you're new or not... Welcome!

Thank you, I'm glad that you like the story.

I've mentioned what I'm doing in regards to that break above in the first part of the author notes.

I will stay awesome, thank you!

MyraZinshu;

I whole-heartedly agree with that first sentence.

And the second.

My attention span is exactly like that.

Hehehe... I like that construction worker.

My laptop had updates so it, unfortunately, doesn't do it anymore :(

No, wait, I just tried it, it still does it, YAS!

I'm going to have to do another CP centric really soon chapter in the future, might do that one for the 52nd chapter.

I'm just gonna keep googling time zones because I'm too lazy to do that.

I did try and guess a state from South America, but for some reason, my mind went 'Bolognaise' and... it took me an embarrassing amount of time to realise tha that isn't a state or country...

I like rain, but it has to be actual raindrops and not light shower things that are practically mist... mist rain pisses me off.

Yeah, the intro's at the start of the year hardly ever change, except from year 4 and 5 when he announced the Tournament and that Toad-Bitch interrupted him.

Onions never fail to lighten that chapter up a bit.

Rusty, flaming, spork sounds like a garage metal band... adding it to the list of things to use in this fic at some point.

Isaac would like me to tell you that he doesn't care, and will torture anyone he wants... and to check your shoes before you put them on... no, I don't have... put my hot glue gun back, ISAAC!

I've been asked that question a fair few times and I do have my version of an answer.

The Crutiatus attacks the nerves of the body.

Since Toby's nerves aren't connected properly, or the part of the brain that registers pain isn't connected to the rest of the CNS, then he wouldn't feel pain.

It would have a physical feel, he would feel someone was squeezing the areas that the curse affects but wouldn't feel the pain.

I think the momentum is coming back, just slowly.

Honebar;

I've got my radishes at the ready, don't you worry.

Isaac's going to be taking full advantage of the peace for while he can... chaos is his hobby.

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Glad to see you're signed back in.

Hope you like it.

Well, Happy Birthday (though rather belated) to your sister!

Acherongoddess;

Thank you, I will, I've gotten coffee to help kick my brain into hyperdrive, and the Terror-Train never stops! Next stop? INFINITY! CHUGGA-CHUGGA-CHUGGA-CHOO-CHOO!

Wait... I'm fairly certain I could make a Carbon chain from that... can't be bothered to try, though.

Not A Criminal;

Since chapter 7... you've been around for a while.

I'm keeping at this until chapter 52 at most, then I might take a break.

I actually have a couple of medals, but 2/3 are from my Grampa and one is Bronze for canoeing.

I think a little break would be nice, but there are 2 more chapters, including this one, to go up first.

Gulogulo99;

Do you know how long it took me to type your name?

I mean... like 10 seconds... but it was still odd because I kept thinking I had messed it up.

Anyway... Welcome!

Five months, since around May, thanks for sticking with me this long.

I've definitely been trying to hit the bullseye with those, so it's nice that you think I've done it well.

I've made my statement about the break, and I think you'll agree with where I'll be leaving it off for a bit if this chapter and next works out with how I plan it.

I'm glad that you like it, thank you.

Feel free to leave a review anytime.

Thunder-Death;

I do like the fics that give a little more with Neville and Harry friendships.

I might build the two of them up a little more, Isaac helping him with confidence issues, but I think I'll wait until after task 2 to do that.

In my head, Isaac is a big fan of karma. Tit for tat.

.549;

Only if he said it while sounding like Droopy.

DHLcosplay (guest);

Thank you!

I like the ships as well... though I do feel like I jumped the gun on the Toby / Liu ship a little... oh well, I can fix that with another EXTRAS chapter.

Cyber-Kanochi;

Don't worry, you posted that on chapter 1, there are another 50 chapters for you to enjoy!

Thank you, and Welcome!

Ok, that was them all done... I start a lot of my sentences with 'ok' don't I?

Oh, wait... Yin... forgot about you for a moment since you leave it late... kind of like it though like a reminder that I have to upload.

YingYangWriter;

That would be a fabulous idea... making a note of that...

L.J and Jeff are, well... you'll see... there is a lot of hand movements between the two that are in sync with the other in the next chapter... and that's all I'm saying there...

Pug was too obvious, and turning Pansy into one would have been an insult to every dog ever! A possum on the other hand... she should really start practising their well-known defence method...

I actually forgot about Isaac's pendant... I've already written the part, but... I think that the pendant is designed for removal of spells from him over a period of time.

Like... if a tracking charm was placed on him, then it would work for about... two minutes at most if someone _really_ powerful cast the charm, but it would be gone in less than a minute if someone of average power cast it.

Hope that clears a couple of things up about it.

'takes a deep breath in'

I...was... DRUNK!

And I might have something to decide on at the end of this chapter...

Right...

Back to the story, I guess...

Enjoy,

SteamGeek01

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Hogwarts.

Isaac looked at Hermione.

"You're serious?"

"Yes," Hermione said with determination.

Isaac tore a piece of spare parchment up to use as a bookmark and looked at her directly in the eyes.

"You're sure about this? One hundred percent?"

"Isaac, why are you against it?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"I'm not against it," Isaac said, "Just... why do you want to start a revolution?"

"It's not a revolution," Hermione said, "It's a... social group,"

"A social group with the main goal of changing part of the governmental procedure," Isaac said, "Yeah... still kind of sounds like a revolution to me,"

Hermione sighed and let her head hit the back of the chair.

"Isaac, house elves are mistreated, treated like slaves, and are without basic healthcare," Hermione went on, the tin of badges rattling on her lap.

"Ok... I just wonder if you've thought this through?" Isaac said.

"I have, the entire summer," she said, "I've also started making clothes for them, since I don't think they'll have been given proper garments to wear in the winter,"

"Ok, that's now what I was talking about... wait... you've started making clothes for them?" Isaac said, "You do realise that if you give them clothes, it's basically firing them?"

"I'm not giving them clothes to fire them," Hermione said, "I'm making sure that they're well looked after, and what were you talking about?"

"You've called your revolution 'Spew'," Isaac pointed out, turning a badge over in his hands.

"It's not 'Spew' it's the 'Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare'," Hermione said proudly.

"Which spells Spew," Isaac said, "Why not... the Foundation against Injustified Slavery of House-elves?"

Hermione gave him an unamused look.

"F.I.S.H?" she said, "You think that 'Fish' is any better?"

Isaac mulled things over.

"Good point... how about the... 'Federation against the Unjustified Conditions of Keeping Elves..."

"If that ends with 'R' then I'm going to send Hedwig to your brother and asked for that bat," Hermione said.

Isaac paused for a moment.

"In my defence... it was going to end in 'R.S',"

Hermione sighed.

"If you can think of a better name, that isn't a silly anacronym, then I'll _think_ about changing it from S.P.E.W," she said, standing up, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try and knit some more things for them before going to sleep. Goodnight,"

"Hermione, I don't think they'll like it if you trick them into taking stuff," Isaac said but she had already said goodnight and went off to bed.

Isaac sighed and looked at the pile of burning logs in the fireplace.

"Forces Against the Reckless Tyrannical Slavery of House-elves... screw it, I'm too tired for this," he muttered, closing his book, and making his way up the stairs.

He frowned as he saw odd red marks on the ground, like paint droplets.

He jumped slightly as he felt something climb up his leg, but that just turned out to be Fizz getting into his front shirt pocket.

Whenever Fizz wasn't snoozing in his trunk, or in the drawers next to his bed, he could be found in the front pocket on Isaac's shirt because it was nice and warm.

Isaac had just changed and sat down on the bed when a tapping at the window got his attention.

He frowned as he glanced at the window and found a raven standing there... a letter in its beak.

Isaac opened the window and the raven hopped up, dropped the letter at his feet, and flew off.

Feeling the cold air flow in he shut the window before crouching down to pick the letter up.

~ _Isaac_ ~

It was addressed to... him?

Isaac glanced around to see that he was alone, Neville had just gone to the bathroom when he had entered, before he opened the letter.

~ _Hey, kiddo_ ,~

 _~I know that you probably don't want to hear from me that much, but I had to send you this letter~_

 _~I've been living with Remus...~_ there was a crossed out 'S' ~... _Thalmann sent me to live with him~_

 _~And if what Remus has told me is true, then Dumbledore hiring Mad-Eye Moody means something's on the way~_

 _~With what's happened at the Quidditch World Cup, it looks like the Dark side of the Wizarding world is starting to rear it's head again~_

 _~I know it is not my place to ask, but keep your head on a swivel!~_

 _~The Dark Mark in the forest, the Death Eaters marching, hiring Moody~_

 _~Something's on its way. And it isn't going to be pretty when it hits~_

 _~I know that you know how to handle yourself, but Death Eaters are ruthless~_

 _~They know curses that range from slicing you open, to liquifying your organs from the inside out~_

 _~They won't show mercy, but you probably won't either_ ~ there had been a pause there, as if it had taken him a moment to figure out what to write, ~ _But you mustn't let them into your head!~_

 _~There is an old art called Occlumency~_

 _~It protects your mind from external forces trying to find out what you know, and considering what you know, you might want to give it a shot,~_

 _~Take care... try not to kill anyone~_

 _~Padfoot~_

Isaac looked down at the letter.

While he didn't see Sirius as anything other than an Orbitor, maybe someone he wouldn't mind being in the same room with, he did admit that he knew more about the Wizarding World that he did.

If there was mind reading in the Wizarding World, then he was damn well going to look into making sure no one knew about his life.

He'd search the library tomorrow... he was too tired tonight.

He hid the letter at the bottom of his trunk, there was no way he'd remember what that thing Sirius mentioned was.

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Isaac meandered through the library, searching for the book Madam Pince had told him about.

He had gotten an odd look from the librarian that day and explained it with he had heard the term and wanted to read up on it.

He found the book, finally, in a place close to the Restricted Section.

He glanced through the many bookcases to see if he could see Madam Pince back at the check-out desk but more bookcases blocked the view.

He glanced back and sighed.

If he had the cloak, then he might have dared a quick... ok, he was now over the dividing piece of rope that separated the restricted section.

He made a quick glance at the book titles, taking in the covers, where they were placed, before he quickly got back on the other side.

He moved around the next bookcase as Madam Pince made her way there and peered down the rows of the Restricted Section.

'Charmed to let her know when someone enters,' Isaac thought as he watched her brow furrow before moving back to the front desk.

Once she had gone back Isaac moved back to the dividing rope and crouched down.

He took his wand out and looked at the rope closer.

He tapped his wand against his palm as he tried to remember the revealing spells that Hermione had told him about.

She had looked them up for a piece of Runes homework, Hermione liked doing more than was necessary and Isaac felt like that was how she was holding the position of the top of the year.

" _Aparecium_!" Isaac muttered, waving his wand over the rope.

"Oh, wait, that's for invisible ink, damn it," he scratched the underside of his chin.

" _Revelarus_!" he tried.

The rope lit up with a faint blue hue.

"Erm..." Isaac said to himself, 'Blue... blue... it means... _something_... I think...'

Isaac straightened up, he'd need to find a book about what it meant.

He glanced back at the rope to see the blue fade away to nothing before he looked back at the piece of parchment that she had scribbled the book titles on and back at the section he was in.

'Row over,' he thought as he ran a hand across the bottom of the shelves.

"Aah," Isaac exclaimed as he found the book, flipping the front cover open and trailing a finger down the table of contents.

As he made his way back through the rows to the table he and Hermione had taken he passed the twins.

Their heads were low and they were surrounded by scrapped pieces of parchment, two empty ink pots, and a few broken quills.

"Found what you were looking for?" Hermione asked as Isaac made his way back to their table.

"Yep," Isaac said, not looking up from the book as he pulled a chair out and sat down, "Ginny and her friend here yet?"

"You'd know if you took your nose out of that book," Hermione said, checking something from a book on star charts.

"Did you seriously say that to me?" Isaac said, turning to face her, " _You_ said told someone to get their nose out of a book? Really?"

"Oh, shut up!" Hermione muttered, a blush growing on her cheeks.

Isaac did glance up though and found that there was no one sitting opposite them.

"So, what did you want to look up?" Hermione asked.

"Occlumency," Isaac said.

"Occlumency?" Hermione frowned and looked up, "What's that?"

"Type of mind-magic," Isaac told her, thumbing through the pages, "Thought it sounded interesting,"

"Oh," Hermione said, "Well, let me know what you find,"

"Will do,"

There was silence for a few moments before Hermione spoke again.

"Isaac, where's your badge?" she asked calmly and Isaac froze.

"Oh... I... erm... must have lost it somewhere..." Isaac said.

And by lost, he meant that he had tested the effects of gravity upon an object when said object had been thrown from a window the same height off the ground like the ones in the boy's dorm in Gryffindor.

"Oh... shame," Hermione said, returning to her book.

"Yeah," Isaac said, letting out a small huff of breath and looking through the pages.

"Here you go,"

Hermione patted his front and when Isaac looked down he found a new S.P.E.W badge attached to the strap of his brace.

"I put a sticking charm on it," Hermione said, "That way it shouldn't come off again,"

"Hermione, you think of everything," Isaac said, smiling and giving the badge an experimental tug.

"Thank you,"

He gave the badge another fruitless tug and it didn't move a spot.

Isaac sighed as he and Hermione looked through their respective books by themselves for a couple more minutes before Isaac heard the sound of approaching footsteps.

"Hi, hi," Ginny said, dumping her bag over an empty seat.

"Hey, Ginny,"

"Heyo," Isaac said, glancing up.

Ginny was accompanied by another, most likely that friend that Hermione mentioned.

Her blonde hair fell down to just below her shoulders, there seemed to be a pair of... small orange radishes... hanging from her ears like earrings.

The colouring of her tie told Isaac that she was a Ravenclaw.

"Isaac, Hermione, this is Luna," Ginny said, pushing a chair out for her, "Shes my year, but in Ravenclaw,"

"Hi, Luna," Hermione said, offering her hand to Luna.

"Hello," Luna said, in a dreamy sort of voice that suggested she could probably fall asleep standing up.

Isaac frowned as he looked at her, his eyes squinting.

"I've seen you before..." Isaac said in a slightly suspicious voice.

Hermione frowned and turned to face Isaac, a questioning look upon her face as Ginny spoke to Luna.

"Are you sure you don't want me to run up to the tower and get you a spare pair of mine? Aren't your feet cold?"

"Oh!" Isaac snapped his fingers, "I know where I've seen you before.

I got your shoes down from the ceiling once,"

Luna nodded and made a soft humming noise of agreement.

"Yes... you were quite the monkey," she said, taking a book out, tucking her wand behind her ear, and flicking through the pages idly.

"Thanks," Isaac said, returning to his book.

Ginny and Hermione looked between the two of them with confused looks upon their faces.

"What?" Isaac asked a moment later, looking up from the book.

"How do you two know each other again?" Ginny asked, leaning back with her arms crossed.

"I just said, I got her shoes down from the ceiling once... wait... you were the first-year that gave me a minor existential crisis back two years back," Isaac said, remembering the first time he had seen the shoe-less Ravenclaw.

Luna made another soft humming noise.

"I'm still right, you know," she said, "It is odd being alone,"

"Yes, you were," Isaac said and the two of them returned to their books as casually as if they had been talking about the weather.

Hermione and Ginny looked at each other once more before they shook their heads in mutual acceptance that they wouldn't know what was going on.

"So, what've you got for homework?" Isaac asked, reading through the description of what the art of Occulmency entailed.

"Transfiguration," Ginny said, "The principles of changing an item between organic and inorganic materials," she read the essay assignment.

"Oh, good luck with that," Isaac said, "I think it's something to do with needing more power if you're changing an item to a material stronger than it was before, but less power if you're changing something to a weaker material,"

"Could you say that again, but slower?" Ginny asked, her quill poised above a piece of parchment.

"Would you like me to formalise it a little more?" Isaac asked.

"Yes please,"

Isaac smiled and spoke slowly enough so she could keep up with him.

"When changing an item from a material of a higher strength to a lower strength, more energy is required as it does not have enough burgers that taste of pineapple to..."

"Wait... you _cow_!" Ginny hissed as she finished writing 'pineapple'.

Isaac cackled quietly as she crumpled up the parchment and threw it at him before she dived into her bag for another piece.

'... mudbloods and blood traitors...'

Isaac's ears pricked up as he heard someone speaking behind them.

He pretended to reach down and re-tie his laces.

Clearly Pansy didn't understand that she had a carrying voice.

True, she had been speaking quietly, but Isaac's hearing was rather good.

As Isaac bent back up he adjusted his braces.

"Something wrong?" Hermione asked, taking in the look on his face.

"Hmm? No... just remembered that I need to fix something," Isaac said, "And send a letter home," he finished with a smile.

Hermione leant back a bit.

"Is... is this anything like the letter you sent in second-year when... when Professor Lockhart started having really awful luck?"

Isaac slid his jaw as he thought.

"He did have rather rotten luck for a bit, didn't he... but you want to know something else?"

Hermione hesitated a moment before nodding.

"I plead the fifth,"

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Monday, 9pm.

Isaac sat crouched in the shadows, the invisibility cloak removing him from sight.

Hedwig had really outperformed herself this time.

He had sent the letter asking L.J for a few knick-knacks just after dinner on Saturday and he had received a parcel back this Monday morning.

He had sorted through the items, placing a few for later back in his trunk, and moving the rest into a bag he had gotten on a whim when he had been out with Toby.

He pulled the strap a little tighter so it would sit a little higher on his hip and played with the magnetic latches as he waited... and waited... and waited...

Eventually, the stone wall underneath him slid open.

"... see you later, Perriss," someone from within called at the retreating prefect.

Isaac swung down and landed near in almost pure silence.

He had been in the Slytherin common room once before, back in his second-year when he and Ron had pretended to be Crabbe and Goyle.

The long chamber hadn't changed that much, the same greenish lanterns hung overhead, intricately carved stone snakes adorning many of the pillars of the room and the magnificent fireplace.

Students from all years were sitting around the many plush couches.

Isaac moved out of the way to a corner near the doorway that would allow him to get out quickly if the situation arose.

He watched for a minute until he saw a fourth-year exit from a small nook in the far corner.

Figuring that that was where the dormitories were he began making his way over to it.

He paused for a moment when he found himself in another small chamber.

There were two stone staircases leading off to different areas.

Isaac looked at the two staircases, thinking...

He remembered that a fifth-year had tried to get up the stairs to the girl's dorms on Sunday and the stairs had turned into a slide... if that was the same across all the dormitories, then there would be some detection thing on the girl's staircase.

" _Revelarus_!" Isaac whispered on the stairs on the left.

When nothing happened he cast the charm on the stairs on the right.

Four steps up, the faint blue glow of a detection charm appeared.

Isaac smirked to himself as no other steps lit up aside from two others a little bit further on the staircase.

He carefully ascended up the staircase, climbing up the outside until he had passed the charms, and silently swung his legs over and stood at the top.

'Either the designers of this place are idiots, or the students back then were really thick,' Isaac thought as he took a few steps down the corridor to the sleeping chambers.

"Come on, Pansy," Isaac quickly moved back to the other side of the staircase, "We're going to be late,"

"The class doesn't start until midnight!" Pansy hissed at the other girl, "I don't see why we have to have this stupid session earlier on,"

"Well, apparently it's to do with how the order in which the stars appear affect those useless predictions in Divination,"

Isaac watched the two of them walk down and out the small chamber.

He glanced down the corridor and hurried down, lest he encountered someone else.

He slid into the room that Pansy and the other had come from.

There were five beds in the room, as per usual, he believed, and a trunk in front of each.

'Which one... which one... this one,' Isaac thought as he found the trunk with Pansy's initials.

Isaac started humming this old song that he could never remember the name to as he emptied a box into her trunk.

The next thing he did was move to the bathroom.

There was mount on the wall, a tarnished silver cup held by a metal ring, that was used to hold the toothbrushes or toothpaste of a person.

Isaac looked at the names on each of the cup, wondering why she didn't keep their brushes and toothpaste somewhere more secure... it was just asking for someone to come along and put brine from a can of tuna into the tube.

He was about to leave when he turned back and picked up the brush, a hand rummaging in the bag on his side.

After a few moments, he found the tube of watery superglue he had been looking for and gave the brush a small bath with it before placing it back in the cup.

He had been about to leave for a second time when he caught sight of the small shelf of shampoo products.

He tapped his cheek as he thought of what he could do.

He took out a small pocket knife Ben had tossed his way before he left and cut a small hole that made it looked like the bottle had merely burst.

He spun the pocket knife around by the small hoop before shoving it back in his pocket and returning to the beds.

He rummaged in his shirt pocket until he had managed to wrangle Fizz out.

He turned the key on his back three times and whispered, "Freak Pansy out when she gets back," before turning the key a final time.

The warning he had gotten from Jason about turning the key more than four times still heavy in his mind.

Fizz shook with excitement before he shot from Isaac's hand and landed on the bed, wriggling underneath the pillow.

Isaac looked around the room once more as he thought what else he could do.

He took out a white box wrapped in a red bow and carefully opened Pansy's trunk and placed it down amidst the small brown spiders currently exploring their new home.

In L.J's letter, he had mentioned that some of them had been females... and he had found a fair few dead males in the enclosure...

Approaching footsteps had Isaac hurry to an empty space behind the door.

The girl Pansy had been talking to before walked back into the room and picked up a book on her bedside table.

By this point, Isaac had already ducked out of the room, climbed over the bannister of the stairs, edged his way down, before dropping to the floor and sidling out of the room.

There seemed to be the same amount of Slytherins he had seen before milling around, but now Pansy was waiting by the portrait hole.

She did not look amused.

'I'd better help her cheer up,' Isaac decided, taking his wand out as he crept along the edge of the common room.

" _Nodenium_!" he whispered, pointing his wand at her shoes.

The laces softly undid themselves, stretched over to the other pair, and re-tied themselves in with a neat little bow.

"Got it," Pansy's friend said as she re-entered the common room.

Pansy let out an annoyed huff.

"Let's go then... WAH!"

She had tried to take a step to turn and walk out the exit but found herself flat on the ground.

A few ripples of laughter rose from the students around the common room and Pansy scrambled into a sitting position, her face a burning scarlet that clashed horribly with the green of her uniform.

Isaac stepped around her and casually pushed the entrance open before he pulled himself back up onto the stone ledge above the door where he had been sat a few minutes ago.

"... telling you, someone did that to me!" Pansy seethed to her friend.

"But no one cast a hex at you," her friend said, "No one even had their wand out,"

'Should I?' Isaac debated for all of one second.

He got his wand out and pointed it at the pair, Pansy had stopped them so she could try and properly argue her point.

" _Nodenium_!"

Pansy let out an infuriated sigh and tried to walk off again... only to find herself back on the floor.

 **(X) Twenty Minutes Later (X)**

Hermione frowned as Isaac walked through the portrait hole.

"Where have you been?" she asked, her copy of her Runes homework out on the table before her.

"Just out," Isaac said, "Wanted to get a bit of a run in before curfew, been feeling a little cooped up and too energetic to sleep lately,"

"Oh, ok... have a nice run?" Hermione asked, returning to her homework sheet to see what information she should keep for revision notes.

"Yeah... quick run around the castle, bottom of the stairs to the tower to finish," Isaac said, "Night,"

"Night," Hermione said in response.

She looked the sheet over once more before sliding the entire thing into a folder marked ~ **Revision**

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

The next day Pansy walked in, a sour look on her face.

Isaac and Hermione watched as she took a seat at the Slytherin table, waiting until she could ease herself into the conversation.

Isaac smirked and started humming merrily as he noticed how shaky Pansy was, jumping every time something lightly brushed against her.

"What did you do?" Hermione asked, glancing up from her toast and jam.

"What makes you think that I did anything?" Isaac asked innocently.

"You've got that look eyes," Hermione said.

"What look?"

" _That_ look," Hermione glanced up at him again, "You had that look in your eyes back when you were making Professor Lockhart's life a living nightmare,"

"Oh, _that_ look," Isaac said, "Well... it could have been anyone who told Fizz to terrify her in the Slytherin dorms for a little while... or put superglue on her toothbrush,"

Hermione glared at him slightly.

"You went into the girl's dorms?" she whispered so no one else could overhear.

"No, I gave Fizz a tube of superglue and told him to scare her for a bit," Isaac said, buttering a croissant and stuffing it with bacon, "What _I_ did was follow her for a bit and make her think that Peeves was constantly tying her laces together whenever she stopped for a breath on her way up to the Astronomy tower,"

Hermione looked torn between amusement and disapproval.

"I stopped when she started climbing," Isaac said.

Hermione nodded and returned to her toast.

As Isaac bit into the stuffed croissant, he felt a tugging at his socks and looked down to see Fizz scurrying up his trouser leg and back into 'his' pocket.

Isaac patted the lump on his chest, whispered, "Well done," and went back to his breakfast.

The next couple of weeks passed without further incident or anything exciting happening...

That was until one class in Defense Against the Dark Arts when Professor Moody announced that he would be putting each and every one of them under the influence of the Imperius curse to see if they could throw it off.

A few of the class looked horrified and Hermione had appeared on the point of protest.

Isaac quickly grabbed her wrist and held a finger to his lips.

"He won't be doing anything dangerous to us," Isaac said, "He'll most likely do something a little embarrassing like... like that,"

Isaac broke off as, when he had been whispering to Hermione, Professor Moody called Dean Thomas forward.

Shortly before Isaac had finished speaking Professor Moody had cast the curse and now Dean was hopping around the room whilst singing the national anthem.

Professor Moody lifted the curse after his third lap around the room and called forward the next person.

Isaac sort of hoped that this class didn't end that day.

Professor Moody made Lavender Brown imitate a squirrel.

Neville earned Isaac's applause after performing an impressive set of gymnastics that he most definitely wouldn't have had the nerve to do outside of the curse.

"Rogers!" Moody barked, calling him forward.

Isaac calmly walked forward into the space that had been cleared and faced his Professor.

"Ready?" Moody growled.

Isaac met his eyes and nodded.

Moody raised his wand and...

" _Imperio_!"

A wave of serenity washed over Isaac.

For a moment, it felt like he was floating on air, it felt... felt like...

Isaac's body instantly started to tense.

It felt like how The Puttereer's victims felt whenever he went for full control over them.

He had been curious back when he was ten and asked Teer how he did it and what it felt like.

Teer had said that it was pretty hard to explain, but he did spin a few strings out and put Isaac in the trance he sent his victims into.

Isaac had felt like he had been in the trance for a few seconds, but when Teer took him out he found himself about to finish doing the dishes fifteen minutes later.

"... _jump onto the desk..._ " Moody's voice floated through through his mind.

Isaac's knees bent a fraction.

" _... jump onto the desk..._ " Moody's voice urged again.

Isaac straightened his legs.

"No," he said.

There was silence in the classroom as Professor Moody dropped his wand.

"Pardon?" he asked, "No... what?"

"No, I will not jump onto the desk," Isaac said, tilting his head to the side.

Moody was silent for a moment.

Then he roared in laughter.

"YOU SEE THAT!" he barked out, "Rogers didn't even bend his knees, threw it off the first time!"

Another roaring laughter.

"It'll take a powerful wizard to get the jump on you!"

Isaac smirked as he bowed to Moody.

" _Imperio_!"

Quicker than he realised he was back in that feeling.

"... _drop and do fifteen pushups..._ " Moody's voice floated through him again.

"..."

"Would you like me to do fifteen squats with that?" Isaac asked.

Moody's mouth dropped open slightly.

"They'll have a very hard difficult time controlling you," Moody nodded, "Weasley! Next!"

Isaac smirked as he passed Ron.

After Ron was spun around and twirled like a ballerina, after Seamus had walked like a crab around the room, after Padme twittered like a bird, and a couple Ravenclaws that he knew by face, but not name, were made to sing "I'm a little teapot," and something by some witch singer he didn't know, the bell went and they filed out.

"How were you able to do that?" Hermione asked him as they marched down the stairs for lunch.

"I am infuriatingly stubborn,"

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

The Mansion.

Laughing Jack was sat on an armchair in the living room, his fingers curling and drumming on the armrests.

"Ben... could you get me a number?" he asked, breaking his silence.

Ben started slightly, as L.J had been silent for the past twelve minutes, and looked at him curiously, "Who's?" he asked.

"The Bard," L.J said, "I need to talk to her,"

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Hogwarts.

There was a clamour around the notice board when Isaac woke that morning.

"You know what's going on?" he asked Hermione, who was sat in a corner going over Arithmancy homework.

"I think it's the announcement for when the arriving parties from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang are arriving," Hermione said, looking up from her homework to make space for him.

"Bow-batons and Drum... what?" Isaac asked.

"Beauxbatons and Durmstrang," Hermione said again, "The other schools for the tournament,"

Isaac blinked.

"Tournament?"

Hermione sighed.

"Remember the announcement that Professor Dumbledore made at the feast at the start of the year?" Hermione asked, returning to her homework, "The Triwizard Tournament?"

"Oh, that one," Isaac said, "Oh, they're finally coming,"

"Yes... the thirtieth," Hermione said.

"Took their time," Isaac muttered.

Potions that week was cut short so that everyone in the school could be there for the arrival of the visiting students.

The entirety of the staff had been anxious the entire week building up to their arrival.

Professor McGonagall was extra snappy when pointing out faults in her classes.

Professor Sprout ended up over-fertilising half of the greenhouses and had to re-pot everything.

It seemed that only Professor Flitwick and Snape were the only ones keeping their cool... though there was an odd look of contempt whenever someone mentioned Durmstrang in his presence.

Filch could be seen running around with two buckets filled with rags and polishes as he tried his best to fix every suit of armour in the castle up so they were free of rust and no longer squeaking.

Eventually, Friday morning came and everyone found the entrance hall decorated in banners made of fine silk proudly displaying the four houses and a large version of Hogwarts' coat of arms imposed over a shield made of the four house mascots.

Isaac had just sat down at the Gryffindor table, which looked like it had been heavily polished and buffed, when he heard the familiar tones of Fred and George behind him.

"... send him the letter after all. Or we'll stuff it into his hand, he can't avoid us forever," George was saying.

Isaac threw his arm out and caught Fred.

"You know that it's a little scary when you do stuff like that," Fred said.

"Why do you think I do it?" Isaac asked.

A couple of weeks ago Fred had gotten his attention and thrown him an apple.

Isaac had caught it without looking up from his book, took a bite out of it, and hadn't missed a single line.

A couple of days after that George had dropped a bottle of ink over the railing of the stairs by accident and Isaac caught it two floors below as he tied his shoelaces.

He had stretched his arm out through the gaps in the stone railings to grab it before throwing it back up to them.

A few more days after that Fred had tried to throw a dungbomb at Isaac to catch him off guard whilst he was talking to Hermione on the other side of the room and Isaac had walked over to him, placed the dungbomb gently in his front pocket, and smashed it.

It had taken two showers for him to finally get rid of most of the stench... most of it.

"So, who're we kidnapping?" Isaac asked.

"We're not kidnapping anyone," George said, looking around to see who was listening.

"It's nothing, just a little... financial dispute," Fred said.

Isaac frowned.

"I thought you were happy with what L.J was sending you?" he said.

The twins had been enjoying themselves immensely testing the things that L.J had sent them, but so far nothing had lasted more than an hour with the pair.

They had been worried that they were doing the things wrong but L.J had sent them a letter telling them to up the ante with their tests.

In his own words, ~If they're lasting an hour then you're being too gentle with them~

"We are," Fred said, "It's nothing to do with... with that, it's..."

"Sit," Isaac said.

"Look, we can..."

"I said, sit," Isaac looked at the two of them.

Fred and George exchanged a glance and sat down across from him.

"Ok," Isaac said once the two had shimmied out from under the table, "What's the problem?"

Fred and George exchanged another glance.

"Are you two actually telepathic?" Isaac asked.

"That would be telling," Fred said, "And you don't need to worry about..."

"I dumped a boatload of problems on you two at the start of the year, and the two of you helped me," Isaac said, "Now let me return the favour,"

Fred and George shared another look.

'I could start a drinking game for the number of times they do that before talking,' Isaac mused.

"Ok..." George said.

"You remember that bet we made with Bagman?" Fred asked him.

After Isaac nodded George continued.

"Well... he paid us in the Leprechaun gold that dropped down, instead of actual Galleons," Fred said.

Isaac nodded, though there was a frown on his face.

"Leprechaun gold vanished after a few hours," George told him, "You should've seen the look on Ron's face when the forty-three Galleons he had caught from them had disappeared by the morning,"

Isaac snorted in laughter.

"So, we've been trying to get in touch with him, to get it sorted," Fred said, "Only he isn't answering our owls,"

"Huh," Isaac said, "You think he's ignoring you on purpose?"

"Maybe... he's also a department head, so he might just be busy with the tournament," George said.

"So, the next time we see him, we're gonna ask him about it face to face," Fred said.

Isaac nodded.

"Sound plan, pass the waff... thank you,"

Fred had slid the plate of waffles towards him before he had even finished speaking.

"While you're here..." Hermione said.

"No, we won't buy a badge," Fred and George said at the same time.

"I was going to give you them for free," Hermione said, "After all... this business with Bagman sounds... sounds awful,"

She slid two badges from the tin in her bag onto the table in front of them.

Fred and George shared a look.

Isaac took a drink from his goblet.

"Hermione, have you ever been to the kitchens?" George asked.

"Talked to them?" Fred followed up.

"Well, no, student's aren't supposed to..."

"They _like_ it," George said.

"They don't want freedom,"

"It's not freedom," Hermione said, "It's a decent lifestyle and making sure that they are well looked after,"

Fred and George shared a glance, and nodded.

Isaac took another drink from his goblet.

"We've got stuff to do," George said, patting the table.

"See you later," Fred said.

Hermione huffed and snatched the two badges off the table.

"They could at least _try_ to be more open-minded," Hermione muttered.

When potions that day ended early everyone filed into the entrance hall and were sorted into the year groups as they waited for the arrivals.

The heads of house were going along the many rows, fixing any details that were off.

Parvati ended up having to remove an ornate butterfly clasp from her braid and Professor McGonagall didn't bother speaking to Seamus.

She simply flicked her wand at him and his tie was redone and straightened, his shirt tucked in, hair combed over to the side slightly, jumper fixed, and the soot marks removed from his nose and cheek.

"Nearly six," Isaac muttered, looking down at his watch.

"They should be here soon," Hermione whispered back, "The notice said they'd be here at six,"

Isaac hummed softly and tapped his foot.

"I am so tempted to set off a fire-cracker right now," he said as quiet as he could.

The air around them was tense and hardly anyone was making a sound.

Hermione let out a soft huff of laughter and rolled her eyes.

"I wonder how they'll arrive?" she queried.

Isaac shrugged.

"One massive portkey... or... by... flying house?"

While they had been talking a murmur of conversation had washed over the crowds.

Something had been spotted on the horizon, and it was heading their way.

Eventually, the form of a dozen-odd massive pegasus looking things were pulling a large ornate coach of white and gold.

Hagrid was out on the lawn, holding two massive limbs from trees to guide them in and had to dive out the way to avoid being flattened.

As Professor Dumbledore walked down the path to where the coach had landed a boy wearing pale blue robes jumped down.

He rapped his wand against the step on the carriage and a small staircase folded down to the ground.

He climbed up and opened the door.

As Professor Dumbledore reached the carriage Isaac couldn't help but stand a little taller in surprise.

A women as large as Hagrid, it looked like there was barely an inch between them, stepped out from the carriage and offered her hand to Dumbledore.

"Beauxbatons!" Hermione whispered to him.

"It's a rule sixty-three Hagrid!" Isaac whispered back.

Hagrid actually seemed to be a point of conversation as he nodded when Professor Dumbledore gestured to him.

Around a dozen or so students started descending from the carriage and Isaac felt the shift in tone from quite a lot of the students around him.

Many seemed to be suddenly trying to actually look impressive and like they wanted to be standing in the cold.

As Professor Dumbledore and who he assumed was the Headmistress of Beauxbatons came closer to the doors of the castle he was able to hear what they were saying.

"... 'as Karkaroff arrived yet?" the foreign Headmistress asked Dumbledore.

"He should be here any moment," Dumbledore said, taking three steps to keep up with a single of hers, "Would you like to wait for him with me, or join your students inside for warmth?"

Isaac glanced back at the students approaching the castle.

Their robes seemed to have been designed for warm weather, France if the Headmistress' accent was anything to go by.

"I shall see zem inside," she said, beckoning for the students to follow.

Professor Dumbledore bowed to her and moved out of the way before turning to the students of Hogwarts as the Beaubaxtons reached the top of the steps.

"Madame Maxine, and her students from Beauxbatons!" he announced to the students.

There was silence for a few moments before everyone followed the lead of the teachers and started clapping.

The students from Beaubaxtons rushed past them, some waving politely, and shivering.

Madame Maxine conversed in low tones with Dumbledore once her students were warming up inside the entrance hall.

A few minutes later, there came an odd gurgling sound.

"The lake!" Lee Jordan shouted, pointing out the doors and to the edge of the lake.

The serene mirror upon the watery surface was no more.

Now there were waves lapping onto the muddy shores and it was as if something was draining it away from the centre.

A large whirlpool had formed in the middle and there was something rising from the depths.

A large pole was gradually surfacing... followed by rigging and...

"Bless my salt-rounds, it's a ship!" Isaac said to Hermione.

A few moments later the entire ship had emerged, it's skeletal build was intensified by the tinted windows casting an eerie glow from within the bowls of the ship. Figures passing in front of the windows created odd ripples in the light and soon came the splash and clinking of an anchor and chain.

The thudding of a plank onto the shore sounded just out of sight and another moment later and a man wearing furs of sleek silver started walking up the path. Behind him were another dozen or so students also wearing furs, but theirs were more matted.

"Dumbledore!" the man called out heartily, moving some of his long, silver, hair out of his face from where the wind had blown it, "How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"

"Blooming good, Karkaroff, thank you," Dumbledore said, grasping the man's hand when he got close enough.

"Our friends from the north," Dumbledore called out, "Headmaster Karkaroff and the students of Durmstrang!"

The many Hogwarts students applauded on time with the teachers this time.

"Aah," Karkaroff looked up at Hogwarts, "Dear old Hogwarts, it's been a _long_ time,"

"Some might say too long," Dumbledore smiled, "How was the journey?"

"The journey was fine, and it is good to be here... how good it is to be here, indeed...Viktor, come into the warmth... you don't mind, do you, Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold,"

Isaac watched as a student of Durmstrang's shoulders dropped as he was called forward.

What confused him though was why everyone was suddenly muttering amongst themselves as if this student was some sort of celebrity.

Eventually, Dumbledore called for everyone to settle down into the hall and the students from Beaubaxtons and Durmstrang waited for everyone to be settled and see where the spaces were.

Isaac watched from his seat at the Gryffindor table ass the Beaubaxtons filed towards the Ravenclaw table, maybe they thought the blue of their uniform would look better next to their blue, and the Durmstrangs hung back a moment before settling down at the Slytherin table, to the disappointment of many.

Isaac watched the difference between the two visiting bodies, comparing how they reacted to the Great Hall.

The Durmstrang students seemed genuinely interested in Hogwarts.

They were staring up at the ceiling illusion with fascination and had mildly awed looks when looking at the goblets and room.

The Beaubaxtons, on the other hand, seemed mildly bored and downbeat. Probably because of the cold.

Isaac did feel a wave of smugness wash over him for a moment as he always felt too warm, unless it was a very cold day or he had eaten enough ice cream to give him brain freeze...

When the students had settled down the staff began filing into the hall and when Madame Maxine entered the hall, alongside Dumbledore and Karkaroff, the Beaubaxton students jumped to their feet.

There were a few ripples of laughter across the hall, but the Beaubaxtons ignored them and didn't sit back down until Madame Maxine herself had been seated.

'Posh, high class, high standards,' Isaac rattled off as he watched the French students, 'Used to finer things in life, respect for authority taught early on,'

He switched his gaze to the Durmstrang students.

'Respectful, used to hard work, see Hogwarts as fancy so don't mind getting down and dirty for things,' he listed.

It was a handy skill that Helen had taught him, being able to read a person came in handy if you wanted to know their habits or get under their skin.

As Professor Dumbledore stood and addressed the hall Isaac watched as a Beaubaxton student clutching some kind of scarf around her face was trying to stifle her laughter.

"The Tournament will officially be opened by the end of the feast," Dumbledore said after wishing the foreign visitors a comfortable stay, "But, for now, I invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!"

As he sat down the tables were filled with more food than Isaac had ever seen made at Hogwarts.

Aside from a fair amount of the regular things that were put out there were also a wide variety of foods that he didn't recognise that was probably put out for the visitors.

Isaac watched as a few of the other Gryffindors debated trying some of the new dishes presented to them before settling for the old favourites.

"Hermione, what is this?" Isaac asked, gesturing to a dish of some kind of stew next to the steak-and-kidney pudding.

"Bouillabaisse," Hermione said.

"Gesundheit," Isaac said, tilting his head to look at it.

"It's French, it's rather nice," Hermione said, giving him a flat look.

"Ok," Isaac said, taking the handle and spooning a small amount onto his plate before taking some of the steak-and-kidney pudding.

Hagrid came into the hall shortly after that, having sorted out the massive horse things that had pulled the Beaubaxton's carriage, and made his way to the head table.

"Excuse me, are you wanting ze bouillabaisse?" a voice came from behind him.

"Hmm? Oh, take it, I've got my bit," Isaac turned to the girl from Beaubaxtons that had worn the scarf thing to hide her laughter.

He picked up the dish and handed it to the girl before returning to his own plate.

Isaac paused as he lifted the fork to his mouth and turned back around.

The girl was still there, looking oddly down at him.

"Is there something wrong?" Isaac asked.

That startled the girl out of whatever had distracted her and she left back to the Ravenclaw table with the dish.

"What was that about?" Isaac asked, not seeing how nearly everyone else at the Gryffindor table was watching her move back.

"I don't know," Hermione said, passing him a plate of some put out for the Bulgarians.

As the piles of food steadily got smaller and smaller the deserts appeared.

Isaac let out a sigh as the rich smells of sugary goodness reached him and he dug into the nearest trifle he could find before nabbing a slice of apple and cinnamon pie.

"Isaac, look who's here!" Hermione whispered to him.

Isaac turned and sitting at the table next to the teachers were Mr Bagman and Crouch.

"Must be here to start the Tournament," Isaac said, adding more sugar to his pie.

Once the plates had been cleared, even the ones that had been moved by other boys on the Gryffindor table so that they could try and entice the Beaubaxton girl back, Dumbledore stood up once more and addressed the hall.

"The moment has come," said Dumbledore.

Tension seemed to rise within the hall as many leaned closer to him.

"The Triwizard Tournament is about to start, and I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket just to clarify the procedure we shall be following this year.

But first, allow me to introduce Mr Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of Intermagical Co-operation, and Mr Ludo Bagman, Head of Magical Games and Sports,"

While there had been a spread of polite applause for Crouch, there was quite a noticeable difference of interest when Bagman was announced.

It was either that many thought that Bagman looked the more fun person, or people remembered him from his Quidditch career.

Dumbledore went on a little more about the effort that Bagman and Crouch had put into arranging the Tournament, and how they would be joining himself and the other Heads of the schools in judging the Tournament, before he called for Mr Filch to bring the casket in.

Filch lugged in a very old chest, with what looked like weathered gemstones encrusted into the boards.

"There will be three tasks spaced through the year... they shall test the selected champions of each school in different ways...

The tasks shall test their daring... their magical prowess... their powers of deduction... and, of course, their ability to cope with danger," Dumbledore said, looking around the eager faces in the hall.

"There will be one champion from each school...

And now, I give you the impartial judge that shall select the champions...

The Goblet of Fire!"

He took out his wand and tapped the top of the chest three times.

The lid swung open and a stone pedestal rose from within, stone blocks sliding into place as it did so.

And, there at the top, stood a large, rough-hewn, wooden cup.

The actual item would have looked wholly unimpressive except for the fact that there were flames of a rich blue simmering slightly above the rim.

"Anyone who wishes to enter the Tournament must merely write their name on a piece of parchment and slip it into the flames...

But I must warn you...

If selected, there is no turning back.

You may not ask another student to enter your name for you... and there shall be an age ring, set by myself, to ensure that no one other than those allowed to may enter," Dumbledore's twinkling eyes darted in the direction of the twins.

"But I do want to stress this fact.

The Goblet of Fire constitutes a magical binding contract with the champion.

You cannot withdraw from the Tournament if chosen, and champions may not receive help during the tasks from outside sources.

So I ask anyone who may wish to enter, make _sure_ that this is a choice that you shall be fully prepared to follow through with,"

Dumbledore clapped his hands together.

"Now, the entering period was going to be twenty-four hours, and champions selected the next day, however, I am delighted to announce that for the Halloween feast tomorrow, I have managed to secure some last minute entertainment for tomorrow that is a little more... up to date with the times.

Now, there are beds awaiting us all, I wish you all a good night!" he dismissed them.

The benches scrapped against the floor as everyone in the hall rose at the same time.

Fred and George were talking to themselves again and Isaac could hear them snort derisively as they said that an aging potion could trick any old age line.

The flow of students out of the hall was paused to let the Beauxbatons out first, many wanting to create a good image for the group as it was quite clear that a good portion of the males in the school had suddenly found themselves smitten with the ladies from Beaubaxtons... one silvery haired girl, in particular, seemed to be gathering quite a lot of attention.

After that the Durmstrang students passed, Karkaroff berating one of them for something, Isaac wasn't sure, but Karkaroff paused when passing him.

Isaac groaned internally since he had forgotten to put that concealer that Clockwork had recommended for him on to hide the scar.

"Any reason that you're holding up the queue, Igor?" someone asked.

Professor Moody limped his way past the students to see what the hold up was.

"You!" Karkaroff jumped back slightly.

"Me," Moody smiled his gnarled smile, "And unless you've got anything to say to Mr Rogers, do you mind moving?"

Karkaroff shot Moody an intense glare before gesturing for the Durmstrang students to start moving again.

"Ignore him, lad," Moody said to Isaac, "Got his nose in a fair few places it should've kept far away from,"

He patted Isaac on the back before limping away up the stairs in front of them all.

The next day gave its fair share of surprises.

First was that seemingly everyone was either talking about Victor, the Durmstrang student that Karkaroff seemed to favour, or that silvery haired Beaubaxton that had captured the attention of nearly every male in the castle.

"What's so special about her?" Isaac asked Hermione.

"I don't know," Hermione said, "Maybe she's half-Veela or something?"

"Veil... what?"

"Remember those women that were the mascots for Bulgaria at the Cup? Those were Veela,"

Isaac cast his mind back to the bird-people that had thrown flames at the Leprechauns.

"Oh," Isaac said, "Yeah, those things were weird,"

"Oh, I don't know," Hermione teased, "Maybe you're part Veela?"

Isaac frowned.

"Ok... if I can turn into a winged-bird-person then you'll be seeing a whole lot more news reports about angel sightings because that would be hilarious to me,"

The next surprise came when the Weasley twins tried their aging potion to get through the age line.

It seemed to work for one shining moment, even George jumped in after Fred, but a second later they were shot backwards as if fired from a cannon and, with a large popping noise, they sprouted identical white beards.

They ended up rolling on the floor in laughter before an amused Dumbledore sent them off to the Hospital Wing to be shaved by Madam Pomfrey, alongside the other students that had tried to age themselves up a little.

Something that wasn't a surprise, though, was that when Isaac and Hermione went to visit Hagrid was that the Skrewts had started killing each other.

Hagrid now had about twenty in separate crates.

What was a surprise was that Hagrid seemed to have become smitten with Madame Maxine, the cologne he had used drowning out every other smell in his cabin.

However... the biggest surprise, what _genuinely_ scared Isaac... came at the Halloween feast...

Isaac had descended down the stairs with Hermione, humming 'This is Halloween' as they reached the final stairs.

To Hermione's annoyance, she had started humming the song unconsciously.

The twins asked what the song was and Isaac said he'd show them if he ever found a way to get a video player and T.V to work in Hogwarts.

The twins went ahead to try and find Lee, leaving Hermione and Isaac by themselves when they entered the Great Hall and...

Isaac froze and grabbed Hermione.

"Oh no... oh dear god..."

"What is it?" Hermione asked anxiously.

"We're... we're at Defcon 2!" Isaac said, " _DEFCON 2_!"

"What is it?" Hermione asked as she looked around.

"Hermione...

The twins and L.J are in the same building!"

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Author Notes.

I'm expecting at least 3 death threats from you all.

I have been waiting to do this for literal months!

I had the idea to do this when I started College last year, and it had taken forty odd months to finally get here.

So, that is where I'm ending it, and you're getting a little bit of fun next week.

Like I said, my imaginative spark is back and I do have someone to thank for that.

That someone... has issued me a dare...

IF, and this all depends on the if!

If I am to get 400+ followers on anything of mine... then he has dared me to write... a lemon.

The reason I said that I wouldn't write one before was that I didn't think I would be able to, but they apparently think otherwise based on what I send them.

So, there's the condition, and I have no idea when it'll happen, but I do have the conditions that have to be met.

I've been feeling better lately, you have the person who gave me the lemon-dare to thank for that, so I'll definitely give you chapter 52 on schedule.

After that, I'll be taking a break for a bit.

I won't be stopping writing, but I'm going to take it a little easier for a couple of weeks.

 **Thank you all for sticking with me through this.**

With that, I've run out of things to say, I think I've definitely done better this chapter than I have done in the past, and it's getting fairly late at night for me, nearly midnight.

So, I'll see you all next week,

SteamGeek01.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	52. Chapter 52, One Whole Year Yikes!

Chapter 52, One whole year.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

I'm a little sad to write this author note... but at the same time...

HOLY COWBELL OF SATANIC DING-A-LING-A-LING-A-LONG PANCAKES!

ONE WHOLE YEAR OF ME RAMBLING, YOU READING MY RAMBLES, AND FOR SOME GOD-DAMN REASON LIKING IT!

I need a cake.

I'm gonna buy a cake and eat it... I kinda need to get someone with me to do this.

But... I... I'm...

In all seriousness, I am so grateful for all of you coming here and reading this.

I've wanted to get into professional writing for so long and...

Ok, I actually have a little bit of a funny story to tell you about that.

So, it's S6 (year 6 of High school, age 17) and I was tasked with writing a creative piece for Higher English... I did, I wrote a really nice piece that was sort of based on an S.C.P style of writing, handed it in, and the teacher loved it... but... I hadn't paid attention to the word limit... it was 1200 words max... I wrote a story that had 2900+ words...

I had to delete 1700 odd words from it and I was pissed.

So, I handed in a copy and I kept the original.

I am still working on it, even today.

It has kinda taken the back-burner so I could focus on this, but I'm going to return to it a little over my break.

However, I really can't delay that much, I've got reviews to answer.

ICPM;

Hehehe, don't break anything, I ain't gonna pay for it, I'm too busy eating cake... well... not right now, but I'll have the cake when I click 'Post new chapter'.

The first anniversary is finally here, and I hope you like it.

I'm the one that should be blushing, your review was definitely one of the nicer ones that I'll remember.

JESUS! GO TO BED MAN!

And pass some of the coffee, I'm thirsty...

MyraZinshu;

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise, I'm sorry...

Ok, central southern US... I'm not gonna look at a map, erm... Ok, the only ones that I can think of are Texas, Mississippi, and Florida... I have no idea if they're even in the right area or not, so sorry again...

I may or may not have plans to take one of the car batteries from our cars and use it to make a Lichtenberg figure coaster set... that actually sounds like a great idea now...

I can't be bothered to go back through reviews right now, I'll check whatever we were talking about later.

... I see two possible EXTRAS chapters from that.

Isaac just needed to relieve a little tension, he'll be angsting about Ben soon...

I'm taking a break after finishing this chapter, there won't be a chapter next week, maybe the week after, I dunno, might have a 2-week break.

If you ever want something to read in the meantime, check out EXTRAS. I recently went back over Werewolf and fixed some typos that passed by.

Hehehe... I had fun with those...

I don't think that the school would let them go around with badges that read 'F.U.C.K.E.R.S' on them though...

Sirius is better, he's at the tail end of the adjustment phase... might write an EXTRAS chapter where he tries to juggle his job as the Grim and keeping low with Remus... and I could be persuaded to sneak in a little Wolfstar in there if you ask me nicely or send me a cake...

I like cake...

Having Luna turn up at random moments was so fun before, she's gonna be a little more involved if I do what I'm thinking about.

Hehehehe... that was a fun scene to write...

Isaac is definitely Toby's little brother... FUCK! I've been forgetting to do the CP scenes!

Oh, Christ, I'm so sorry.

Ok... over the break, I'll write a couple out for fun and put them in... Jesus... WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME!

You know what, I always enjoy writing the CP scenes a little more than the actual story, so I'm gonna take them easy and have fun with them.

Ok, where was I?

Isaac is definitely Toby's little brother, you'll see a little more of that soon...

In the books, Harry was rather oblivious, plus he had the ramblings of Ron, who was a trend follower, to keep him updated on it.

You'll be getting Isaac's realisation scene after the break, I don't see it coming before the first task, so it's definitely after the break.

Hehehehe... that's another EXTRAS chapter already on the wall...

I'm glad that you liked it, enjoy this one!

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Thank you, I like that cliffhanger as well.

Yes.

Wow-im-satan;

Hi Satan, can I get a hellhound, please?

I promise to look after it! I think Toby will like a new friend!

Thank you!

Hey, everyone, SATAN APPROVES OF THIS FIC!

Thank you again, sorry your Lord of Darkness and Suffering, but there shan't be a chapter next week, I'm taking a break.

Katropis12;

OI!

You... YOU... _YOU_... _**YOU**_!

You are the 400th review!

400 reviews on this... yikes...

That bunker will not save you, who do you think built it?

Matt (Guest);

Yes... run... RUN!

DarkRavie;

Thanks.

Thunder-Death;

Thanks, glad that you like it.

Not A Criminal;

The alarm is sounding, we are definitely at Defcon 2.

I... erm... I don't think that that's what they mean when calling for women and children first, but points for creativity.

My inspiration is holding steady, should have reached the one week for a year goal for sure.

Sweet Smilie;

Hello.

Yeah, Fizz had some fun that chapter.

Ok... many things there...

It's the steps around halfway that have the detection charm.

Bagman will probably have some of Isaac's special brand of karma against him at some point.

Wait... the floating charm and parchment might actually work... but I'm not having Ron or Isaac enter their names.

Ron would be torn to shreds in seconds.

I'm gonna have to think about what to do for the second task, aren't I?

Yeah... those three working together could cause a whole lot of trouble... and they're here...

That is... actually kind of close to what I had in mind...

STOP LOOKING AT MY NOTES!

When life gives me lemons, I squeeze them into people's haemorrhoid cream... because I'm an evil person.

'awkwardly waves'

Ja ne!

.549;

HA! Jokes on you, the hatches are already stuck open with industrial strength epoxy resin!

There shall be no hiding from the storm!

Zekedavis;

Oh yeah, things are getting real...

Ceresama;

Thanks, I've been building up those three meeting for a while, haven't I?

If you know what I'm doing, you know why Isaac wasn't affected by Fleur.

I hope that you've enjoyed the story so far, there will definitely be more to come.

Right... that's it until Y-Y-W posts a review like... an hour before I upload... wait... what's that getting close to...

'gets hit in the head with review 2 days earlier than expected'

YingYangWriter;

Ow...

You're early... couldn't hold your excitement in?

I feel like Hermione isn't going to be as bad with S.P.E.W this time... maybe, I don't know.

I actually don't tend to read Hermione!bashing fics as much. I can understand where she's coming from in the original books, but she's just a little too extreme.

Circumstances are different in this fic, so she will be too.

In the books, she's trying to set all the elves free.

In the fic, she's just trying to make sure they're looked after.

Sirius is better now, he's just trying to fit in.

I'll make a note of laxatives and tea...

The twins against Bagman will be fun to play with, especially if Bagman goes a little like Lockhart...

I think he'll definitely use that excuse at some point, I might have a list of all the excuses he's used before.

Isaac was able to throw the Imperius off because of his experiences with The Puppeteer.

The best way I can describe the talisman working is that it acts as a shield for the weaker charms, but it takes a few minutes to remove the _really_ powerful charms.

I've lost track of what to call the Slendy-radiation as well.

Some fics its Theta radiation? I think?

Other's it never gets specified.

Some I think call it 'intense bursts of extremely short-range Gamma radiation'.

There shall be no surviving the prank-apocalypse. All will perish. All will fall... down when they tie your laces together.

You'll be hiding for a while if I end where I think I will...

Awww... what are they like?

I've only ever seen the cute versions in online videos, so I haven't had the chance to meet one in real life yet.

I wasn't shouting at you, I was being dramatic.

'Hugs Y-Y-W'

There there... let Mummy wipe away the tears.

Ok... that was... that was it... I've got a chapter to write...

Hope you enjoy, and...

Guess who's back!

Hey, DP, how are you, it's been a while?

Glad to be back! Everything is good here.

Good to hear, and welcome back!

Also, when I start writing this chapter, I am at 299 followers for this story!

One more and I hit 300!

And I think that hitting 300 would be a wonderful place to take a break after a year.

So enjoy this chapter, and thank you all... and I will admit that this one was a little more awkward to write, just because I've never done anything like that before.

Also... Laughin is pronounced 'Lock-Hin'...

SteamGeek01,

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The Mansion.

Ben frowned as L.J spoke to him.

"The Bard? Why do you want to talk to her?" he asked.

"Well... that would be telling now, wouldn't it?" L.J said, "It just so happens that I'm feeling in a bit of a musical mood, and I think that she'd appreciate a call before I drop in... remember the last time I went to an Orbi' unannounced?

Had to have Teer wipe the mind of an entire Bar Mitzvah," he grumbled.

Ben sighed.

"All right, toss your phone,"

Ben looked down at the disconnected rotary phone that L.J put in front of him.

"Ha!" Ben said sarcastically.

He swiped the flip phone from L.J once it was within reach and poked the screen.

"Done, under the name 'Madame'," he told him.

"Thank you!" L.J said chipperly, jumping out of his seat and dialling her number.

"YO!

It's a me, and I might have a gig for you," L.J said, walking out into the hall before disappearing.

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Jeff walked up the stairs, a piece of kitchen roll with two pieces of toast with jam on them in hand.

"GYAH!" he yelped as something grabbed a hold of him and tugged him backwards.

"Heyo, Jeffie!" L.J said, letting go of him.

"Piss off!" Jeff snapped at him, a quick glance around him revealed that he was in L.J's carnival, "What do you want?"

L.J pouted and tilted his head to the side.

"But if I piss off, then I can't tell you," he whimpered.

"Boys," a female voice from his right sighed.

Jeff glanced over and saw the other person in the room.

"Oh... hey," he said.

"Hi," she replied, "L.J, why are we here?"

"I told you, I got you a gig!" L.J said, sitting down and pulling out a piece of buttered corn on the cob for him to eat.

"But I don't do live shows," Madame Macabre said.

"But what if this gig was within a castle of _actual_ witches and wizards that use actual _magic_?" L.J asked.

The Madame looked up at him with shock.

"Magic's _real_?" she asked, "I mean... I know you guys can do stuff but... like... waving wands, broomstick riding, cauldron bubbling... _those_ kind of witches and wizards?"

"Oh yeah... wait... has she met Isaac, yet?" L.J asked.

"Don't think so... wait... why am I..." Jeff broke off on a groan.

"Madame on the mic," L.J pointed at her, "Clown on the keyboard, and the other things...

and then the grinner on the guitar,"

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Hogwarts.

"Jesus!" Isaac breathed, looking at the stage that had been set up against the wall where L.J, Jeff, and a woman he didn't know were stood.

The air around the stage seemed to shimmer, like something was hidden there.

"Wait... that's Jeff! And... Isaac... how are they here?" Hermione asked him.

"I don't know, but I'm going to... oh..." Isaac broke off, "They're the entertainment that Dumbledore's gotten,"

Hermione looked at them with her jaw slightly agape.

"But... you didn't say that they were wizards... and is that Natalie?" Hermione asked.

Isaac looked at her in confusion for a brief second.

"Oh... er, no that's not Clo... Nat," Isaac quickly said, "It's... I don't know... haven't seen her before..."

They eventually reached their seats, Isaac making sure that the Weasley twins were within sight.

"The hall really does look impressive, though," Hermione said, looking around at the decorations.

"Yeah... I think I can see a little bit of L.J's style in this..."

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Jeff looked out over the small town they were stood in and... much to his dismay... he agreed with Toby.

"This place looks dull," Jeff said as they reached Hogsmeade.

It had taken fifteen minutes to convince The Slenderman to allow them to use the link to get there.

L.J had sworn he wouldn't do anything more than necessary in extreme conditions; which meant that unless they were attacked, or there was a chance that they could be revealed to the world, then he could not do anything.

Jeff was also under threat of losing any and all privileges for two years if there were any... 'unfortunate accidents'.

"Erm... Madame Macabre?" an elderly Scottish voice asked as they approached the gates.

"Yes, that would be me," she bowed slightly.

The elderly witch took in the... odd apparel of the young woman before her.

A crimson corset done up with buttons was seen underneath the long black coat that flapped behind her in the slight breeze.

Her hair was kept out of her face by a thin band of black fabric that kept the mass majority of her hair behind her shoulders.

Pinstriped, black and white, trousers disappeared mid-calf into a pair of thick leather, high-heeled, boots.

The light caught off of the square framed lenses as she straightened up and the bat-shaped pendant of the band around her neck.

"And... these are..." she said, pointing a piece of parchment at Jeff and L.J.

L.J and Jeff both had their glamours up.

Jack's slightly baggy trousers were held up by a thick pair of braces, silver clasps in the shape of skulls in honour of the holiday.

Jeff hadn't changed his attire at all.

His mousy brown hair kept getting blown into his face under the white hood.

Black and white sneakers were slightly muddied from the walk through town.

Between the two of them were three different guitar cases, a keyboard case, and two boxes that held unknown item probably supplied by L.J.

"Oh, allow me to introduce, Jeff Woods, and Jack Laughin," she said, gesturing to them in turn.

"Good evening," she said, her sharp eyes looking them over, "My name is Professor McGonagall.

Headmaster Dumbledore has asked me to help you get prepared for the feast... if you'll all follow me?" she said and started walking back up the dirt and cobbled path towards a slightly imposing castle standing tall before them.

"Just some heads up," Jack whispered, crouching down so that he could talk to the two others without Professor McGonagall hearing them, "Toby says that the castle is apparently a bit of a letdown,"

Jeff found himself agreeing with Toby once again as they walked through the entrance hall.

It was dusty, draughty, and... almost insultingly dull.

Jeff could see things moving in the paintings but he wasn't able to get a closer look as he was chivvied past a white circle around an old wooden cup filled to the brim with blue flames.

"Ok... that's kinda cool," Jack admitted, "But I think it's a one-off thing, according to Ben,"

Professor McGonagall ushered them into the hall where an absolutely tiny man was standing on a raised platform setting up black and orange paper links around.

"Happy Halloween," the small man squeaked.

"And a Satanic Samhain to you too!" Jack said, far too energetically, "Not too bad," he nodded at the decorations.

"Any suggestions?"

L.J took a breath of air in through clenched teeth as he thought.

"You've got the traditional colour palette, but your placing and matching is all over the board.

Keep the oranges for the pumpkins, black for the bats, white for the ghosts, and add a little more variety.

Right now it looks like all the colours you have access to are the same kinds that you find in a little kids paint set. Don't be afraid to go all out with the colours, go full Halloween and get all sorts of fading oranges out there,"

Jeff, Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, if what McGonagall had said was true, and The Madame all looked at him with varying degrees of surprise.

"I wonder if it's obvious, or not, that I have a Masters for Interior Decorating?" Jack mused.

Professor Flitwick shook his tiny head in laughter and turned to face him again.

"Well, would you like to assist me in getting everything sorted?" he asked.

"Let's get cracking," Jack said, dumping the stuff he was carrying onto the stage and vaulting up.

In little under fifteen minutes, the hall was decorated like something out of a gothic tale.

"I think that the kids are going to love this," Jack said, looking around at their finished work.

Behind them, Jeff and Madame Macabre were putting pictures into a thing with multiple slots for pictures that looked like an old-fashioned projector.

Streamers of black and white hung over them all like massive cobwebs.

Paper links of white and black adorned the stage.

Fake spider webs with animated plastic spiders stretched between the candles.

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WE HIT 300+ FOLLOWERS!

Thank you, 'OwO-Mozzy' for being the 300th follower!

And we're also at 292 favourites, nearly breaking 300 there as well!

We've also broken through 60,000 total views!

Now, back to your regularly scheduled madness.

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Even the candles themselves had been changed. Now they flickered with a pale blue flame, not unlike the ones that Isaac could make.

What looked like enchanted paper bats fluttered around in swarms.

Professor Flitwick looked around the hall with an impressed look upon his face.

"I think you're correct," he squeaked, "And those ones you set aside will appear whenever you break that piece of string," he pointed at the white strand stuck on the wall.

"Thank yo... erm... are those supposed to be..." Jack broke off, looking at things getting shifted around.

Professor Flitwick followed Jack's gaze to a pile of decorations that they had left over that was starting to be pulled off the table.

"Peeves!" Flitwick said sharply.

A popping noise proceeded a man with an immensely childish face with a grin that seemed to stretch his cheeks appearing before them.

"Well... curiosity certainly killed this cat," Peeves cackled.

He made to zoom off before he would get into further trouble, but a voice called out.

"Wait!" Jack said, jumping down off the stage and over to him, "You that Poltergeist?"

"Does my reputation proceed me?" Peeves floated down until he was level, though upside down, with Jack.

"It most certainly does," Jack said, "Want to help me with something?"

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The hall looked so impressive that even the Beaubaxtons couldn't help but admire it.

Everyone had filed in and quite a few were looking at the oddly dressed individuals on stage.

"What do you think they're going to do?" Hermione asked.

"Well... music, Jeff's got his guitars," Isaac said, "Don't know what, though,"

Just at the point that the starters of the feast appeared, the woman spoke into a microphone that had been set up.

"Hello, hello," she spoke to the hall, "My name is Madame Macabre, and a Happy Halloween to you all,"

She seemed a little nervous as everyone clapped politely.

"Now, we're just setting up and Jeff and Jack are just going to be checking that they're tuned up and ready...

And, knowing them, they're going to show off a bit,"

Jack looked insulted.

"Me? Show off?" he let out a derisive snort and turned back to the keyboard.

The sounds of 'The Flight of the Bumblebee' gradually built up until it was going fast enough that it sounded like it was being played three times the normal speed.

"It's called 'flaunting'," Jack said smugly to the applause from quite a few in the hall.

Jack bowed with a wide grin and turned to Jeff.

"Let's see you beat that," he said.

Jeff took the guitar off and swapped it around so he was playing with his left hand.

He was about to start when he paused before jumping off the stage.

"Gimme your tie," he said to the closest Ravenclaw, the stage was set up closest to them.

The Ravenclaw hesitated a moment, blushing intensely, and took off her tie with shaking hands.

Jeff gave her a fleeting smile that sent her surrounding friends into giggles.

He climbed back up onto the stage and tied the tie securely around his hands.

Madame Macabre, meanwhile, had placed a hand on Jack's chest to stop him creeping forward... there may, or may not, have been an air horn in his hand.

Jeff found the strings again and rolled his head, cracking his neck.

He started playing a heavy bass song and, over at the Gryffindor table, a bespectacled boy with black hair flinched and his hand seized up so that he dropped the cutlery he was holding onto the table next to him.

"You cruel cow!" Jack winced, "Ok... for those of you who don't know, we live with a guy and his little brother.

Jeff, for some reason, decided to teach the kid how to play the guitar.

Now, that would have been fine, if he hadn't made the kid learn _that_ song for just over eight _hours_ in a single sitting,"

There were a few ripples of laughter around the hall.

"Don't laugh," Jack said as Jeff cackled, "He gave an eight-year-old child P.T.S.D with _music_ ,"

Not as many people laughed that time, but there was still a few.

"Oh... alright," Jack said, tapping his foot.

Quicker than anyone would have guessed, he had pulled something out of his pocket, taken something off the thing, and thrown it above the students.

A second after it reached the peak of its arc it exploded and showered everyone underneath in a large plume of glitter.

"JACK!" Madame Macabre said over the shocked screams of students.

"No one said anything about glitter grenades," his tongue was poked out the corner of his mouth as he giggled.

"No more," Madame Macabre said sternly.

"Yes, Maam!" Jack sprang to a salute.

Jeff clambered back on stage, having given the tie back to the Ravenclaw and her giggling group of friends.

"Well... I think that proves were ready," she said, casting one more disapproving look at Jack, "Now...

Many of you know the horror fables of old...

Vampires...

Werewolves...

Ghosts..."

"Those are all real," Jack interjected.

"I know," she said, "I had a lovely talk with the Fat Friar before we started... and we did get his clearance for a couple of the songs that we have lined up,"

"Would have been pretty awkward if we did those... and then they're just floating there with... just looking _so_ unimpressed," Jack laughed.

"Yes... that would have been fairly awkward... especially since that was the one we were planning on doing second," The Madame agreed, "But... I think it's time we got this show on the road...

To start, one of the most recognised songs of the season...

Jack, if you would take us away?"

"Right..." Jack said, rubbing his hands and turning to the boxes, "Need a couple things... ah!"

He pulled out a rack of bells and a polished violin.

He twirled the bow like a baton before he started drawing it across the strings.

After a few moments into the chords, Jeff started playing along with him.

"Boys and girls of every age..." Madame Macabre began singing.

Jack and Jeff played the final notes in tandem, closing the song, and Hogwarts clapped in cheers.

"Thank you!" Madame Macabre called out over the crowds, "That was 'This is Halloween', the opening song from the holiday staple 'The Nightmare Before Christmas',"

"How did Jack do all that?" Hermione asked, stunned as she clapped.

Throughout the song, Jack had done something for every monster mentioned.

For the monster under the bed, he had quickly slipped a pair of plastic fangs into his mouth when gesturing to his eyes.

For the monster under the stairs, he had released a spring-loaded gummy snake and pulled a plastic spider toy from the tangles on his head.

For talking about Jack Skellington, The Pumpkin King, he had kicked up a plastic gold crown from the floor and caught it with his head to the applause of the student body

That wasn't even mentioning the voice work he had been putting into for each line that matched the creature that had sung them in the original film.

But the one that probably impressed everyone the most, was the clown with the tear-away face.

Jack had paused, grabbed a fold of skin, and torn off his face. This action had caused quite a few of the watching students to gasp or scream.

As it turned out, it had been a cloth mask that had been surprisingly realistic that none of them had probably picked up on because of the distance.

Jack had panted when the song ended and pulled off the black face mask that he had been wearing underneath the other one.

"It's kinda hard to breathe with two of these things on," he said, stretching it out and pinging it back into the box.

"What you gonna do next?" Jeff asked, leaning against one of the stands that held the wizarding version of an amplifier, "Cause, based on what we're doing next, I'm kinda hoping you just off yourself to go for authenticity,"

Jack let his arms drop to his side.

"Bit harsh," he scoffed, "What did I do to deserve that?"

"You broke one of my speakers to put a spring-loaded plate of onions in it!" Jeff seethed.

"Good times," Jack sighed happily.

"I nearly drowned... stop laughing!" he snapped at the hall, "I nearly drowned trying to clear my eyes!"

"Very good times," Jack sighed happily again.

"Boys," The Madame said in a low, warning, tone, "Back on track, please,"

Jack gave her the thumbs up and waved his fingers over the keyboard.

"Wait... which one?"

The Madame turned to face him.

"What?"

"Which one?

Nineteen-eighty-four, or twenty-sixteen?" Jack asked.

The Madame thought for a moment.

"Chronological, eighty-four and then twenty-sixteen,"

"Okee-doke," Jack said, turning back to the boxes behind him and grabbing a synthesiser.

Everyone in the hall clapped again, the Muggleborn students the hardest of them all, as the song closed.

"Love that movie!" Jack laughed, shifting the synthesiser away into the boxes.

"How did you get the lights to flicker?" Jeff asked him, "Who'd you get to shift the things?"

Every so often, whenever a ghost was mentioned in the song, the lights would flicker and the tables would rattle.

"That would be telling, and you should have been paying attention," Jack smirked, "Right then, twenty-sixteen version, now?"

The Madame shrugged.

"Might as well," she said, "And then we can get to some of the more original works,"

"Oooh!" Jack said, "I've been looking forward to those!"

He quickly spun and took out what looked like a small set of cymbals and a couple of drums.

"You sure you can handle everything?" Jeff asked him as he switched to a bass guitar.

"I am a literal _Jack_ of all trades," Jack said, giving each cymbal and drum a quick tap, "Master of...

Interior design, Home economics, Chemistry, Biology, Bio-Chemistry, Electrical, Pneumatic, and Mechanical Engineering...

Just... a lot... Master of a lot," he eventually said.

"Ok, I'm getting us started before he can brag anymore," Jeff said.

"It's still pronounced flaunting," Jack called as he played the opening notes before Jeff joined in.

The students were clapping once more and Jack was looking excited.

The lights had done more than just flicker this time.

Tables had rattled.

Plates had risen and flipped.

A couple of students had the feeling that someone had walked right through them.

Once they had finished had nodded to an unseen figure in the corner of the hall who went shooting off back to the deserted parts of the castle.

"Thank you... thank you...

Now... we could just keep going with songs from some of the well-known movies played around this time of the year...

But there's culture rising... one that has weaved in and out of the limelight for years...

Sometimes in good light... sometimes in bad... but it's still there... waiting..."

"Are we starting with my namesake?" Jeff asked, ruining the tension that Madame Macabre had been building.

The Madame sighed and turned to him.

"Fine, we'll start with yours," she sighed.

"Don't sound so glum," Jeff said, "You should be taking pride in what _you've_ written,"

Madame Macabre bowed her head as a slight blush rose on her cheeks.

"That's right, folks," Jack said, "Pretty much everything else on our song list tonight has been written by the musically marvellous, mistress of... I don't have a word for darkness that begins with 'M', Madame Macabre!" he held his hand out in her direction and there was another smattering of polite applause from the students.

"Even though she hasn't made a song about _my_ namesake," Jack grumbled.

Madame Macabre sighed.

This had been brought up by Jack a few times that day already.

"Jack, if you keep pestering me about it, then I'm not going to make it... _ever_ ," she said.

"When are you making a Laughing Jack song?

When are you making a Laughing Jack song?

When are you making a Laughing Jack song?

When are you making a Laughing Jack song?" Jeff asked as fast as he could.

He broke off with a yelp when Jack threw an apple at him.

"Here, eat that, it'll help you look like even more of an..."

"Boys!" Madame Macabre snapped.

"Sorry," Jeff and Jack mumbled

"Right... Jack, the string?" she said.

Jack let out an excited gasp and clapped.

He walked over to a piece of string that was attached to the wall and tugged it off.

He looked around excitedly, but his shoulders slumped when nothing happened.

"You have to break it!" a small voice called from the teacher's table.

"Like into two pieces?" Jack called back.

"Yes,"

"That makes more sense," Jack started tugging both the ends, trying to snap it.

"Hold on, I think I got scissors somewhere," Jack mumbled, rummaging in the box again.

"Got them!" he said before tearing through the string.

A cloud of smoke enveloped the stage and when it cleared the stage had been redecorated.

A fine mist was rolling off the stage, coating the ground in rolling vapours.

In the middle, just behind Madame Macabre, was an odd thing that Isaac thought he had seen Professor Snape using as a projector once when he had covered for Professor Lupin last year.

The stage around them looked as if it had been placed in the middle of one of the densest forests in the world.

Stamped on every tree was a piece of paper with varying messages written in thick, black, marker pen.

Isaac smirked as he saw the various messages that Sally scribbled for Slenderman's forest.

Jack was looking around with an impressed look.

"Perfect!" he called up to the teacher's table, "To use this thing I just stand on the little pump-thing here, right?" he asked, looking down at something on the ground next to him.

"I'll admit... that's kinda cool," Jeff said, knocking on the fake trees, "Feels like actual wood,"

"Yes... but we've got to get back to a different type of Woods, haven't we?" The Madame said, "Specifically... that of Jeffrey Woods... or, as the world better knows him..."

"The Joker's ultimate fanboy," Jack quickly said.

He was rewarded with the apple he had thrown at Jeff earlier being thrown back at him.

"I will skin you!" Jeff seethed.

" _BOYS_!" Madame Macabre snapped again.

"Sorry," the two of them muttered, Jeff still shooting glares at Jack.

"Right... as I was saying...

Jeffrey Woods is one of the more popular stories made for a culture called... Creepypasta,"

She paused to let a few people in the hall laugh.

"Yes... the name is a little funny... the stories, however... the ones that you'll hear featured tonight are some of the more well-known stories from this genre.

And, to start with, my tribute to one of the most, if not _the_ most, popular and well-known stories of the culture...

Jeff the Killer..."

Jack's hands glided gently over the keys of the keyboard and he stood on something on the ground.

The projector behind Madame Macabre flared into life and, projected on the wall behind them, was a close-up of a face with jagged, bloody, and scarred cheeks that had been cut to present a permanent grinning face.

Jeff cleared his throat and took a step closer to the microphone in front of him.

Since it was his song, The Madame had decided that he could be the one to sing it.

"I can't even remember how it started..."

By the end of the song, the hall was clapping once again and more than a few looked mildly fearful.

"What's next?" The Madame asked Jack.

They had arranged the songs in the order that they would play them.

"Erm... 'My Prey'," he said.

After that had been 'God Syndrome'.

Then there had been 'Oh Mister Emory'.

It seemed that Jack had something else planned for this one.

"... how do I know all this?" he asked during his part before breaking off in a quick fit of laughter, "Take a closer... look..."

He lifted his head and a couple of people screamed.

There seemed to be black tears leaking down his face... as if he had been drawn into existence and the ink was running.

When they finished the song he quickly grabbed a cloth from his pocket and rubbed his face.

"You alright?" The Madame asked.

"I think some of it went into my eye," he said, pulling the two little ink squirters out from under his shirt and threw them onto the table of items around him.

The things he had been using to help with the songs had taken nearly all of the space around him.

"I told you not to do it," she said.

"But... the aesthetic!" he cried, looking off dramatically into the distance.

"Yeah, yeah," Jeff said, "What's next?" he asked.

"Erm..." Jack consulted the wheel again, "Toby," he sighed and turned into the boxes, muttering about stupid sound effects.

Once he was ready he stood on the foot pedal to operate the projector again and the picture changed once more.

This time, it showed the shadow of someone holding two axes with something running down the blade.

Their head was tilted to the side and white patches made up the eyes and the bars of their face mask

When the song had ended, Isaac leant over to Hermione and whispered, "My brother's awesome,"

"It certainly was an... interesting song," she said back.

The night passed on and soon Madame Macabre, Jeff, and Jack were beginning to run out of songs.

Hermione had gotten a little worried when a song called 'Cybernetic Entities' had come on when Isaac had seemingly entered some sort of trance and stopped eating.

He tried to pass it off as just really liking the song, but Hermione got the feeling that he wasn't being entirely honest with her.

After that one had been 'Hobo Heart', 'Golden Strings' and 'In The Cove'.

Each song had been followed by their own round of applause, more and more people quickly becoming interested in the stories that they were based upon.

People had clapped a little louder once they had finished 'The Pianist' as Jack had gotten to show his prowess on the piano... keyboard... thing.

"My fingers are starting to hurt," Jack said, waving his fingers to try and get rid of the slight cramping.

"What's next?" The Madame asked.

"We got... 'Regret Game' then... 'To The Ark',"

There was a small clattering from the head table that went unnoticed.

"Well then... Jack, will you..."

"Can Jeff do the 'demon-voice' parts?" Jack cut her off.

Jeff frowned.

"Why do I have to do the demon-voice?" he asked, "You do 'gargled a pint glass full of nails and grit' better than I do,"

"He has a point," The Madame said.

Jack sighed and let his head drop back, "Fine,"

He rolled his head on his shoulders, cracked his fingers, and started hitting the tops of the bells he had looked out earlier in the night.

The table next to him and the keyboard was steadily being filled with more and more things as the night progressed.

Jeff joined in and soon Jack was having to employ some of his vocal talents in the form of singing like a demon.

Once the song was done, and the students clapping once more, Jack ended up going into a small coughing fit.

He rummaged through the boxes once more and took out a bottle of cough syrup, unscrewed the cap, and took a swig.

He gargled it for a moment before swallowing and massaging his throat.

"You alright?" The Madame asked.

"I'm fine... the greatest things always require a sacrifice," Jack said nobly.

"You put on a funny voice," Jeff scoffed, "You didn't save the world,"

"I think we can both agree that I'd be the one to enslave the world," Jack said, leaning on the keyboard.

A few laughs rippled over the hall, Madame Macabre being one that joined in, but she stopped when she caught sight of Jeff's face.

"Yeah... he ended up getting arrested by the military once," Jeff said.

Madame Macabre looked between the two of them.

"Wait... you're serious?" she asked.

"Oh yeah," Jeff said, "He got randomly picked for this military war game where they had to come up with plans for terrorist attacks for the military to try and counter-act... what was the death toll for your plan again?"

"I can't say what the actual plan was... but it was around two point three million deaths over a period of at least a week before they could shut it down..." Jack said, "... and _then_ I consulted with the others, so...

I think the only reason that I haven't taken over the world is that I really don't like politics,"

Jack turned and checked the things on the table while Jeff checked the strings and pegs of his guitar.

Madame Macabre was left looking between the two of them, slightly confused and slightly afraid.

"Ok... well, for the last of the songs from yours truly, a tribute to one of the most popular horror web-shows ever created...

The Marble Hornets song... 'To The Ark',"

Jack switched the synthesiser on once more and began playing.

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Dumbledore clapped politely as yet another song was finished.

He checked his watch, an item of his own design so that only he could decipher the many rings of different planets that told the time.

The deserts had appeared five minutes ago which meant that there would only be another fifteen minutes of the feast before he could send all the students to their beds.

He smoothed his beard as he swallowed the last piece of ice cream on his spoon and looked down at his recently empty bowl, only for it to be filled by trifles and other puddings in the next second.

"We got... 'Regret Game' then... 'To The Ark'," the voice of the taller of the two males performing carried over to his ears.

He dropped his spoon, making a rattling sound in its bowl, as he raised his head and looked at them.

Perhaps... maybe he had been mistaken with what he had heard.

After all, if his own searches for 'The Ark' in which the Potter boy now resided had failed... no... it couldn't be possible... it shouldn't be...

How could they know?

He listened more closely now as they spoke.

He was forced to endure another song before he would hear the one he wanted to hear.

His suspicions were confirmed when the gothic woman sang what must have been the end of the first chorus.

"... hands to hold, void and cold... to lead us all away to The Ark..."

He slowly rose in his seat, leaning back against the high-backed chair he considered his throne.

It was only fitting for the master of a castle to be seated in the throne, after all.

She knew what it was...

That woman... she knew what 'The Ark' was... and maybe where...

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Madame Macabre bowed to the applauding hall.

"Thank you... thank you!" she smiled, "But... most unfortunately, I have run out of songs,"

There was a slight noise of disappointment from the student masses as they continued eating their desserts.

"Yes... _you_ have run out of songs, I still got two or three," Jack said.

"Really?" Jeff asked, "Like what?"

"Well...how about one of the best-known horror themes of all time?" Jack asked as he let his fingers play a hauntingly familiar theme.

Jeff ended up joining him for some of the deeper notes, hitting one chord and letting it slowly run out.

"Another movie I love," Jack said as the song ended.

Quite a few of the more muggle savvy in the crowd had clapped as the hauntingly recognisable notes of 'Halloween' had filled the air.

"I'll happily agree with you there," Jeff said.

For a moment, Jeff's brow scrunched up before he quickly turned to Jack.

"You know what I think we should do right now?" he asked him.

"Order in a deep-pan Hawaiian with a BBQ base?" Jack offered.

"No, we should... actually... yeah, I kinda want that pizza," Jeff said, "Get some chicken with it as well?"

"Now you're talking," Jack said, "But, what were you saying?"

"Hmm? Oh!" Jeff tried to remember what he had been about to say, "Since we've got time for one more thing... I was thinking that it might be a good idea to recite the annual obituaries?"

"Oh... well, like every year, we'll have to start with 'A' and work down to 'Z', won't we?" Jack asked him.

"You ready?"

"Try to keep up,"

Jeff smirked at him before twirling the pick in his hand and bringing it down hard on the strings.

Though the deserts had disappeared as Jack and Jeff had exchanged quips everyone was enthralled with the upbeat, but somewhat morbid, song that was going on.

"... I is for Isaac, who lost his front brakes..."

There was a faint whoop from the red-clad table.

"... who simply went... Insane!" Jack and Jeff finished in tandem.

The students, and visitors, of Hogwarts clapped hard at the end of the final song.

"Yes, yes, yes," Dumbledore's voice called out, "Thank you to the lovely Madame Macabre, and her associates Jeff Woods and Jack Laughin, for the wonderful musical accompaniment we enjoyed this hallowed night.

But... the witching hour creeps closer still, and I think that we should all retreat to the safety of our beds, for the night...

And tomorrow, we shall know our champions for this year's Tournament!

So, I bid you all a Happy Halloween, and a good night's rest,"

The scraping of benches echoed around the room as everyone left.

A few Ravenclaws hesitated by the stage to thank Jeff, being rewarded with a smile and a wink that sent the giggling gaggles of girls away.

Isaac tapped Hermione on her arm.

"I'm just gonna go say hi... wait... grab the twins!" he looked around before going after Fred and George.

"WAAAAAAH!" a shriek came from the stage.

The barely filled hall turned to face the stage where Madame Macabre had leapt backwards, nearly off the stage, and was clearly panicking.

"JACK!" she shrieked.

"What?" he asked, "I didn't do any..."

"BOX!" she shrieked, trying to calm down.

Jack frowned and went over to the box that she had been putting things into, flipped the lid open, and...

"GYAH!" he slammed the lid shut and jumped back, "I fucked up!"

"ISAAC!" Jack turned and yelled.

He leapt off the stage and ran across the tables to the last few remnants of a crowd that had been the students who had dined there that evening.

"ISAAC!" he called out again, "SOMEONE GET CHICKEN WINGS!"

Isaac grabbed Fred and George.

"Wait here," he said before going off towards Jack.

"ISAAC!"

"WHAT!" Isaac finally shouted back.

"NEED YOU!" Jack shouted, skidding to a halt next to him and grabbing his arm.

Isaac slipped out of his grip when Jack tried to pull him over the tables towards the stage.

"Dude, what's so..."

"Kal came to say hi," Jack said.

Isaac quickly scrambled over the tables after him.

He hoisted himself up onto the stage and crouched down next to the box.

"Kal?" Isaac said, "Buddy?

It's me..."

Isaac glanced around before leaning closer to the box.

$"Kal... it's me... the speaker..."$ Isaac hissed out in Parseltongue.

$"Speaker?"$ a very irritated hiss came from within the box.

$"Yeah, it's me,"$ Isaac replied, $"What happened?"$

$"I went to sleep, and some shrieking woman woke me up!"$ Kal hissed, very annoyed at the events.

$"If I take you out of the box, will you calm down and note bite anyone? Jack's managed to get some food for you,"$

$"... I may be hungry..."$

Isaac rolled his eyes and carefully opened the box.

The sleek, grey, diamond-shaped head of Kalakuta rose from within, swaying slightly as he looked around.

He slithered out of the box onto Isaac's waiting arms and up onto his shoulders.

There were a few gasps of shock as some of the remaining crowd watched as Isaac carefully got down off the stage with one of the deadliest snakes in the world wrapped around his neck like a morbid scarf, looking as calm as one might when reading a book.

"I raise that overgrown earthworm for... little under ten years," Fred and George jumped when Jack spoke to them, "And that little speccy twerp comes along and pack bonds with him in less than an hour,"

Jack huffed in amusement.

"I have a feeling that the kid could pack bond with a Xenomorph, if he put his mind to it" he mused.

The twins shared a glance at each other.

"Xeno-what?" they asked.

Jack smirked and turned to face them again.

"Jack Laughin," he said, offering his hand to the two.

"Fred," George said.

"George," Fred said.

"Fred," Jack said, pointing at Fred, "George... this is the oldest trick in the book for twins... I dunno... maybe Isaac over-hyped you two," he sniffed.

"Wait... how do you know Isaac?" George asked.

Meanwhile, Fred had the expression of someone who had just realised that they had left the stove on.

"What's my name?" Jack asked.

"Jack Laughin," George said, moving his arm away from where Fred was hitting it, "Jack... Laughin... J.L... L.J..."

George quickly adopted the expression of someone who had just realised that they had left the stove on.

"You're L.J?" Fred asked.

"How's my favourite product testers?" Jack asked as Professor Flitwick conjured a safe cage for Kalakuta to be placed in once he had finished eating the chicken, "You stepped up your game yet?"

"You're L.J!" George and Fred said.

"That would be me," Jack said, smirking and offering his hand once again.

Fred and George took it at once, the two of them shaking it at the same time.

"Can we get your autograph?" the asked in unison.

Jack blinked and froze.

"I am so rubbing this in Jeff's face," he said, grabbing a pen and taking a notebook out from his pocket.

He scrawled something out on a piece of paper, tore it off, wrote something else and tore that off.

He held the two pieces out to the twins.

Scrawled on the first was;

~Chaos is the~

~Jack~

On the second was;

~law of nature~

~Laughin~

"Pretty easy way to make sure that I don't get people trying to pass off cheques in my name," Jack said with a grin and a wink.

"Mr Laughin," Professor Flitwick's squeaky voice called over.

"See you around," Jack gave the twins a mock salute.

Professor Flitwick gave him the cage that held Kalakuta, the aforementioned snake had hidden himself under a half-log that had been put in at Hagrid's suggestion.

"Thank you, sorry about that," Jack said, shaking Flitwick and Hagrid's hands.

"No problem," Hagrid said, "He's a beut, isn't he?"

"Oh yeah," Jack said, "I really need to fix his viv, this is the second time he's gone wandering,"

"Viv?" Flitwick asked.

"Vivarium," Jack supplied, "Heated enclosure for him,"

"How'd you know Isaac'd be able to calm him down?" Hagrid asked, squinting at him with his small beetle eyes.

"Because I'm holding the very first snake he ever talked to," Jack said, "I live with him and Toby,"

Hagrid and Flitwick made small gasps of realisation.

"OI!" a shout of anger came from behind the stage.

Jeff came around from the side and Jack erupted in laughter, quickly setting Kalakuta down before he dropped him.

"Whoops," Isaac said unapologetically.

Hagrid let out a loud snort of laughter while Professor Flitwick looked torn between disapproval and amusement.

Jeff's pristine white jumper, well... pristine until he went out for 'work', was no longer white.

Now, it was a bright pink with purple spots dotted around.

"Mr Rogers, why?" Professor Flitwick asked, his tiny eyebrows raised.

"He knows what he did," Isaac said as he pocketed his wand, "Besides, it'll wear off in an hour or two,"

Jeff glared at him before jumping back up onto the stage and continuing to pack away the instruments with Madame Macabre.

"Isaac may or may not be that kid I mentioned," Jack said, sniffing and wiping his nose.

"Yeah... could you..."

"I've already got three planned for him doing that," Jack cut Isaac off.

"Thanks," Isaac said.

"Yes, well, I think it's time that Mr Rogers went to bed," Flitwick said, nodding before bidding his own and leaving the hall, chivvying out the few who had remained to see what had happened as he went.

"It was great seeing you again, Jack," Isaac said, standing a little awkwardly to the side.

He yelped as Jack picked him up and spun him around as they hugged.

"Oh... we all miss you, Specs,"

Isaac growled under his breath as Jack put him back down.

"Yeah... you'll be seeing me soon, though," Isaac said.

Jack tilted his head to the side like a confused little puppy.

"I'm coming home for the holidays this year," Isaac said, "I doubt that they'll have any of the tasks for the tournament going on over the holidays,"

Jack's face split into a grin and Isaac quickly had to side-step so that he missed another spinning hug from Jack.

He wasn't quick enough, though, and Jack captured him for the second time.

"So we have to put up with you more this year?" Jeff said, hopping down.

"Looks like it," Jack said, dropping him.

Isaac glanced behind him and saw Professor McGonagall making her way towards them.

"I'd better be off," Isaac said as he watched his head of house get closer, "I'll write soon,"

"See you," Jack and Jeff said.

"So that was Toby's little brother?" Madame Macabre said as the three of them watched the raven-haired fourth-year walk through the doors and out of sight.

"Yep," Jack said, "Definitely got Toby's flair for pyrotechnics,"

"Oh, yeah," Jeff agreed.

"Excuse me," Professor McGonagall said once she had reached them, "Professor Dumbledore has arranged for you to have a meal before disembarking.

If you'll follow me?"

She led them to an empty classroom on the ground floor where three silver trays had been set up.

"Professor Dumbledore has also requested that you meet him in his office to arrange payment and explain the... unexpected guest," her eyes focused on the end of Kalakuta tail that was poking out from under the box.

"The charms on the trays will keep your food hot until you return," Professor McGonagall said and walked out of the room, "This way,"

"See you guys in a bit," she said, following Professor McGonagall out the room.

"Well, let's see what we got," Jeff said, kicking out a chair and sitting down.

He lifted the covering dome off one of the trays and let out a soft sigh as the mouth-watering smell of steak and gravy filled the air.

Jack lifted his to find the same and took out the chair opposite Jeff.

"You know... there's none of those fancy portraits that the kid mentioned in here," Jeff pointed out, "So..."

He rolled his head on his shoulders.

His hair lengthened, growing wilder and darker.

His skin paled immensely, till he was as white as chalk.

His cheeks split open, gnarled edges that looked raw and bloody carved their way across his face.

"Aah," he sighed, "Much better," he examined his reflection in the silverware, "You couldn't swap the stuff out so we can pawn it off, could you?"

"I've probably got older," Jack said, picking the fork up and twirling it across his clawed fingers.

He had shed his glamour as Jeff had done.

He traced the back of his finger across his steak before quickly drawing it back across its surface, cutting it into two pieces.

"Who needs knives," he said as he sliced the steak up again.

They were halfway through their steaks when Jeff paused and leant back in his chair.

"You know... for a magic castle, this place seems pretty dull," he said, "Can't really see the appeal,"

As Jeff turned his head to look at the wall next to him, showing what seemed to be useless knick-knacks that had been collected through the years.

As Jeff talked Jack saw something out the corner of his eye.

"I'm just gonna go take a leak," Jack said in a quiet voice to Jeff before he disappeared in a plume of black smoke.

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Professor McGonagall waited at the bottom of the stairs to Headmaster Dumbledore's office as Madame Macabre ascended up the circular stone steps.

She knocked on the door and it swung open to reveal a room adorned with many, many, portraits of various witches and wizards.

"I apologise for this," Dumbledore said serenely, "But, needs are a must that you cannot ignore,"

He slid a piece of parchment across the desk to her.

"I just need your signature, for their behalf, that the snake didn't harm anybody,"

Madame Macabre read through the piece of parchment.

A little piece of advice that she had gotten from Matt was to read everything she ever gets put in front of her from top to bottom if she has to sign it.

"Alright, do you have a pen?" she asked once she was finished.

"No, but I hope you know how to use a quill," he slid the ink pot and eagle-feather quill across to her.

"I have a little experience," she said with a smile as she put the tip of the quill on the parchment.

" _Imperio_ ," Dumbledore said before she had a chance to realise his wand was out.

"Now... tell me, what is 'The Ark'?"

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End notes.

Well... that's chapter 52...

I am... honestly kinda happy and sad.

I'm happy because this thing has brought so much joy to people, and that this is the longest project that I've ever undergone and succeeded with.

And, as you might have noticed earlier on in the chapter, we broke 300 followers.

The total for this chapter is...

410 reviews.

307 followers.

295 favourites.

5 communities.

If you want to add my story, or any of mine, to a community, then feel free.

 **THANK YOU ALL FOR READING AND STICKING THROUGH WITH ME!**

Sad because I'm going to take a break for a bit.

I'm gonna miss these characters, and I'll probably write a little guff piece over my break.

I've had an original story in my head for years and I've used Fanfiction to practise character, prose, and structure before going back to it. So I might write a few things for that.

But, this is chapter 52, and...

'slams into the wall'

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"I'll catch up with you," Fred said to George, "I gotta make a quick stop before I go up,"

George cast a quick glance at the toilets that were next to them.

George winked and threw him a small bag.

Fred bowed before he ducked into the bathroom.

After relieving himself he opened the thread-knit bag and shook out a few tablets.

He flicked one into each of the tanks before he pocketed the bag and began making his way back to the Gryffindor Tower.

He paused as he walked along a corridor to a secret passage that took him up a couple of floors.

'Gravy?' he thought.

There was a light coming from an ajar door not too far from him.

'Somebody's probably snuck stuff from the kitchens,' he thought.

He debated with himself for a moment before he walked over to the door, twirling his wand as he thought of a spell that could create a loud back to startle the late night snacker.

He glanced up and down the corridor before peering in.

He smirked as he saw Jeff's back to him.

He pushed the door gently open, so it wouldn't creak before...

He gasped softly as Jeff turned to look at something on the wall.

His skin was whiter than the purest snow... save for his cheeks and eyes.

Darkened rings circled his eyes and jagged, raw, edges formed the shape of a wide grin that allowed him to see right through his mouth and to his companion sitting.

Fred's heart skipped a beat as he saw the figure sitting opposite Jeff.

Black and white, tall, with fingers as long as quills that looked as sharp as the knives they used in potions.

His hand was shaking uncontrollably as he gently pulled the door shut and backed up... directly into something.

"Hiya, Freddie!" a chipper voice said as Fred spun round, "Seen a ghost?"

Jack, as normal as he had looked throughout dinner, was standing before him. There was a pleasant smile on his face.

"H-h-h-h-h-hi," Fred gasped out.

Jack frowned.

"What's the matter, see something scary?" Jack leant forward past him and tugged the door so it was closed properly.

"N-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-no," Fred tried to calm his voice, but it only served to make his stammer worse.

Jack frowned further until it was almost a pout.

"See... anything?" Jack asked, taking a half-step towards him.

"N-n-no!" Fred's breathing was beyond erratic at that point.

"Hmm..." Jack's mouth was a skewed line as he tilted his head and walked closer to Fred.

"Now... why..." Fred backed up until his back was flush against the door, "... don't I..." he put two fingers on Fred's chest.

Fred's eyes were as wide as dinner plates as he watched Jack's body steadily got taller and was drained of colour.

Bandages seemed to wrap themselves around his waist and feather pads appeared on both his shoulders.

Fred's breathing hitched as the fingers dug into his chest, tearing through his cloak and shirt, until he felt something warm and wet where they were pressed.

"... believe you?"

Jack leant down until he was eye level with Fred.

Brown eyes met black as a grin filled with teeth sharper than sharks slowly spread across Jack's face.

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End notes.

Now... I happen to have some chips here for my dinner...

This is good news because I like salt with my chips.

And I'm going to have _so_ much salt headed my way from you all.

Take care peeps!

I'll see you after the break.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!

The songs used or mentioned in this chapter (in order);

Flight of The Bumblebee – Rimsky Korsakov.

Don't Threaten Me With a Good Time (the song Jeff used to warm up) – Panic! At The Disco.

This is Halloween – Danny Elfman.

Ghostbusters – Ray Parker.

Ghostbusters (I ain't afraid) – Fallout Boy.

(See the list below for Madame Macabre's contributions).

Halloween – John Carpenter.

A Gorey Demise – Creature Feature.

The list below was sung / composed by Madame Macabre and either was or would have been played during the feast.

Painted Smile.

My Prey.

God Syndrome.

Oh, Mister Emory.

Toby.

Lavender Tone.

Balloon Animals.

Cybernetic Entities.

Heart Has Value.

Golden Strings.

Into the Cove.

The Blue Man.

I Heard.

Blood Right.

The Pianist.

Regret Game.

To The Ark.


	53. Chapter 53, Freddie, Wave Goodbye,

Chapter 53, Freddie, Wave Goodbye.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Now... I know you weren't expecting a chapter today...

But I got so fucking bored that...

I got so bored that I actually couldn't get out of bed.

I had 0 motivation to do anything, and considering I've got about three hobbies on the go at any given point, that's saying something.

This story is the only motivation in my life at the moment, and without it, I can't even get out of bed.

So, my incredibly short vacation consisted of;

A visit to a beer festival (Beer tastes like vomit, DO NOT TRY IT!)

A job interview and then got some lunch right after that.

Found a couple new ships to launch.

And gorged myself on 'Millionaire Bites' until I felt sick.

So... yeah, that's how pretty much all my holidays go.

BUT!

There's a story to write, and I love having that cliffhanger hanging in the air... but I love writing more so.

And... I've got a bunch of reviews to answer, just let me get my chips.

Awaiting the salt!

Katropis12;

Yep, you own that milestone!

Dumblebitch will be getting the short straw with things, don't worry.

BECAUSE I LIKE TORTURING YOU!

Acherongoddess;

Thank you!

Kilare T'suna;

Erm... knowing how long it took me to make the year for 'Prisoner'... erm... I think it might be a bit away...

MyraZinshu;

Oh, is this back when I remembered to put the CP scenes in chapters?

I'll probably add a couple in... or... since nobody seemed to mind, I'll wait until somebody starts whinging to do it.

Yay! Expect an intercontinental missile heading your way in...

Wait...

'turns to talk to underling'

What do you mean... Geneva...

What about Napalm?

I can't even use napalm? What's the point in ruling a country if I can't...

Forget it, you know what, you can live for now.

It is nice to hear that _someone_ reads EXTRAS.

Sirius is getting better with things.

Shall I shimmy a little Wolfstar in there then? Maybe... maybe... probably.

Luna was definitely fun to write and will be in the future.

You noticed and didn't say anything? I'm a moron, remember?

If I miss something, bring it up!

I really like Madame Macabre.

I'm just a big fan of Supernatural, that's where I know it from.

The Creeps are going to have a field day at some point.

Fred is... well... you've read that chapter title.

My break was almost irritatingly short.

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

THANK YOU!

'dances alongside you'

Drunk Giraffe all the way!

She'll be fine.

Matt (Guest);

Yeah... when they track all of what happened that day down... Jack's going to need to make a cake to say sorry.

Sakura Lisel;

I don't recognise your username.

WELCOME!

You've read the chapter title, wave bye-bye!

Honebar;

Thank you!

Writing the song stuff was definitely... interesting.

I've read chapters where songs have been used to give it a bigger word count and... doing that feels like cheating to me.

Dumblebitch is definitely going a little further now.

HEHEHEHEHEHHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE

My own story is... it's definitely going to be a while.

DarkRavie;

Ok... as much as I like seeing your reviews, you do know that you can leave more than just that, right?

Feel free to leave more than just that.

Thunder-Death;

Dumblebitch will get his, just you wait.

Thank you!

She's technically the... third, or so, that I've either mentioned or put in.

Not a Criminal;

THANK YOU!

Of course, when I publish it I'll definitely mention it.

And I definitely hope that you like it.

Zekedavis;

Dumbles is definitely going to regret it.

Yep... that happens, for sure.

Guest;

Yep, wave bye.

Nobody51;

I do deserve cake... and I may have had too much of it... and regret nothing...

IshipMaskyXHoodie;

I still can't figure out what your OTP was at the time of making that username...

'Hmmmm...'

Well... she... you'll see...

Sweet Smilie;

Hehehe, I've got you hooked on Madame Macabre, haven't I?

Don't you worry, I've got the second task figured out...

I see where you're going with that, dirty minded, little...

Right... where is he... where is he...

Huh... there's no review from him this time...

Ok... that was it... now while I had my short vacation (2 days) I may have decided on something.

For the past few chapters, I'd been trying to push the word count to 8000 per chapter.

I was fine doing that, but it meant that I was trying to spread out the things that I wanted to happen too thin to give you any real content.

So, I'm going to start dialling it back a little.

You'll still get your chapters, but they might not be as big as before, maybe closer to 6000 words.

Also... my erm... my mum supports me in writing the story, she thinks it's brilliant that I've found a talent that I'm really good at, and... well... she...

She may or may not have asked me if I could print it off for her to read since she doesn't like reading things on her phone...

So I'm very thankful for the fact that we replaced our printer because each chapter is around 30 pages long... times that by at least 53...

I dread to think how much it would have cost me to print this off at the library...

Right... that's me done this time...

DP, you got anything to say?

Hey lovely readers! I am back! Did y'all miss me? I hope you all have a wonderful day, and I'll 'see' you all in the next chapter.

It's good to have you back, let's see if I can keep up with the schedule until it ends.

See ya, folks.

SteamGeek01.

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Fred couldn't help but glance down at the rows of teeth grinning at him, and he couldn't think of a single thing he regretted more in his life that could beat doing that.

He bit out a gasp of pain as the fingers penetration his chest turned slightly.

"Now... see, I'm in a bit of a pickle," Jack said, resting his other hand under his chin to think.

As he did so Fred quickly glanced around, hoping to catch sight of a portrait that could get help.

Another wave of dread washed over him as he remembered that they were in a corridor with classrooms on either side.

There were no portraits here, the closest being the corridor at the end.

And even then, the first portrait was halfway down _that_ hall.

"The pickle being, we're really not supposed to get noticed," Jack went on.

"I-I-I won't s-say a-anyth-thin-anything," Fred stammered, wishing that the door could just open and he could shut Jack out, "I p-promise,"

He quickly remembered that there was someone else on the other side of the door that would probably want to decorate the walls with his blood.

"Yeah... but people don't exactly keep their promises,"

For a brief moment there, an incredibly dark look flitted across Jack's face.

"But I can't exactly kill you," Jack bobbed his head to the side, "That'd piss the kid off, plus you're not supposed to know about us, so why would you die?

You see my problem?" Jack removed the fingers piercing his chest and scratched the back of his head.

Fred stood as still as a wide-eyed statue for a moment before he tried to slowly edge away.

"Try running and you'll find yourself three feet shorter," Jack said, not looking at him.

Fred froze less than an inch from where he had started.

Jack tapped his foot while he thought before his face lit up.

"Oh! I know..." Jack exclaimed softly, "But... would he... maybe... possibly, he seems a fit... don't know that much about him..."

"I've got it!" he said happily a few moments later, clicking his fingers in celebration, "I just need someone who's a good judge of character..."

A flash of razor sharp teeth proceeded a clawed hand grabbing him and then his vision was obscured by a plume of dark smoke whirling around him.

"Make our guest... comfy," Jack said, letting go of him.

Fred dropped a foot or two to the ground, he hadn't realised that Jack had been holding him in the air, and when he looked around he wished that he had just minded his own Merlin-damned business.

What looked like a small horde of zombie children was surrounding him.

He let out more stunted gasps of air as their decaying hands grabbed him and lifted him into the air.

"Don't play too rough with him," Jack said as they started carrying him off, "And you hold onto this.

Don't break it, don't lose it, don't use it as a back scratcher, and don't use it as a toothpick,"

Fred felt like ice cold daggers were piercing his very soul as he watched Jack hand another, fairly young, zombie child his wand.

He hadn't even realised that he had lost it.

Red hot tears were leaking down his face as he was carried into a large tent-like structure.

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Isaac yawned the Imperial March as he shrugged to get his pyjama top into a comfy position before he jammed his toothbrush into his mouth.

He tensed and prepared to throw whoever had grabbed him over his shoulder before a plume of black smoke.

"L.J?" he asked through a mouthful of foam, "What is it?"

"I may have a slight situation on my hands," Jack said as he rubbed his hands together so that he had something to do.

"What?" Isaac frowned up at his towering friend, "Do you need help with a job?" he asked eagerly, "I don't think anyone will notice if I'm gone for too long, so..."

"It's not help with a job," Jack said, watching as Isaac's face fell slightly, "It's more... I need to pick your brains,"

Isaac paused for a moment.

"Not... not _literally_ picking my..."

"No, you can keep them," Jack said with a dismissive wave of his hand, "I don't have any use for them... yet... but it's more... I need to ask you a couple of things,"

He guided Isaac through a flap and Isaac found that they were standing in the middle of the large tent.

Isaac cast a fond look to a patch of old blood on the ground that Jack had left there as a memento.

"See... I've recently run into a spot of bother," Jack said.

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Fred had tried to get out of the zombie children's grip but had found it to be a fruitless endeavour.

He had tried struggling again, however, when rope had been wrapped around his arms and torso before he had been lifted into the air.

He shook on the rope as he shivered from the cold.

He had made the mistake of looking down once, this was quickly added to the list of things in the past ten minutes that he regretted.

A soft chittering nearby got his attention.

He glanced over and saw one of the zombie children was sitting on a platform just next to him.

He quickly gave the platform a look over and saw that it was one of those muggle things that people used to walk on a rope high above the ground.

Though those normally had nets to catch people who fell, and that was most definitely absent from this one.

What got his hopes up, though, was that the zombie child was turning his wand over in their hands.

"H-h-h-h," Fred cleared his throat, "Hey there," he said as nicely one could to a decaying undead child with greyish-green skin and bald patches, "Hi," he went on when... she... when she looked up, "Can... Can I see that?" Fred asked.

The zombie child looked down at the wand and held it up.

"Yeah, that," Fred nodded encouragingly, "Can I see it?"

The zombie child looked up at him...

And started gumming on the handle.

Fred turned his head away, trying not to think about that fact that he would be holding that part, before looking back at... he was sure that it was a her, and tried to smile sweetly.

"Does it taste nice?" he asked.

The zombie child shook her head.

"Can I try it?" he asked, trying with all of his might to sound nice and polite.

The zombie child took the wand out of her mouth and looked down at it.

She got to her feet and held the wand out.

"Yes... that's it..." Fred said encouragingly.

The wand could reach between them, there wasn't more than half an inch before he could grasp the tip.

The zombie child let go of the wand and it fell down all the way to the ground.

She flopped back down where she had previously been sat and covered her mouth as she laughed in a warbling tone.

Fred's somewhat hopeful demeanour vanished quicker than dried up paper on a blazing fire.

He watched as his wand fell to the ground and landed next to two people with black hair.

They both glanced down to look at it and Fred started shaking again at who the other was.

He could see the feathery ruff of Jack, but the other was dressed in... flannel pyjamas?

The smaller figure glanced up to see where the wand had fallen from and Fred felt like his eyes were about to fall out of his skull.

"Jack... why is Fred tied to the ceiling?" the slightly amused, slightly exasperated, familiar tones of Isaac, his fellow Gryffindor, could just be heard.

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Isaac started rubbing at a dull throb in his forehead, which he had no doubt was the beginning of a migraine, as Jack sent another couple of zombie children to go get him down.

Whilst they had paced in a small circle in the ring, Jack had asked him a few things about the twins.

About what George was like, but he had mostly asked about Fred.

He had asked about Fred's mannerisms, how he coped under pressure, how trustworthy he found him.

Isaac had been about to ask Jack why he was asking him all of this when a long, thin, piece of wood, with a slightly wet handle, fell down between them.

He glanced up and things got a whole lot clearer.

"Well... I think you can guess why I was asking about them," Jack said, scratching his nose as Fred was lowered down onto shaky legs.

"He... you... Isaa... he's... what..."

"I think you broke him," Isaac said flatly.

"You... he... Isaac... real... what... killers... circus... zombies..."

"You got duct tape?"

"I don't think this is something duct tape can fix," Isaac said as he shook his head.

Jack and Isaac shared a glance at the still shaking Fred.

"You want to try percussive shock therapy?" Jack suggested.

"Yeah, might as well..." Isaac trailed off as he walked over to Fred and undid the ropes.

Once they had fallen away Isaac rubbed his hands together and hit Fred hard around the back of his head.

"He's real! Laughing Jack is real! Jeff the Killer is real! The stories are real!" Fred said as he backed away from them.

"Fred," Isaac said quickly, "Stop, there's..."

"He's real... Isaac... you're..." Fred yelped as he dropped down out of sight.

"... a drop," Isaac finished.

Isaac and Jack looked over the edge down at a spread-eagled Fred.

"You want me to explain everything?" Isaac asked.

Fred nodded feebly.

"Yes," he said weakly.

Jack lowered a hand down to him and Fred took it hesitantly.

He pulled him up back onto the ring with ease and Fred backed up so he could see the both of them.

"Here," Jack said, offering him a glass of something.

"Jack?" Isaac asked, looking between the cup and Fred's scared expression.

"Oh, for..." Jack took a quick sip and handed it to Isaac, "See? Nothing harmful,"

Isaac gave it a sniff and a sip before nodding to Fred and handing him the cup.

Fred took it with a shaky hand and started gulping it down like a man in a desert.

"Why am I here?" he asked fearfully, still clutching the cup.

"Well... this was the best idea I had at the time," Jack said, taking the cup back from Isaac when Fred gave it back to him, "Because the alternative would have been leaving your corpse somewhere to rot, plus I'd have to make your death look like an accident, and... it would have been too much hassle, so... I brought you here," he finished.

Fred was cruelly reminded that probably everyone currently in the tent, aside from him, was a murderer.

'Wait... does... has Isaac?' Fred thought for a moment.

"What's going to happen to me?" Fred asked.

Fear had given way to hopelessness and it clearly showed in his voice.

"Well, I'm going to take you back to Hogwarts in a bit," Jack said sincerely, "But, I _need to know_...

What got you to look in there in the first place?" Jack asked him.

"W-what?" Fred asked, his voice still an echo of the joyful tones it used to be.

"What got you to look in on us?" Jack asked.

"I... I smelt gravy and... and I thought that it was some students..." Fred said.

"You smelt the gravy?" Jack asked, frowning for a moment, "But I didn't have any gravy... wait... Jeff did...

I can blame this on Jeff!" Jack proclaimed as he started clapping frantically, "He's the only one of us that had any gravy! Not my fault!"

Fred felt something that could have been mistaken for a glimmer of amusement flicker within his chest for a moment before the overwhelming despair squashed it.

"What did you give him?" Isaac whispered to Jack while Fred was distracted.

"Just some water... with maybe a small handful of Ritalin mixed in there to calm him down," Jack whispered back.

Isaac rolled his eyes and returned to a still quiet Fred.

"You alright?" Isaac asked.

It took the gentle prodding of his shoulder to get Fred to realise that Isaac had been talking to him.

"I'm going to die, aren't I?" he asked in a hollow voice.

"No," Jack said with a slight shake of his head, "I ain't gonna kill you,"

Fred still looked apprehensive as he looked from Isaac to Jack.

Jack sighed before he extended a black and white towards him.

"I swear, I am not going to kill you," Jack said.

Fred hesitated a moment before slowly reaching out and shaking his hand.

Isaac watched off to the side and something dawned on him.

"Jack... what are you..." Isaac asked slowly as they released hands.

"Haven't done it yet," Jack said, sticking his hands back in his pockets.

Fred looked worried and scared again.

"D-done w-what?" Fred asked, his voice rising an octave or two.

"It's how he plans to fix all this," Isaac said, "He's going to make you a Proxy,"

"A P... a what?" Fred asked, fear rising once again.

"A Proxy is... in very polite terms, someone who works for you," Jack said, "I can't have you running around with knowledge about this place without some way to ensure that you reveal it to anyone else.

See, normally we'd get Teer to take the memories from anyone who had seen us, but he's going to be busy for a long, _long_ , while...

And I'd been thinking about getting you two later on, once you and Isaac had finished with that school, of course," he had paced a small circuit in front of the two.

"W-what's he talking about?" Fred asked Isaac nervously.

"It's... I mean... _I_ don't find it that bad... but I've been brought up with them, and you've had a pretty cushy life..." Isaac trailed off.

"The thing is, it's either... go _missing_ for the rest of your life," Jack said, drawing a thumb across his throat, "Or... you become a Proxy of mine," he offered.

Fred looked to Isaac for help but was met with a shrug.

"This is your call," Isaac said with a small shake of his head.

Another look of panic flitted across Fred's face as he turned back to Jack.

"W... what would I be... be... what in the name of Merlin's saggy left ballsack is a Proxy?"

He flinched at the unamused look on Jack's face.

"I mean... I... I... if it's not..."

"What half-witted, dumbass, cranberry flavoured, fuck-nut of a lunatic came up with that stupid attempt at swearing?" Jack asked.

Fred looked taken aback as Jack made a disgusted face and ranted for a few moments.

"He gets like this sometimes," Isaac said, "Used a swear from the Wizarding World once, still going on about it eight minutes later,"

"... it's absurd!

The entirety of the English language to creatively cuss a cow... and they use someone's ballsack?

I mean... it's better than using the dude's _beard_ , of all things, but who thought that they were actually any good to use without sounding like an utter..."

"Jack!" Isaac said, "More important things at hand," he nodded in Fred's direction.

"Oh, right," Jack said, his arms dropping to his side, "Right... you wanted to know what a Proxy was...

Well... more bluntly... essentially it's an underling," Jack said, "I give you work to do, you do it, so it's pretty much the same thing we had before, with the product testing, but... well...

A – you know the truth about us,

B – you don't have as much a choice to not do it,

And C – the stuff I might have you to do may get a little... dark... at times..."

If there had been any colour left in Fred's face before that, then there most definitely wasn't any now.

"So I'm... I'm... I'm pretty much a slave?" Fred said, looking down at the ground.

"Oi!" Isaac scoffed, "Do I look like a slave to you?"

Fred's eyes snapped up to look at him.

"I'm a Proxy," Isaac said, pointing a thumb at his chest, "Been one since I was eight,"

"Eight?" Fred echoed, "Eight... wait... the muggle Aurors put you with...

They put an eight-year-old with killers?" he asked, shock and incredibility temporarily over-riding his fear.

"No, we just took him straight from those heathen assholes," Jack said with a slight shake of his head, "Well... Toby did, Slends sent me and Jeff to go and get some pizza,"

Fred did a double-take.

"I'll give you the full story later," Isaac told him, "But the basics are that Toby was the one that got me out of there, took me in, Slender made me a Proxy, and that's the way it's been ever since,"

A flash of pity briefly crossed across Fred's face before he quickly turned away when Jack spoke again.

"Now, because I'm nice, I'm going to let you make the choice...

Since Teer is going to be busy for the next week, or so, it's either become a Proxy of mine... or death," he finished simply.

Fred sent another fearful glance at Isaac before swallowing nervously and facing Jack.

"I guess I don't have much of a choice, then," Fred said, "Proxy,"

Jack gave a sincere smile at the young man.

"Laughing Jack," he properly introduced himself as he stuck his hand out once more.

"F-Fred Weasley," Fred managed to say as he took Jack's hand, hesitating for the briefest of moments.

Fred took a sharp breath as Isaac guessed the flare of icy cold, that he himself had felt when Slenderman had marked him, ran through Fred's hand.

"And that's that," Jack said, letting go of Fred's hand and stuffing it back in his pocket, "I'll take the two of you back to Hogwarts then get back to my dinner.

You alright to go over more stuff with him?" he asked Isaac.

"Yeah... you want to talk about it in that room you and George claimed?" Isaac asked Fred.

"Y-yeah," he nodded as he rubbed his hand.

"Alright," Jack said as he clapped his hands, Fred jumped at the sudden noise, "See you around,"

"See you," Isaac said as Jack laid a hand on both of their shoulders and black smoke clouded their vision.

When the smoke cleared Isaac and Fred found themselves just along the corridor from the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"C'mon," Isaac tugged at Fred's sleeve, who was still looking around in wide-eyed wonder at someone being able to bypass the Hogwarts wards so easily, to get him moving towards the room.

The smell of toffee was lingering in the air from the twins latest batch as Isaac pulled out a stool and sat down on it, Fred doing the same opposite him.

"So..." Isaac said, trying to not sound like a psychiatrist, "Any questions?"

Fred was silent for a few more minutes.

"Your aunt," Fred finally spoke, "What's the truth?"

Isaac nodded and sighed softly.

"When I was eight, my aunt took me to this tea shop because she couldn't leave me on my own.

My cousin," Fred wasn't surprised to hear an overwhelming amount of distaste whenever he mentioned a relative, "... decided that he wanted to get back at me for not showing up for his daily ritual of ' _Harry Hunting_ ' and cause a scene at my expense in the shop.

Everyone in the shop thought I was this little abusive brute...

Except for one person.

Toby had gotten bored in America and decided to come over and play in the good ol' UK.

Stalked my _family_ for a while, found out more about them, and then he paid them a little visit,"

Fred would openly admit to anyone that ever asked that he was terrified at Isaac at that point purely because of the smile that had spread across his face.

"Nearly cut Marge's head clean off her shoulders," Isaac's smile seemed to get that little wider, "He nearly got caught.

Petunia had been out of the room and got back when Toby was distracted.

She had been about to attack him with a big kitchen knife... but..."

Isaac paused and let out a pleasant sigh.

"... but I didn't exactly like the idea of the person who had promised to take me away getting stabbed... so I killed her first with pretty much every knife in the rack being driven into her back,"

Fred was silent across from him.

He was sitting so still that he might have been confused for an impressively painted stone statue.

"After that, he took my home... introduced me to the others, Masky, Hoodie, the Jacks, Jeff... Ben...

And they've been my family ever since,"

Fred finally blinked and furrowed his brow at how someone could talk about a group of murderers and monsters so fondly.

"Anything else?" Isaac asked.

Fred licked his lips nervously and tried to think.

"It's... I'm... this... it's... you're..." he tried to speak.

"Ok... ok, don't worry about phrasing right now," Isaac said, "Just get it out, and..."

"I'm not some... some fucking mass murderer... I'm not... they're monsters, actual monsters, I'm not some... I'm not one of them, I'm... I'm _normal_ ," his voice broke as he stood, knocking the stool away, "I don't kill people... I annoy people, but... I'm not some killer freak..."

Fred broke off as he quickly glanced back at Isaac.

His face was emotionless, hard to get a grasp on, and his breathing was slow and paced.

"Ok... I'm gonna try and not get offended about that," Isaac said slowly, "You're pretty emotional right now... you're gonna have an outburst or two..."

"Look, mate, I'm _so_ sorry," Fred said quickly as he remembered that Isaac had openly, and quite calmly, confessed to the murder of his aunt.

"It's fine," Isaac said a little forcefully, "You've had a pretty big shift in worldview, and now I know what I need to do,"

Fred gulped nervously.

"Believe it or not, I'm still me, just... I'm gonna be a lot more open with _you_ about things, and..."

"Wait," Fred held up his hand, "Your second year, the feast when they cured the victims of the Basilisk... you were wearing that shirt...

How long have you been making jokes and references to your life?"

Isaac's body started shaking.

"How long have I been here?" he let out a soft wheeze as he started laughing at Fred's expression.

Every time Isaac had made a joke about the Creepypastas with the twins had been an actual comment about them.

Saying that he thinks Jeff is addicted to jam.

Saying that Ben goes around and messes up people's gaming consoles.

That Laughing Jack had an infinite amount of random junk in his pockets at any given time.

"You've been teasing us with the truth all this time?" Fred asked.

"Yep," Isaac said, "It was as close to telling you guys the truth without going;

'Oh, by the way, I've been raised by murderers, sociopaths, psychopaths, a cannibal, and my best friend is a ghost that can travel through televisions, just thought you oughta know, so how's your life?',"

Fred couldn't help the brief huff of laughter that escaped him.

"Look, man," Isaac adjusted his seat, he was starting to get a little numb, "Just because you know more of the truth about me than the others doesn't change anything.

I'm still the same dorky kid you met four years ago and that's not going to change.

You being a Proxy wasn't... wasn't planned.

Look... I have some pull with Jack, ok, and I know him. Chances are that he's not gonna have you do anything that... that we do for a couple of years from now.

He's... it's kinda weird to say this about him, but he's pretty understanding about human nature. If he does call you up to do something, then it'll probably be something just to annoy you.

He'll get you to watch a couple of the kids, or cook something, or... he had me fly a couple of the kids up so he could test new nets out,"

"Those kids..." Fred asked as he scratched his head, "They're his... his victims, aren't they?"

"Yeah," Isaac said, "They are,"

"They won't, erm... eat me, will they?" he asked nervously.

"No," Isaac said, "You've been marked by Jack as a Proxy so you're off limits...

To everyone," he added on after a moment, "You can't kill a...

Well... I don't really know actually.

I mean, I've been kidnapped, tortured, and drugged _way_ more times than necessary, but that's just my luck and I'm always fine afterwards,"

Fred had gone pale again.

"Ok, I think it's fairly obvious that I suck at this," Isaac drummed his hands on his lap awkwardly, "Look...

I'm going to snap one day, I'm going to end up in the same situation as Toby, and Jeff, Masky, Hoodie, and Liu.

You... probably not.

Chances are that Slender will probably step in and decide whether or not you can stay as a Proxy,"

"S-Slender?" Fred asked, "He's... he's... Slenderman's real?"

"Yep," Isaac said, "I'm his Proxy,"

Fred did the smallest of double takes, "I thought..."

"That I was a Proxy of Laughing Jack?

Nah, he's only claimed me as an apprentice, he wants someone around The Mansion that he can compete against when he gets bored,"

Fred gave a small huff and sat down again.

"Can't even imagine what it's like there," he said.

"Well... actually it's kinda like when I was at the burrow before second-year... except we talk about murders... and practice... and you have ghosts and demon dogs... you might get along alright with Sally, actually," Isaac mused, "She loves seeing magic,"

"George..." Fred said quietly, "I can't... I can't tell him, can I?"

"No," Isaac said, "You can only tell... no one.

Well... the guys I live with, you can tell them, but otherwise... no one,"

Fred buried his face in his hands.

"Who... who are they?" he asked, "Like... who's who?"

"Well...

Toby, Jeff, L.J, and Ben I think you can guess who they are...

Jonathan is The Puppeteer.

Helen is The Bloody Painter, and if those two are ever alone in a room, you wait before entering in case you disturb them.

Tim is Masky, Brian is Hoodie, E.J is Eyeless Jack.

Erm... who else have you met?"

"Sally... Liu..." Fred tried to remember names.

"Well... Sally is a ghost, she is permanently eight-years-old, and Liu is Jeff's brother," Isaac said, "Erm... if you meet anyone else just... just call them the names you knew them by before,"

Fred nodded.

"Is erm... those songs that that woman sang, are all of them real?"

"Eh... God Syndrome, that's Doctor Locklear...

Jane is... she kidnapped me that time before the start of my third year.

That was when I met Clock, you haven't met her, yet, and she didn't have a song...

Erm... To The Ark was about Masky and Hoodie...

Regret Game was The Slenderman, if shit seriously hits the fan then I'll tell him about what Jack's done and he'll probably fix it.

Don't know about To The Cove, that might be a thing in the attic...

Oh! The Pianist, that one was actually my first official job.

The song written on the music sheet caused massive internal bleeding and it was being used by these pharmacy snobs to create a panic for heart medication, or something, and I went with Masky to go grab the thing,"

Fred looked at him with slight confusion.

"So... you guys are more like... what's the term... anti-heroes?" he asked.

"Er... no, we're definitely bad guys, by your standards, and we sometimes stop stuff like that if we're told to," Isaac said.

"Oh... so... what did you do on your job?" Fred asked.

For a brief moment, Isaac was able to see the old Fred shine through for a moment.

"Snuck into a place, found out that the sheets had been moved to another venue so we had to get there before they played again.

Snuck into there, found where they were practising, Masky got a bit of the tail end of the music, but he was alright.

I caused a distraction to let Masky get the sheet music from the guys in there by flaming up, but Masky got shot so I had to go rescue his ass,"

"Flaming up?" Fred asked.

Isaac cast a quick glance at the door.

"Wanna see something cool?" Isaac asked him, a mischevious grin spreading on his face.

At Fred's wary nod he held up a clenched fist that, when he spread his fingers out, burst into shimmering blue flames.

"Woah," Fred's eyes went wide as he looked at the flames wrapped their way around his fingers.

"Cool, huh?" Isaac said, gathering the flames in the middle of his now cupped hand so he was effectively holding a ball of flames.

Fred cautiously reached towards it and held his hand over the flames.

"Can... can all Proxies do that?" he asked.

"Erm... I don't think so... I'm apparently just special," Isaac said, closing his hand a little more so the flames were longer.

"Can... can you throw it?" Fred asked, a quick huff of laughter escaping him as the edges of his mouth twitched closer to smiling.

"Well... I've tried, but no luck yet," Isaac admitted.

"Maybe you're part Veela?" Fred suggested.

"Hermione thought the same," Isaac said, "Don't think I am, though,"

"There's probably something you could do to find out," Fred said, "Wait, does... does Hermione..."

"No, she doesn't," Isaac said quickly, "You are the only person at Hogwarts, aside from me, that knows the truth...

And it's going to stay that way,"

The smile that had been creeping onto Fred's face vanished and his entire being seemed to slump.

Isaac sighed and shook the flames away.

"Look.

For as long as I'm at Hogwarts, and you still put up with me, then I'll make sure that nothing too bad happens to you," Isaac said, pulling the stool out next to Fred and sitting down.

"I just... I don't know what I'm supposed to do now..." Fred admitted in a low voice.

"That's easy enough," Isaac snorted, "You do the same as you always do.

You wake up.

You go stuff your gob.

You go to class.

You muck around and play a few pranks.

You just... live your life, except you've got someone who'll get you to do favours and odd jobs for them that you can't turn down every once in a while,"

Fred seemed to be looking better now.

His smile seemed a little sorrowful but the fire that Isaac could normally see blazing away in his eyes was quickly returning.

"This is so weird," Fred groaned, rubbing his tired eyes.

He was definitely feeling a lot sleepier now that the adrenaline was working its way out of his system.

"Preaching to the choir," Isaac said, patting his back, "You got any more questions?"

Fred thought for a moment.

"No," he replied, "Not right now,"

His mind was too fuzzy from needing sleep to think straight.

"Alright," Isaac said as he got up, "I'm hanging with Ben tonight, chances are that he'll hear soon enough about you, whether from me or Jack, so we might pop in to check on you,"

Fred nodded before shaking his head and looking up at Isaac.

"Ben's _here_?" he asked.

"Not... not _here_ here," Isaac said with a bob of his head, "He has... he can visit people's dreams if he's got something with a wireless connection near them,"

Fred really didn't know what to say to that so he nodded and followed him out the room.

The Fat Lady murmured in her sleep as she swung open when they whispered the password to her.

Unsurprisingly, the common room was empty so Fred and Isaac were able to make their way to their rooms without meeting anyone.

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George looked up from his position on his bed as he saw Fred walk in.

"You took your time," he whispered to not disturb anyone.

Fred paused for a moment.

"Filch was prowling," he told George, "Harder to dodge him and that cat of his without the map,"

"Still managed it for most of our first year," George said with a grin.

"Yeah, well... I'm tired," Fred said, "Just... really tired,"

"Ok, man," George said, drawing his curtains so he could continue reading by wand light, "See if you're still feeling mopey in the morning,"

Fred managed to grin back at him long enough for the curtains to close before it dropped away with a sigh.

Sleep didn't come so easy that night.

Clowns with razor sharp teeth loomed out of darkness whenever he closed his eyes and the zombie children he saw always watching him with hungry looks in the background.

He supposed that he had finally managed to get to sleep when he kept getting chased by the zombie children.

He was running as fast as he felt like he could when he ran head first into something.

He looked up at the statue of this odd person wearing a green tunic.

They had elongated, pointy, ears that reminded him a little of house-elves and the wide grin gave him shivers at how similar to that quick sideways glance at Jeff he had seen.

Fred frowned as he turned to look back and found that the zombie children that had been chasing him were no longer there.

He turned back to find the statue had moved until it was less than an inch from his face.

He leapt backwards, tripping over something, and landed on the ground.

He scrambled backwards another little bit until he came to a stop against something cold.

He spun to find the same statue standing on a taller plinth.

Around him, caging him in, were more of the statues.

His eyes were wide and his breathing was beyond panicked right now.

Their wide grins and staring eyes seemed to drill straight through him and...

"Boy, you really aren't cut out for this," a mischevious voice said.

He glanced up to see a familiar looking blonde teenager sitting cross-legged upon the tall plinth in the place of the statue.

His green hoody looked remarkably like the tunic that the statue had been wearing.

"T-they were you?" Fred asked, swallowing his nervousness.

After all, this was a dream... you couldn't actually die in a dream... right?

"You got that pretty quick," the blonde said as he jumped down, "Specs didn't tell you, did he?"

"T-tell me what?" Fred asked.

And who the hell was 'Specs'?

"Leave him alone, Ben," a voice he knew well called over.

Something small and red flew past them, followed shortly by something larger that was red and yellow, and Isaac jogged over to where they were.

Fred watched in a sort of fascination as the bleak landscape of his dream gave way to a field of long grass that just reached his knees.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"In your dreams," Ben said, "Though we have no idea where this place came from," Ben looked around.

"Told you we'd pop in on you," Isaac said, "Don't mind BRVR, he'll be fine chasing whatever we throw him,"

"B-BRVR?" Fred asked, "The... cat that he got?" he nodded towards Ben, who was looking over the field to watch for BRVR's return.

"Yeah,"

"You told him BRVR was a cat?" Ben snorted.

"Ok, does possessed Pikachu sprite with homicidal tendencies sound better?" Isaac asked scathingly.

"Much better," Ben nodded, "Everything you need to know in one quick sentence,"

Fred watched the odd exchange as Isaac stood next to Ben, hardly any space between their arms, they were that close.

He had been about to ask what a Pikachu was when the larger yellow and red thing bounded back to the small clearing.

It looked like a tubby little teddy bear had been brought to life, given razors for teeth, and coated in what he assumed was most definitely not ketchup.

"Hey, Buddy," Isaac scratched BRVR under his chin as he dropped the ball down at his feet and leaned into the touch, "You don't mind us checking on Fred, do you?"

Fred was a little worried about his name being given openly to something that had been described as homicidal shortly before arriving.

BRVR looked over at the still form of Fred and padded over, sniffing the air around his feet.

~F-Red is Izak friend~

~Is F-Red User like Izak~

"Yeah, Fred is a friend of mine, and we're checking up on him the same way that Ben checks up on me," Isaac said.

"F-Red?" Fred said softly to himself.

"He does it with everyone," Ben said, causing Fred to jump as he had thought nobody had heard him, "He is... mildly illiterate.

I'm Bin, Isaac is Izak, Sally is Sal-Lee, he got E.J alright, says El-J for L.J though,"

"That's got to be fun to read in Spanish," Isaac said, standing up with BRVR scooped up into his arms.

"Oh, yeah," Ben said, "They'll read that as 'The-J', won't they?"

'This is weird,' Fred thought, "So... you're Ben?"

"We've met," Ben said, "Train station at the end of the last school year,"

"No, I remember, it's just... you actually look like yourself," Fred said, "I mean... Jack looks nothing like he actually does, nor does... Jeff..."

Something odd had flitted across Ben's face when Fred mentioned looking like himself and that had caused the ginger to clam right up.

"You settling into stuff alright?" Ben asked, oddly stilted, a moment later.

Fred glanced at Isaac.

Apparently, he had said something to upset Ben but he had no idea what.

"Jack hasn't asked him to do anything yet," Isaac said, "Only just finished explaining things to him when I went to bed,"

Ben made a soft hum to show that he had heard him, but his expression did soften a little when Isaac spoke.

"I'd better let you get some actual sleep," Ben said a moment later, "See you around... and Freddie...

Wave goodbye to normalcy,"

Before Fred had a chance to say anything else the scene before him blurred out and when he woke that next morning he couldn't think of any dreams that he had had after meeting Ben and BRVR.

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Jeff frowned as Jack reappeared in front of them.

Madame Macabre had returned not too long ago, quicker than it had taken for Jack to return.

"What took you so long?" he asked as Jack sighed.

"I made someone who spotted us a Proxy," Jack said, twirling the fork and stabbing it into some of the sides that he had been given.

Jeff rolled his eyes.

"Oh really?" he asked sarcastically, "Who and why?"

"Fred Weasley, he saw us because of you and your gravy addiction," Jack said, "So I had to step in to fix your fuck-up,"

Jeff scoffed and rolled his eyes a second time, "Whatever,"

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Halloween had fallen on a Friday that year so Isaac had Saturday free from any classes.

It seemed that some people, probably the twins, still had a couple of tricks hidden away when people ran out of bathrooms when the water ran red like it was being replaced with blood.

That day, he had gotten his homework for the next week sorted, looked up some interesting charms he wanted to try out when he got home, and tailed Fred a bit to see how he was handling things.

He seemed to be coping well enough.

It looked like he was treating the entire thing as one big secret prank and worked to keep up appearances so that nobody would suspect that he was now the Proxy to a child killing clown that was around a century, or two, old.

The atmosphere was abuzz with excitement as the time for the choosing of champions drew nearer.

No classes that day made it worse as nobody had anything to focus on anything and people spent more time in the entrance hall to see if the Goblet had chosen anyone already.

Eventually, Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick had to set up temporary charms to gently usher students away if they spent more than five minutes in the hall as people couldn't move around as much.

It was nearly midday when Isaac noticed that Fred was seeming a little worn out.

He had kept shooting him quick glances and nodding to tell him that he hadn't said anything but around an hour after lunch it was pretty clear that he needed to vent or get distracted from everything that was racing through his mind.

He waited until Fred glanced at him and mouthed, 'Do you want a distraction?'

Fred did a small double take and mouthed, 'What?' back.

'Do you want a distraction?' Isaac mouthed again.

Fred shook his head in confusion and mouthed what yet again.

Isaac let his head drop, pointed at him, mimed out reading a book, looked sharply away, and mouthed, 'Distraction,'.

When Fred still looked confused Isaac groaned before he got up and walked over to Fred and George.

"You two want to go practise Quidditch?" he asked.

George mulled it over for a moment, "Yeah, sure, why not?" he replied while Fred started sporting a look of understanding.

"I'll go ask Madam Hooch for the key to the shed so we can get the quaffle," Isaac said, still wondering how people could come up with a name as odd as 'quaffle'.

Half an hour later Isaac was walking onto the pitch with his Firebolt slung over the shoulder while Fred and George hovered lazily in the air.

"Oh... we're in trouble," George said, hanging upside down and looking behind Isaac once he drifted up to meet them.

Katie, Angelina, and Alicia were walking over to them, brooms in hand.

"Didn't think to invite us?" Angelina asked as she joined them in the air.

"Didn't know where you were," Isaac said.

"We were sitting in the room across from you," Alicia said, hovering next to Katie.

"And now you know why I wear glasses," Isaac said, "Three 'v' three? First to five points?"

The skirmish certainly had the effect that Isaac was hoping for.

As they were in the air Isaac could see the old Fred begin to shine through, carefree and unburdened with the weight of the world.

It took surprisingly longer than Isaac would have thought for the game to end, five to the girls to his and the twins four.

It seemed evenly matched, after all, the girls skill from years as Chasers against Fred and George's accuracy combined with Isaac's speed.

"Ok, what's next?" Katie asked, smirking as George hung upside down like a monkey on his broom.

"How about a game of tag?" Isaac suggested, "We can recreate The Revolutionary War," he laughed.

"The war for America's independence from the British Empire," he said when they looked confused.

"Oh, I forgot it was called that," Alicia said.

"Ten second head start!" Isaac said quickly before shooting off.

It took them close to ten minutes to catch him, and that was only because George and Fred blocked him in from below and above respectively as the girls swarmed him.

"Ok, who got the tag?" Fred asked as Isaac groaned at being caught.

"Me," Angelina said.

"You're the runner then," Isaac said, cracking his neck.

"Not exactly fair with you on that, though," Katie said, raising an eyebrow at the Firebolt.

"Alright then," Isaac said, gliding to the ground and dismounting, "Swap then,"

Angelina flew down to him and they traded brooms.

Isaac found that the lack of speed in the air irritating and he desperately tried to get the catch so he could go back to being on a fast broom.

He was forced to suffer for another hour before he could get back on his broom.

Once the sun had started to set in the sky no one was on their own broom anymore.

"That wasn't that bad," Alicia said, jumping down off of Fred's broom to be given her own back to her by Angelina.

"No, should do it again," George agreed, getting his own back from Isaac as Isaac got his from Katie.

The brooms were stored safely away in the sheds and everyone went for a quick wash and change back up in the tower before things started getting tense.

"Isaac... could I get a quick word?" Fred asked as they neared the tower.

"Sure," Isaac said, waiting on him to wave George away before the two of them walked into the room that Isaac had dubbed The Twins Terror Blank... he was still trying to think of a word that began with the letter 'T' that he could use to refer to the room.

"Feeling a little hot under the collar?" Isaac asked.

"How do you keep all this hidden?" Fred asked, "I mean... this is a really big thing,"

"I know and, trust me, it get's really hard sometimes," Isaac said.

"Have you ever... let it out before?" Fred asked him.

"Well... there have been a couple of times that came close...

Kinda joked about it with Draco a couple of times... maybe once with Blaise...

Closest that ever came was with you and George, all the joking you did with the stories back in second-year,"

"Oh, Merlin... we were idiots back then,"

"Jack does have a point, though," Isaac said, "You really need to learn some proper swears," he continued upon seeing Fred's confused look.

"I really don't know if I can do this..." he whispered quietly.

Isaac sighed and bowed his head.

"Look... I really don't know how to help you cope with all of this all that well.

I've had the practise of years keeping this stuff hidden, but... I can give you one piece of advice that you can trust me on,"

Fred looked at him eagerly.

"Write to L.J and ask him to help you," Isaac said, "Mention I told you to, and he'll probably help you out even more.

He knows that this is something big, and I'm fairly sure that there's this code of conduct between a Proxy and the one that took them on as such.

Whenever I've been sparring with the others and I've slipped and gotten hurt a bit more than I normally would have Slender's always been on the other side of wherever we've been training right afterwards watching us.

If he thinks I'm too tired to go on, or need a break, then he puts a stop to it.

The only time he didn't show up was when I met Locklear, and he's admitted that he doesn't know why he couldn't find me... maybe..."

Isaac fumbled with the cord around his neck.

Fred watched the polished silver pendant that hung from the black string as Isaac ran a thumb over its face.

"What is that?" he asked.

"Pendant that blocks any and all tracking stuff that could possibly be placed on me," Isaac said, "As normal a necklace you could ever buy, but it's been supercharged with Slender's mojo so that tracking magic dissipates near instantaneously," he told him, "Maybe his protection worked a little too well and it even stopped him tracking me,"

Fred fidgeted as Isaac tucked it back under his shirt, smoothing it down so you wouldn't be able to even tell that it was there.

"Trust me," Isaac said, "Jack's understanding and always makes sure that he fixes any mess he's made... unless it's a prank that got his intended target, then he'll let them clean it up just to annoy them a little more,"

Fred nodded, realising that he wasn't going to get much more help than that.

"Oh, by the way, how's your luck at getting Sackman to pay you back?" Isaac asked as they walked to the tower.

"Sackman?" Fred asked, "You mean Bagman?"

"Him, yeah,"

"Oh... he's still ignoring us, we're hoping to corner him sometime during the Tournament, that way he'll have to answer us," Fred told him.

"Good plan," Isaac said, "Worse case scenario, you ask me to have a go at getting him,"

Fred looked slightly fearful again.

"I wouldn't kill him," Isaac whispered, "I'd just send him a little battery powered thingy that Ben could use to go give him night terrors for a while and have him plant the idea to pay you two back in his subconscious,"

Fred looked around.

"You don't need to do that," he whispered quickly, "We're... we can handle it,"

"Alright, offer's still there, though," Isaac said before turning to the Fat Lady and giving her the password.

Dinner approached faster than any of the students could believe and soon they were all eating with hands shaking in anticipation.

Crouch and Bagman were back for the selection process and Isaac noticed that Bagman's gaze always seemed to skip over the Gryffindor table, never lingering for a second longer than it had to.

Once the plates had been cleared away Dumbledore walked to the middle of the room, where the Goblet of Fire stood tall, and dimmed the lights in the room with a wave of his hand.

"The time you have all been waiting for has come," he announced, "The Goblet is ready to give its selection.

Baited breaths were held as everyone leaned closer to watch.

Dumbledore gently placed his hand on the Goblet and its flame turned from a calm blue to a rippling red.

The flames died down for a moment before they roared into the air and threw out a piece of thick parchment.

"The champion for Durmstrang is... Viktor Krum!"

The Durmstrang visitors roared and clapped, Beauxbatons clapping politely, and a fair few of the Hogwarts students were cheering as well.

Krum got to his feet, walked stiffly to Dumbledore, who shook his hand, and sent him off to the side room just off the Great Hall that held the trophies gathered over the years.

Everyone turned back to the Goblet as it threw the second piece of parchment into the air, this once folded neatly into a circle.

"The champion for Beaubaxtons is... Fleur Delacour!"

The Beaubaxtons clapped for the blonde girl that stood up, a radiant smile upon her face.

Isaac could recognise her as the girl that had asked for the admittedly tasty French stew that he had tried at the opening feast.

"Looks like someone's upset they didn't get it," Hermione whispered to him, nodding towards someone from Beaubaxtons that had burst into tears.

The flames flared for the third time and Dumbledore reached out for the piece of parchment that it had given this time.

"The Hogwarts champion is... Cedric Diggory!"

Hogwarts erupted in applause, more enthusiastic for their own champion as Cedric got up from the Hufflepuff table, beaming happily as his table chanted his name.

Dumbledore shook his hand and he too went off to the trophy room.

"Excellent," Dumbledore cheered to the hall, "We now have our three champions..."

He paused as the flames on the Goblet rippled once again.

Murmurs broke out across the hall as everyone wondered what was going on.

There were only three schools, why was it acting like it was choosing a fourth?

The flames flared and spat out a fourth piece of parchment.

Dumbledore nearly let it slip through his fingers as he caught it.

"... Harry Potter..." he said shakily.

Whispers immediately broke out across the hall as every table began scanning the Gryffindors, searching for someone sitting as still as a statue and an expression equally stony.

Professor McGonagall hurried over to Professor Dumbledore and whispered something into his ear.

"Mr Rogers," Dumbledore said a few moments later.

Everyone watched as Isaac slowly got to his feet, dead-eyed and expressionless.

"Nope!"

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

End notes.

Two wonderful cliffhangers in the same amount of weeks...

My, my, my... aren't I an evil asshole?

Well, hope you enjoyed, not got much to say that I haven't already.

See you next week!

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	54. Chapter 54, Nope!

Chapter 54, NOPE!

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

I am ecstatic.

People!

I'm gotten fan art made of this story!

I got a message over the PM system requesting permission to make fan art, and I think that that was the perfect excuse to eat a certain salted caramel sponge cake I got and forgot about...

It was delicious... it served 6 people... but I didn't share... my stomach was not too pleased with me... 248 calories per serving... times that by 6... 1488 calories in under 10 minutes... hehehehehehehe...

I'm also quite happy to announce that I've got the next couple of EXTRAS chapters that I want to write in my head... and one of them may or may not be an AU style story...

But, those aren't ready to publish, yet, but I do have some wonderful reviews to get to.

So thank you to Rosy Willard for the lovely art that has replaced the cover art for this story!

 **(X) review (X)**

Katropis12;

Yeah, I love cliffhangers.

Nope!

What more do you need than that word to sum up how Isaac's feeling about the entire situation.

 **(X) review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Thank you!

I've always had the idea that Fred, at least, would become a Proxy.

Hehehehe... Jeff can help you 'Go To Sleep'...

Hope you like this chapter!

 **(X) review (X)**

DarkRavie;

Thanks for the review, but I'm gonna stop answering if nothing changed in your next one.

 **(X) review (X)**

Iheartlife888 (Guest);

Thank you for making me think of Julian Richings with the Pheonix Wright hair.

Isaac could take down the entirety of Hogwarts if he felt like it.

Dumbledore... you'll see... eventually...

 **(X) review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

I didn't expect to be uploading so soon as well.

I was fully intending to follow through with my plan to take a break, but I got too bored and decided to get writing again.

I love binging out on Macabre Musique, it's awesome!

I'll be adding a big CP kill chapter to the EXTRAS list, each character getting their own kill, to apologise for forgetting the CP kill scenes, or if I forget to put them on any on the future.

Texas does narrow it down from... the rest of the world... so it's progress.

It's not so much killing you... but more like making irritating mole holes in your garden.

I'll shimmy a little Wolfstar somewhere, most likely an EXTRAS, maybe past in the story.

Well, if you can think of any Mythos that might interest me, that might work with the story, feel free to suggest them.

Yeah, kinda gave away one of my ideas in that chapter, didn't I?

I don't know about George, yet...

I think I'll keep everyone in suspense for now...

I _loved_ writing Jack's rant, that part was so fun to do.

Ben definitely had a bit of fun... and just wait until you see what I'm doing later...

You'll see... you'll see...

I loved that line! That line is my favourite thing about that chapter!

I'm glad that you liked it, hope you like this one!

 **(X) review (X)**

HAH!

YingYangWriter thought that they could get away with not posting a chapter in time last week!

They posted two for chapter 53... cow... making me do more work... cow.

YingYangWriter;

Erm... whatever's cuter... I guess...

Erm... second thoughts... keep them...

I might have seen that video.

What else would you expect from him?

L.J and Jeff are dangerously efficient when they work together, but the problem is they spend too much time squabbling to get anything done most of the time.

Kalakuta popping up was one of my favourite parts of that chapter.

The second being L.J.

See... in my head, whenever L.J made an insult or snarky remark, he sounded like Peanut from Jeff Dunham when Peanut was making 'Grampa' jokes at Jeff.

Dumbledore is a blinded git at this point, and I do know what I'm doing with him.

Fred got lucky.

Yes, you missed reviewing on chapter 52 until the week after, shame on you.

Fred is... he'll be alright... and I may or may not need to consult with some of my readers about a thing or two...

L.J's rant was awesome, I loved writing that.

Madame will be alright.

Slenderman is gonna be pissed.

 **(X) review (X)**

.549;

You got me to listen to Metallica, thank you for that.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with George and the secret.

I actually only just played Fallout 4 not too long ago...

 **(X) review (X)**

wow-im-satan;

Thank you!

So... is that a no about the Hellhound?

 **(X) review (X)**

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Go watch more Doctor Who.

I've thought this out, don't worry about it.

 **(X) review (X)**

Acherongoddess;

Thank you!

 **(X) review (X)**

DariceSB;

Erm... are you new?

WELCOME!

Fred's gonna be fine... I'm just thinking some stuff over in my head with him...

What I've got planned is going to be...

'turns into John Simms'

 _Spectacular_!

 **(X) review (X)**

Not a Criminal;

Ok, I'm not _that_ good with foreshadowing, though if I was I'd be very impressed.

Also, it's singular, 'Brother in Arms'.

It was more symbolic of Toby carrying Isaac to The Mansion back in chapter 1 and 2.

...

He is now!

Or, well... it's on the list of what might happen to him.

 **(X) review (X)**

Sweet Smilie;

I said that the beer tastes like vomit, not that it knows how to...

Ok, translation barrier is getting in the way again, lovely.

I'll make a note of all of those drinks and try them at some point.

I'm still planning Fred's little story arc.

I did consider having the twins with the psychic maguffins that some people give them, but I didn't go with it because I was trying to avoid cliches at the start.

For some reason, I don't think I did too well at avoiding cliches.

There was a definite change in Ben's behaviour when he met Isaac, you might get an explanation of how sometime in the future if I'm feeling kind enough.

Ok, you kinda lost me after the part with the second task.

Sorry.

Slenderman to the rescue!

I fear for when my Mum reads it...

 **(X) review (X)**

Ok, that was the last of the reviews for this week. What do you think of the idea of splitting them up with that little line break? Helps make things a little easier to read, doesn't it?

And I've just noticed how many lines in my old chapters start with 'He...' like, I've got to really get better at starting sentences, haven't I?

DP, any comments on the mess I've made this time?

Welcome back, guys. How was everyone's week?

Hope that you all had a good week, mine was...

I'm sick, I've got a cold and I am currently on what feels like my tenth Lemsip today.

Aside from that, that's everything done,

Enjoy this weeks chapter,

SteamGeek01.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

Everyone watched as Isaac slowly got to his feet, dead-eyed and expressionless.

"Nope!"

There wasn't a single noise in the hall, even the normally draughty castle seemed to grow quieter.

"Nope," Isaac said again, softer this time.

"Mr Rogers," Professor Dumbledore called as Isaac started walking out of the hall.

"Nope," was all he got in response.

"Mr..."

"NOPE!" Isaac said again, "I have gone through three years here with stuff trying to kill me each year.

I am not going through a fourth!"

"Mr Rogers," Professor Dumbledore said.

His voice was no longer pleasant, there was an icy tone underneath his words, almost like a warning.

"I'm not doing this," Isaac said, "I am not going through another year of bullshit!

Toodle-oo!" he waved as he walked out of sight past the doors.

Professor Dumbledore made to follow but was stopped with a hand to his arm by Professor McGonagall.

She didn't say anything, but the expression on her face definitely told the man to stay put while she sorted this out, before she walked away from him, passing the Goblet as it's flames slowly died away.

As she walked closer to the door a second pair of footsteps joined her.

She glanced down at the sight of Hermione Granger quickly joining her at her side.

"Do you know where he'll be likely to go?" she asked as the two of them reached the flagstone floor of the entrance hall.

"Erm... I believe that he'll probably be getting some parchment," Hermione said, "So... Gryffindor tower? Or maybe a classroom?"

Professor McGonagall's brow furrowed but didn't say anything.

She stopped at the first portrait of the staircase and asked the man inside if he had seen Isaac come past.

The man, and his companions in the surrounding portraits, muttered the same as all of them had been preparing for an early sleep.

"He's heading out to the Owlery," a reedy voice said.

A few moments later Peeves floated down from the upper floor.

"Grabbed a bit of parchment, a quill, and inkpot from Vector's office and leapt out the window,"

"He's done what?" Professor McGonagall squawked as her eyes went wide in shock.

"He does that," Hermione said apologetically.

Professor McGonagall looked down at Hermione before she started hurrying to the grounds outside of Professor vector's office.

Her shoulders dropped with relief when there was no Isaac splayed on the ground before she and Hermione made their way towards the Owlery.

Neither of them noticed something small scurrying in the grass.

They had just reached the steps to the tall tower that housed the owls that carried mail for the students when a few flew out from the top.

Then a couple more later...

Then a couple more...

Hermione and Professor McGonagall looked around the circular room for any sign of Isaac.

"Perhaps we missed him," Professor McGonagall said, turning to leave.

"Isaac?" Hermione called out, her voice echoing around the room.

"What?" a shout echoed back from the darkened ceiling.

Professor McGonagall's head snapped to the ceiling and she gasped, leaning against the wall, and a hand on her chest.

Isaac was lying along one of the highest beams in the Owlery, casually letting his arms swing below him.

"What are you doing?" Hermione called up.

"Waiting," came the reply as Isaac rolled over so he was on his front and able to look down at them, "Oh... hi Professor McGonagall!" he waved cheerily down.

Professor McGonagall's mouth opened and closed for a few moments before she regained her voice.

"Get down from there at once!" she commanded.

"But it's comfy," Isaac whined.

"Now!" she snapped.

A faint sigh drifted down before the sound of someone getting to their feet.

Old feathers and droppings fell to the floor before something dark and swift moved around the edges of the wall.

A blur leapt from roof beam to roof beam before dropping down, holding onto the alcoves that the owls rested inside.

Professor McGonagall's gasps followed each of Isaac's moves as he descended the walls of the Owlrey with... what almost looked like practised ease.

Isaac dropped the final part of the way, crouching down as he landed, and dusting his hands off as he stood back up.

"Hiya," Isaac said patting his clothes down, "What's up?"

Professor McGonagall looked astounded at him, for his nonchalance and surprisingly flipped demeanour.

"How are you feeling?" Hermione asked, unsure of what to say to Isaac.

"Pretty good, little stretched from doing all that," Isaac said, rolling his arms, "Shame I'm not like Kage, being double-jointed would be brilliant for parkour,"

He tried to twist his arms like he had seen Kagekao do before as Hermione and Professor McGonagall both sported slightly confused looks.

"And just what did you think you were doing?" Professor McGonagall had finally managed to regain her voice.

"Relaxing while I waited to hear back from them," Isaac told her, still sounding in this odd state of relaxation, "Do you think this is how Luna feels?"

Professor McGonagall made an odd tutting noise as Hermione frowned.

"What do you mean?" she asked, confused at what he was talking about.

"See... my first year we tried to save the stone from Quirrell...

Second, you got Medusa'd, I fought a snake with a literal killer death stare, Ginny was possessed, and... _we all_ had to deal with the cluster of migraine clusters that was Lockhart...

Last year was the Dementors, Ron being an asshole, and I thought I was being hunted by a man who wanted to kill me but he was actually innocent and trying to get the guy who was the actual guilty one...

And now I'm probably going to be forced to partake in the Magical Hunger Games.

I've sent a letter off home to see what they can do, but, in the meantime...

I've somehow found this... this zen," Isaac said, his voice still calm and relaxed, "I...

Don't care.

Simply put?

I don't think that there are any more ways that my time at Hogwarts can bend me over and screw me harder than being forced into a literal death game.

So, why should I care about things?"

Hermione and Professor McGonagall shared an odd glance with each other.

"Your existential crisis aside," Professor McGonagall said, "I'm afraid you still have to meet with the other champions to begin the tournament,"

Isaac let out a slow breath.

"And like that, the Zen is gone," he said, visibly deflating, "Fine, let's go,"

He paused and jumped down from the steps to the Owlrey to pick something scurrying around in the grass.

"Told you to warn me if anyone was coming," he muttered to something small and midnight blue in his hands.

Everyone had been dismissed by the time that they were back in the hall.

"I'll wait for you at the portrait," Hermione said, hesitating a moment before giving Isaac a quick hug.

Isaac stood there awkwardly as he let Hermione hug him before she left, her shoes clicking on the floor.

Professor McGonagall gave a small, polite, cough to get his attention before nodding towards the door that led to the trophy room.

Isaac was unsurprised to find the other three champions still there with their respective Headmasters and the two Ministry wizards, Crouch and Bagman, waiting.

What was a surprise, though, was Professors Snape and Moody were also waiting there.

"Mr Potter!" Bagman said, rosy-cheeked and grinning widely, "What an hon..."

"If the next word out of your mouth is going to be 'honour', then I'm going to burn every last hair off your body," Isaac said icily.

Bagman's excited demeanour deflated faster than a stabbed balloon at his greeting was bluntly ignored as Isaac walked right past him without even glancing at him.

"I'm going to guess you've been debating at whether or not I put my name in," Isaac said, not looking at any of them in particular.

The flames of the large fireplace they were gathered round reflected in his eyes.

"I did not put my name in that Goblet, nor do I want any part in this stupid little tournament, in fact, I give it..." Isaac quickly checked his watch, "... fourteen hours before work to get me out of this starts, just over six if you want to be pedantic,"

The edges of Moody's mouth twitched upwards and Karkaroff sent him a brief glare before turning to Isaac.

"You seem very confident in your prediction," Karkaroff sneered, his eyes displaying obvious disbelief.

"I live with a guy you could call Death personified," Isaac said, meeting his glare, "So, yeah... pretty confident,"

A cough got their attention and Mr Crouch stepped forward to speak.

"The issue shall be brought up with your guardian at his earliest convenience..." Crouch said.

"Fourteen hours," Isaac muttered under his breath.

"... however, the Goblet constitutes a magical-binding contract, so you shall have to compete,"

"Wonderful," Isaac said, and many in the room were surprised that someone could lace a word with so much sarcasm.

"That's the spirit, Harry," Bagman said obliviously and clapped him on the shoulder.

Isaac steeled under his hand and barely turned his head to talk to him.

"I'm friends with Fred and George Weasley, they want to know when you're going to pay them back,"

As he finished speaking a small smirk had appeared on his face.

Before he had even finished saying George's name Bagman had let go of his shoulder and moved to the other side of the room.

"The first task," Mr Crouch spoke, wanting to get back on track, "... shall take place near the end of November, the twenty-fourth.

This task is designed to test your daring, therefore, you may not ask for, or receive, any outside help from their fellow students or teachers. All you will be permitted to take in with you is your wand,"

Crouch's eyes seemed gaunt in the light of the fireplace.

"You will receive information on the second task once you have completed the first.

Due to the demand, and time-consuming nature, of the tasks, all champions are exempt from the end of year examinations,"

Crouch bid them a good night before briskly moving away to talk to Dumbledore.

Madame Maxine chivied Fleur out of the room without a word to anyone.

Karkaroff led Krum out as well, pausing at the door to speak briefly to Dumbledore and Crouch.

"I fully intend to follow through with my complaint to The International Confederation of Wizards," he hissed at Dumbledore.

"Follow through all you want, Igor," Moody growled in a low undertone.

Karkaroff and Moody had a silent standoff before Karkaroff turned and walked out of the room, Krum in tow.

Dumbledore left the room with Crouch and Bagman, the two of them muttering to themselves as they followed Dumbledore.

There was a moment that almost made Isaac snort in laughter as the two men weren't paying attention to where they were going, trusting Dumbledore to lead them, and they collided with each other as they tried to walk through the narrow doorway.

Professor Snape paused for a moment, nodded curtly in Isaac and Professor McGonagall's direction, before leaving the room himself.

"Come now, Rogers," Professor McGonagall said, nodding towards the door.

Isaac spared another glance at the fire and at Cedric.

"Good luck," he said before walking off with Professor McGonagall.

"You too," Cedric said, standing a little awkwardly before walking out the doors.

Professor Moody cast a quick glance around the room before leaving for his office.

True to her word, Hermione was waiting for him and Professor McGonagall outside the portrait hole.

"So, all the hubbub is true?" the Fat Lady asked, raising an eyebrow at the trio.

"Balderdash," Professor McGonagall said curtly.

"It most certainly is not!" a woman in the adjacent portrait, who Isaac recognised as the Fat Lady's gossip pal, scoffed indignantly.

"No, no, Vi, it's the password," the Fat Lady sighed as she started to swing open.

"Wait," Isaac said, darting forward and holding the portrait closed, "Professor...

Last year, Professor Lupin taught me, among other things, the charm ' _Arresto Momentum_ ' so..."

"Mr Rogers," Professor McGonagall held a hand to politely interrupt him, "If this is going where I think it is going..."

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Inside the Gryffindor Common Room.

Fred watched the flames dancing in the fireplace as he turned the bottle of Butterbeer over in his hands.

"You planning on joining in anytime soon?" George asked, sliding into the chair next to him and kicking his feet up so he could use Fred as a footrest.

Fred glanced up at him before back at the fire.

"Just worried about Isaac," he told his twin brother, "This isn't going to end well,"

"I know it won't," George sighed as he dropped his feet back down to the floor, "And I can't wait for the fireworks this time around,"

Fred cast a worried glance at George.

"Isaac's folks ain't going to be too happy about this one," George said with an eager look, "Wonder what's going to happen," he mused.

'Murder, death, torture, blood everywhere,' the images flashed through Fred's mind one after the other.

"Me too," he said with a chuckle that came out more nervous than he would have liked.

George frowned at his brother, the gaze unseen as Fred was still looking into the flames.

"You alright?" George asked, nudging him in the shoulder, "You've been a bit... off lately, everything alright in the ol' noggin?"

"It's nothing, it's just... I'm worried about Isaac," Fred said, taking a drink of the Butterbeer to give himself time to think.

George shook his head, "No, before that, you've been off since you got back on Halloween,"

Fred felt his mouth go dry, despite the drink he had just taken.

"I-it's nothing," Fred said quickly.

"Ok... now say it like you're trying to convince me," George raised an unamused eyebrow.

Fred glanced at George, and George was shocked to see something akin to fear in his eyes.

"Not the time, or place, Georgie," Fred said.

"Later then," George nodded.

He'd been worried about his brother ever since he had gotten back from dying the water tanks in the toilets.

He would be finding out what had happened, one way or another.

He leant back in his chair and looked around the room.

It seemed that after the three minutes that people had celebrated a Gryffindor being a champion in the Tournament, everyone had drifted off into separate conversations.

The main topics of conversation?

Had Isaac put his name into the Goblet?

What would the tasks be?

What the hell Isaac was going to do in the tasks?

The portrait creaked open and everyone looked expectantly at the stone opening.

There were a couple that visibly deflated when they saw it was just Hermione, but the others waited until they saw the tall form of Professor McGonagall ascend behind her.

"Not wanting to be relentlessly pestered, Mr Rogers has already bid his goodnights," Professor McGonagall said, looking around the room before glancing out the window and descending back down the stairs as Hermione sat down between Fred and George.

As soon as she was gone, and the portrait closed, everyone crowded around Hermione; wanting to know what Isaac had done, was going to do, or doing.

"Back off!" George said, shoving a few that had surrounded them back, "Can't breathe without someone's arm getting in my mouth,"

His protest was ignored by everyone's questions.

"How did he get past the age-line?"

"What's he doing?"

"Where is he?"

"Is he going to be a champion?"

"Where is he?"

The rabble was silenced by a pair of loud whistles from the twins.

"Clear, OFF!" the two of them said and most of the crowd dispersed around the room, a few of the more stubborn classmates had to be shooed away by Ginny.

There had been a moment where a couple of seventh years laughed at the small girl before them telling them to get lost before they were sent scrambling from the room by a bat-bogey-hex chasing the both of them.

"He's been sent packing," came a derisive snort from the corner of the room, where a lone ginger was sat, "McGonagall's only told the bull about him sleeping somewhere else to give them time to clear his stuff out,"

Fred put a steadying hand on Ginny as she raised her wand once again.

"So, what did happen?" Ginny asked, softer and much nicer than anyone else in the room had.

Hermione shook her head.

"I don't really know," she said, "I came up here to wait for him getting back, then he asked Professor McGonagall if he could..." she clamped her hands over her mouth.

"Do what?" Fred asked.

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"Ok... this is definitely a lot taller than I thought it was..." Isaac muttered to himself as he slid along the outer wall of the Gryffindor tower.

He glanced down at the near hundred foot drop before turning around so that his back was to the wall.

Isaac fought with the urge to jump and experience the adrenaline rush from doing so.

He steadily made his way around the tower before scaling up to a window he saw not too far above him before he started humming to himself as he steadily made his way up, testing each handhold before pulling himself higher.

The wind picked up a little and he risked taking a hand away to pull his collar up before wishing he had his hoody on.

He made a silent pact to himself to always be wearing it under his cloak if he could from that point onward as he peered into the first set of windows but found them to be another dorm in the tower.

A hummed fanfare signalled that he had finally found the right dorm as he wiggled the window open before worming his way inside.

He had just managed to get his hips through the narrow window opening before he lost his grip on the polished window frame and fell onto the ground.

"Very graceful, Isaac," he muttered to himself, "Well done, you were as graceful as a drunk cat,"

He sighed as he dusted down his trousers so that they were free of any dust or dirt that had clung to them during his little climb.

Isaac had just stood back up when he paused as a soft, nervous, cough got his attention.

He turned to see Neville sitting on his bed, the Herbology book given to him by Moody sitting open on his lap.

"Hi," Neville said quietly.

Isaac raised his hand and pointed it at Neville with an open palm.

"You did not see Isaac fall on his face," he said as he waved his hand at him, "You saw him land a handstand after three successful backflips,"

Neville gave a small snort of laughter and set the thin ribbon of fabric that came with the book along the page to mark where he had gotten to.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"Yeah, should all be sorted by tomorrow," Isaac said, tugging his jumper off and kicking his shoes off before he grabbed a pair of pyjamas out his drawer and crawled onto the bed while pulling the curtains closed behind him, opening them briefly to turn something on.

"BEN!" Isaac shouted as soon as he appeared in the field, startling the blonde, "The bullshits begun!"

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The Mansion.

Toby groaned as he tried to sit up, being pushed back down by a pair of hands while someone growled, "You do this again and you can set your own bones,"

E.J was not in a particularly happy mood.

He had been looking forward to relaxing for the day, but then Locklear had been called away by Slendy earlier that morning to check some bodies in a morgue across the country to see if there was anything out of the ordinary.

Then everyone started returning.

It seemed that there hadn't been a single easy job worked that day.

Jeff had dislocated his arm trying to jump to another building to get away from some trigger happy neighbours of his kill which had caused him to fall and break his wrist.

Jane had fractured her ankle and was sitting on the bed opposite Jeff, the two glaring daggers at each other.

Liu was there but thankfully he was fine, he had been out with Toby and had helped bring him home.

Toby was, by far, the worst out of the bunch.

Two broken ribs, dislocated elbow, lung damage from smoke inhalation, a wide gash above his eyebrows from being hit in the face and another currently wrapped in several layers of bandages on his leg.

There had been a couple others pass through, but they had all been patched up within a couple of minutes.

Jack didn't mind patching Toby up that much since he had blown a cult's attempt to summon what they believed to be some sort of magma demon to kingdom come.

"Keep still," Jack muttered to Toby as squirmed under their touch.

"Ticklish!" Toby snickered, "Would it make you feel better if I said ow?"

Jack had tried to get Toby to sit still by hitting him hard around the back of his head, forgetting that he couldn't feel the pain.

"I'd feel better if you hadn't blown yourself up," Jack growled.

It took another three minutes for Jack to properly bandage Toby up, but it took him longer to get him to stop picking at a few pieces of scabbed skin along his arms.

He sent Liu out to go get some of the higher strength sleeping pills that they had in the storage cupboards, they weren't risking giving him valium again.

"Got 'em," Liu said as he tossed the small bottle to Jack as he sat down next to Toby, "And you got a letter,"

Toby took the parchment eagerly and tore the envelope open to read it.

Jack turned back in time to see Toby halfway out the bed and tugging his shoes on.

"Get back in..."

"I need to see Slenderman," Toby grunted before walking out, the bandages on his leg starting to turn a little red.

"He needs to see Slenderman," Liu confirmed, reading the letter, taking the sleeping pills from Jack and grabbing a few more bandages just in case.

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The Great Hall, the next morning.

A few were surprised to see Isaac walk into the hall the next day, one red-head seemed particularly moody, and sit down at the Gryffindor table as if nothing was the problem.

The only thing that seemed more out of the ordinary was that he kept checking his watch and that there was so much fog rolling in across the grounds that the doors to the outside of the castle had been closed to keep it out.

Filch had been given the job of standing outside to wait for the foreign students and their Heads to open the doors for them.

Madame Maxine was standing at the bottom of the stairs to the carriage, looking out over the misted grounds as she took in a few steady breaths.

She had just been about to lead the Beauxbaton students to the castle for breakfast when a breeze quickly picked up across the grounds, causing her to turn the collar of her large coat up and more fog to roll out of the trees in the nearby forest.

The students descended from the carriage behind her, lining up diligently behind her and awaiting her say to go to the castle.

Across the fog, she could see Karkaroff getting ready to do the same.

Another breeze, one stronger than before, blew across the ground with another wave of fog as a crunching noise rippled through the air.

She turned to see a very tall, and thin, figure taking long steps across the grounds.

Filch peered out over the mist covered grounds, tightening the scarf around his neck to try and fight against the cold that nipped at his skin.

He shuffled where he stood, breathing heavily into his hands, as he heard the even paced footsteps of someone approaching... though there was an accompanying tap of something metal against stone.

He tugged the hat that he wore upon his head up a little to look at whoever had approached and gulped nervously at the sight of the person that towered over him.

Inside the hall, Dumbledore watched with a mild sense of amusement at the fog that had coated the grounds that morning.

It was foggy enough that the mist even drifted through the front doors slightly, seeping through the cracks around the doors.

He frowned as the doors shook for a moment, the fog growing more dense than it had been before.

The doors swung open and...

He couldn't help but sit a little taller at who he saw.

A man who towered over all but two persons on Hogwarts grounds was walking inside, a silver-tipped cane tapping against the flagstones on the ground every other step.

Fog swirling around his feet as he crossed the entrance hall and into the Great Hall.

At the Gryffindor table, Isaac's face split into a wide grin as the man walked closer.

Hushed whispers broke out across the hall as the rake-thin man walked slowly through the Great Hall.

There was a moment of confusion as the man paused and put a hand within his jacket, Moody tightened the grip on his wand.

Breathes were held as he withdrew something, but it only turned out to be an envelope that he gave to someone at the Gryffindor table before he continued silently onwards across the room.

Dumbledore rose from his chair as the tall man came closer to the head table.

Though he hadn't said anything there seemed to be a cold fire that burned in his wake, charging the air around him.

The man came to a stop at the head table, his cane held loosely in front of him with both hands, with a bored expression upon his face.

 **"Do I even need to say why I am here?"** the voice of Samuel Thalmann carried itself to every corner of the room.

Dumbledore glanced behind him and saw the delegates from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang standing just outside the Great Hall, curiously watching.

"Mr Thalmann," Dumbledore was thankful that he could keep his voice calm, "I take it you are here about the... unfortunate incident with the Goblet of Fire?"

Thalmann didn't say anything, just raised an eyebrow at the old wizard before him.

"We are looking into how this happened," Dumbledore went on, "And I assure you, we have this under control..."

Dumbledore stopped as Thalmann leant down until there was just under a foot of space between their two faces.

He couldn't help but swallow as he looked into impossibly black eyes.

A tense moment passed before Thalmann spoke again.

 **"Do you feel in control?"** Thalmann asked softly, not breaking eye contact with the man before him, **"If you were then this situation would never have come around in the first place,"** there was a definite sense of ice lacing each word that came from him, despite how calm and formally he spoke.

Dumbledore couldn't help but feel small under the man's scrutinous gaze.

 **"Where is the item holding the contract that binds Mr Rogers?"** Thalmann asked, standing back up and glancing around, **'Toby has a point,'** he thought to himself as he looked around the inside of the Great Hall.

"The... the Goblet was taken back to The Ministry late last night," Dumbledore said, "I can summon the Ministry worker who handled the process for you if you would like?"

Thalmann merely nodded, continuing his unimpressed look around the hall before turning back to Dumbledore a few moments later.

 **"Are you waiting for a written request?"** he asked and Dumbledore walked around the table and hurried from the hall.

Thalmann glanced up and down the head table once more before walking back between the row of tables.

 **"Walk with me,"** he said as he passed the halfway point of the Gryffindor table.

"I'll catch up with you guys later," Isaac said as he got up, crammed another bit of toast in his mouth, and hurried to catch up with Thalmann.

 **"So, how are your studies progressing?"** Thalmann asked as they left the Great Hall.

"They're going well," Isaac said, "Starting time-delayed runes for things like traps in tombs and crypts next month,"

Thalmann nodded with more interest showing on his face than he had shown when looking over Hogwarts.

The two of them came to a stop at the doors in front of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrangs.

 **"Unless all of you are non-corporeal, would you mind stepping out of the way of the doors you are currently blocking?"** Thalmann asked and Isaac smirked.

Somehow, Thalmann had a way of politely making his point but leaving people feeling like they had been insulted in the process.

Nonetheless, the students and Heads parted to make way for them.

Isaac glanced over his shoulder to see how far they had gotten from the castle before speaking again.

"You made all this fog, didn't you?" he asked.

 **"The castle is rather dull, I thought I would at least make it somewhat atmospheric,"** Thalmann said, looking out towards the forest.

"You just wanted to look cool when you walked in," Isaac laughed as they continued their walk around the castle.

 **"And so what if I did?"** Thalmann glanced down, a smile stretching the muscles of his cheeks, **"Are you alright?"** he asked.

Isaac couldn't help but feel a little better at hearing the sincere concern in his voice.

"I'm fine, just wondering if I'll have to go through another year of..."

 **"Language,"** Thalmann reprimanded him before he could finish his sentence.

Isaac rolled his eyes but smiled none the less.

"Just wondering if I'll ever get a year of peace here," Isaac changed his statement.

 **"Time will tell,"** Thalmann said, **"And you know you have the full support of everyone at home backing you no matter what happens,"**

"Even Jane?" Isaac asked, faking shock.

 **"She has no choice, lest she suffers the wrath of Toby, or L.J,"** Thalmann said, a ghost of a laugh crossing his lips.

Isaac and Thalmann walked in silence for another moment before Isaac thought to ask something else.

"Erm... you know how I can do that... fire thing with my hands?" he glanced around to see if there was anyone out on the grounds, "Well... there were these things at the Quidditch World Cup that could do something similar, they were called Veela, so, I was wondering if..."

 **"You were wondering if you were part Veela?"** Thalmann guessed his line of thought before he could finish, **"While a reasonable conclusion, from what I know of them, no, you are not part Veela.**

 **When I made you my Proxy I would have told you if you were, and I could not detect anything non-human within you.**

 **Even that soul-shard was human, a very diluted, twisted, vile piece of a human, but human** **nonetheless** **,"**

Isaac smiled and nodded.

While he wouldn't have cared if he had been, it was nice to know for sure that he wasn't.

A mixture of semi-dry leaves being crunched and click of stones underfoot had them both turn to see Dumbledore walking towards them with Mr Crouch by his side.

"I hope we aren't interrupting anything," Dumbledore said, though Isaac had to refrain from cackling at the slight glimmer of fear he saw in his eyes as he looked at Thalmann.

 **"Well, you've already forced a minor into a contest that was disbanded due to the number of deaths that occurred, so what's interrupting a little conversation?"** Thalmann asked dryly.

Crouch stood awkwardly at the side of Dumbledore.

"Mr Thalmann, my name is..."

 **"Bartemius Crouch, yes, I know who you are,"** Thalmann said, sounding bored again.

"Yes... well, about the unfortunate incident with Mr Potter and the..." Crouch broke off as Thalmann turned and walked towards him.

He didn't crouch down to speak to him, merely tilted his head forward so that Mr Crouch had to look up at the imposing figure that towered over him.

 **"His name... is Isaac Rogers,"** Thalmann said and, for the first time, there was a dangerous undertone in his voice, **"Am I clear?"**

"Y-yes, sir," Mr Crouch said, "The unfortunate incident regarding Mr R-Rogers and The Goblet of Fire, the Goblet constitutes a binding magical contract, Mr Rogers will have to compete,"

 **"And what if his legal guardian requests that he not compete?"** Thalmann asked, reaching into his jacket once more, **"I have a written statement requesting that Isaac does not compete,"**

"There are..." Mr Crouch gulped nervously, "There are no ways to remove someone from the contract, regardless of guardianship requests,"

"Question," Isaac said, "Am I still able to go home for the holidays?"

Mr Crouch glanced at Dumbledore and up at Thalmann nervously.

"The... the Goblet has a set limit to how far people can travel whilst the tournament is ongoing from where the tournament is being hosted," he tried to keep his voice calm and collected, "It will not allow Mr R-Rogers to travel further than the border of the country,"

 **"That certainly throws a spanner, or two, into those plans,"** Thalmann said, **"Now, if you would excuse us, I'd like to finish my walk with Isaac,"**

"I'm afraid that I will have to ask for a member of staff to accompany you," Dumbledore said, "To comply with the rules set for student protection,"

 **"Now you bother with student protection rules,"** Thalmann said, unamused, **"And the fact that I am the emergency contact if Mr Roger's guardian is unavailable should override that little rule now, shouldn't it?"**

Dumbledore smiled as kindly as he could and nodded to Thalmann.

"Yes, it would, but I would have to..."

Dumbledore didn't get to finish his request for written proof when Thalmann produced another piece of paper from within his jacket.

He took it. He read it. He looked back up at Thalmann.

"Everything seems to be in order," he said as he gave the piece of paper back to Thalmann, "Barty, care for a cup of tea before you return?"

Dumbledore and Crouch left, Crouch muttering his thanks to Dumbledore for the offer as they made their way back to Dumbledore's office.

 **"It seems we shall have to go another year without you for the holidays,"** Thalmann said as they turned to continue their walk, **"Though, perhaps you can tell me something?"**

"What?"

 **"Why is it that I can feel a second Proxy within Hogwarts?"** Thalmann asked, glancing down at him.

"Erm... can I say what a lovely coat you have?" Isaac tried to change the topic.

 **"You may, it keeps me warm rather well when I ask people about why there is a Proxy aside from my own within Hogwarts,"** Thalmann said, raising an amused eyebrow at Isaac.

"Fred Weasley," Isaac said, "He saw Jack and Jeff through the crack in a door, Jack took him to the carnival while he asked me more about him and whether or not he'd be able to keep him there until Teer was able to wipe his mind, or go with his back up, which was..."

 **"To take him as a Proxy,"** Thalmann nodded, **"I will be having words with Jack when I return.**

 **How much does Mr Weasley know about us?"**

"He was able to piece together most of who was who," Isaac told him, "I'm keeping an eye on him to make sure that he doesn't accidentally tell anyone,"

 **"And you trust him to keep this secret?"** Thalmann asked.

"Yeah, he's loyal... plus I may or may not have given him the idea that if he does spill the secret then his life is forfeit and Jack can string him up with his own guts, as well as everyone else in his family," Isaac was quite pleased with himself for getting Fred to believe that bluff.

 **"Very well,"** Thalmann nodded, **"I trust you to keep an eye on Mr Weasley, if at any time he seems about to reveal our existence, then you are to intervene immediately,"**

Isaac nodded to show that he understood.

 **"Now, how are you feeling about the tournament?"** Thalmann asked.

"Little nervous," Isaac said honestly, "I know it was disbanded because of deaths in the past and they'll probably have changed somethings so it'll be safer, but... common sense isn't that common, apparently, amongst the Ministry,"

 **"Timothy and Brian are meeting with the M.A.C.U.S.A worker later this week to discuss ways to try and get you out of this rather irritating situation.**

 **Until then, I want you to keep your head down, but keep your ears and eyes open.**

 **This world's fascination with your past is far from good, and the fact that someone has entered you into a Tournament such as this does not sit well with me.**

 **If you miss a single weekend with Ben then I will return to keep a closer eye on you,"**

"You think someone's out to get me?" Isaac asked, something flickering within his chest.

 **"Yes, though that does not mean you are to deliberately goad them into further action, or seek them out by yourself,"** Thalmann said, knowing that something similar was already on Isaac's mind, **"Keep an eye out and send word of anything that seems out of the ordinary, but unless you have no other choice, do not act upon your findings,"**

"Yes, sir," Isaac nodded.

 **"Now, is there anything else that you would like to discuss?"**

"What happened to Toby?" Isaac asked.

The letter that Thalmann had given him had held an apology that Toby couldn't be there with him since he was being kept in the Infirmary.

 **"He was dismantling a group of idiots attempting to summon a being to bend to their will and was forced to act a little earlier than he had wanted to.**

 **He was caught in the debris, Jack and Locklear are tending to him and chances are that he'll be asking me to bring him here as soon as your first trip to that nearby town rolls around,"**

Isaac felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulder at knowing Toby was alright.

 **"Now... tell me about what you know of the first task,"** Thalmann asked as they reached the far side of the castle.

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Fred watching with wide eyes as a man taller, and more thin, than anyone he had ever seen walked into the room.

'Holy crap,' was all he could think as The Slenderman walked down the row of tables to the head table.

It seemed that even though none of the students, save for Isaac and himself, knew who the man really was, everyone seemed mildly afraid of the man who commanded such a presence to have Dumbledore stand for him.

He could have sworn that the man's darker than ink eyes had stared right through him as he passed.

Isaac bade his farewell and made to catch up with the man's long steps as whispers broke out all over the Great Hall.

"C'mon," George nudged his arm a few minutes later when he had finished eating, "Want to hear your thoughts on an idea I've had,"

"You can have ideas?" Fred pretended to be shocked.

"You can _speak_?" George mirrored his shocked expression.

The two of them laughed with each other as they made their way out of the hall and up to 'their' workshop.

"So, what's the idea?" Fred asked, "... and does it fix the problem with the Canary Creams?"

"I might have an idea about that, but I mainly want to know what's up with you and Isaac," George said, crossing his arms and leaning against a table.

Fred felt as if his blood had turned to ice.

"It's nothing," he said, maybe a little too quickly.

"And for some reason, you get worked up this easily about it," George said, "Since when have we kept secrets from each other?

Don't you trust me?"

"It's not my secret," Fred said, internally wincing and screaming at himself to hurry up and fix this, "It's...

I accidentally found something out about Isaac and he really doesn't want _anyone_ to know.

From the way he spoke about it there's maybe two others, aside from me and him, that know about it back at his home, and I promised him that I would _never_ tell _anyone_ ,"

Fred felt just as guilty as George looked.

"I... I didn't know it was something he didn't want to get out," George said, awkwardly rubbing his arms, "It's not something bad, is it?"

Fred paused for a moment.

"Depends on who you ask," he settled on.

"Must be pretty big if he hasn't told his folks about it," George muttered quietly.

"Trust me, I wish I didn't know just for his sake of mind," Fred said sincerely.

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 **"So, you have no idea what the task is, you are being sent in with only your wand, and you aren't allowed outside help,"** Thalmann summed up what Isaac had told him.

"Yeah," Isaac said, "Effectively going in blind with no idea what to do,"

Thalmann's breathing was slow and paced, filled with contempt for the idiots running the show.

 **"Then you know what you must do next, then,"** he said as they reached the back of the greenhouses.

"Yep," Isaac nodded, "Exploit every loophole under the sun,"

 **"Naturally,"** Thalmann agreed, **"And make sure that you are well prepared for what the task is,"**

"Any ideas on what the task is?" Isaac asked him.

 **"No, but I doubt that every detail will be kept secret for long,"** Thalmann said, leaning forward to examine some of the plants that had sprouted through a window.

"Any ideas on where to start?" Isaac asked.

 **"Your friends, the Weasley twins,"** Thalmann said, a brief note of amusement, **"They are rather connected within the Ministry, from what I have overheard at The Ark, and might know something,"**

Isaac mused this over for a few moments.

"I'll ask them," he said, "Aside from them maybe knowing something about the Tournament, they'll probably have a few handy spells I can learn,"

Thalmann nodded.

 **"I have other business to attend today, so I can not stay much longer,"**

Isaac nodded, his shoulders falling slightly.

He froze for a moment when long arms wrapped themselves around him.

 **"I have every confidence that you can face anything that they throw at you,"** Thalmann softly assured him, **"And Isaac..."** he said as he stood back up.

"Yeah?"

 **"Give them Hell,"**

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

End notes.

Right, I feel like that's a good place to end it for now.

The time to the first task is getting closer, and I've already got a few things in my head.

So, who wants a couple of hints about what happens next chapter?

If you don't want them, then look away now.

George talks to Isaac about the secret.

Ben does some snooping around in the heads of others.

Toby does something slightly stupid and pisses off E.J

Right, you can look again.

Have fun, see you in the next one.

Thank you once again to the wonderful Rosy Willard for the brilliant artwork sent to me, love it!

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	55. Chapter 55, Patience 0

Chapter 55, patience = 0... brace yourselves...

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Is my cold gone?

I have no idea because I'm writing this before I upload chapter 54, so I'm currently high off my tits on lemsips.

Other than that, I'm arranging a date and I've gotten a new job!

Getting the rest of the training next month, and I'm beginning to prep for Halloween.

Also, the cover picture changed because I got even more fan art from Rosy Willard. Just look at that hair! Now you see why I make those 'Isaac needs a haircut' jokes so often.

Rosy, you are amazing! If I could hug you, then I would!

So, what have I gotten in the reviews this week, let's find out, shall we?

 **(X) review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Fred's going to be alright, he's got his friends to help him through, and I'm getting closer to finishing a joke I've been building for a while now.

If you can figure out what the joke was, bravo to you.

I fricking love writing Thalmann! There's just so much potential for what to do with him.

I enjoy terrifying people with Thalmann, it's just a little pleasure in life.

Jack is going to have some 'splaining to do.

Thank you!

 **(X) review (X)**

.549;

Aww, thank you!

I think I do alright with making Slenderman / Thalmann scary.

What song is it? I'm using my readers to find stories and songs.

 **(X) review (X)**

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

I enjoy writing Slendy / Thalmann, so much potential.

Lazy! Lazy! Lazy! Lazy! Lazy!

Lazy!

 **(X) review (X)**

Firehedgehog;

Thaaanks!

 **(X) review (X)**

iCPM;

That first sentence made me giggle.

I've now got the mental image of you chasing me around with a rolled up newspaper and a spray bottle.

Thank you for that, made my day.

I haven't decided on George, yet. I've got a couple of chapters for EXTRAS that will revolve around Fred and George being Proxies of L.J, but I'll come back to those later.

I really can't complain about having a cold now, can I?

So... I hope that your Influenza is better now, let me know if you start a world-wide epidemic.

I've got something planned to explain the Goblet stuff later on, most likely this chapter.

Now... if I really wanted to be mean, I'd probably end up doing that.

Be thankful that I'm at least a little nice.

Ok... that mental image beats the first one... thank you so much for that!

... ew...

Ok, you posted another review on chapter 33.

Yeah, that was when I introduced BRVR, and I've never regretted the decision.

The body is finished, he can run around, but it's just a little clunky to use while he learns how to properly use it

I do have a couple of ideas that I'm doing soon for his body, though.

Erm... I'll consider some stuff with regards to BRVR coming to Hogwarts.

Not making any promises though.

 **(X) review (X)**

Katropis12;

Thank you!

I have a feeling that Isaac would probably jump off the tower if he was bored, regardless if anyone told him to.

 **(X) review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

Hehehehehehehe...

 **(X) review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Yikes, this is a long one...

Thank you! I honestly hope I get more because that's given me more happiness than the past few weeks of my life has done!

Never underestimate my ability to eat cake, my sweet tooth could beat Loki (Gabriel) in an eating competition.

Yes, spread the music, we must get her the attention that she deserves.

See the bit later before I start the story for the EXTRAS.

I'll just carpet bomb the state, hit everything so that you never miss.

Hehehe, demon voices are fun.

Celtic mythos' sounds like a good place to start, plus I'm Scottish so it shouldn't be too hard to find a few things out.

I've learnt about quite a few American myths through Supernatural, the Lady in White being the one that comes to mind first.

I actually found out a few interesting things about Werewolves lately, like how there are fables where a lover or family member can call their name out to them at night when they're transformed to bring them back or that Werewolf that went around giving poor families fish so they could feed their children.

Hey, I'm allowed to be subtle with some things, full blown in your face with others.

I loved Jack's rant about wizard swears, one of Fred's lessons will be on swearing properly.

Yeah, dream walking can leave you cranky since it feels like you haven't slept properly.

Hehehe... I love that line.

Having him relax with a little parkour, something he learnt with Toby, seemed right.

And, let's face it, Thalmann / Slenderman kicks ass when it comes to entrances.

I'll be making an EXTRAS chapter with a bunch of CP kill scenes to make up for the ones that I missed so I'll probably add that into it.

Fred learnt just how curiosity can kill a cat.

The Triwizard Tournament is going to be getting a little bit more flair thrown into it with Isaac competing.

Ok... that is... definitely a question... Zombie squirrels would eat anything they wanted to hunt since they wouldn't have any fears.

OMG! I really want to see that now, I've seen latex masks online for Laughing Jack and Jeff, but I really want to see those!

Hope you like this one!

 **(X) review (X)**

wow-im-satan;

Thank you!

Can I please get a Hellhound now?

Please!

 **(X) review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Thank you!

Isaac is gonna reign fire down on them when the time comes.

 **(X) review (X)**

unknownwolf1996;

WELCOME!

Maybe if you beg me enough.

Yeah... power is definitely going to my head now... hehehehehe, I love it!

 **(X) review (X)**

Iheartlife888;

My mind goes to very random places, I've never played any of the games.

I answer all the reviews I can.

Hehehehe, I wanted to do a scene where he scared someone with his parkour skills for a while.

I think something overblown would have been a little too OOC, so silently simmering contempt seemed the better way to go.

Finding loopholes with the tasks is how Harry got through the first task in the book. He summoned his broom with his wand, so technically you could summon anything to help you... like a tank... or a minigun...

See the scene later about his family trying to get him out of the task.

I'm glad that you liked the chapter, hope you like this one.

There are going to be times where Canon has to be followed, I'm just throwing in my own twists and flair as I go.

 **(X) review (X)**

Fire Elemental Frank;

Don't recognise your name, WELCOME!

Thanks, I'm glad that you like it.

Happy to hear that there's at least something funny each chapter.

 **(X) review (X)**

Galra-din;

Erm... give me a mo... WELCOME!

I couldn't find another review if you'd ever left one, so welcome to the story!

I'm glad that you like it.

Ok... make me do work, why don't you...

Right, he got his first jumper in chapter 7 'Mandatory Filler Chapter', but I'm fairly certain that I updated it a little later on into the story, but I can't find where.

Can I see it when you're done? Please?

Fanboys of the world UNITE!

Ok, I'm making a not of all of those, but you'll have to wait for an EXTRAS chapter for Ben to be at Hogwarts for the dance. Not happening this time around, I'm afraid, but they all sound brilliant and I love them!

You're welcome, and I hope that you enjoy this chapter and many more.

Aww... you make me blush...

 **(X) review (X)**

Cyber-Kanochi;

WELCOME!

Wow... I asked that question over a year ago...

That would definitely explain it, though. So thank you!

 **(X) review (X)**

Ok, that was it... until...

There we go!

YingYangWriter;

Don't take it personally, I call everyone a cow.

I love Jeff Dunham as well, Achmed is my favourite.

I really hope you mess up and say it one day.

He's got about an 'Ark'-full more common sense than the canon Harry does at this point, plus people he can rely on.

I need to do more stuff with his parkour skills, other than messing with the other students and getting shoes.

I would like to see anyone brave enough to tell Slenderman to not do something he wants to do, he is someone who could probably get away with murder in a populated street... he probably has, actually.

I may have had 'The Dark Knight Rises' on in the background when I was doing Thalmann's scene... wonder if you can guess what part...

Yeah, they do, the honorary little brother to most of them, big brother for Sally. A sprinkling of salt in a bucket of charcoal would be the accurate metaphor for Jane's heart.

Secret's never stay hidden in Hogwarts, and I've got a small storm brewing with M.A.C.U.S.A.

 **(X) review (X)**

Right, that's all of them,

DP, got any weird things that kinda make sense, but don't really, like how we can drink a drink, but can't food any food?

DP?

They're a little tied up at the moment, I'll get them later.

So, if you were paying attention to the reviews, then you will have noticed that I was saying something about EXTRAS chapters... and I may have typed all of that without looking because I was trying not to sneeze.

Anyway, back on topic, I've got a long list of chapters on my wall that I'm going to write eventually, but, I thought that I'd let you decide which one I do next.

Your choices are;

 **(X)** Toby / Liu relationship development.

 **(X)** The twins causing chaos as L.J's Proxies from the Werewolf chapter

 **(X)** A Dead By Daylight AU with the CreepyPastas as the killers, and students as survivors (Will be a Digital Magic story)

 **(X)** Isaac getting revenge on Dudley's gang.

 **(X)** One of the alternate versions of the story I debated writing.

The choices are there and don't worry, that's not the entire list. There's plenty more, I just wanted to work through a couple of them.

Ok, time to get back to the story.

Hope you enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

 **(X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)**

The first day that classes returned were rather boring so far by in Isaac's opinion, not that he was complaining.

After the mess that was the champion selection, he was welcoming a little boring and enjoyed the calm that was going on, even if he could feel something brewing on the horizon by the third day as he walked across the grass to get to Herbology.

Nobody in Hufflepuff seemed to be talking to him, even Professor Sprout seemed to be favouring the opposite side of the greenhouse to wherever he was working.

Care of Magical Creatures wasn't as big a bore as Herbology had been, but that was mainly due to the fact that they were in teams of four trying to keep the Skrewts from killing each other while they tried to give them exercise.

"Father's enjoying this," Draco grunted out while he and Blaise pulled on one-half of the ropes tied to their skrewt, "Wrote that he expects you to fail in less than five minutes,"

"Good to know," Isaac said through gritted teeth as he and Hermione pulled on the other set.

Their skrewt was currently trying to get to one being handled by Seamus, Dean, Ron, and Neville.

"I wrote back..." Draco was cut off with a brief grunt as the skrewt spurt forward a couple of feet, pulling them along.

Only Isaac hadn't stumbled. Instead, he had been pulled forward, his feet sliding over the grass.

"... saying that I bet him ten Galleons that you'd last four times that," he managed to finish after catching himself so he didn't fall over, "Do me a favour and help me win that,"

"Glad to know you've got my best interests at heart!" Isaac yelped as the skrewt shot forward once again.

Lunch was faced with a bored expression from Isaac as whispers broke out around him.

"Oh wow, it's like I'm back in our second year," Isaac said as he sat down at the table and helped himself to orange juice, "Surrounded by whispers, wonder if some big-ass serpent-thing is gonna try and kill me,"

"Well, as long as I don't get turned to stone again," Hermione snorted, "Well, petrified, I wasn't actually turned to..."

"I know, I know," Isaac said, cutting her off, "I got the point,"

Isaac was thankful that nothing had happened today as he waited outside the classroom for Potions.

If he could make it to the end of the week without anything happening, then he was sure that he could handle anything that was thrown at him.

"... still, don't see why you're being so uptight as to not help me?" Pansy was simpering as he and the other Gryffindors came closer to the classroom.

"Because I'm keeping out of this whole mess," Draco said, a mildly tired expression on his face.

"It's just a simple charm," Pansy said with a small shake of her head.

"Then you should have no problem learning how to cast it," Blaise said, breaking his silence on something that Isaac suspected had been going on since that morning.

Pansy glowered at Blaise as the doors opened to the classroom, bringing any conversations that had been going on to silence, as Professor Snape called them in.

"Antidotes," Professor Snape said, flicking his wand at the board, "You should have all prepared your recipes from the work last class, today we shall be testing them to see whether or not you would have managed to save someone's life," he glanced around them all, cold, black, eyes glittering unpleasantly.

Isaac settled into the steady rhythm of chopping ingredients for the antidote, adding them before letting the cauldron simmer, while chopping the next ingredients before mixing those in and repeating.

They were halfway through the lesson, it being a double period, when someone knocked at the door.

Snape glanced at the interruption who turned out to be Colin Creevey.

"Yes," Snape said curtly to the small Gryffindor.

"I've – I've been sent to collect Isaac Rogers, sir," Colin said, trying to steady his nerves from being stared down by their formidable Potions teacher.

"Mr Rogers still has another hour of Potions to complete," Snape said, a hint of coldness starting to seep through his words, "You may collect him when he has finished,"

"Sir – sir, Mr Bagman wants him. Him and the other champions are..."

"What name did he use?" Isaac asked, letting Hermione take over the stirring, "When he asked for me, what name did he use?"

"Harry Potter," Colin said, his face reflecting the apologetic tone he spoke with.

Isaac nodded.

"Professor Snape, is there a 'Harry Potter' on your register?" Isaac asked coyly.

"No," Snape said, his lip curling, "There is no 'Harry Potter' on my register,"

"Then I get to claim plausible deniability," Isaac grinned as he returned to his cauldron, taking the stirrer back from Hermione, "Thank you, Colin!"

"Tell Mr Bagman that there is no 'Harry Potter' in this class or any classes at Hogwarts," Snape said to Colin, dismissing him with a wave of his hand.

Colin nearly scurried from the room, a gleeful smile on his face.

"You know that Mr Bagman is going to be rather annoyed by the time you run out of ways to stall,"

"That implies that I care whether he's annoyed," Isaac said, sliding the next set of ingredients into his cauldron.

Isaac was able to buy himself another few minutes of Potions, Snape began moving around the various cauldrons, saying, "Dead," if the antidote would fail, or nothing if it had a chance of working.

Not long later, though, there was another knocking at the door.

"Come in," Professor Snape said.

Colin was back, accompanied with Cedric Diggory.

"Mr Bagman needs to borrow 'Mr Rogers' for the remainder of the class," Cedric said, the attempt at an appeasing smile on his face did nothing to soften the Potions master.

"Very well, Mr Rogers, what stage is your potion at?" Professor Snape asked, moving to assess Isaac's potion.

"Erm... I was about to add the slices of Shrivel Fig and stir, sir," Isaac said.

"Complete that step and set your cauldron on the side to cool, you may return to finish your antidote after dinner," Snape said, turning and moving onto the next cauldron.

After stowing his cauldron at the side of the classroom, Isaac left with Colin and Cedric.

"So, what's this thing about?" Isaac asked, adjusting his bag strap as they walked.

"They've got Olivnader to come in and check that our wands are still working well enough for us to compete... oh! And some reporter from the Daily Prophet's come down," Cedric said, Colin turning to give him a short glare, "Probably just some publicity for the Tournament,"

"Well... this isn't going to end well," Isaac muttered.

"How come, Isaac?" Colin asked, casting another quick glare at Cedric.

"Because a lot of people insist on using my old name," Isaac explained, "However, my old name should not be used by _anyone_ because of Witness Protection Laws.

So basically, use that name and face the law,"

"Wow," Colin said, "The Daily Prophet won't use it, though, will they?"

"If they know what's good for them," Isaac said.

"This room," Cedric said, stopping them halfway down one of the corridors.

"Right... see you, Colin," Isaac said, ruffling his hair.

Colin beamed and nearly skipped as he went off to whatever class he had been called from.

Cedric watched the happy Gryffindor bounce away.

"You certainly have a way with people," Cedric said.

"Yeah," was all he got in response, "Let's get this over with,"

Cedric nodded and pushed the door open.

"Mr Potter, you've kept us..."

"Fred and George want their money back," Isaac said, not looking at the suddenly spluttering and sour-faced man that had come bounding towards him.

"Mr Potter," a simperingly sweet voice said, accompanied by the click of heels on the stone floor, "How lovely for you to join us,"

"Who are you?" Isaac asked the woman that had approached him.

Gracefully curled blonde hair was done up professionally, red nails that were long enough to be called talons were chipless and gleamed slightly, large jewelled spectacles rested on a highly powdered nose.

All those descriptions belonged to the woman who was trying to put a pleasant face on over a disappointed, and mildly insulted, demeanour.

"My name is Rita Skeeter, I write for the Daily Prophet!" she introduced herself and offered her hand.

"Oh, you're a reporter!" Isaac said excitedly, "Goodbye," he said in an almost inhuman level of bland and disinterest.

"Come now, Harry," Rita missed how Isaac's hands clenched, "Maybe I can get a quick word before the Weighing of Wands?"

"Nope," Isaac said quickly.

"Come now, Harry," Rita tried to push him off to a cupboard of the small classroom that they were meeting inside.

Tried was the operative word there as when she tried to pull him along by the upper of his arm Isaac hardly budged an inch from where he was stood.

Rita gave Isaac another pull before letting go and trying to warp her arm around his shoulders to try and get a better grip.

Isaac calmly reached up and grabbed her wrist.

Rita let out a stifled gasp of pain as Isaac unwound her arm from his shoulders, still holding part of her wrist.

"Would you kindly stop touching me?" Isaac said, fixing her with a look of utmost boredom and disinterest, "And would you kindly stop calling me that name, or I'll have to take legal action?"

Isaac released the silently suffering woman and walked over to where Krum and Fleur were sat.

Both of them had watched the reporters attempt to coral Isaac away with mockery at first, but now they were looking at him with what could almost be called intrigue.

The door to the classroom opened and Dumbledore walked in.

"Sorry to keep you all waiting, had a firecall from The Ministry confirming that the Weighing of Wands was going on," he excused himself.

Karkaroff made an odd huffing noise at the mention of the British Ministry.

"Now, I would like to introduce those that haven't to Mr Ollivander,"

Isaac would admit to his surprise as he had not noticed the old and frail man, who was looking out the window, standing in the corner of the room.

Ollivander looked just as old as he had done the first time that Isaac had seen him.

"Mr Ollivander is the lead official for British wand lore, and creation, so he shall be checking over your wands to see that they satisfy the regulations," Dumbledore finished.

"Good evening," Ollivander said to the room as Dumbledore sat with the others already seated at the judge's table, "Ladies first, then? Mademoiselle Delacour?"

Fleur got up from the chair and held out her wand to Ollivander, careful not to touch his wrinkled hands.

Isaac raised an eyebrow of interest when Ollivander couldn't make out what the core of the wand was, despite correctly stating the other measurements and materials, so Fleur had to reveal it to be that of Veela hair. The hair having come from her own grandmother.

'Certainly explains why half the school looks at her the way Toby looks at waffles,' Isaac thought with a brief smirk and slight pang of homesickness.

Ollivander produced a bouquet of flowers, handing those and the wand back to Fleur with the declaration that the wand was in working order.

Krum was called up, stated the measurements, a small flock of birds was conjured that flew out the window, and Ollivander declared himself satisfied with it.

Cedric went up, Ollivander took a moment of pride to be examining one of his wands again, silver rings of smoke were sent across the room, stated the measurements, before he once again declared his satisfaction.

"Aah, Mr Rogers," Ollivander's voice was filled with a small sense of mystery, "Another of my own... four years since the wand chose its master..." he seemed to be temporarily lost in talking to himself, "Ten inches, thestral hair, made from..."

He left the last open and raised an eyebrow at Isaac.

"Grenadela wood?" Isaac asked, ignoring the not so subtle flash of a camera that had gone off.

"Grenadilla," Ollivander corrected, "Not ebony, as the supplier had labelled it..." he broke off with a brief grumble, "Well kept," he returned to checking over the wand.

Ollivander produced a goblet from his pocket and a small stream of wine from Isaac's wand and declared his satisfaction once more.

Isaac had hoped that once the wands had been checked he would be able to leave, but Bagman stopped them for pictures for the Daily Prophet.

"Come now, Harry," he said jovially, "Can't let the fourth champion sit out on this,"

"I am not the fourth champion," Isaac said, trying to control his urge to punch the man in front of him, "I am the unwilling participant who is being forced into this against his will.

Plus my legal guardian does not want any pictures of me used for publicity," Isaac turned to continue leaving the room but found himself face to face with Rita.

"Come now, Harry," she said, trying to pull him over to the other champions, "Everyone loves a bad..."

She didn't get to finish as Isaac had grabbed her wrist again.

"Any pictures of me, or mention of 'Harry Potter', in your article will be met with legal action," Isaac said, pressing harder on the pressure point he was currently holding Rita by for a few more seconds.

He let go of her hand and walked past the two of them and out the doors, sparing none of them a second glance as he left the room.

"How nice of you to join us again," Professor Snape said as Isaac walked back into the classroom.

"Staying would have led to things happening against my guardian's wishes," Isaac said, moving to the sink where he had placed his cauldron.

"There is no point in your returning to your antidote now," Snape said, "Take it to the second Potions revision lab for when you return after dinner,"

Isaac nodded and carefully carried his cauldron out of the room.

Dinner was spent with more people muttering about Isaac's participation in the Tournament and Isaac was finding it harder to relax.

"You ok?" Fred asked, sitting down next to him as George slid into the seat opposite them.

"My toleration of idiots is running down faster than I think is healthy for them," Isaac said, pouring gravy over his mashed potatoes.

Fred and George shared a quick glance.

Isaac took a drink from his goblet.

"Well... we might have a thing or two that you could help us with after dinner?" George offered.

"Can't," Isaac said, "Got to go finish a potion for Snape," he quickly stole the plate of sausages before Fred could grab them.

"Oh, that's got to suck," Fred winced, "Potions is bad enough without having extra to do,"

George nodded solemnly in agreement.

"Nah, it's not so bad," Isaac shrugged, "Snape's nowhere as near bad as he was in my first year,"

"He definitely mellowed out a bit, with you," George added on, "Still hard on everyone else, thought he would have gotten worse with you,"

"See... I have this way of looking at people.

People are like wine, to me.

Some nicer than others, some more bitter, but, given enough time, they all mature. Some just mature faster than others...

Some taste nicer than others and they all make one hell of a mess when you break the seal and the stuff kept inside goes everywhere,"

Fred and George both snorted into their goblets.

"Dude, really?" they asked in sync.

Isaac merely cackled and bit a sausage in half.

The brief walk to the Dungeons after dinner provided Isaac with a cool breeze as the draughty castle began to be bathed by the light of the moon.

The Potions lab where he had left his cauldron was open and he carried it over to one of the empty workstations before returning to grab his ingredients.

He glanced around for a moment before sticking his hand underneath the cauldron and clenching his fist.

The flames spread across the bottom of the cauldron before the little basin underneath the cauldron that kept the flames lit caught and soon his cauldron was ready to be worked on again.

"In future endeavours," Isaac didn't turn to look at Professor Snape, "Wait for the attending teacher before beginning to work on your potion,"

"Yes, Professor," Isaac said, crushing the beetle eyes he had into a fine powder.

"What stage were you able to achieve before the interruption?" Snape asked, sitting at the desk and looking over a folder of parchment, most likely homework essays.

"I was letting it simmer before adding the beetle eyes, after that, I've only got to add the juice of the bezoar, diced aconite leaves, and the neem oil," Isaac answered him.

"Very well, do you remember the number of times you are to stir and how long you let it simmer?" Snape asked, his eyes leaving the parchment for a brief moment.

"Seven stirs, alternating clockwise and anti-clockwise for each ingredient, and five minutes of simmering,"

Snape nodded.

"Very well, continue as you were," he said over the scratching of his quill as he marked where a student had made a mistake.

Another fifteen minutes later Isaac put the stopper into his potion and placed it on Professor Snape's desk.

He lifted the antidote, tilting it to see how it ran around the inside of the flask.

"Tidy away your cauldron," Snape said, apparently satisfied with the antidote.

"Yes, sir," Isaac said, pausing as he made to empty his cauldron, "Professor?

Does administering an antidote do the thing where people get the symptoms of what they're being cured of?" he asked.

Professor Snape's brow furrowed.

"And what would you do with this information?"

"I don't have the patience to pretend that I wouldn't use to scare someone that would be annoying me," Isaac said after a moment.

Professor Snape narrowed his eyes at Isaac.

"Around a tablespoon shall mimic the effects of whatever the antidote cures to a lesser effect," he said after a moment of consideration, "But if I hear of you spiking anyone's drinks then I shall see to it that you spend a month in detention with Mr Filch,"

"Noted, sir," Isaac nodded as he collected his bag and left.

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"It's been boring," Ben moaned when Isaac asked him if anything interesting had happened, "The most that happened was Toby got in trouble for trying to go out on a job with his leg still needing enough stitches to supply a Disney shop,"

Isaac shook his head at his brother's antics.

"So there's nothing worth talking about that's happened?" he asked, leaning on the tree and swinging his legs as Ben switched the normally sunny sky to a starlit night.

"Well... I could tell you the one with the cult that Toby got banged up on?" Ben offered.

"Go for it, I feel like it's been weeks since I heard about a kill," Isaac said, sitting up and shifting a little closer to Ben.

"Alright then..."

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Liu chewed on his lip as he watched the people walking across the ground before him.

"Do you want to know something that annoys me?" Toby asked, lying on his back and looking up at the sky.

"What?" Liu asked, rolling his eyes at Toby's nonchalance.

"Greenland is covered in ice and snow, and Iceland is fairly clear of ice and snow, you could almost call it grassy," Toby said, "So why does it seem like some cheeky fucker took their names on a map and switched them around for giggles,"

"I think it's got something to do with the Vikings," Lui said, peering over the small wall that they were hiding behind, "They wanted to confuse their enemies, so they put out the word that they were based on a land of ice and snow, so when their enemies landed on a grassy plain then they would think that they were on the wrong island and set off again,"

"That seems overly complicated, why not say that their base was in Sweden and have them trying to take over that place and operate from their secret island base like some heavily budgeted International Rescue?" Toby sighed.

"Because we love to make everything overcomplicated," Lui said, "You ready?"

"Like the salted crisps," Toby said, jumping into a crouch and tugging his goggles into place.

Lui rolled his eyes and scoffed in laughter.

"You are crazy," he said rather fondly.

"Oh, shut up, you love it," Toby bumped his shoulder.

Lui thought for a moment.

"Yeah, I do," he said, "Never change, man.

"Now, do you want to go top or bottom?"

"Do you really think this is the time or place?" Toby asked.

"Maybe change a little,"

Toby cackled before vaulting over the wall and scaling the ivy-strewn wall, his bag bumping his side and getting caught on a loose stone for a moment causing him to lose his grip and fall back down.

Lui smirked as he rounded the wall and snuck through the door as Toby disappeared through a window on the second floor.

"... A _destu Arfacra Desmun Forgesto Infernalam Totarus..._ " the low chanting from somewhere within the halls reached his ears and Lui had to wonder if every cult was only able to do stuff if they chanted ominously.

He paused for a moment to hide as two members came out of a side room, telling a third to hurry up, and waited for the third to come out of the room before he covered his mouth, digging the hunting knife he had deep into his throat.

The cultist struggled for a few moments, Lui repeatedly stabbing the knife into his throat until his knees gave out.

Lui wiped the blood off his face before stuffing the corpse back into the side room, cramming it into a closet nearby.

He felt his phone buzz and checked the message he had been sent.

~Train 4 boom town leaving in 10 mins ;)~

Lui smirked and sneaked out of the room, searching for the stairs to the upper level.

He could still hear the chanting as he crept around the ground floor, keeping an eye and ear out for anyone other than him that might have been lurking around.

No one seemed to be outside of the summoning room, but there were muffled cries coming from a nearby room.

'Toby?' he thought for a moment.

Lui braced himself and kicked the door open, not too bothered about stealth and...

"Oh thank god!" a man he didn't know latched onto him, "They've been keeping me here, I didn't know what was going to happen to me..."

Lui awkwardly looked down at the man hugging him, his wrist was bent at an odd angle and it looked like he had broken it trying to get out of the ropes that had bound him to an uncovered pipe on the wall.

"... didn't think that..."

The man was cut off as Lui swiped the knife across his throat, spinning it around and slicing across the cut for a second time.

He collapsed to the ground, his eyes rolling into the back of his head, as blood coated the ground around them.

"... ok then..." Lui shook as he quietly closed the door on the man, turning to...

He was knocked off his feet by the shockwave that ruptured the walls around him, flames spreading a few seconds later like water over a beach at high tide.

"TOBY!" Lui shouted, clambering up the half destroyed stairs.

He skidded to a stop at a large hole on the ground, the flayed form of his favourite pyromaniac beneath him.

Grasping the decayed, and burnt, wood he was stood on, Lui lowered himself down and picked Toby up, slinging his arm across his shoulders and pulling him into a standing position.

"I think I messed up the timer..." Toby groaned, having had all the wind knocked out of him.

"You think?" Lui said, half walking, half pulling Toby, out of the wreckage.

He stopped to pick up Toby's fallen axe before making his way out into the hall towards the door.

They were only stopped momentarily so that Lui could dispatch a survivor of the explosion who had stumbled across their path before they were back outside in the cool evening air, the low clouds above them painted orange by the roaring inferno behind them.

Toby chuckled before breaking into a raspy cough.

"Infernus strikes again," he joked.

"You need to see E.J," Lui said, looking him over.

"Yeah," Toby agreed, "Ah, well, not like this day can get any worse,"

"Why did you say that?"

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Endnotes.

Right, little news before you go.

If you are a Scout, or part of the Network, and are taking part in J.O.T.I this weekend, try and find me.

My name's gonna be 'SteamGeek01' and I'll be hanging in the English chatrooms.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed, see you next time.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	56. Chapter 56, The Task Revealed

Chapter 56, The Task Revealed.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

I am gonna collapse from exhaustion.

I did Joti the stupid way and I didn't sleep for any of it, 48 hours straight of chatting with people over the globe.

But, my horrible ideas aside, I've got to spend time focusing on the good idea that is this story.

So, what have I got in terms of reviews this week?

 **(X) review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

I keep changing the picture because people keep sending me fan art!

I think it would be selfish to hoard the pictures that my fans have put time and effort into making.

 **(X) review (X)**

wow-im-satan;

Thank you!

That's a tally for 'Revenge', thanks.

Can I have a hellhound puppy, please?

 **(X) review (X)**

Katropis12;

A tally for the twins, thank you!

Hehehe... Chaos will be fun.

 **(X) review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

I can't draw people either.

I know, but most people get upset stomachs if they eat that much in such short a time.

Ok, let me have a listen...

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?

THAT'S TERRIFYING! It's like a skull version of the Waterphone!

I need to make that my ringtone.

Dream walking sounds less fun now.

Your mom sounds fun and awesome, tell her that for me, would you kindly?

Another tally mark for Chaos, and the Liu / Toby building. Thank you for those.

I'm glad that you like where the story is going, I'm not too happy about what will have to come later, though...

The Bagman gag won't work forever, though. Gonna have to make him a little more persistent.

Toby's finally warmed up to Infernus, just don't bring it up too much as he needs to be actually blowing something up, or about to, to admit it.

I'm glad that you liked it, hope you like this one.

 **(X) review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Thank you.

Those words are a death sentence, I actually have an agreement with my friends that if any of us say them we get to slap them.

 **(X) review (X)**

Cyber-Kanochi;

What can I say, except that you're welcome!

 **(X) review (X)**

Rosie;

You know, when I say that the chapters are gonna be a little smaller because I've been struggling lately, and because I've got college, and because I've got a job, it generally means that the chapters are gonna be smaller.

Also, there is a little difference between logging in and making a story.

 **(X) review (X)**

jen71Lumos;

WELCOME!

I feel like my one-off lines sometimes do better than the actual chapters.

 **(X) review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Thank you!

 **(X) review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

We're not a cult...

We just like gathering in groups, singing around fires, and...

wait...

 **(X) review (X)**

.549;

Not always... just most of the time... if he can...

Why just kill them when you can obliterate?

 **(X) review (X)**

Dex-Halo Twitches;

Holy cow, that's a lot of reviews.

'cracks knuckles'

Let's go.

CH – 10, he doesn't trust Dumbledore, don't worry.

CH – 11, he does.

CH – 14, that hatchet that Toby gave Isaac was indeed his first axe.

CH – 17, which twins? Fred and George, or Candy Pop and Cane?

CH – 30, he will.

CH – 31, Kagekao is one of my favourites.

CH – 32, who's Tony? Wrong crossover.

CH – 36, Toby when he's on valium is dangerously hilarious.

CH – 37, he does, just let it develop.

CH – 38, of course he did.

CH – 39, Dr Smiley, putting that on the list.

CH – 49, yeah, that happens a lot.

CH – 50, you really think that I'll make Ron a spy? Seriously?

CH – 52, Fred's fine.

CH – 55, what I'm going to do with Rita is gonna be fun.

Yikes, that was a lot.

Were you one of my contacts at J.O.T.I?

For those of you who don't know, J.O.T.I. Is a weekend-long event where scouts can talk to other scouting groups all over the world.

It's fun, just don't do the 48-hour challenge... my head still hurts...

 **(X) review (X)**

DHLcosplay (Guest);

'sighs'

'raises a hand in the air'

 _ **BOI!**_

Ok, that makes me feel better.

Did you by any chance **READ THE AUTHOR NOTES** for the last chapter?

I'm guessing no, you didn't.

To sum up?

I've asked the readers what they want to see for the next EXTRAS chapter.

 **(X) review (X)**

YingYangWriter;

You're actually disturbing me when I write this chapter, that's how late I'm doing this.

Course Draco would bet that Isaac would do well, it's a safe bet.

You are correct about that rag.

That reference...

Hey, did you hear, it's the Miniladd!

People have no fear it's the Miniladd!

Let's get one thing clear, it's the Miniladd!

And I can't be bothered to type more of the song, see if you can spot my reference later!

Isaac's temper would have died faster than a redshirt if that had happened... I'm going to add somethings to EXTRAS chapter's later.

Speaking of EXTRAS, I've got some prompts to write for the 'Missing Kills' chapter so that will be on the horizon soon enough.

If Kagekao learns about that spell then he will be moving into The Mansion and getting the room next to Isaac.

Hehehe, I liked that analogy too.

I have weird sleeping hours, it's gotten weird lately since I almost have the pattern of a vampire, need to fix that.

Trenderman going full Edna Mode would be fucking hilarious and is definitely getting considered for a future chapter, but you've got to decide which one of the list I posted last week I'm doing first.

You're actually an hour ahead of me, it's 1:40 in the morning of the day that this chapter went up for me... really need to finish this and get it off to DP.

 **(X) review (X)**

Ok, that was the last of them.

And the final count is...

'gets yeeted out of the way by sudden review'

Sweet Smilie;

There shall be retribution and, if they continue to be idiots, there will be blood.

Ok, I think I know what you mean there.

Basically, they're saying that Isaac would end up standing on the dragon's tail.

 **(X) review (X)**

Ok... now, that was all of the reviews...

I'm still wary in case another gets launched at me

Toby / Liu - 1

Twins causing Chaos - 2

DBD AU - 0

Revenge on Dudley - 1

Alternate – 0

Ok, I think I'll give you one more week to vote on it. I've made a note of who's already voted so there'll be no online ballot stuffing.

Right, I've got a chapter to write, and a Beta to thank.

DP hasn't got anything to say this week, but I'm sure that she wishes you all the best.

And that's that, can't procrastinate any further... or can I?

No, I can't.

Enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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The Ark.

Masky was worried.

He was worried about a few things.

One, Isaac was being forced into a set of death games that were beyond his skillset.

The second was that there was a bunch of legal nonsense going on, the M.A.C.U.S.A worker that they had met with two years prior was handling that.

Third, Toby had disappeared after simply saying, "Fire,"

Now, normally he trusted Toby when he was working with fire, but with no context, it wasn't exactly calming.

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Hogwarts.

Isaac heard closed his eyes and let out a slow breath.

The sound of the cannon somewhere beyond the folds of the tent echoed through the air.

He was losing feeling in the tips of his fingers. It felt like each step he took was against a two tonne weight pulling him back.

Somewhere close by he could hear a low chant of his name cheering him on.

The tent gave way to a small tunnel, wooden struts creaking in the winds that swirled leaves across the floor in front of him.

A rocky enclosure was ahead of him, small bits of moss had been burnt away, and the noise of something scraping against stone did nothing to ease his nerves as he thought back to the past few weeks.

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Breakfast in the Great Hall was fraught with murmurs.

"Why do I feel like something almost impressively stupid is afoot?" Isaac asked as he sat down.

Fred and George shared a glance, but before Isaac could grab his goblet to take a drink they had slid a copy of the Daily Prophet across to him.

Isaac shook it open and read the front page.

"That's bullshit... that's bullshit... that's bullshit..." Isaac said after he finished reading a sentence, "Hermione, no offence, but you don't interest me that way..."

"It's alright," Hermione said, slightly stilted at the whispers that had followed her that morning as Isaac kept going.

"... that's bullshit... that there is around _fifty_ tonnes of bullshit... I give it a day," he finished

Fred and George shared another glance, this time Isaac was able to take a drink, plus an extra one for the one he missed.

"Give what a day?" they asked.

"One day for them to retract the article, issue an apology, and for Skeeter to be fined for breaking the law," Isaac said, spooning scrambled egg onto his plate.

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The Daily Prophet.

Aucton Scribe sat behind his desk, lazily flicking through a thick file of parchment.

Just as he sighed at the monotony of the day to day tasks he had to do his door was opened.

"Do you have an..."

"This is an order to retract Miss Skeeter's article on The Triwizard Tournament," a man in pale blue robes with an American accent said, putting a piece of parchment with the M.A.C.U.S.A logo printed on the upper right corner.

"Now, just a..." his words fell on deaf ears.

"This is an order for The Daily Prophet to issue an apology to its readers for allowing an article that breaks multiple federal laws to be printed," the man continued, "This is an order for Miss Skeeter to be suspended, without pay, until such a time as she has been sentenced at a formal hearing,"

"Now, see here..." the man went red in the face at the orders that sat on his desk.

"This is the fine that Miss Skeeter has to pay," he didn't place that one on the desk, "I'll give it to her in a moment, and this is an order for _you_ to write a formal apology to my client,"

Aucton spluttered at the piece of parchment that had been shoved into his hands.

He had been wishing for a change, but this was ridiculous.

"See to it that these are met within the day, or you shall be charged as an accomplice to the actions committed by Miss Skeeter,"

The wizard left the office after the pendant he held heated up and shook, confirming that the orders had been delivered.

Rita Skeeter was reading over the article that she had published, smiling coyly to herself as she sipped her tea.

"Miss Skeeter?" a voice said and she flicked her eyes upwards, a sickly sweet smile upon her face.

"Yes, how can I..."

Before she could finish the man handed her a piece of parchment.

"This is the order to write a formal apology to my client in regards to your breaking of federal laws,"

Rita nearly choked on the tea she had just sipped.

"This is the order of your suspension," he handed her another piece of parchment, "And this is the time and date of your appeal.

Miss it and you shall be arrested for perjury,"

The American wizard left her red-faced and spluttering, her tea spilt over an article she had been writing.

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Hogwarts.

"You sure that they can shut Skeeter up?" Fred asked.

"She's not known for backing down," George added on.

"I know people who can be _extremely_ persuasive," Isaac said, winking at Fred when George looked down at his plate to cut up his bacon.

Fred couldn't help but feel sad for Rita because of the forces that she had just gotten on the bad side of.

"So, what you got first?" George asked after swallowing his bacon.

"Creatures," Isaac said, "This is gonna be a fun day," he stretched the 'f' out as long as it could as the post owls descended.

Isaac was thankful that the skrewts kept trying to kill each other, dwindling their numbers down.

What he was not thankful for was that the class that day was to try to give them a bath.

While the others in his group looked into the box, trying to think of how to try and clean them without getting injured, Isaac was sat cross-legged on the ground as he rubbed soothing circles across his temple.

"Give me a moment," Isaac said, unclipping his braces.

He looked on the ground for a few moments before he found a long enough stick and he started tying the sponge to the end of the stick.

"Move," he soaked the sponge and began pushing it up and down the back of the skrewt.

The skrewt didn't take too kindly to being wet and blasted forward in the small fenced off area before trying to ram through the fence to get to another skrewt.

Isaac let out a slow breath and unwrapped his sodden braces from the sponge, letting it fall back into the basin of soapy water, before tossing the stick away.

"C'mere," Hagrid said, "Put them next to the fire to dry them out,"

He nodded in the direction of his hut before bending low to speak to Isaac.

"See if you can get to my house at midnight," he said in a low voice.

A few seconds later came the shrieks of other students as the skrewt that had refused to be bathed broke free from the enclosure that Hagrid had set up and charged another skrewt.

Hagrid rushed off to catch them as the other students took the chance to run for the castle.

Isaac frowned as he wrung out his braces, trying to get as much water from them as he could, as he thought.

He had gotten a letter from Toby that morning, telling him to be alone in the Gryffindor common room at one in the morning.

Now, if he could somehow stay awake that long, he had to meet Hagrid at midnight, and then get back up there to see what Toby was doing.

'This _is_ gonna be a fun day,' Isaac thought as he meandered back to the castle, Hagrid shouting an early dismissal because of the now several escaped skrewts fighting on the lawn.

The rest of the day was spent with rolling eyes and scoffs at how many people actually believed Skeeter's garbage article.

Isaac did have to give credit to Hermione for managing to keep her head held high despite all the cackling that Parkinson and her friends were doing.

"You know, Hermione," Isaac said as they walked past yet another bunch of morons, "I know you would never condone it, but would you like me to target anyone the next time that I get bored?" he offered.

"I feel like that would be making a deal with the Devil," Hermione said, "Besides, it's not like they can really do anything,"

"Hermione, the right words can move mountains, save or break lives, and we kinda get taught how to use words to do the near impossible with words," Isaac said, patting the pocket that held his wand, "So, you want to reconsider?"

"Isaac, I think it would be rather cruel to deliberately send you after Pansy and her 'friends'," Hermione said casually as they walked to the library to meet with Ginny and Luna again, it had become a regular thing for the four of them to meet in the library to study.

Isaac paused for a moment before hurrying to catch up.

"You devious little word-smith," he said as they continued on towards the library.

Night came at an almost dull pace compared to how the rest of the day passed.

Around an hour before midnight, Isaac made his way down to the entrance hall, sneaking past the prefects patrolling the halls for any late-night wanderers.

None of them found the hidden teen as he resisted the urge to dance as he snuck past them through the halls just to add insult to injury.

He was able to get out of the castle and down to Hagrid's house on time.

The grass had a slight sheen to it as the moon peeked around from behind a cloud, the evidence of the latest skrewt battle would be washed away by the next light shower that passed over them.

Isaac knocked on the door, hearing Fang scramble up from where he was most likely dozing in front of the fireplace, as Hagrid made his way to the door.

"Ah, good you made it," Hagrid said, using one massive hand to keep Fang inside, "Got something to show you,"

"Ok, so what's... why are you wearing a suit?" Isaac asked, taking in the hideous brown suit that Hagrid was wearing.

"No reason," Hagrid mumbled.

"Hagrid, have you been using the cologne again?" Isaac's question was met with a dismissive wave of his hand.

'I need to burn that suit,' Isaac thought as he sighed.

Hagrid paused him a few metres away from his cabin, telling him to put the invisibility cloak back on before they continued on towards the large coach that was the domicile of the Beauxbatons.

Isaac groaned under his breath as Hagrid walked up to the carriage and knocked on the door.

Whatever he had in place of his patience was steadily running down as he watched Madame Maxine, wrapped in a thick burgundy coat, descend and let Hagrid kiss her hand.

While the two of them exchanged pleasantries Isaac took the chance to look at the carriage, examining brakes, the wheels, the hinges of the door, and the steps.

He almost missed the fact that Hagrid and Madame Maxine had started walking off into the forest.

There was a faint chill upon the air as the three of them, one unaware of the third, as they made their way through the twisting trees and surfacing roots.

"Where are ve going?" Madame Maxine asked, tightening her coat against the cold.

"Shouldn't be too far now," Hagrid said.

A loud roar echoed throughout the forest and...

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"BEN!" Isaac screamed as soon as he appeared in the grassy field.

"Hey, what's..."

Ben was cut off as Isaac grabbed his shoulders and screamed in his face.

"IHAVETOFIGHTAMOTHERFUCKINGDRAGON!" Isaac shrieked as he shook Ben.

"Woah," Ben grabbed Isaac's shoulders in turn and tried to calm him, "Hey, it's alright, what's wrong?"

"Ben... I have... to fight..." Isaac said, nearly hyperventilating, "... a mother fucking... dragon," he finished with a squeak.

Ben and Isaac's eyes met, Ben's now matching the wide-eyed look that Isaac sported.

The two of them both blinked before screaming.

It took them a few minutes for Isaac to go from screaming and panicking to pacing and panicking.

"The fuck am I going to do?" Isaac said, wringing his hands as BRVR and Ben watched him walk, "I don't know how to fight a dragon, who thought that this was a good idea?"

"A complete, and utter, idiot," Ben said bitterly, "They can't actually expect you to fight one, can they?"

"They've got one for the each of us," Isaac said, "I have to... " he broke off and buried his head in his hands, dropping to his knees and flopping down in the dirt, "Did the wizard that Toby mentioned manage to get me out of this?" he asked.

"No," Isaac felt his head sink a little deeper into the dirt, "Apparently the Cup thing works on some sort of similar spell that that letter you got telling you that you could come here does, uses _original names_ ," Ben's mocking tone of the name that so many witches and wizards treated like gospel proved his distaste for the idiots in that society.

"I need painkillers..." Isaac's muffled cry came up from where he had vanished out of sight in the long grass.

BRVR hopped over to go see where he had gone as Ben sat there, his chest heavy.

"Ok... please tell me that there's an idiot's guide to killing dragons in the school of yours?" Ben's next attempt at somewhat restoring the currently empty tank of hope he had was met with a snort.

"I doubt that this USELESS," the shout startled BRVR, who had taken to sitting on Isaac's back, and caused him to move as Isaac got back up, "... society of IDIOTS will have actually thought to have done SOMETHING SMART FOR ONCE!"

"Ok... what do we do?" Ben said and Isaac scoffed.

"I have to face this thing with just a wand, nothing else," he said, "So I'm going through those books you got me, maybe they'll have something useful in them,"

Something in Ben's chest fluttered at the thought that he could have supplied Isaac with a way to survive the storm he was staring right in the eye.

Isaac cast a glance back over at Ben.

Seeing the maelstrom of emotions that were flickering across his face he sat back down on the log Ben had created and nudged him in the arm.

"Want to see something that'll help you calm down?" he asked.

Ben's head snapped in his direction before placing a hesitant hand on his forehead and causing the environment around them to shift.

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Igor Karkaroff crept through the forest, a thin mist at the edges of the trees, keeping an ear out for any sounds of others in the forest.

He had heard that the obstacles that the champions would be facing were now in the forest and he planned to get any leg over Albus-too-many-middle-names-Dumbledore.

He paused when he heard the crack of small twigs under a foot that was not his own.

"Who is there?" he asked, hoping to capture a spy from Beauxbatons or perhaps Hogwarts.

"Igor... Igor Karkaroff I can see you..." a low, deep, gravelly voice whispered.

"Who is there?" he demanded.

"Igor... don't turn around..." the voice continued.

"Who is... who are you?" his frustration at who was playing games clear in the way he spat the statement as he looked around.

"Don't look at me!" the voice let out a faint growl as Igor began to turn around, "I have so many names,"

The voice chuckled as Igor started to turn once more.

"If you look at me, you will die,"

"I am not afraid of you,"

"I'm behind you, Igor Karkaroff. I'm right behind you. I'm reaching out, Igor Karkaroff. I'm so close. Don't turn around,"

Karkaroff felt a bead of sweat start to drip down the side of his face.

"Oh... I can touch you..."

Karkaroff felt the ghost of a breath against his neck and a hand grasping the back of his robes.

He spun around, his wand held in front of him, and a spell on his lips.

" _Avad..._ "

He stopped when there was nothing there, not even a passing breeze.

A distant roar reminded him of his mission for that night and he left the small clearing at a hurried pace, putting the encounter to some of Dumbledore's tricks to try and guard the secret of the first task.

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Ben and Isaac had fallen against each other, laughing hard.

"I can't believe you did that," Ben gasped.

"I can't believe that he fell for it!" Isaac wheezed.

The two of them used each other as leaning posts for another minute of solid laughing, even BRVR was on his back, his stomach rippling in his own form of laughter, as his cheeks sparked a little from his excitement.

Eventually, the two of them sat back up, breathing hard.

"I had a visitor," Isaac said, "In the common room.

Apparently, there is a way to chat with people there, but it's tricky to not get noticed,"

Ben raised his hand again.

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Isaac raced back up the stairs as fast as his legs could carry him.

He didn't care if anyone heard, or if he was found, he just wanted to get back to the Gryffindor dorms and get to sleep, eager to talk to Ben to try and figure out a plan.

He had to pause for breath when he reached the common room, running from a place within the forest, all the way across the lawn to the castle, and up those many stairs left one feeling rather out of breath.

He collapsed in a chair by the fire as he urged his breath to return.

If he felt out of breath before, the big gasp he let out definitely helped fix that when he saw Sirius' head floating in the flames.

"Hey," Sirius said calmly, a grin on his face.

"How..." Isaac panted, still out of breath from his run.

"All fireplaces in Hogwarts' common rooms are linked to the Floo Network," Sirius said, "It's a measure for emergency evacuation. Normally they're monitored, but they can only detect a call going to the castle before they have to check every fireplace,"

"Then won't they find you?" Isaac asked.

"Not if they think that a call from a rather high-end Ministry official might be conversing to Dumbledore, now that would be an awkward situation to try and explain why you burst into such a private call," Sirius smirked, "Now, your brother wanted me to check in since... Ben? Ben's got a thing to do, or something like that, and he didn't know when you'd check in by dreaming?"

"I'll explain it later," Isaac said, "Ok, erm... the first task is a dragon.

I have to fight a dragon," the panic he should have felt back in the forest was slowly building now.

"A _dragon_?" Sirius chuckled darkly, "Hagrid'll be over the moon, they're seriously sending you against that?"

"Oh yeah," Isaac said, "Charlie Weasley is one of the guys that brought them over, what am I going to do?"

"Ok, let me think..." Sirius paused for a moment, "What do you get to take with you into the task?"

"Just my wand," Isaac said, "Maybe I can offer the dragon it as a toothpick for after it's done eating me,"

Sirius let out a low growl.

"I won't let that happen," he said, "I don't care that I don't have any guardian rights for you, pretty much screwed myself over with those when I went after Pettigrew, and that pyro's done alright with you... all things considered, but I won't let my best friends kid die at the jaws of an overgrown newt,"

Isaac did feel a twinge of annoyance at being referred to by his old life, and he barely managed to stop himself rolling his eyes, but he couldn't deny that there was something that made the corners of his lips twinge outward in a small smile at knowing someone was so dedicated to making sure he didn't end up on the wrong end of a flambe.

"Ok, I might have an idea," Sirius said after a moment of silence that Isaac hadn't realised had been there, "Everything has a weak spot, if you can find a dragons and hit it with a strong enough curse, it _might_ distract it long enough to buy you more time in the task,"

"Ok, do you have any idea where a dragons weak spot might be?" Isaac asked.

"I think, if listening to Hagrid's ramblings on dragons ever stuck with me, then it's..." Sirius broke off and looked past Isaac before quickly pulling his head back into the flames.

Isaac frowned at Sirius' retreating head.

"Practicing for your next interview?" a moody voice said and Isaac could almost picture the sneer that the ginger had.

"Think you can come up with a better insult?" Isaac asked, fixing Ron with a pitying look, "Cause even _I_ think you can do better than that,"

He walked off towards the stairs when a hand caught the lower of his arm.

"Isaac, mate, listen..." Ron's voice was suddenly a lot softer, which was the only reason that Isaac didn't flip him over his back and through a window, "This whole... this mess between us is ridiculous, and... and I want to put it behind us and... and move on, you know?" he asked hopefully.

'L, to the I, to the A, for Arsehole, to the R, what's that spell? Liar!' Isaac thought, his breathing almost mimicking the song he sang in his head.

He let out a soft sigh.

"You know, Ron," Isaac said, "They say 'Keep your friends close but your enemies closer', but... I prefer 'Keep your friends the closest...'," a hopeful look appeared on Ron's face, "... 'and keep your enemies within stabbing distance',"

He patted Ron on his arm, moving past the red-head that was attempting to scowl darkly at him, and made his way back up the stairs.

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"You know, I'm really starting to dislike him," Ben said as the dream changed back to the fields.

"Yeah... I'll annoy him tomorrow," Isaac said, "Don't kill him? I can't deal with the idea of having to go through an investigation of why he ended up comatose for the rest of his life when nothing seemed to cause it,"

"Fine, just for you," Ben huffed.

Isaac broke out in laughter again, Ben following a few seconds later, and the two fell against each other once again before falling backwards onto the soft ground, flattening some of the long grass to make space.

A few moments of the two of them enjoying each other's company passed with plus BRVR jumping up and over their legs as he tried to get into a comfy position with the pair.

"You know... I'm really starting to hate that place," Isaac said quietly, "I can't go a year without something trying to kill me, normal people are just tiring and annoying..."

"Amen," Ben breathed softly as BRVR managed to find a comfy spot and curl up between the two of them.

"... I really wish I could come home for Christmas, I wish I wasn't having to do this stupid Tournament, I wish I was with..." Isaac broke off.

"What?" Ben asked, "You wish you were with what?"

"With... with all you guys, just chilling, doing... doing literally anything," Isaac's soft almost-confession barely reached his ears.

"We'll work something out," Ben assured him, "Well work something out,"

Isaac hummed softly, resting his head on Ben's arm.

Ben lay there, thoughts racing through his head as he lay there, not wanting to disturb Isaac.

A warm smile grew on his face as he closed his eyes, willingly trapped there under a peaceful Isaac... and a murderous Pikachu, whose ear and foot would twitch every so often as it chased something in his dream.

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Author notes.

Ok, I know this is another short chapter, but it's late, I didn't have much time to write this week, and I need to get this off to DP as well as finish some online stuff for work.

So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, regardless of how short it was, and I hope that next week I'll have something longer for you all.

Till then?

Take care.

Also, I think I'll have to plan for a third EXTRAS chapter upload soon as we're about to crack 70,000 total views, so I think another special EXTRAS chapter at 100,000 total reads will be worth it.

Thank you all, and I'll see you in the next one.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	57. Chapter 57, I HATE THIS!

Chapter 56, The Task Revealed.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

I have a headache, I'm spending too much time on my laptop.

But to hell with my suffering, that's why we have headache tablets, I've got reviews to answer.

 **(X) review (X)**

Katropis12;

Yep, it's a chapter.

Take it you're in the middle of an update drought at the moment?

Your vote has already been counted, I don't think there's much change there though.

DR Bright would like you to stop taking his submitted names, it took him months to argue to call them that and he doesn't want copy-cats.

 **(X) review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

Nope, unless I want to be _extremely_ cruel, this ship will sail forever... or, until you all forget about it.

The name of this ship is 'DigitalMagic', but if you want to try and make a better one, then feel free.

 **(X) review (X)**

Dex-Halo Twitches;

Aah, that makes sense.

I see why you thought that, and it does make sense to why you would think that.

Yeah, there are bigger twists in better fics.

I explained what Joti was last week, go check the author notes there, it was just timing that made me ask.

Yeah, normally I can manage 48 hours easily, but I'm a senior member and I had to manage a group of utter morons who thought that 3 am was a good time for a FUCKING DISCO PARTY!

Basically, I was tired physically from lack of sleep, emotionally because I did not have coffee, and mentally because I had to put up with MORONS!

Rita is gonna be pushing her luck further than she should be.

 **(X) review (X)**

Rosie Isis and Rai The Kitsune;

It's fine, everyone has bad days.

May your mornings be better, and whatever ruined it gets slapped with a mouldy piece of haddock.

 **(X) review (X)**

Acherongoddess;

Thank you!

Well, you'll have to... well, this is the update you were waiting for... so you'll... agh, forget it.

 **(X) review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

DBD, noted, thank you!

 **(X) review (X)**

.549;

Thank you!

I'm glad that you like what I'm making, certainly helps keep me going sometimes.

 **(X) review (X)**

wow-im-satan;

YAY!

It only took me 5 weeks of asking.

I shall call him... Dante.

Why thank you!

He will... he will... tuna...

 **(X) review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Merci!

And congratulations on being the 500th reviewer!

 **(X) review (X)**

DHLcosplay;

Hey!

It's no prob.

I do have that chapter planned for later, don't you worry.

Thank you!

 **(X) review (X)**

Ihearlife888 (Guest);

It's been a while since I saw your name, heyo!

Yep, things are heating up alright.

Yes, there will be.

I did try and put some things in to explain the Goblet but I'll put it here as well.

The charm on the Goblet is something similar to the quill that writes the letters of acceptance for Hogwarts. It uses original names, as well as any changes, to bind its item (the letter or tournament) to the recipient (Isaac).

You are welcome, and I hope you like it!

 **(X) review (X)**

Honebar;

Thank you!

I know, I'm going to kill a few readers with what I've got planned later.

Rita is going to rush in like a fool past the angels.

I got to quote one of my favourite shows there, know the episode?

He does care, and Isaac appreciates it.

The friendship is currently wresting next to the Black Swan at the bottom of the ocean.

Some Slice of Life stuff, that should be easy enough to do, it would be nice to take a break from all the kills, even if it is a big part of the chapter.

I can do that, you'll be getting more CP stuff since I think S.O.L things are going to be fairly easy to write.

That bowl might belong to Toby.

Yeah... I can do that.

 **(X) review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Yeah... now I want shrimp, thanks.

That whistle was not fun! That whistle was horrifying and I want one... and I may or may not have made it my ringtone...

Thank you.

Masky was right to be worried, Toby's still healing a bit and he does have a history with re-opening wounds.

Hehehehehehe, I just wanted to show that the first task was coming.

Who says I'm done with Rita?

Isaac is a wonderful form of Karma, yes.

Ron is unfortunately safe... for a maximum of three years, unfortunately.

I thought that people would like that scene, and... hehehehehehehehehehehe.

Keep bringing the salt, I have chips to add flavour to.

That seems like my response to being scared, hit then look.

Thank you!

I haven't gone to a haunted house in ages! But I'd be very impressed if you could cackle and not sound like a psychotic bitch.

Aww, that sounds cute, did you get their number?

Happy Hallow... wait... it's going to be past Halloween when this goes up...

Belated Happy Halloween to you all!

 **(X) review (X)**

Matt (guest);

Ok, I'll check them out later, thanks!

 **(X) review (X)**

Ok, and the pre-emptive space for Yin...

YingYangWriter;

Yeah, he's stuck in it.

Skeeter is going to really regret not backing off, just you wait and see.

You will enjoy this!

Ok, that might be another chapter queued up, thanks!

Yeah, I think that one's won the survey.

Yikes, you'll see what I did later on.

 **(X) review (X)**

And that is that, no more reviews.

Thank you all for carrying the fic over 70,000 total views, and over 500 reviews!

I think I definitely need to start writing some more EXTRAS chapters... which leads us to the contest-thing.

Toby / Liu - 1

Twins causing Chaos - 3

DBD AU - 1

Revenge on Dudley - 1

Alternate – 0

So it's the twins causing chaos in the Werewolf UA for the win!

I hope you all enjoy it, whenever I release it.

Also, I feel like I've messed up the timing with the last chapter.

I don't know for certain, but it's just a nagging feeling in the back of my head so... sorry if I did.

DP, it was Halloween recently, get up to anything?

So... there's no note from DP at the moment because... well...

I kinda sent the email for this weeks chapter to her on Tuesday... and forgot to actually attach the chapter to it...

Yeah, I'm a dumbass.

But, it was Halloween a few days ago, what did you all get up to?

I watched John Carpenters "The Thing", "Halloween", and not really a classic, but a B-movie that I saw on Dead Meat called "The Ice-cream Man" and... you'll find out what else I did at the end...

Ok, time for the story,

Hope you enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

The dull chant of his name reached his ears as he glanced further around the small tunnel gave way to a stone enclosure.

'Ok... I can do this... I've fought demons, after all,' Isaac thought as he stood just beyond the final few steps.

'Yeah, a few sparring sessions with E.J,' a snide voice in his head reminded him.

'I have fought killers and monsters,'

'Sparring,' the voice almost sung, 'But if you want to count the civies, then sure, you're unstoppable,'

"I hate myself," Isaac muttered under his breath at how sarcastic he was being to himself.

The chanting just beyond the enclosure was getting louder.

Isaac took in a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and walked forward.

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His freakout last night with Ben certainly helped him clear his head.

He woke up that morning feeling a lot warmer and safer than he normally felt as thoughts buzzed through his head at a mile an hour as he sent Hedwig off with an urgent letter.

"Are you alright?" Hermione asked as she came down from the portrait hole just as he returned to grab his book bag.

Isaac's eyes flicked up, looking at her then around them.

"Later," he breathed, not wanting to attract the attention of the others around them.

Hermione nodded and hitched her bag up a little to make it a little comfier.

"Alright," Hermione asked as they walked down to the Great Hall for the first meal of the day, "What's going on"

"I may have found something out," he said, eyes flicking around for any that might be listening in, "About the first task,"

Hermione's head snapped round to look at him.

"But you're not supposed to know anything about..."

"I didn't find out on purpose," Isaac said quickly, "I was... blissfully unaware of what I had to face, then... three guesses who showed me what they were,"

"They?" Hermione asked, "So it's... you're fighting something,"

"Something is a word you could use," Isaac muttered, "I will give you another three guesses to guess what it is.

Want a hint? It is something utterly stupid and possible suicidal to go up against,"

Hermione looked both frightened and puzzled.

"Giant?" she guessed.

"They are giant, but it isn't giants," Isaac said.

"Giant, but not giants..." Hermione trailed off, her eyes growing wide.

"Isaac... it can't be a _dragon_ , can it?" she whispered.

"Want to trade in your final guess for bonus points?" Isaac muttered.

Hermione had looked slightly hopeful when he had started speaking, but now she was quickly draining of colour.

"They're sending you against _dragons_!" she squeaked, clamping her hands over her mouth and looking around in case anyone had overheard.

"Just the one, per champion," Isaac told her, "And I have no idea how to fight one,"

Their conversation was cut short as they arrived at the Great Hall, unable to talk without anyone else hearing.

Throughout breakfast, Hermione's hands shook as she tried to eat and she had the same look in her eyes when she had been faced with a particularly difficult piece of homework.

"Ok... you have to fight a dragon," Hermione said as they walked to their first class, "What spells could work against a dragon?"

"Don't think that one spell will do it," Isaac said, "I saw one of them needing to be calmed down, took about half a dozen of the trainers to knock it down... oh, Charlie was there, Fred and George's brother Charlie, he's one of the trainers that brought them down," he told her, recounting the evening, "Also warned Hagrid off taking any of the eggs that they're guarding,"

"He wouldn't be daft enough to try and raise another one," Hermione said, though she didn't look as if she fully believed her words, "But there has to be a book with how to fight them in the library,"

Isaac rolled his eyes and felt the edges of his lips tug upwards.

'When in doubt, go to the library,' Isaac thought, 'Hermione's action plan for everything,'

Isaac didn't know how he managed to get through classes that morning.

He and Hermione both ate a quick meal at breakfast so that they could hurry to the library, but their brief search yielded no luck.

lunch came and Isaac was thankful that they didn't have afternoon classes that day, as they had Astronomy late in the evening, so that gave them more time to search for answers.

He broke off from Hermione so that he could make a quick trip to the bathrooms before their search continued and was a corridor away when he saw someone up ahead with their friends.

Cedric Diggory was laughing at something his friend had said just along the corridor.

'He doesn't know,' Isaac thought as he watched them make their way to their next class.

A part of Isaac wanted to walk away, leave him oblivious, and he turned to do so... but...

Isaac closed his eyes, breathing heavily out through his nose, before searching the ground for a small stone.

He found a couple swept into a corner, grabbed them, and stood facing towards Diggory.

After checking up and down the corridor he took one and threw it hard towards the back of Cedric's head.

The stone found it's mark, Cedric brought a hand up to rub the spot but he didn't think much of it.

Isaac sighed, he still had two stones left after that one, and threw another.

This time, Cedric looked around and Isaac feigned looking out the window in boredom.

He faintly heard Cedric say to his friends that he'd be a moment before he made his way over to Isaac.

"You know I could give you a detention for assaulting a Prefect?" he told Isaac, but the small smirk he wore said otherwise.

"The first task is dragons," Isaac said, looking back out the window, "There's one for each of us,"

Cedric took a half-step back out of shock, his grip on the strap of his bag slipping down a little.

"Y... dra... how do you know this?" he asked.

"Never mind how I know this," Isaac said, "I didn't exactly plan to... never mind.

The first task is dragons, Fleur and Krum both know, you were the only one who didn't and I wasn't going to go into a competition with stacked odds,"

Cedric let out a slow breath, unable to find words for a moment.

"Thank you," he said, finally finding his words.

A cough from behind them got their attention.

Professor Moody was standing behind them, leaning on his staff, his magical eye whizzing between the two of them.

"Professor Moody!" Cedric started, "We..."

"Don't you have a class to go to, Diggory?" Moody asked gruffly, nodding his head down the corridor Cedric had been walking down originally.

Cedric spared a fleeting glance at Isaac before walking off.

He looked back once before he turned the corner, giving Isaac one last apologetic look, before he disappeared out of sight.

Isaac calmly turned to face Moody, emotionless and wary.

"Follow me," Moody grunted, limping off in the direction of his office with Isaac following a few steps behind.

Isaac had been inside the office of two past Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers.

Lockhart, Isaac resisted the urge to gag, had filled it with pictures of himself, the pompous prick.

Lupin, a much better and cooler teacher in Isaac's mind, had various books on creatures, jinxes, and curses. You also ran the chance of seeing the latest creature that was safe enough to keep in the castle and discuss it with him over a nice cup of tea.

Moody's office, however, seemed to be filled with things from back in his Auror days.

A large mirror with a crack running through it was stood in a corner, shadowy heads swirling as if hidden by a deep, thick, mist.

What looked like bronze eyes on sticks stood to attention in the corners of the room, their metallic shutter versions of eyelids trembled slightly.

A thin piece of wire stretched between two points of an ellipsis quivered slightly as he passed the small table it was sat on close enough to hear it's faint humming.

"That was a decent thing you did for Diggory," Moody said, much softer and calmer than the growly tone he had before.

"Thank you?" Isaac said slowly, unsure of what was going on as he looked around the room again.

"Like my Dark detectors, do you?" Moody asked, sitting down and easing off his prosthetic leg with a sigh, "Had to disable the lot of them to come here,"

He nodded towards the large, cracked, mirror.

"That's a Foe-Glass," Moody said, "Lets me keep an eye on my enemies.

Don't have to worry... until I can see the whites in their eyes..." he growled as he glared the swirling figures, their features heavily distorted beyond recognition.

"Secrecy Sensor," he nodded to the thin piece of wire, "Vibrates when it detects concealment and lies... had to disable it, too much interference, students lying left, right, and centre about why they haven't done their homework... course, it could be picking up something worse..."

Isaac didn't know what to say to that.

"Now, what are you going to do about your dragon?" Moody asked.

"Oh," Isaac said, "I..."

Moody pushed out a second chair with his actual leg.

"Sit," he barked out the order.

Isaac eased himself down onto the chair, wary of the man as he had heard that his mentality was about as stable as a game of Jenga with Toby.

"I'm not going to tell you what to do," Moody grunted, "Don't show favouritism, me.

So, I'm just going to give you some good general advice," he paused for a moment as Isaac quickly saluted, "... and the first bit is, _play to your strengths_ ,"

Isaac's brow furrowed as Moody spoke.

'I can't exactly take a dragon on hand to hand,' Isaac couldn't help but picture a caricature of himself squaring off against a dragon before being burnt to a pile of ash.

"So, what are your strengths?" Moody asked.

Isaac thought for a moment.

"Stealth, parkour, aim..." Isaac listed, trying to think of something that could help him.

"You're missing one, lad," Moody grunted, "A big one if what I've heard around the staff lounge is anything to go by,"

Isaac paused for another moment, his brow furrowed once more.

'What would he have heard in the staff lounge about me?' he thought.

A quick flash from another tournament and a large silver trophy flashed in front of his eyes.

"Quidditch," he said, "I'm a decent flier,"

"More than decent, I've heard," Moody said, a gnarled smile drawing on his face.

"But I can't use my broom," Isaac said, "I've only got my..."

"Go on?" Moody's gnarled smile seemed to be stretching his cheeks.

"Hermione!" Isaac nearly ran into the library five minutes later.

"Isaac, where were..." she started but Isaac flapped his hands to quieten her.

"Hermione, I need to learn how to do that summoning charm Flitwick showed us by tomorrow afternoon!" he said, "Not to jinx myself, but I have a cunning plan!"

Hermione would openly admit that there had been a flicker of fear rise up within her at the slightly maniacal look in Isaac's eyes.

The two of them skipped dinner in favour of practising the charm in an empty classroom.

Isaac mildly regretted that idea as when Hermione yelped, and pointed out the time, they had to leg it up the stairs on empty stomachs to be on time for Astronomy.

Once they were walked back to the Gryffindor tower Isaac waited for Hermione under the covers of his invisibility cloak before the two of them went out to an empty classroom.

With no interference from anyone outside, save for when Peeves popped in for a few moments, but he quickly left when he realised that it was Isaac.

"You know... I kinda enjoy having him afraid of me," Isaac mused before returning to trying to get the heavy dictionary that they were practising with from Hermione across the room.

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The Ark.

Everyone was giving Toby a wide berth.

E.J had walked down that morning with the intention of grabbing a cup of coffee from the kitchen, but his day took a sharp turn when he heard two odd noises.

The first was Smile whining, judging by how faint it was, he was at the door.

The second noise was an odd shuffling noise coming from the living room.

"Hello?" he asked, too tired to really focus on who's figure he could make out through the odd vision he had.

"Mornin'," Toby said in an oddly chipper way that put him on edge.

"What you up to?" Jack asked, moving towards the kitchen.

"Not much, just playing some solitaire," Toby said casually.

Jack froze, trying his best not to tremble.

"Why, what are you up to?" Toby asked.

"Oh... I was just gonna take Smile out for a walk and grab a coffee... you want anything?" Jack asked, hurrying through to grab Smile's leash.

"I'm fine," Toby said calmly as he continued to move cards around on the table.

There were a few unsaid rules at The Mansion.

One was that you never mess with birthday cakes, lest you suffer Sally's wrath.

You don't mess up the medicine cabinets, unless you want to deal with a pissed off cannibal.

But the one that they all knew...

If Toby is playing solitaire, with actual cards, you run for cover.

Toby liked to play solitaire a lot, normally on his phone, but it was only when he played it with actual cards that you could tell something was wrong.

One of the last times that Toby had played solitaire with actual cards was when he had been forced to wait before going to the UK to check on Isaac in his first year.

Hoodie and Masky took it in turns watching him, whether he noticed them or not was unknown.

Liu hadn't learned this lesson and was sat by Toby, idly flicking through the channels.

Ben caught him up with what happens whenever Toby's playing solitaire with cards, including a few examples from the past, and how that when they had gone to Hogwarts three years ago was the tamest that Toby had ever been.

"YAHOO!"

A fair few people in The Mansion jumped at the sudden shout.

The sound of rapid footsteps up the stairs proceeded a loud shout.

"L.J!" Toby yelled, "GET ME SOME SMOKE GRENADES!"

Glances were shared with anyone present wherever they were.

"What the hell is going on?" Masky muttered, having to go see what Toby was doing.

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Hogwarts.

It had been around an hour past midnight when he finally nailed the charm in enough succession to call himself proficient and the two of them had dodged prefects, and a surprise meeting of the Headboy, to get back to Gryffindor tower.

It had been around half an hour before day-break when there came a tapping at the window.

"Oh, you beautiful, wonderful, owl," Isaac said as he quickly opened the window, not caring about the cold wind that blew through, as Hedwig struggled in.

The bag weighing her down was relieved from her burden by Isaac as he cradled his tired and worn out owl close to his chest.

He settled her down on his pillow, tucking her under a little to warm her frigid feathers.

"You stay here for a bit," he whispered to her, "Rest, you deserve it,"

Hedwig hooted softly and, somehow, her tone seemed to convey, "Damn right, I do!"

Isaac gently stroked her head before tugging his jumper back on and sneaking back out Gryffindor tower.

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When he woke, if he ever slept, Isaac lay in bed, unmoving.

Hedwig opened her bleary eyes as he stroked her head.

He had mover her to his dresser and made a small nest out of a couple warm jumpers for her.

She nipped his hand affectionately before hopping up onto his wrist so that he could carry her out the window.

It seemed like he was on autopilot as he walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Each movement felt preplanned, programmed, as he picked up waffles, putting them upon his plate before bathing them in syrup.

"... Isaac?" a distant voice called to him.

Isaac blinked and looked up when a hand gently rocked his shoulder.

He nodded to tell Hermione to speak, he still had a portion of waffle in his mouth.

"We have Runes," she said and Isaac looked around.

The hall was half empty, people shuffling through the door to go to their class.

Isaac frantically shook his head, trying to figure out if he had lost time again or not.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he rose, cramming the last piece of drenched waffle into his mouth, as he could remember every piece of waffle he had eaten that morning. He had just been too caught up in his own mind to notice everyone else.

Classes were stopped at midday for the first task.

The air was abuzz with excitement and tension.

Isaac's hands twitched every so often, getting worse with his nerves.

After he hit his thigh for the third time Hermione grabbed his wrist and gave it a quick squeeze.

"You'll be fine," she assured him.

"That is the setting of the blender that I am currently walking into," Isaac said flatly.

A second pair of footsteps joined onto their own.

"Nervous?" Blaise asked, Draco leaning forward to see Isaac's reaction.

"Peachy," Isaac muttered.

"You'll do fine," Draco said, "They won't have gotten anything extremely dangerous for the tasks, and the worst will be saved for the third, and final, task,"

'Dragons are easy?' Isaac thought, "Thanks,"

Draco nodded before splitting off with Blaise.

Professor McGonagall collected him from the entrance hall and took him down to a small tent that was set up just within the Forbidden Forest.

"In you go," Professor McGonagall said, worry making it so that she sounded like she had a cold.

Isaac nodded and walked inside.

"Har..."

"I may castrate you," Isaac said coldly, "Or, if you're lucky, you might just get let off with being charged for breaking federal laws,"

He did not want to put up with Bagman today so he walked past him, but it seemed that Bagman wasn't going to go down without a fight.

"Well... make yourself at home," Bagman quickly regained a chipper enthusiasm, "And... I was wondering if I could have a quick word?"

"Swift," Isaac muttered.

"Pardon?" Bagman asked before shaking his head, "Nevermind... feeling alright? Anything that I can get you?"

"A chair would be nice," Isaac said, wishing that the man would leave before he was forced to break one, or several, of his bones.

Bagman led him over to a small section of the tent where a sweatshirt with the name ~POTTER~ was written on the back.

"Of course, this isn't your name..." Bagman chuckled awkwardly, "What is your surname again?"

"Rogers," Isaac said wearily, "But don't bother, just bin it.

I don't need it,"

Bagman frowned and looked down at the recently changed sweatshirt.

"But..."

"I'm sure," Isaac cut him off, taking off his robe and jumper, pulling his hoody out of his bag.

"Alright..." Bagman quickly glanced around, "Got everything sorted, got a plan?"

"Yep," was all he got in reply.

"Good man," Bagman broke off as Mr Crouch, Dumbledore, Madame Maxine, and Karkaroff entered the tent.

"Good day, champions, good day," Dumbledore said as the tent flap closed.

"The first task of the Triwizard Tournament is upon us, ladies and gentlemen," Mr Crouch said.

A fine silk bag held in his hands shook slightly as a small puff of smoke escaped it's string wrapped opening.

"Gather round, come on," Bagman urged the other's forward around them, "Now...

Within this bag are... representations of what you shall be facing today.

Each one has been given a golden egg to protect.

Your task is simple, collect the egg!"

"Ladies first," Bagman said as Mr Crouch unwound the string binding the bag and held it open in front of Fleur.

Isaac had been right in guessing that Madame Maxine had indeed told her about the dragons when she put her hand into the bag without any hesitation, a look of resigned determination on her face.

She did flinch as she grabbed something before pulling out...

"Common Welsh Green," Mr Crouch said, looking down at the small green figurine of the dragon that was roaming around on her hand.

A small board tied around its neck gave her second up in the tournament.

"Mr Krum," Mr Crouch shook the bag and held it out open for him.

Krum didn't hesitate and plunged his hand into the bag.

"The Chinese Fireball," Crouch made a soft hissing noise, almost like the ones from within the bag, and the number three hung from its neck.

"Mr Diggory," Bagman said as Cedric hesitated for a moment before pulling the third dragon from the bag, a small number one hanging from its neck.

"Swedish Short-Snout," Mr Crouch said, "Mr P..."

"Rogers," Bagman quickly cut in, nodding to Isaac, "On you go,"

Isaac remembered what the fourth dragon was as he dipped his hand into the bag.

"The Hungarian Horntail," Mr Crouch said, looking at the spiky miniature in Isaac's hand. A number four hanging from its neck, mildly chewed by what was probably another dragon.

"Now," Bagman clapped his hands together, "We've got to go to the judging table.

Mr Diggory, you may enter the arena at the sound of the cannon,"

Cedric nodded and sat down in the small partition he had been pacing in before.

Bagman nodded to Isaac as he left, a spring in his step once more.

There was silence for a moment in the tent... before...

"O-Oh," a voice sung softly, "Oh, death... Oh, death... Oh death, won't you spare me over another," everyone turned to see Isaac leaning back in his chair.

Isaac frowned when an unknown voice began to hum along with him.

"My Grandfather is big Ralph Stanley fan," Krum shrugged.

"It iz rather morbid, iz it not?" Fleur asked, looking between the two of them.

"I like it, calms me down," Isaac shrugged as the sound of a cannon echoed through the grounds, various roars responded and each champion looked off towards the entrance that the judges had gone down.

Cedric gulped and walked down the path, a distant chant of his name just reached them.

Krum took up the circuit that Cedric had been pacing before leaving.

The three of them could hear Bagman's commentary throughout Cedric's run at his dragon.

"You know," Isaac said after a while, "If neither of you two are wanting to keep those little dragon things, I've got a friend back home who has asked me, sometimes even before I've gotten in the door, if I've seen a dragon yet,"

Fleur snorted and tossed her hair back.

"And you think that he vould like zhese?" she asked airily.

"I repeat, year after year he has asked me if I've seen a dragon yet," Isaac said, "I'm giving him mine for Christmas," he watched the small version of the Horntail run around the palm of his hand, "The one good thing to come out of this tournament so far, it's saved me a bit of Christmas shopping,"

The Mini-Horntail shook it's head and snapped at the finger that Isaac put forward to stroke the spins on the back of its neck.

Fleur got up and walked over to him, the small model of the Common Welsh Green in her hands.

"Here," she said, holding it out.

"Merci, mademoiselle Delacour," Isaac said and Fleur blinked.

"Tu parle Francais?" she said with a small smirk.

"En petite peu," Isaac replied, "Je vis avec quelqu'un qui bilingue,"

Fleur nodded before sitting down on the desk next to him.

"So... you are in your... fourth year?" she asked.

"Yeah," Isaac said, wondering why she had such an interest in him suddenly.

Fleur hummed just before the noise of a cheering crowd erupted through the air.

"You're up," Isaac said, nodding towards the entrance.

Fleur got to her feet, slightly shaking, and walked off when the cannon sounded a second time.

"OI!" Isaac yelped, "No fighting!" he tried to keep the two dragons from snapping at each other, putting them on the desk to try and separate them.

After a few minutes, Isaac managed to get them to leave the other alone, bribing them with a piece of ham from the platter of sandwiches that had been set out for them before placing them carefully in his bag.

He checked where Krum was looking before taking something out and stuffing them inside his hoody pocket.

"Here," Krum said when the cannon went off for a third time, calling him out.

In his hand was the Chinese Fireball.

"Oh, thanks," Isaac said.

Krum merely nodded before walking off.

Isaac had to repeat the process of teaching the models not to attack each other and soon all three of them were coiled in small mounds on the desk, watching him as he carefully moved them into his bag.

"Now stay there," Isaac said as he put some more pieces of ham taken from the sandwiches in, "I'll be back later," he whispered as he took his glasses off and stowed them in his bag next to them.

He smiled for a moment at the sight of the Horntail chewing on his glasses, hoping that this wasn't the universe's idea of foreshadowing.

Thoughts buzzed through his head faster than a swarm of bees buzzing around his head as he walked down the small tunnel to the enclosure.

The people chanting his name grew quieter as he stepped into the arena.

It was like someone had taken a chunk out of a gravel quarry and dumped it in a hole in the ground.

In the middle was a sort of rocky nest where multiple greyish eggs, the size of ostrich eggs, were nestled... with one gleaming gold egg.

Isaac paused for a moment, the air around the arena tense, and withdrew something from within his pocket.

He fastened his goggles and face mask, making sure that they wouldn't slip off, and dropped into the arena.

A spiky tail whipped over his head as he did so.

The Horntail had been watching him. Disguised, rather well, Isaac had to admit, against the stone enclosure by staying deathly still.

Isaac crept around the edge of the enclosure, keeping an ear strained for any sounds that the Horntail might have been making.

His breathing was slow and even as he raised his wand to the sky.

" _Accio_ Firebolt!" he shouted before running to dodge a spurt of fire that was sent in the small rocky trench he had been in as the Horntail fired at where the noise came from.

Isaac spared a quick thought of annoyance at the squeals of fear from the crowd watching as he ran up a rock face and over a quick flat area, rolling back down into the rocky trench around the edge as another spurt of fire rippled over the space he had been just before.

"... a skilful dodge there, very skilful indeed, can he..."

'Can you shut up!' Isaac was getting tired of Bagman's commentary.

A faint whistling could be heard through the air and Isaac smirked under his facemask.

His Firebolt was flying through the air towards the enclosure... with something else...

Isaac took off running back through the trench, towards the small rocky build-up, and back up into the open, keeping an eye on the broomstick hurtling towards him.

He leapt up onto a series of rocks that led to a decently sized boulder and leapt into the air, turning and grabbing a hold of his broomstick, swinging himself on as another torrent of flames blasted through the air behind him.

A cackle left Isaac as he corkscrewed into the air.

" _Diffindo_ ," he muttered, pointing his wand at the duct tape holding the bag to his broomstick, not wanting to bother with the hassle of trying to yank it free, and slipping the bag on.

"Showtime," Isaac muttered to himself, looping the dragon.

"My goodness! He can fly, are you..."

"SHUT UP!" Isaac roared at Bagman as he passed the judges table.

He rummaged through the bag, trying to find the goodies that Toby and L.J had prepared.

His hand found a small series of bumps tied together with string, the label tied to them read ~D-STRAC~

'Distraction,' Isaac mentally translated.

The fuse whipped around the air before Isaac grabbed it and, with a quick flick of his wrist, ignited with the blue flames.

He let them fall as he shot up above the Horntail's head, watching as they fell down before...

Loud cracks echoed around and sparks shot every which way, causing more shrieks from the audience.

The Horntail roared in anger at the noise and lights that came from nowhere, whipping its tail through the air to try and get rid of them.

Isaac dove past the Horntail, close to where the nest was, but the Horntail flexed her wing and he broke off to avoid getting hit.

'Alright... one down, what's next?' he thought as he circled the Horntail once again.

The next thing he pulled from the bag seemed like someone had wrapped a football in duct tape and had the label ~HEDACHE~

'Headache,' Isaac thought, 'It's one more letter, why...'

He was forced to abandon that train of thought when the Horntail sent more fire his way.

A sigh turned into a yelp when he saw that the Horntail had caught the fuse for the latest goody from his bag and threw it over his shoulder.

It landed within the rocky trench, not that far away from where the Horntail was curled around.

Isaac reached back into the bag and pulled out a series of containers on a sash.

"Smoke grenades?" Isaac almost paused in mid-air, 'Can't use these...'

Before Isaac could finish that thought a loud crack tore through the air, quickly followed by a series of magenta coloured sparks and flares shooting into the air, that came from within the trench where the ~HEDACHE~ had fallen down into the enclosure.

The Horntail roared, rearing its head and spreading her wings out, as she let loose another torrent of fire at where the package had landed.

Isaac dived down, pulling the sash of smoke grenades over his shoulder seeing his chance to get underneath and...

"GYAH!" the Horntail's tail whipped around, blindsiding him, and cut him in the upper of his shoulder.

It caught on the upper of his hoody and tore through.

Isaac went wide-eyed, and felt an ill-timed sense of being impressed, as his hoody caught on the talon that cut him and pulled him off the broom, watching it fly off into a tree.

The crowd gasped as Isaac fell down and...

"What?" Isaac paused as...

"OH GOD!" Isaac yelped as he found himself rolling down the dragon's still outstretched wing.

His foot found a bone in the wing and he pushed himself up into a running position.

'I'MRUNNINGONADRAGON!' the thought raced through his head as he jumped from the wing to the dragon's back, dodging the series of spikes protruding from her back, as he slid down back onto the ground.

"I have a use for these now!" Isaac panted as he pulled the pins on all the smoke grenades, tossing the sash at the ground in front of the Horntail.

He ran up the small rocky ground that made the nest, grabbing the golden egg as he leapt over the nest, and paused right under the Horntail's chest.

Its head was swaying slightly and Isaac had to crouch to make sure he didn't bump into her as she lowered herself, unable to find him.

Isaac carefully slipped the backpack off of his back, his lungs starting to protest as he didn't know when he last took a breath, and lit his hands.

He watched as the fabric of the bag caught fire and he threw it forward, out from under the Horntail, and into the open.

The Horntail watched the flaming backpack land on the ground a good few metres away, the

flames clearing a small section of the smoke caused by the smoke grenades, and...

She let out a deafening roar as the bag exploded.

Multi-coloured sparks flew every which direction and the Horntail shook her head, trying to make sense of the din.

"IHATETHIS!" a blur ran out from underneath the Horntail, "IHATETHIS! I HATE THIS! I... HATE... THIS!" Isaac yelled as he leapt over the small rocky trench and back into the tunnel that led to the champions tent, the golden egg clutched tightly to his chest.

Then there was silence, save for the agitated roars of the Horntail.

Then there was an explosion of cheers, screams of joy, and chants of Isaac's name.

The aforementioned teen was currently collapsed on the floor of the tent, the egg to his side, as he panted heavily... before breaking out in maniacal laughter.

"ISAAC!" a voice he knew well called out.

When Hermione followed closely by someone else that Isaac couldn't see, he was laughing too hard, entered the tent they found him lying on the ground in hysterics.

"IPARKOUREDONADRAGON!" Isaac wheezed.

"W-what?" Blaise couldn't help but chuckle.

"I... I park..." Isaac broke off in another wheeze, "I parkoured a dragon," he managed to giggle.

"Is it wrong that I kinda want to do it again?" he asked them.

Hermione and Blaise shared a quick glance.

"Yes," they both said at the same time.

"You're not the twins, so it doesn't count," Isaac muttered, his chest still shaking from contained laughter.

"What?" Blaise asked while Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Ignore it," she said, "You should go get your shoulder checked out,"

"Eh," Isaac muttered, "It's fi... IT IS NOT FINE! OWW!"

As Isaac had shrugged a searing pain had torn through his arm, coming from the gash in his shoulder.

"Maybe you have a point," Isaac winced as he got up, Blaise grabbing his uninjured arm to help him up.

Hermione and Blaise led him to a tent where Madam Pomfrey was tending to the other contestants.

"Last year Dementors, this year dragons," Madam Pomfrey fumed to herself, "Whatever next?"

She sat Isaac down and got him to remove the hoody.

Isaac felt a feeling of something akin to nausea as he looked at the hole from where the spike of the Horntail's tail had caught him.

He winced, clenching his teeth, as Madam Pomfrey dabbed at the gash with a purple liquid that burned, though the feeling was quickly gone as she drew her wand over the cut and it healed.

Isaac watched as his skin grew back, chuckling as the tingle of pain left him, before looking back at...

His hoody had vanished from his lap as he had watched the skin regrow.

"Here," Hermione said, handing him back his hoody, "I know I'm not so good with the charm, but..."

Isaac waved her silent as he looked at the recently repaired gash.

"Hermione... I think I need to get this to a tailer to get the same on the other side," Isaac said, pulling it back on.

The cut hadn't gone from front to back, more torn diagonally in a sort of dilapidated triangle to the joining stitches to the sleeve.

Hermione's fix had given it this line of stitching along the two tears, forming a triangle that pointed to the neck.

He pulled it on, enjoying having full mobility of his right arm again, and poked at the stitching.

"It looks awesome," he said, "Like a battle scar for clothes,"

Hermione flushed, bowing her head, but Isaac could still see the smile she wore.

"C'mon," Blaise said, "They'll be showing your score now,"

Isaac got up and rolled his neck.

Blaise led them out to a bit of the stands, hanging back so that Isaac could go forward.

The surrounding students cheered when they saw him, thunderous applause echoed around the forest, before going silent as they turned to the judges' table.

"You're marked, out of a total of ten, points being taken off for injury, but awarded for style, use of magic..." Hermione whispered to him, but she stopped when Madame Maxine raised her wand.

A piece of long silver ribbon shot out from her wand and twisted into a large figure eight.

Hermione clutched Isaac's arm as the students clapped.

Mr Crouch raised his wand, and another nine shot out of the wand, Dumbledore doing the same after a few seconds later.

Isaac smiled and patted Hermione's arm as she counted up the numbers.

"Eight... seventeen... twenty-six... _thirty-six_!" she gasped when Bagman sent out a perfect score of ten into the air.

"Not to rain on your parade, but he really should have taken points off for your..." Blaise trailed off as Isaac hummed.

"... like an eternal eclipse you shine, so make it rain... sorry, might still be a little... thingy from adrenaline," he said, turning back to see Karkaroff put his wand into the air and...

"... ok, that is the exact opposite of Ludo's... what is his face?" Blaise laughed as Karkaroff did a double take at the six he had shot into the air.

"Thirty-six... _fourty-two_!" Hermione gasped, "Isaac, you're in the lead!"

"I'm... I'm what?" Isaac looked at the roaring crowds.

"Dude, Krum was the highest scorer before you, and he only got fourty," Blaise told him.

"I'm..." Isaac was cut off when Blaise made an odd noise before quickly running off.

A few seconds later Isaac was swept up by the Gryffindors from the crowd picked Isaac up onto their shoulders.

"Whoa!" he yelped as everyone started to carry him off, "Hermione! My bag's still in the tent!"

He could just make out the sight of a bushy head of hair jog off towards the tent where he left the bag with the...

Maybe he should have warned her that there were three mini-dragons inside it.

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End notes.

Ok, I hope that I didn't disappoint with this chapter, it's been building for a while.

There are a few points when writing this that I had to pause to laugh, you can guess what they were, probably.

But, I actually go this finished on Tuesday, and I've started writing the EXTRAS chapter!

You'll be getting the twins causing chaos very shortly.

But, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I wish that I had something to go up on Halloween.

CreepyPasta story... and I didn't do anything for Halloween... bit of a failure on my part there.

What else to talk about before finishing... OH! I went to my work induction wearing black sclera contact lenses... and my Eyeless Jack mask... might have face painted some black streaks down my face...

Ok, I went to my job induction dressed as Eyeless Jack.

But... I think I _killed_ it, hehehehehe...

Ok, I'll stop now...

But, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you in the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	58. Chapter 58, Downtime

Chapter 58, Downtime.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Ok, last weeks chapter seemed to go down a storm, glad that you all liked the twists that I threw in there.

So... I had a fun night.

When I uploaded last weeks chapter it was right before another social night with my Network group.

It was the third time that we've arranged one and it was the third time that it was just me and another guy there.

So, basically, we've started the conspiracy that the member who arranges them is trying to set us up together...

... and it may or may not be working...

Anyway, the conspiracies of my dating life aside, I've got to get to the story.

And nothing from DP this week, but thank you to her for always checking my chapter over for me... when I remember to actually attach it to the email...

Hey everyone! Welcome back! Please enjoy the chapter.

If you put something here, then I'll change some stuff.

Right then, onto the chapter...

Hope you all like it!

SteamGeek01.

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The Mansion.

Everyone was feeling tense.

Most of the ones gathered there were waiting in the living room for the sight of a snow white owl flying over the trees.

If that wasn't enough, there was the steady shuffling of cards as Toby dealt out another game of solitaire to play.

Masky may or may not have bought a couple of new sets of fire extinguishers.

One of those sets might or might not have been stashed behind the chair he was currently sitting on.

There was only one of them that was not sitting inside the living room, which was Ben.

The blonde was currently drifting in the cyberspace of The Mansion, every so often they could catch a flicker of him inside the t.v.

Toby flicked the card over, moving one stack to add it to another, and looked at the small number two printed on the card.

He paused for a moment before gathering them all up.

"Where are you going?" Masky asked, slowly reaching behind him.

"Training room," Toby said, shuffling the cards, "Want to try something,"

"Ok," Masky said, not moving his hand from around the handle of the fire extinguisher he had found.

A few minutes passed, then Toby came back through and...

There were quite a few confused looks when he passed them by, on his way back, while juggling three sweet potatoes.

Stares followed him as he passed.

"Ok..." Clockwork said, "I both want to, and don't want to, know what he is doing..."

There were a few more seconds of silence before every head in the room turned to look at Liu.

The aforementioned scarred killer closed his eyes and softly sighed before patting the armrest he had been leaning on as he got up and went to go see what Toby was up to.

It had been a couple of minutes after Liu left the room that Helen got up and walked over to the window, throwing it open.

A snowy white owl flew into the room, two letters attached to her legs.

"Moment of truth," Teer muttered, setting the letter with Ben's name aside on the coffee table.

"Wait!" Clockwork's urgent voice stopped before Helen could open the other letter.

"What?" Masky asked, looking around and seeing if he could smell anything burning.

"Do we _really_ want to open Toby's mail right now?" she asked.

There were a few tense moments of silence.

"You take it to him," Helen said, shoving it off onto her.

"Why me?" Clockwork asked, shoving it back to him.

"You're his ex, you take it," Helen said, pushing it back into her hands.

"I ain't his ex," Clockwork hissed, passing the letter round to Hoodie.

"Really?" Masky frowned, "Then how do you two know each other?" he asked as Hoodie gave the letter back to Clockwork.

"Well..."

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Hardly anyone was out this late at night, most had retreated behind locked doors and drawn curtains until the dawning sun broke through the sky.

A few ramblers were still out, making their way home out of the pubs under the cloud-spattered sky.

Laughter came from a group of four, that...

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"Stories can come later, just take him the damn letter!" Masky said when Jeff threw it back at her, having gotten it from Teer, who had gotten it from L.J, who had been slapped in the face with it by Clockwork.

"Fine," Clockwork huffed, snatching it up off the ground and walking off to the training room.

She paused for a moment before raising a hand and knocking on the door.

"You two decent in there?" she asked, giving it another couple of seconds before opening the door.

"Hey, Clock," Toby said, unnaturally calm.

Liu was stood next to him, a stool with half a deck of cards lying on the top between them, and...

"Ok... why are there potatoes on the other stool?" she asked.

"Target practice," Toby said, flinging his arm forward and releasing a card.

The card spun through the air, it's edge impaling itself inside the potato.

Liu picked up a card, though his missed.

"Alright... you got a lett..."

Before she could finish, Toby had spun around ran towards her.

Clockwork took a half-step backwards on instinct, gave him the letter, and retreated back to the living room where she knew Masky had the fire extinguishers.

"What's it say?" Liu asked, putting the card he had picked up back on the stool.

Toby was silent, his leg and hand twitched every so often as he read the letter.

"Toby?" he placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

Toby didn't respond right away, slowly turning to face him as a wide smile spread across his face.

"He's in the lead," Toby said.

Liu blinked.

"He's... he's winning?" a chuckle of relief escaped him.

"Yeah," Toby kept reading the letter, "Oh my GOD!"

"What?" Liu tried to read the letter in Toby's hand.

"He... he..." Toby broke off in a wheeze, "He... he parkoured his way across the dragon's back!"

Liu did a double take and grabbed the letter as Toby dropped it.

"Oh my..." he and Toby were soon doubled over in laughter.

Meanwhile, in the living room.

"Think it's safe to put them away yet?" Masky asked Hoodie, holding up the fire extinguisher.

Hoodie tilted his head for a moment before shaking it.

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Hogwarts.

Isaac laughed as he was carried up the slope towards the castle.

Charlie Weasley had quickly run over to congratulate him before going back to the enclosures to help make sure that none of the dragons went on a rampage.

They thankfully let him down before they got to the portrait so that he didn't have to worry about being slammed headfirst into the stone wall or ceiling around the portrait.

Fred and George had split off for a moment when they got into the entrance hall, but they soon reappeared with arms laden with all sorts of food from the kitchens.

Words of congratulations and support now echoed around Isaac, until everything went silent as a rapping noise came from the portrait.

Professor McGonagall walked up, looking around the room at the people trying to subtly hide the food behind their backs.

"Mr Rogers?" she asked, looking around... before quickly glancing at the ceiling, just in case.

"Yeah?" Isaac asked, making his way over.

"You were carried off before the officials could explain the second task," she said.

"Ah," Isaac groaned slightly.

"So, they asked me to deliver the information for the second task.

You must figure out the message of the egg, as it is a vital part of understanding what the second task will be," she finished.

"Thank you," Isaac nodded.

Professor McGonagall nodded before turning to leave.

"Also, none of the staff are going to retrieve your Firebolt," she added.

A quick blur passed her by as Isaac nearly threw himself back down the portrait hole to go retrieve his broom.

A faint chant of, "... dammit, dammit, dammit..." could just be heard as Isaac ran down the corridor.

Just a few seconds later, Isaac ran back into the common room.

"Better idea!" he leapt up onto an armchair next to a window and sticking his arm out.

A few moments later Isaac had summoned his broom for a second time that day before he took it upstairs to shove under his bed.

"Well..." Professor McGonagall said, looking around at the still slightly shuffling students, "I'll let you get on,"

She turned and ducked her head down to avoid hitting the low stone ceiling, a small smirk on her face, as the portrait swung itself shut behind her.

Throughout the common room, there was silence.

Everyone in the room awkwardly swayed where they stood, none of them really knowing what to say or do.

"Isaac's in the lead!" Lee Jordan cheered.

There was another moment of silence before three or four people gave solitary whoops, others joining in until the cheering crescendo that had been going on as Isaac was carried up the stairs returned.

Pats on the back surrounded Isaac, though the ones on his shoulders still made him tense a little but, amidst the support, he couldn't keep the small smile off his face.

The golden egg that had been sitting on the table was picked up by Seamus, who tossed it to him after holding it tenderly for a moment.

"Go on, then," he said, his voice matching the eagerness in his and the other Gryffindor's eyes, "What's the clue?"

Isaac glanced down at the egg, following the small grooves that ran its length from top to bottom.

He frowned when he found matching grooves that led down to small bars that stuck out near the base.

'Hinges...' Isaac glanced back up and smiled.

"Should I?" he asked the small crowd around him, wincing slightly at the eruption of cheers from everyone.

He shrugged and found the edges of the grooves, digging his nails into them, and...

The egg slipped out from his grip slightly as a grating shriek filled the room, everyone had their hands in their ears, and Isaac slammed the egg back together before throwing it on a chair.

"The hell was that?" Isaac asked, looking at the golden egg as if it was about to explode.

"Sounded like a Banshee," Seamus shivered, edging away from the egg on the chair.

"It was someone being tortured," Neville stammered, "You've got to fight the Cruciatus Curse..."

Isaac frowned for a moment as George pointed out that the curse was illegal.

Yeah, the loud noise had sounded like a scream, but it was more like the screech of an animal than someone crying out in pain... and how did Neville even know what the sound was?

"... the custard creams that you've got to watch out for," Fred said with a wink at Isaac, who had just realised that he had gotten lost in his own thoughts again.

Hermione rolled her eyes as she took a tart off of the small tray, looking at it thoughtfully.

"Where did you get all of this anyway?" she asked innocently.

"From the kitchens," Fred said, watching Neville, who had just taken a bite of a custard cream.

"You managed to get to the kitchens?" Hermione let out a quick scoff, "How do you even get in there?"

"Portrait of a fruit bowl, tickle the pear, and it..." he broke off and eyed her suspiciously, "Why?"

"I just thought it was..." she started but before she could say anything else Neville turned into a large canary.

There were a few shrieks of surprise from the surrounding Gryffindors as Neville let out a startled squawk and turned back into his normal, though now bright red, self.

"Canary Creams!" George announced, holding up a plate of them, "George and I's latest invention!"

Applause surrounded him as he called for George to get up on the table he was currently standing on with him.

"Be right back," Fred said with a wink, joining George up on the table to the sound of applause, even Neville was sheepishly clapping his hands.

Isaac rested against a, somehow, quiet spot on the wall in the busy room.

He was clapping his hands along with everyone else, but his eyes were focussed on something different... someone different.

Later that evening, Isaac was brushing his teeth when there came a knock at the door.

"Just brushing my teeth," Isaac called, bringing the toothbrush back to his mouth.

Neville ducked inside with him, his own toothbrush in hand.

Isaac moved a little to let Neville in by the sink.

"What'd you think of the task?" Isaac asked as Neville soaked the bristles of his brush.

"Oh... it was... entertaining," Neville said with a small laugh after a moment, "Where did you get all those... explosions?"

"Toby has a masters in Pyrotechnics," Isaac said, "He does bomb disposal consultations time to time, but mostly he does small movie stuff, the kind that people make in their garden because they can't afford to go out and shoot stuff,"

"Sounds... cool," Neville said, not really sure of what else to say.

Isaac hummed as Neville started his brushing his teeth, giving it a minute before...

"So who do you know that got tortured with that curse?" he asked.

Neville coughed and spat out a large amount of toothpaste over the mirror.

Isaac lent him a hand, patting him gently on the back, as Neville held onto the countertop.

"W-what?" he asked, slowly catching his breath, "W-why would you... no one.

I-I don't know a-anyone who has,"

There was a tense moment before Isaac flicked his wand at the mirror, muttering a spell to clean it.

"Nev," Isaac said slowly, "I have this odd little trick.

I can't be lied to," he explained calmly, "I have been able to tell when someone's lying to me for years now,"

Neville looked at him with wide eyes.

"Y-you can really tell?" he asked in a quiet voice, looking at him with fearful eyes.

"Yep, back home they've already banned me from any card games when they're playing for something, whether it be actual money, or sweets, or, in the rare occasion, Toby's waffles,"

Neville's wide eyes hadn't changed, just that his skin had gotten gradually paler.

"And the way you reacted to that... noise," he still didn't know what to call it, "So... how do you know?"

His query was met with silence, Neville's normally slightly tanned skin, from spending a fair portion of his spare time in the Greenhouses, had grown paler still.

Isaac sighed and glanced around the room.

"Or... do you not want to talk about it?" he asked.

"I... I'd prefer not to," Neville's quiet voice retained it's quiver.

"Alright," Isaac said with a shrug, putting his toothbrush back and walking out.

"Wait... that's it?" Neville asked.

Isaac frowned and turned back to face him.

"Well... yeah," he shrugged, "It was only my own curiosity that had me asking really.

Can't get it from you, so I'm not going to pester you about it,"

Neville looked at him with confusion.

A moment ago, he had felt like he had been trapped in a room with a starved, rabid, wolf.

Now... now he only saw the happy American that considered him a friend.

"So... what happens now?" he asked.

"Well," Isaac bowed his head, a grin growing on his face, and when he looked back up at Neville...

Neville took a half-step back on instinct, he felt like he was trapped with that wolf again.

"Now?" Isaac tilted his head a little to the side, "I have just fought a dragon. I now have to decipher the meaning behind what sounded like an Aztec death whistle being blown by a leaf blower by February. But, before that? I'm gonna have some downtime,"

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There was a still air around Hogwarts that morning, nary a breeze ghosting its way across the grounds or through the forest.

The trees swayed the smallest amount, the sky was patched with the occasional cloud, and there seemed to have been a quieting of all the woodland creatures living nearby.

Even the Whomping Willow seemed less active.

For some reason... everyone, from the ghosts, to the many, many, painted figures within the castle, and all its students, felt like something was... off...

And sitting at the Gryffindor table, was one student who knew exactly why everything felt a little off.

"Hermione," Isaac turned to his friend, "Would you kindly pass the crumpets and jam?"

The aforementioned bookworm obliged in passing him the plate.

Isaac took one off, lightly spreading some raspberry jam over its surface, before returning to his tea and reading the morning paper... internally, however, he was cackling like the wicked witch of the west's coffee addicted sister.

"Isaac... do you feel... a little odd?" Hermione asked as they made their way back to the Gryffindor tower to grab anything that they might have forgotten before morning class that day.

"I _know_ that there is something odd going on," Isaac replied, "One could almost say that there's something slightly skewed this morning,"

Hermione stopped, bowed her head with a sigh, and jogged to catch up with him.

"What did you do?" she asked.

"Hmm..." Isaac hummed, "Look at the pictures," was all he said.

Hermione frowned and looked at the many portraits that surrounded the walls of the staircases... before the quizzical look upon her face started to morph into one of understanding.

She held up her hands, making a frame with her thumbs and forefingers, before looking closer at them.

"Isaac... you didn't..." but she already knew the answer by his reaction.

"I did not get much sleep last night," Isaac giggled, pointing at the slightly greyed skin under his eyes.

"You... you didn't,"

All Isaac did was giggle more as they continued their walk through the corridor, surrounded by the many, many, portraits that were hanging just ever so slightly crooked.

Care of Creatures that morning heralded the mildly useless fact that the skrewts did not like being forced into crates filled with dry leaves and other bedding.

The lesson plan of getting the Skrewts to hibernate was quickly abandoned for another round of 'round up the slugs of Satan'.

"My, that seems..." a voice that made Isaac feel a slight flare of the anger that he had once felt for Lockhart burn within him.

Isaac turned to see Rita Skeeter leaning against the fence, watching the scene before her.

He did not like the look on her face.

"Who're you?" Hagrid asked as he restrained a skrewt that had been trying to go after Lavender and Parvati.

"Rita Skeeter, _Daily Prophet_ reporter," she said as if the name was to be revered.

"Thought Dumbledore said you weren't allowed in the school anymore," Hagrid said and Isaac got the idea that he was right to not like the sight of her here.

He watched as Rita tried to needle some information out from Hagrid about the skrewts, eventually, they agreed to meet up at the Three Broomsticks so that Rita could 'do an article on the skrewts'.

"This isn't going to end well," Isaac muttered as they walked back to the castle.

"You don't think that Hagrid broke any laws to get them, do you?" Hermione looked worried as Hagrid didn't exactly have the best record with his creatures.

"Doesn't matter," Isaac said, "She's a reporter, and not one with the best of track records from what I've heard. She's going to get a harsh wake-up call one day,"

Classes for the day seemed to go slower now that the first task had come and gone, the excitement for the second task dimmed by it being months away instead of a couple of weeks.

Isaac felt like he owed the school a little excitement to tide them over, spending the library session that day looking through a small book that may or may not have contained an extended selection of items that L.J sold.

His perusing of L.J's catalogue was put on hold when he heard Hermione groan under her breath.

"Something stumped you?" he asked.

"What?" she glanced at him, looking away from the rack of the library that had prior occupied her gaze, "No, it's _him_ ,"

Isaac leant back in his chair and looked at the person that Hermione had nodded towards.

Viktor Krum was standing a few shelves away, idly looking at the covers of a few books.

"He never does anything," Hermione muttered, "And then there's... _them_ ,"

A small group of Hogwarts students, various houses, and all of them girls, snuck through the Library, one of whom had tied a Bulgarian scarf around her waist.

Isaac frowned and turned back to face Hermione.

"Want to try a trial for my migraine remover?" he asked, another wide grin on his face.

Hermione sighed and gave a small nod.

"Go for it," she said.

Isaac gave her a brief salute before sneaking off, far stealthier than the groupie, and came up behind them.

He hid behind a stack of shelves, rummaging in his pockets for something he had grabbed while Hermione went for a spare book of runes.

Another quick glance around had him casually walk past them, dropping something small in one of their bags.

Hermione frowned as Isaac sat back down, an apparently satisfied smirk on his face.

"That's it?" she asked, the muttering debate of who would approach Krum first still ongoing.

"Give it a moment," Isaac said.

A few seconds later, faint wisps of smoke started rising through the bag Isaac had passed.

The curling tendrils of smoke got the attention of the ruthlessly defensive Madam Pince and soon she had descended upon the group, threatening to march them down to the Infirmary for smoking within the Library.

All of the group scattered immediately, running away as fast as they could.

"Ta-da!" Isaac whispered, waving his hands like a showman.

Hermione rolled her eyes, returning to her book in the now quiet library.

Isaac glanced down at the catalogue before deciding to switch to a different one.

Christmas was coming, after all, and he might have gotten Ben's gift sorted out already, the three mini-dragons were currently resting inside his trunk inside a box enchanted fireproof by Hermione, but that didn't mean he was out of the woods just yet.

Sally had seemed very excited by what might be happening at Christmas because of the trip to watch the Quidditch cup, and now that he wasn't going home to celebrate it, he had better come up with something good for her in return.

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The Mansion.

He didn't consider himself easily stumped... but this year seemed to be his undoing.

A sigh escaped his lips as he sat back up...

And let his head fall down onto the desk with a thud, picking it up, letting it fall.

The number of times that his head hit the desk was lost to him as he sighed again.

"So... how's the shopping going?" a faux cheery voice asked.

Ben picked his head up and turned to face Liu.

"It's going marvellously," he replied, every word dripping with overly saturated sarcasm.

Liu rolled his eyes as he walked over to Ben's desk.

"Ok, what have you thought of so far?" he asked, pulling over a spare chair.

"Well..." Ben looked over the scraps of paper before him, "I thought of trying to find some more powerful books on magic to get him, but I can't get find any traces of them online, and I can't go to the stores to get them since Slendy won't open any portals... plus, I feel like I'd need to get Masky or Hoodie to buy them for me since they probably won't sell to someone who looks fourteen.

I thought about some stuff for explosives, but we send him supplies anyway...

I thought, maybe some stuff for the walkman, or Gameboy, but L.J's said Toby's already asked him to make some more songs to go for it, and those cards hold pretty much every game you could play on it..."

Ben sighed and let his head fall on the desk again.

"Ok, so you're stuck?" Liu nodded.

"What gave it away?" came the slightly muffled reply.

Liu rolled his eyes for a second time.

"Right.

Books, out.

Walkman and games, out.

Explosives, he has enough anyway.

So... that leaves you with?" he asked, trying to get Ben to come to the conclusion on his own.

All he got in response was a blank look.

"Something personal," Liu said, "Maybe practical, but something that he would appreciate,"

"So... get him something... that he appreciates," Ben muttered dryly.

"Ok, maybe I could have worded that a little better," Liu sighed, "My point is, you don't have to spend so much time trying to think of the one perfect gift.

Just get him something that shows you care for him that can be used for the now,"

Ben nodded.

Liu had made an admittedly good point, but what was Isaac in need of right...

A quick hand was all that stopped Liu from falling backwards as Ben bolted from the chair and into the screen.

"Glad to be of help," Liu said to an empty room a couple of minutes later when it was obvious that Ben was gone.

He closed the door, a small smile of content upon his face, knowing that what Ben was doing would either turn out well... or hilariously extra.

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Endnotes.

Right-y ho!

No, that was not the general direction of the nearest thot in my area.

That's another chapter, and I've got to figure out what to do for next week...

Probably more of my particular style of chaos in the way of Isaac relaxing a little.

But, anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this weeks chapter, and I hope that I'm able to finish the next one that little bit earlier than I did this one, sorry it was a little later than usual.

But, there was definitely one very big change this time, wasn't there?

Anyway, I've got reviews to answer.

 **(X) review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Thank you!

Everything in the bag was from Toby.

 **(X) review (X)**

Alliycat8;

My word document didn't try to autocomplete your name, that means you're new.

WELCOME!

I've only recently learned about the Dusklit Circus, so until I learn more about it, not right now, but there'll probably be a reference or something later on.

 **(X) review (X)**

.549;

ha ha ha ha...

Get your ass back in here and make more jokes and puns!

That might have given me a small case of the giggles.

 **(X) review (X)**

Flippy the Demon;

WELCOME!

I haven't written any Pokemon stuff, but I have written a few battles.

Here are some hints.

++Make each action its own sentence, or if it chains then split it with an Oxford comma.

++Avoid starting each action the same way, i.e; "He swung... He rolled... He dodged... He threw..." it breaks it up better and doesn't make it seem like you've just copied and pasted each action over again. It's something kinda common in some of my earlier work, and it's something that really makes me cringe when I come back to it.

++Don't beg bogged down in the details, but don't oversimplify. If someone gets hit with something, don't describe every little detail about it, keep it simple and save the details for after if they're checking the fighter over.

Can't really give you much more than that, hope it helps.

 **(X) review (X)**

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

I get open permission to do to my brothers as they do to me, as long as they don't bleed and I don't break anything.

You'll see a bit of Hermione's reaction later.

 **(X) review (X)**

iCPM;

Yay! You're not dead!

That's always something to be happy about.

That doesn't sound too good, hope that you feel better.

Ok... as disturbing as it might seem... it is kinda cool that you have a picture of your brain.

Erm... no spoilers...

Pairing names, that's always handy since someone asked about them.

DigitalMagic for Isaac/Ben.

FireSlash for Toby/Liu... ok, sure, why not?

I am not putting Jane and Jeff together in any way other than in an arena so they beat the crap out of each other.

Hope that you feel better!

Now that is devotion.

 **(X) review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Rita's eventual punishment will be...

'turns into John Simms Master'

 _Spectacular_!

Oi! That's my word... but yeah, Ron's eventual going will be as well.

Ooh! Salt lamp sounds fun!

I enjoyed the first task, and how could I not have him parkour across a dragon?

Ben's reaction is going to be brilliant, and I can't wait for it either!

Hehehehe... maybe... maybe...

I enjoyed Halloween, didn't quite get to do everything I wanted to do since a couple of my friends were unavailable to go out for drinks.

Hope this chapter lives up to your expectations.

Aww, nice grandma.

I loved it!

 **(X) review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

It shall sail forever more.

Maybe Fleur noticed, maybe not... we'll see...

Oh, it would be very interesting if she found out about Toby's alter ego.

 **(X) review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Thank you!

Trust me, there shall be more antics.

 **(X) review (X)**

Honebar;

Hell yeah, it was!  
That friendship is going strong, unlike some other ones.

I'm fairly sure that Toby is unmatched in terms of destructive nature.

I always liked them as well, and never finding out what Harry did with the Mini-Horntail.

Well, thank god that Ben can get the memory from Isaac's head, or wait and get Teer to nab it. Either way, it's being saved on Ben's laptop one way or another.

It was fun, and if I ever decide to put the story on my Wattpad account, then I'll include pictures... I could put the fan art on the chapters as well if I did that... or the music that I was listening to when writing this... maybe, but not today.

Ok... a sentient bowl of chilli... alright.

 **(X) review (X)**

nobody51;

YES!

 **(X) review (X)**

Dex-Halo Twitches;

Yikes.

Thank you!

Well, it worked, didn't it?

 **(X) review (X)**

Fire Elemental Frank;

Hey, it's been a while.

How could I not put that line in there?

 **(X) review (X)**

Dream Bound Elemental;

Ok, now I have to...

Wait... OH! I know what chapter that is!

Hehehehehehehehehe...

I was a little cruel with that little bit, wasn't I?

 **(X) review (X)**

Kumo-No-Kuro;

Oh, hi!

Long time no see.

Ben is going to love the tiny dragons!

 **(X) review (X)**

Embersprite;

Well, you''re not the first to bring it up... let's try having the reviews at the bottom for a bit.

Let me know what you all think of them being here as opposed to the beginning.

 **(X) review (X)**

And...

'ducks'

YingYangWriter;

I most certainly did show up to my job induction dressed as Eyeless Jack, and I've got one more shift tomorrow before my first week working there is over.

It was fun, kinda more fun than I thought it would be.

Good people, good smells, I get a fair few new suggestions of what drinks to try next.

I may or may not have ended up getting saddled into dressing like Max to go with another worker's Grinch costume for Christmas.

I really like coming up with those little metaphors.

"If Toby's playing Solitaire, a Creeps day shall become a nightmare," yep, need to put that line in the story somewhere.

Also, did anyone notice the DA Games reference last chapter?

That so much fun to write!

Ben's going to crash.

You know... cause he's a data ghost... he crashed like a computer... like, he's so shocked that he goes into bluescreen... you know?

That sounds like Hoodie and Masky's reactions.

Ok... you've gotten kinda close to what one of my original ideas for that AU was.

My first idea was to have the Creeps as the characters, Jeff as Myers, Masky as The Trapper, so on, so on.

But I kinda wanted to go to the idea that they were still themselves except they still hunted down the Hogwarts students.

So it would have been Masky, or one of the others, hunting them down around the maps while the students tried to get out... and of course, it would go all DigitalMagic and I actually had a basic idea of how it would have started.

Another time, maybe.

But Jeff laughing his ass off as Jane being the Pig, or maybe the hag, is brilliant!

And, if I had to do the killers being the characters, Clockwork would be the Huntress.

The puppeteer would have been Freddy.

I've already said Jeff and Masky.

Hoodie would be the Wraith.

And that's where my ideas run down a little.

 **(X) review (X)**

Ok, that was the last review for the last chapter.

I hope you all enjoyed, and be sure to let me know what you think of the reviews being answered at the end.

See you all in the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Can't find the original creator. If you have any ideas on how to, then suggest them.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	59. Chapter 59 what

Chapter 59... what...

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

So... I wonder what's going to be happening this chapter?

That's right...

Procrastination!

How long can I stretch out the time before I start the chapter...

I know!

I'm gonna go write EXTRAS chapters...

Cya!

Ok, spent a day writing a little more for EXTRAS, and I'm back.

So... I've stopped answering the reviews until the end... it feels weird not having a large space before writing...

Oh well, time for the story!

Enjoy!

SteamGeek01.

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Isaac had almost killed one of his friends.

He had just reached the portrait to Gryffindor Tower when he had almost, out of reflex, tried to punch the throat of someone who had run up behind him and grabbed him.

The only thing that had stopped him had been the call of his name, just before he had been grabbed, and the bushy hair he saw as he spun to face Hermione.

Now, he was being pulled along the corridor by a mildly hyper Hermione.

"Not that I don't enjoy a good run," Isaac said as they waited for a set of stairs to rotate around to let them down, "But what's going on?"

"You're not going to believe this!" was all he got in response as Hermione pulled him into a large corridor.

He had been there the night before when he had been tilting every painting in the room and that had been when he had bumped into Peeves again.

It was a boon to his quest for that night, having Peeves there to help him, and he probably wouldn't have managed to finish it by the morning without his help.

The whole experience seemed to have finally gotten Peeves over his fear of him.

Hermione continued to pull on his arm until they were face to face with a portrait that featured a large bowl of fruit.

"Yes, it's a very lovely painting," Isaac said, "Wait..."

Hermione reached forward and tickled the pear.

"Hermione... please tell me that we aren't starting a protest in the kitchens," Isaac said wearily.

"No, it's not got anything to do with S.P.E.W, it's..." she was cut off after pulling Isaac through the door that had appeared by a squeal of...

"Isaac Rogers, sir, _Isaac Rogers_!" something small and fast moving latched itself around Isaac's waist.

Isaac looked down at the small thing that had begun hugging him.

"Noddy?" Isaac asked, mild shock in his voice.

"Dobby, sir," Dobby let go and looked up at him, excitement shimmering in his eyes, "Dobby has been hoping and hoping to see H-Isaac Rogers, and Isaac Rogers has come to see Dobby!"

Isaac couldn't help the little smile and chuckle at how Dobby's entire body seemed to be vibrating with happiness.

"I came down here to see what it was like for them, working conditions, safety standards, and Dobby recognised me as your friend, asked how you were, and when I asked who he was, I knew I had to go get you," Hermione explained, "Did you know that he was working here?"

"No," Isaac said, "I didn't.

How long have you been here?" he asked the small elf, patting him on the head as they walked down the room towards where all the other elves were busy cleaning up the many pots, pans, and plates that had been used at dinner that evening.

"Dobby has been here only a week, Mr Isaac Rogers, sir," Dobby said, practically skipping as he walked alongside them, "Dobby was struggling to find work for an elf that is wanting pay..." at the mention of that, some of the elves nearby shuddered and turned back to what they were doing, now ignoring the newcomers entirely, "... and then, sir, Dobby found Winky!

And Dobby..."

"Wait... did you say Winky?" Hermione asked, ignoring the snickering from Isaac.

"Yes, Miss Isaac Roger's friend," Isaac couldn't help the snort of laughter that escaped him, "Dobby was looking for a new master, and Dobby found Winky," he led them by the hands to a small soup station, where a small number of elves were preparing for the breakfast tomorrow.

"Winky was needing work too, and so, Dobby though, and thought," as if to accentuate the point, Dobby screwed his eyes up, even his ears seemed to be twisting slightly, "Where could two elves in need of work go?

And then it came to Dobby, sir, _Hogwarts_!

Hogwarts is always in needing of more elves for working, and so Dobby came to Hogwarts with Winky,"

A small elf, idly stirring soup, looked over at them.

"Winky hasn't taken to work at Hogwarts as fast as Dobby did, sir," Dobby said a little sadly, "She's is still missing her old master,"

The small elf turned back to the pot of soup, her body shaking from contained sobs.

Hermione gave a sad smile at the small elf, walking over to try and comfort her.

Winky shook away from Hermione, the stool jumping across the ground as she shuffled away.

Isaac gently led Hermione back to the table behind them, her face beginning to flush as she whispered that she had only been trying to help her.

"It's alright, I know," Isaac said, "So, what have you been up to?" he asked Dobby as another small elf quickly walked over.

"Would Mr Isaac Rogers, and his friend, like a cup of tea, sir?" it offered.

"Erm... go on, thank... blimey, that was fast," Isaac said as a silver tray laden with two china cups, a large steaming silver teapot, a decent sized bowl of sugar cubes, and a jug of milk was brought over before he could finish speaking.

Before that tray had been set down, another duo of elves brought a second platter over, weighed down with a wide variety of biscuits.

"Why haven't I come down here before?" Isaac lamented with a moan as he plopped five cubes of sugar into his tea.

"Because I'm fairly sure that all your teeth would have rotted away within the first week," Hermione said, her nose wrinkling slightly at the sight of how many cubes of sugar Isaac had put in his tea.

"... yeah, fair point," Isaac conceded, "So, what you been up to?"

Dobby told them about his travels, going from home to home trying to find work.

Hermione gave a small huff of disappointment at how many denied him work just because he wanted pay.

"... and then we came to Hogwarts, and Dumbledore was very happy to pay Dobby..." a few elves who were hovering nearby in case they asked for anything else suddenly had grimaces and hurried away to do more jobs, "... he pays Dobby a Galleon a week and a day off every month!" Dobby finished proudly.

"That's not that much," Hermione said, slightly disappointed.

"Sir Dumbledore originally offered Dobby _ten_ galleons a week, and weekends off, but... Dobby is liking freedom, miss, but Dobby isn't wanting _too_ much freedom,"

"Well that's very nice of him, isn't it, Isaac?" Hermione said, nudging him in the side.

"Isaac?" she asked, sounding a little concerned when he didn't respond.

"Hmm? What?" Isaac said, turning to face her, "Oh, yeah, it's nice of him,"

Hermione didn't say anything else on the matter, but Isaac knew when there was something playing on her mind.

"So, what else have you been up to here?" Isaac asked, taking a biscuit off of the platter.

By the time that they left, Isaac was feeling...

He didn't know what he was feeling.

On one hand, it was kinda nice to see Dobby again.

The elf was... almost infuriatingly endearing with how optimistic he was.

The elves sent Isaac and Hermione on their way with the remainder of the biscuits from the platter.

"Really nice, those lot," Isaac said as he munched idly on a cookie.

"Isaac... is everything alright?" Hermione asked.

'That didn't last long,' Isaac thought, "Yeah, why do you ask?"

"It's just... you seemed a little... _off_ , today," Hermione said, a slight frown born out of concern upon her face.

"I'm fine, just a little tired from..." Isaac broke off in snickers when Filch walked past them, a step ladder and muggle level in his hands, "Doing that,"

Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes at his antics.

The next day heralded the next problem for Isaac.

If he had been asked to pinpoint a time where the day began to start going downhill, then he would have most definitely chosen the explosion...

And, for the first time, it wasn't his fault!

It had been during Transfiguration.

They had been working on going over the spells taught that term before they broke off for the winter holidays, when...

After that, Isaac really didn't know.

The next thing he knew, he was lying down in the Hospital wing.

He groaned and slowly pushed himself up off the bed, swinging his legs over before he began squinting around to try to find his glasses.

"Get back in bed!" a sharp voice snapped.

"Wasn't my fault this time," Isaac shouted back, flopping back down against the bed.

Madam Pomfrey was soon at his side, holding the back of her hand to his forehead and taking his pulse.

"You had a very nasty accident," she muttered.

"Really?" Isaac couldn't help the sarcastic comment that escaped his lips.

He was met with a tut of disapproval from Madam Pomfrey as she waved her wand over him.

"You haven't broken anything," she said, "And you seem to be alright..."

"Then I can go?" he asked, feeling the shelf for his glasses and wondering why he felt... different.

"You may, but..."

"I feel fine," Isaac said, "And I'm fairly certain you don't want to waste time over someone who wouldn't want to be here,"

Madam Pomfrey pursed her lips, torn between having time to properly do inventory in the potion cupboards and her drive to keep everyone safe.

"Very well, you may go," Isaac's feet were back on the ground before she had finished speaking, "But take it easy, you've been out since yesterday,"

Isaac paused as he tied his laces.

"Erm... where's my necklace?" he asked, his hand going to his neck.

"Necklace?" Madam Pomfrey asked, "I don't recall removing one,"

Isaac practically tore the drawers of the bedside cabinet open, trying to find it.

Panic clouded his vision, his hand started shaking a little as he sat back down on the bed.

'Breathe,' a voice in the back of his head said softly, 'Steady... in through the nose for five... out through the mouth for five...'

The voice was familiar to him, so familiar it made his heart ache a little, as he followed it's instructions.

Slowly, his hands started to stop shaking and he could see clearly again.

'Christ,' Isaac thought to himself, 'I feel like I've fallen off my broom... broom...'

Isaac spun around, grabbing the thin piece of wood that was his wand, and jumping over to a window to open it, just in case.

" _Accio Pendant_!" he held his breath once more, listening for the sound of something whistling through the air...

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Dumbledore's office.

It had been a stroke of absolute luck.

An accident in the Transfiguration classroom had landed the Potter boy in the Hospital wing once more, and he had not woken from whatever he had suffered.

That night, he had crept into the Hospital wing and tried placing another tracking charm upon the boy... only to watch the spell not take hold yet again.

Frustrated, he had cast numerous detection charms across the boy, determined to find what was preventing his charms from working.

What he found puzzled him.

His most powerful detection spell just barely found something.

The odd pendant that the Potter boy had been wearing since his very first year gave off a faint yellow glow as the spell struggled to detect what it was.

That only happened in one of two cases.

One such instance was that there was a charm on an object, but the charm was so weak that the detection spell could just register it.

The second, to his disbelief, was that whatever was cast to protect the boy was so powerful that it was rejecting the detection charm.

He lifted the pendant away with his wand, the clasp unclipping itself as it slowly floated into the air.

Dumbledore spent the night, muttering, charming, casting, and scanning to no avail.

There was... _something_ giving the Potter boy the ability to nullify all his charms, and that pendant seemed to be the source.

Dawn had broken through the office and Dumbledore raised a hand to shield his eyes from the harsh light that flared through his window.

He hadn't realised that he had fallen asleep.

A quick glance at his watch told him that he had missed breakfast.

Rubbing his tired face with one hand, and replacing his spectacles with the other.

As his eyes adjusted to the now bright office before him he turned to look at the pendant strung up between four divining rods of silver that had been blessed by...

He got up from the chair, looking at the small pools of melted silver on the table... and in the middle of where the ends of the divining rods had seemingly melted through the night... was the Potter boy's pendant... untouched... and still as pristine as it had been when he had taken it from the infernal brat.

Just as he reached out to take it the pendant it flew out the window, leaving a cracked hole from where it had broken through.

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And there it was.

Something silver glinted in the sunlight as two tails of black chord flew behind it and through the window.

Isaac caught his necklace, breathing a sigh of relief as he fastened it back around his neck.

"Did you find it?" Madam Pomfrey asked, returning from the box of lost items she kept in her office.

"Yeah," Isaac said as he passed her on his way out, "Summoning charm, must have fallen off me when I was being moved,"

Madam Pomfrey spared him a relieved smile before flicking her wand at the contents she had pulled out, causing them to fly back in the box.

Isaac had made it to the entrance hall before he was stopped by someone coming to meet him.

"So, you got blown up," Blaise said, jogging across the hall.

"Apparently," Isaac said, "What annoys me is that I wasn't the one that did it,"

"Really?" Blaise looked at him with a dubious stare.

"I don't know what hurt more.

Being blown up, or it not being me that caused the explosion," Isaac sighed, a forlorn look upon his face.

Blaise snorted in disbelief, turning his eyes heavenward, "Only you would be upset at not causing the explosion that hurt you,"

"It's not the explosion itself, it's the principle behind it," Isaac said, causing Blaise to laugh.

"Come on," he said, jutting his head up the stairs, "You _just_ missed breakfast, and..."

Blaise broke off when Isaac spun on his heel and walked back down the few steps he had ascended.

"... we're waiting for you in the library, me, Draco, and Hermione,"

"I'll just be a mo," Isaac called from the corridor he went down.

He was rather thankful that Hermione had gone down to the kitchens, if only because he now knew where to go if he was feeling a little peckish.

The elves were more than happy to bring him any of the leftover waffles from the morning, as well as a jug of syrup that may as well have been a small pitcher.

By the time that he left the elves were very happy at having been given more work to do, even giving him another 'small' bag of biscuits to take with him for later.

"Yo-yo," Isaac said, dropping down onto one of the cushioned seats of the multiple reading nooks around the library.

The three students sitting there jumped.

"How can you do that?" Draco asked, this was not the first time that Isaac had stealthily made his way to them, and he doubted that it would be the last.

"I walked," Isaac said innocently, the gleam in his eyes betraying the mischievous Gryffindor.

"I've tried for years to tell when he's sneaking, you can't," Hermione gave a dejected sigh.

"So, what happened?" Isaac asked, "I was changing the colours of the petals on a rose and then I'm back in the Hospital wing?"

"Someone in class really messed up a spell, you got the brunt of the blow," Draco filled him in.

"Well, that sucks," Isaac nodded, munching on another biscuit, "Did I miss anything while I was out?"

"Just the announcement of the Yule ball at Christmas," Blaise said.

"It means..."

"I know what it means," Isaac said, pulling out another biscuit, "Thalmann is a bit traditional when it comes to a few things,"

Blaise frowned as Isaac cut him off, "... and do you know that you're opening the ceremony?"

"No, I did not... what..." Isaac paused as he brought another biscuit out to eat.

"You, and the other champions, open the Yule Ball with the first dance," Draco said, smiling a little at the blank look that dominated Isaac's face.

"Dance?" Isaac asked, "What dance?"

"Yule Ball, what did you expect?" Blaise's scathing tone snapped Isaac out of his stupor, "It's a big feast and dance.

And the champions, that's you and the others competing in the tournament, open the first dance," he finished with a smirk.

Isaac had been slowly eating biscuits throughout the time that Blaise had been talking.

"How many do you have?" Draco asked as he ate either the thirteenth or fifteenth one.

"Not enough," Isaac said, eating yet another, "I need to go have a quick word with Professor McGonagall,"

"Ok, good luck," Hermione said with a faint smirk.

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"How'd it go?" Hermione asked as Isaac returned a few minutes later.

"I have to open the dance," Isaac said, taking out another biscuit.

"Were you still eating biscuits when you went up there?" Blaise asked.

"Yup," Isaac said, popping the 'p', and eating another.

"How many do you have?" Blaise cried before cringing at the glare that was sent his way by Madam Pince.

"I might ask the elves to leave me a bag of biscuits at the start of every week," Isaac said through yet another one.

"This is going to be a nightmare," Isaac moaned, letting his head fall back onto the chair.

"How so?" Draco asked, shifting through the sheaves of parchment that were his entire assigned homework for that week.

"A? I don't know how to dance," Isaac began his list.

"B, I have to dance,"

"C, I can't go another round against the Horntail instead of doing this,"

Two of them looked at him like he was crazy, one just rolled her eyes at her friends' antics.

"D, I have to find a date to the ball.

E, I might be out of biscuits," he muttered as he rummaged through his pockets.

"Finally," Blaise snorted.

"No, wait, found them," Isaac said, pulling out a small handful of jammy dodgers.

Blaise buried his head in a pillow to try and contain his yelp.

"Where did you even get them?" he asked, throwing the pillow back onto the unoccupied seat.

"Elves in the kitchen," Isaac shrugged, "Pretty much giving them away... where was I?

Right.

D, I don't..."

"You've already done 'D'," Hermione pointed out, rolling her eyes again at Isaac's immature snickering.

"E, then, I... have already done that one too...

"F, I have less than no say about this," he let his head fall down onto the table.

"I gotta go write a letter," Isaac mumbled as he got up, leaving another couple of handfuls of biscuits for the others to eat.

"Any ideas on who you'll take?" Blaise asked, taking a biscuit from the pile.

"Absolutely no idea.

I've never really been interested before, to be honest," Isaac shrugged again as he walked away.

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The Mansion.

Laughing Jack took in a deep breath, looking out across his carnival.

It was quieter than usual, though it being rather late at night probably had something to do with that.

He gazed up at the dusk-lit sky above, the faint stars shimmering far above, debating whether to let them stew for a bit longer before joining the fray... and whether or not that those were actual stars...

"Welp, I'm bored," he said to no one in particular before vaulting over the small gate that stood at the entrance, reaching the edge of his forest in no time due to his definitely longer than average stride length.

Before he delved into the depths of the distorted woods a swirl of smoke enveloped him and he reappeared just in time for him to see Jeff duck under the swing of a zombie.

"Why are there zombies?" Laughing Jack asked as Toby fell through a hole in the ceiling seconds before something blew up.

" _Because..._ " E.J growled, tearing open the chest of another and beating another with the remains, " _... fucking... CULTISTS_!" he roared as he tore the head off a third, throwing that at the one about to jump Helen with enough force to knock it onto it's back.

"Fucking... don't stand around like a wax-work statue, DO SOMETHING!" E.J shouted at L.J, tearing the leg off a table and whaling on the lead cultist.

L.J looked around the chaos that surrounded him.

Masky was cutting deep gashes into one zombie, crushing another's head as he stamped down hard on it.

Toby was running for cover before the three zombies that had cornered him were engulfed in flames as he tore another hole into the wall.

Jeff had sliced clean through one zombie's arm, grabbed it to beat the zombie around the head with it, shoved the arm into another zombie's mouth before tearing its jaw out and stabbing it into the face of a third.

Helen was now joining the fray, having dispatched the final cultist, aside from the one that E.J was beating the hell out of, and had already slammed a zombie's head down onto an elaborate candelabra that had been discarded on the floor.

L.J tapped his foot for a few seconds before disappearing with a whirl of smoke.

He reappeared a few seconds later with a lawn chair, propping it open, and laying down with a bowl of kettle corn in his hands.

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The five of them didn't really know why they did it.

It was... it had seemed fun, y'know, just to do it for a lark.

Liam had been the first to go.

They had broken into the old distillery just outside of town, a bag full of spray paint, lager, and speaker.

Liam had decided to climb up one of the old mixer vats and spray his name on the side, cheered on by everyone else, the lot of them getting closer to finishing the first few cans of the pack.

He let out a victory cheer when he reached the top, shaking the can and knocking the cap off.

He leant over the edge of the tank, beginning to make his mark upon the vat when someone, or thing, grabbed his arm and pulled him up.

The other four had thought maybe he had gotten busted by a guard and started to leg it towards the exit when.

"AAARGH!" Liam's scream broke through the air before his body was dropped before them, knocking over a stack of old transport cages.

The resultant crash had blocked off the exit, Liam's body twitching as blood spurted out from the many breaks upon his body where the bones had pierced through to the outside.

Something crawled across the window, it's distorted form casting a fast-moving shadow that seemed to chase them for a moment.

After running back to the centre of the factory floor each of them split up, all trying to get out of this place and from whatever that thing was.

Eric ran back to the door, feeling his stomach churn and threaten to empty itself at the sight of his friends mangled corpse.

He began pulling at the metal cages that had fallen into a haphazardly balanced blockade.

Rusted metal ground against each other, sliding into a more compact mess the more he tried to dismantle it.

The sound blocked out everything in his ears as he tried harder to pull a piece away, even if it didn't do anything to clear the blockage, it would at least give him something to fight back with.

Just as he got the first bar of a cage free it was yanked free from his hands.

Eric spun around to see who had taken it, coming face to face with a mask split between black and white, something black stuck across the eyeholes.

The bar was slammed into the side of his head, sending him sprawling onto the wreckage.

Jagged and broken edges cut into him as he tried to right himself before the bar he had pried free was slammed into his sides, again, and again, and again.

Just as he felt something in his side snap the pipe was jammed through his throat and out the other side, the segment that had been cut apart by the edges slowly sliding out the end of the pipe before falling onto the ground with a dull splat.

Mitch was the next to go.

He had run into the next room, determined to barricade himself somewhere safe.

An old office with chicken wire infused glass with a door just off its hinges stood across from him.

Running as fast, and as quietly, as he could, Mitch made his way to the room and pulled the door shut behind him.

The next thing he did was start pushing an old desk over to try and block the door.

He almost got it to the door when it was kicked open, from the top.

Something scurried in, clinging to the ceiling, and just as he ran around the table to try and get back out the door it dropped down, catching his ankle.

The thing grabbed Mitch's head, smashing it against the desk over, and over, and over.

Blood sprayed across the surface, bones cracking due to the continued beating long after Mitch stopped trying to fight back until there was a large wedge driven into where the left-hand side of his head should have been.

Owen heard the distant screaming and began running faster.

The sound of something scratching against metal slowly got louder, nearer, and Owen began to take in large gulps of breath as he rounded a corner... right into a dead end.

He spun around to try running back the way he had come from before the thing chasing him caught up to him when he felt something grab him.

His head was slammed into the ground as his legs were pulled out from under him... before he was slowly dragged up the wall.

Owen tried to grab onto the embedded lights on the wall, but the decaying structures came away with a small sprinkle of old brick dust.

The thing carrying him stopped and he made the mistake of looking down.

He was now being dangled two stories above the ground.

A strained grunt escaped him as he bent up to try and look at his attacker when.

The air rushed past his ears.

His body turned as it fell.

The ground rushed to meet him...

With a loud crack and thud, Owen's body slammed into the ground.

His neck snapped on impact and the momentum carried through until the upper of his torso held no intact bones.

Nate could feel his heart in his throat.

He so desperately hoped that the thing had gone after the others instead of him.

In his panic, he had somehow found the old locker rooms.

When he heard the distant pats of footsteps too calm to be any of his friends he had, as quietly as he could, pried open the door to an old locker and squeezed inside.

The old door had been pulled shut and he tried to quell the frantic breathing, he had never been good with tight spaces and this situation was not helping one bit.

Quiet footsteps got closer and he took one last breath in before clamping his hand over his mouth and nose to try and reduce any sounds he was making.

The footsteps stopped outside of the locker that he was hiding inside of.

After a moment, the footsteps left and he dared to breathe again... that was until the sounds of something being wrapped around the locker.

Nate began pounding on the door, begging to be let out as he felt something wedge underneath the locker and lift it from its place.

His pleads eventually gave way to full-blown, chest wracking, sobs as his voice gave out, but his panic returned once more when he rose into the air as the locker entered freefall.

He was slammed into the walls as the locker came to a rest against something for a moment before water started flooding in through the cracks and gaps.

Nate's screams eventually turned to silence as the locker disappeared under the ripples of the nearby river.

Kagekao stood on the edge of the concrete embankment, looking at the bubbling site where the locker had sunk, as he rubbed his head.

As he made his way back to the abandoned distillery he muttered about useless morons who had interrupted his rest from the night before and felt a great sense of hatred against his past self for drinking too much and giving him this major hangover to deal with.

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Endnotes.

Right then, that was it.

Hope you enjoyed that, definitely think they're a little more fun when I do the little CP scenes.

This is the beginning of me making up for not having them in the past few chapters.

Anyway... this is... this is odd...

I've got reviews to answer... feels weird doing them at the end... oh well.

CirrusSeaEagle (Guest);

I got told about the Aztec death whistle in a past review and I'm too lazy to go look up who it was.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Joshua. Obryan. 549;

hehehehehe... puns... hehehehehe

That is... surprisingly specific...

'starts slowly walking away'

Also, I found a way to get your actual name back into the word docs before uploading!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Cyber-Kanochi;

Are... are you new?

Welcome! If you are.

Ta-da, I saw your request, you're request is granted.

I'll come to collect your soul in 10 years, you know the drill.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Yep, and I'm gonna keep them down at the end.

Good... for now...

Hehehehe... wait... where did I put it... oh, yeah.

Ooh, I love salted caramel.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Yeah, you weren't the only one.

It makes it a little easier to get to the story, I might put a few at the start, but most of them will be at the end.

Down with the patriarchy! Lick that lamp!

I... _crap_... I forgot what I was gonna have Ben give Isaac!

Showing what?

See, this is another problem for leaving the reviews to the end, I forget more and can't recall as much.

Well... that might have worked a little better... oh well.

I might have him use cards a little in the future, not as a serious weapon since... you know... they're freaking playing cards.

Cannon.

Why go for precision when you can decimate a bitch with an incendiary cell from a Howitzer?

If they are, then I owe her a drink because it worked.

That sounds like the writing prompt for a fanfiction.

"So... I kinda knocked you on your ass last game and... I feel really bad about it, can I get you a coffee?"

I hope the meeting goes well... went well?

I hope that you have fun.

Thank you.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Alliycat8;

I've given the story a reference, and I most likely won't be adding them before I read the list.

That... that would definitely be a good way to get them into the story.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Thank you!

I hope it goes well... 'cackles evilly'

 **(X) Review (X)**

DarkBlur2005;

Yeah... it was...

Hehehehehe...

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

BELATED HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Toby's just getting a little anxious because of the tournament, you'll get to see him blow his lid eventually.

The portraits will have taken about 3 to 4 weeks to fix, if it's just Filch doing them.

Peeves sees him as a powerful wizard. Isaac has earned Peeves respect, even if it is through a little fear.

You've already gotten two of them together in chapters and, if you want, you can consider 'The Potion' chapter as a DigitalMagic chapter as well.

So you'll just have to wait and watch as I torture them with feels and other stuff... hehehehehe... 'cackles as lightning strikes in the background'

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Thank you!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Emberspite;

There you go, glad you're happy.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Dex-Halo Twitches;

You'll see what's coming to her eventually... 'starts to cackle but gets something stuck in throat and chokes'

Pfft!

That is amazing!

Yeah, it's not like... you know, Ben's real and he's using subconscious suggestions to try and, you know... kill you...

'sips tea to try and calm throat'

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

Sure you aren't...

That... that would be pretty cool... well, hot...

But I had a really good idea for what Ben could give him and now I can't remember what it was.

I hate my memory.

Erm... no comments other than... 'blushes'

 **(X) Review (X)**

Honebar;

I'm glad that you liked those little scenes.

Toby's got to work out a little of his pyromaniacal tendencies, as you saw earlier, so it's a little safer... just a little bit though.

Hehehehehe, it's fun, isn't it?

I think the Hogwarts friendships are fun to write, I've seen a fair few fics where Neville is a really good friend of Harry's and think that those two needed a little more interaction.

I might have Toby play around with the playing cards later on, just need to work out what would happen, but that is fairly accurate.

I actually have a slight amendment to that suggestion.

It is alright to start a few sentences the same way in a row if it is to deliberately slow down the pacing. This can be used for dramatic moments, moments of reflection, realisation, or where you think a slow-mo scene would be if it was for a movie or t.v show.

That's another person who likes them at the end, looks like they're staying here.

 **(X) Review (X)**

ShulkXMelia23;

WELCOME!

Yeah, it did slow down a little, but I'm gonna try and pick up the pace again soon.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YingYangWriter;

Hehehehehehe...

Really? I just put them in because I've started learning how to properly throw them.

I might have Masky buy a couple of the mini-fire extinguishers just to be on the safe side.

Trust me, the wait for what will happen to Rita will be worth it and I might make it half the chapter, if not all of it.

Liu is steadily becoming the biggest shipper of them because if they don't get together then he will be pissed off as all hell.

Haven't had snow yet, but the beer taps at my work ice over fairly often because of the pressure in the taps.

That sounds adorable.

That sounds hellish... hehehehehehehe, suffer biatch!

 **(X) review (X)**

Right... that was the last review.

Thank you for reading, and I hope that you've enjoyed this weeks chapter.

See you in the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	60. Chapter 60, Admission

Chapter 60, Admission.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

A new chapter, a new week, a new session of me wondering what's coming my way in terms of the reviews.

So, the answers to them are at the end, and I'm wondering what I'll be doing this week...

I dunno, can't remember where I left off in the book.

And... I have a little problem...

I'm at 346 total followers for my story... and I have a dare with someone that when I reach 400 that I... well, they've said if I ever reach 400 followers on something then I have to write a Lemon.

So... can any new people that like the story just... when it reaches 399 can you just wait a while before following?

Please?

But, you didn't come here to listen to me ramble, so time for the story!

There is just... one thing I have left to say, though...

Enjoy the feels.

Have fun!

SteamGeek01.

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Bogotá, Colombia.

Samuel and his friends had heard the stories, the tall monster that kills indiscriminately, for no reason other than you were there, and they all fancied themselves tougher than something as lazily named as 'The Slenderman'.

They didn't know how wrong they were.

Benjamin had been the first to fall, just as he had been the first to jeer into the forest after they went through what must have been their sixtieth method of trying to summon The Slenderman.

The others had laughed as he taunted the unseen figure... unseen until something pitch black had shot out of the forest and wrapped itself through his neck.

His struggling body had been raised into the air before being tossed against a nearby tree hard enough to cause a few birds that had been resting at the very top to take off in fright, landing in a crumpled heap on the ground.

Tomás had been the next to go.

As they had gotten up to try and run, another black tentacle had snaked across the ground, grabbing him by the ankle.

His screams as he had been pulled away would have haunted them forever.

Martin had been the brave one.

He had run after Tomás' disappearing body, shouting at The Slenderman to let him go.

Soon enough, his screaming could be heard in the distance.

Iker had been snatched while he and Samuel had run.

One second, he was running next to him, and then...

Samuel felt as if his heart had forgotten how to beat when a tall figure appeared ahead of them, blocking their way out from the forest path.

He and Iker had both ran in opposite directions, trying to get through the thick foliage... he didn't know if Iker made it or not...

Panting heavily, Samuel eventually found another clearing.

Multiple paths led off and he had gotten so turned around he didn't know which would take him deeper into the forest, or which one would lead him to safety.

He had spent too long deciding which way to go...

Just as he had chosen a path to go down, a black tentacle had shot out, blocking him in.

More tentacles blocked him in and...

Samuel let out a strangled gasp as he fell to the ground, grasping his head as a loud ringing noise echoed within his skull.

His vision began to get patchy as if he had been suffering from the world's biggest migraine cluster.

A gentle crunching on the ground got him to look up as he felt two warm streams of blood start running from his nose.

The Slenderman looked down at the young man that had lasted the longest.

An expressionless face, void of any and all features, seemed to gaze at him with an intensity stronger than _any_ living human could do.

His vision got worse the closer he... it got, and with every step, it became harder to breath... so hard he didn't know if the blood flying away after every cough was from the streaming blood from his nose, or if he was now coughing up blood.

Samuel fell to the ground, letting the darkness wash over him.

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Hogwarts.

Whispers seemed to follow him throughout the halls as he made his way to his classes over the next few weeks.

"You know..." Isaac sighed, "... I think I need another..."

Hermione slapped the biscuit out of Isaac's hand before he could eat it.

She had no sooner turned back around when there came the sound of something crunching.

Isaac stared ahead, not looking at her, as he slowly chewed up the replacement biscuit.

"What is wrong with me having a biscuit?" Isaac asked after he finished it, "I'm stressed and they help,"

"Because stress eating will make you fat," Hermione snapped.

Isaac peered a little closer at her face.

"Hermione... how much sleep did you get last night?" he asked in a singsong way.

"... enough," Hermione said in a small voice.

Isaac rolled his eyes.

This had not been the first time Hermione had gotten cranky and snappy from a lack of sleep, quite a few times from their third year came to mind.

"C'mon, I'll take notes for you if you fall asleep," he offered.

"I'm not that tired," Hermione tried to say while stifling a yawn.

True to her word, Hermione managed to stay awake the entirety of classes that day.

"So... what topic was it?" Isaac asked her at dinner.

"What?" Hermione asked, cutting into a few slices of roast beef that dominated her plate.

"What topic had you up all night?" Isaac asked.

"Oh..." Hermione withdrew in on herself.

'Afraid... worried... cautious... aware someone is stalking them...' Isaac shook that last thought out of his head as it didn't really apply to the situation at hand.

"I may have..." she mumbled.

"What?" Isaac asked, leaning across to hear what she said.

"I may have been..."

"... wow," Isaac said, "I have pretty good hearing so that is impressively quiet,"

Hermione let out a brief huff of laughter.

"I may have been asked to the Ball..." she whispered.

Isaac blinked and frowned.

"Ok... and this is bad... why?" he asked quietly, "You would have been able to go to the ball anyway, it's the fourth years and upwards, why is it bad that you've got a date to it?"

"... I haven't said yes yet," Hermione whispered back to him.

"Ok... that makes a little more sense," Isaac nodded before returning to his chicken, "So, dude or gal and do you think you'll say yes?"

Hermione thought for a moment.

"I don't really know him," Hermione admitted, "He seems... he seems nice, but..."

"Is it a lack of knowing him, something about him, or are you just waiting for someone else to ask?"

Hermione spun her fork around her plate as she thought.

"It's... I'm... do I..."

"If you're wondering when you'll talk in full sentences again, I'm wondering that too,"

Hermione slapped Isaac lightly on the arm.

"Stop it, I'm trying to think," she reprimanded him, tapping her fork against the plate, "I don't know him, but he seems really nice...

But I'm worried about what others might think..."

"So... he's a bit older, polite... Ok, I've got an idea," Isaac snapped his fingers.

"You say yes, but...

Warn him that you have a very good friend who will not hesitate to dye their hair neon pink and green before sticking an irremovable tramp stamp on their forehead and cheeks,"

Hermione didn't reply straight away, only hitting him in the shoulder with a book from her bag.

"I'd be surprised if you could even get on the ship..." she quickly shut back up.

"Oh! He's a Durmstrang, is he?" Isaac teased, "Going for the foreign exotics are we?" Isaac kept giggling as he was repeatedly slapped with the book.

"Shut up!" she hissed at him, glancing around to see if anyone was listening in to their conversations.

"Alright, I'll drop it... for now..." Isaac said with an evil grin, "But when did they ask you?"

"Yesterday in the library, when you went to the bathrooms," Hermione whispered.

"So it's a Durmstrang that frequents that library... wait..." Isaac turned to face Hermione, "Is it that guy that walks a little like a duck and scowls all the time? Has really thick eyebrows?

Judging by that glare, I'm right," Isaac said with a smile to try and placate his friend.

" _Shhh_!" she hissed at him.

"I'm right," Isaac couldn't help the sing-song tone that escaped him, "OW" Ok, sorry, stopping and shutting up!"

Isaac rubbed his, by now, bruised arm and let the conversation drop until they were back in the Gryffindor common room.

"Ok," Isaac said, descending from the stairs to the dorms as he adjusted his hoody, "Tell me how it happened,"

Hermione didn't respond right away.

"When you went to... to the bathroom, I went to return the book I had been reading since I had gotten the reference I needed.

And... he approached me.

Told me that he had been trying to work up the courage to talk to me since he first came to the library when he was looking things up for the first task, and... _will you take this seriously_?" she hissed at Isaac when he let out an 'awe', "What am I going to do?"

"Say yes or no," Isaac said with a shrug, "Either you have a nice time, or I get a new target to make their life a living hell,"

Hermione gave a small smile at the mischevious smirk Isaac was sporting.

"Alright, I'm going to send him a letter saying that I accept his offer... _stop it_!" she hissed at him before laughing.

Isaac had started mock-clapping her decision.

"You still have a problem," she pointed out.

"Do I?" Isaac asked, "Oh, right... that egg," he grimaced.

For the past few weeks, Isaac had been charming the curtains of his bed so that no sound could escape them and listening to the egg.

And he had discovered that it is a very good way to give yourself a headache.

He had tried muffling the screech by burying it under every article of clothing he had in his trunk.

He had tried opening the egg when it was upside down.

He had tried sketching runes that filtered noise onto the egg's shell, but that only made it so that the noise would still come through even if you closed it.

He had even tried screeching back at it.

None of that had worked.

"I'm at a loss," he admitted, "I'm going to see what there is on magic that makes loud noises in the library tomorrow,"

"Not the egg, you have until February to sort that out," Hermione said, "The Yule Ball? You're opening the dance, and you don't have a date,"

"Oh, that problem," Isaac said, "Eh," he shrugged.

"You do realise that you _have_ to get a date for it, has nobody asked you?" Hermione asked.

"I have been asked, by complete strangers who probably only want to go with me so that they can say they went on a date with somebody with a popular reputation," Isaac scoffed, a sense of bitterness in his voice.

"Well... who are you going to go with?" Hermione asked him.

Hermione leant back a little as Isaac went from happy and relaxed to an emotionless shell.

"It doesn't matter," he said after a moment.

"Isaac?" Hermione grabbed his wrist when he made to get up and leave.

"It doesn't matter," he repeated.

"... now say it like you're trying to convince me," she said.

A brief huff of laughter proceeded Isaac dropping back down onto the chair.

"Alright," Isaac's voice still seemed flat, "What?"

"Are you alright?" Hermione asked.

"I'm... fine, it's just...

I'd gone over it," Isaac leant forward and rubbed the back of his hand, "I mean, I'd been asking myself...

Who would I go with?

Who would be fun to take?

Who would want to go with _me_ and not... _Harry_ ," the name left a bad taste in his mouth.

"Ok," Hermione said softly, "And did you think of anyone?"

Isaac's eyes flicked up to meet her before the looked back into the fire.

"Yeah..." Isaac went to say a name, but his mouth went as dry as a desert.

"... Ben," Isaac managed to say after a moment, his voice hoarse, "I would take Ben.

Every time, every chance... I would ask Ben if he would go with me... each and every time,"

Hermione didn't know what to say, the only motion of her mouth was to close the small gap that had opened as Isaac had been speaking.

"But he's halfway across the world... so that's a little bit of a problem," Isaac shrugged.

"So... how long have you two been..."

"We aren't," Isaac cut her off, still not looking away from the flames, "We're... we're not,"

"Oh..." Hermione said, "I thought... the way you talked about him... does he..."

"No," Isaac said, closing his eyes as they had started to get uncomfortably hot from the heat, "He doesn't know I... that I like him... I don't even know if he feels the same way..."

Hermione looked sadly at her friend.

"Plus, I'm going to be spending the next three-ish years abroad... it wouldn't..." Isaac broke off with another sigh and looked at the flames through half-lidded eyes.

"I thought... I thought that you two were... already going... out..." she said slowly, blushing furiously.

The embarrassed tone she had finally got Isaac's attention.

"What?"

"Well... it's...

I kinda thought you two were already going out..." Hermione explained, "And... I thought you were just... well, taking your time to..."

"When did you... how long did you think this?" Isaac asked her.

"... since around halfway throughout our third year..." Hermione admitted, nearly going a darker shade of red.

Isaac stared at her for a moment before scoffing.

"Well... if there's anyone who could know more about me than myself... it'd definitely be you," a small smirk tugged at his lips.

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The ships swayed gently beneath the feet of the Durmstrang students that night and many were thankful that the wind hadn't picked up so that the rocking motion was more subdued than it had been in the weeks when they had arrived there.

Andrei chuckled as he took his winnings from Anton, the chocolate frog boxes shaking a little they were pulled across the table.

To make things a little interesting, they had left all the boxes closed to add another element of mystery to their card game.

"That's three in a row," Andrei roared in laughter, "You could not pull off a bluff against a blind man!"

The other three players couldn't stifle their snickers while the sixth player merely bowed his head so to hide the smile on his face.

"Hey, Viktor," Georgi nudged him in the shoulder, "When are you going to start wiping the floor with us?"

Viktor shook his head and laughed.

"I thought you all got bored of me clearing you lot out?" he chuckled, picking up his new hand of cards.

There were a few tense moments as the players before him put in their 'chips'.

Viktor kept his face passive, putting in twice as much as the player before him.

That night, Viktor bit the head off of one of the many, _many_ , chocolate frogs that he had won as he made his way down to the room where he and the others slept.

As everyone else turned their sheets out to lay under Viktor was distracted by a small tube sitting and a letter that was sitting upon his pillow.

"A secret admirer?" Aleksi teased as he picked it up, "Or maybe a little gift from that Hogwarts girl you've been too scared to ask?"

The others chuckled as they waited for Viktor to open the letter.

"Well?" Andrei asked.

"She said yes," Viktor said, holding up the letter with an earnest smile upon his face.

The other's in the room cheered his success as he picked up the tube.

Each of them wondering what it was until Viktor opened it and a spray of multicoloured glitter blew across his face, coating the surrounding area.

A silence descended on the room as Viktor coughed, sending a small spray of glitter across his bed before he pulled out his wand and sent the glitter out the window.

Before any of his roommates could ask what that was about he read the small strip of paper that had been attached to the inside of the lid.

"Hermione is my friend... hurt her and I will make your life a living hell, I.R," Viktor looked up at them, a confused look upon his face.

"Viktor... what did you do to get International Rescue pissed off?" Anton barely managed to keep a straight face as he talked.

He cracked when the others in the room started laughing.

"Doesn't the, erm... Potter boy want to call himself... Isaac R... it begins with R," Georgi asked, snapping his fingers while he tried to think.

"Say that to his face, I dare you," Viktor said, putting the tube down, "From what I have heard, you will not end up the victor there,"

"No, that's because you're Viktor!" Anton cried before he was knocked off his bed with the combined force of the other Durmstrang students throwing their pillows at him simultaneously.

Isaac listened outside at the sounds of laughter from within.

'Really wish I spoke Bulgarian right now,' he thought as he made his way back to the top deck to make his way back to the castle.

As he crept his way upward he paused outside a door with what looked like a gold plaque embellished with tiny gemstones.

Though he had no idea what the sign said he thought it warranted further investigation and peeked inside.

He quickly withdrew his head and scaled up into the rafters and out of sight.

Karkaroff stuck his head out what must have been his office door, looking around for who had disturbed him, before retreating back inside with a scoff.

Isaac watched from his concealed position above, a wide grin spreading its way across his face.

He had started something with Karkaroff... and this gave him the chance to finish it.

That night Karkaroff failed to notice the figure slip in through a window, he was in too deep a sleep.

He knew that his students would have started celebrating the Yule time break, the noise from the earlier card game had made his point already, so he had taken a potion to ensure he slept peacefully.

Nothing short of cannon fire could have possibly woken him that night.

When he woke that morning he failed to notice anything as he made his way to his wardrobe.

He gasped and stepped backwards, catching the hem of his nightwear, and falling onto his back.

~ _I SEE YOU~_ was scrawled in thick, black, ink across the large mirror that hung above his dresser.

Scrambling to his feet, he lunged at the door and...

His eyes went wide as he looked down at his hand.

What looked like numerous runes, none that he was able to recognise, were imprinted onto his skin.

He tried clawing them off with his other hand only to find that it too was covered in the markings.

A chill ran down his spine as a terrible thought ripped it's way down his spine.

Trembling, he made his way back to the mirror.

Ignoring the writing, he looked at himself through a clear space.

The markings were across his face, and a tug at the neckline of his shirt revealed the markings continued down to just under his collarbone.

Something in the space behind his reflection caught his gaze.

He slowly turned and looked at the open window that bumped against its frame in the slight breeze that passed by outside.

Black streaks stained the ground along the front of the window, disappearing outside.

Daring to look out, the streaks continued down until they left sight again through a window that led to a rarely used storage closet if his memory served right.

Grabbing his wand off the dresser, he stormed out of the room and down the hall.

"Make way! Make way!" he growled at the few who were up, his anger rising at the sounds of snickering behind him.

He stopped outside the storage cupboard, tightening the grip on his wand, before grabbing the door handle after a slight hesitation and pulling the door open.

A cloaked figure was hunched over.

"Who are you?" Karkaroff demanded.

The figure didn't reply, only swaying slightly in motion with the ship.

"I demand to know who you are!" Karkaroff spat, "Why are you on _my_ ship?"

The figure still didn't answer.

Karkaroff gritted his teeth and brandished his wand, ready to call upon a spell that... should not have made a chicken noise.

He went wide-eyed at the sight of the rubber chicken that had replaced his wand, dropping it in shock.

Angry eyes turned on the figure as he reached out to disrobe the intruder... only to curse when it was revealed to be nothing but a cloth propped up by mops and brooms.

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"What's got you in a good mood?" Seamus asked, mildly fearful on the look on Isaac's face.

"Just had a good night's rest, is all," Isaac replied with a large grin.

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The Mansion.

Nobody had seen Ben outside of the t.v for a few weeks.

The ghost had been drifting aimlessly through the cyberspace around The Mansion for a while now, idly floating amongst the streams of data that passed by... waiting...

Masky sighed as he dropped down into an empty armchair.

He and Hoodie had just gotten back from checking an archaeological dig site for anything that Slendy would want to be locked up in the attic.

They hadn't found anything... except from lots... and lots... and lots... of dirt.

His forehead felt like it had been caked in multiple layers of dirt and sweat.

Just as he raised a hand to try clearing any of it away the t.v in the corner flashed sporadically before a series of sparks flew out the side.

"Son of a..." Masky growled, grabbing one of the mini-fire extinguishers and moving over to the now smoking t.v.

They didn't find out what had happened until a couple of hours later when Ben walked in with a box in his hands.

"What the hell was that about?" Masky demanded.

The broken t.v was now propped up on the wall next to the window while Jeff and Hoodie tried to get the replacement that they had gone out for mounted.

"Well, I'd been trying to find something," Ben started explaining over the argument between Jeff and Hoodie about who's side needed to be lowered or raised, "... and I found it,"

Ben smiled up at Masky who, even with the layers of dirt restricting his face, did not look amused.

"I got it," Ben said again, nodding down to the box.

"And just what is it?" Jeff snapped at him, "No, your side needs to go... stop moving it without telling me..."

"Isaac's Christmas present," Ben said, shaking the flat box.

Masky's expression dropped slightly.

"Go get it ready to send out," he grunted at Ben, who hurried up the stairs.

"Wonder what he's got him," Jeff muttered, "STOP LIFTING IT, YOU'RE..."

Masky sighed and went to go see what they had left in terms of alcohol, he was fairly certain he had seen half a bottle of Gordon's left when he had been clearing out the empty bottles.

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Hogwarts.

November gave way to December in a flurry of faint snow falls, steadily building to full blown flurries that made getting across the grounds a mildly tedious task.

Large trenches had been carved through the landscape from where the Durmstrang and Beauxbaton students had made the journey to the castle for their meals.

It was one of the days when the snow was falling at a fairly decent pace that a group of stray Beauxbatons wandered upon a rather... interesting sight.

"Unless you want to end up cold, wet, and miserable," a red-headed twin called out to them, "Stay back!"

The four of them shared quick glances with one another... until something fast, small, and white slammed into one of them with enough force to cause them to lose their footing and slip to their knees.

"My bad!" a voice from a person that they couldn't see called out.

"That jacket is cheating!" the other twin called out.

"Boo-hoo!" the voice jeered, "I'm not the one that looked up spells to make snowballs in a second!"

"We're wizards!" the first twin shouted, "And you have been kicking our asses for the past three years, this time, we are winning!"

Without warning, something fast barrelled into the twin, knocking him to the ground, before they ran back off.

The white coat that the thing had been wearing letting them vanish into the snow seconds later.

While one twin helped the other get up the sound of someone giggling filled the air as they watched the Beauxbaton students scurry off towards the carriage.

If every day could go like that, then Isaac would find nothing... well, he'd probably still find something to complain about his years at Hogwarts.

Isaac found the usual table that he, Hermione, Luna, and Ginny sat at when they met up to study together, sitting down in the empty seat, letting his head hit the table, and sighing.

"Do any of you know a fifth year Ravenclaw? Sort of curly, sort of straight, black hair?" he asked, his forehead still pressing on the table.

"No,"

"Nuh-uh,"

"Only in passing," Luna's day-dreaming voice had him lift his head off the table for a fraction for a moment before falling back down with a dull thud.

"I take it that it didn't go over too well with Professor McGonagall?" Hermione asked, taking a moment to put a bookmark in her book and turn to face her friend.

"She said that even if they know about the Magical world, it'd be very unlikely for them to get a pass to come to Hogwarts for the Yule Ball, even if it is for a one-off night, but she did say that she'd ask Professor Dumbledore about it," Isaac muttered, rummaging in his pockets for another biscuit.

He let out another dejected sigh when he realised that he had finally run out.

"Well that's gotta be alright," Ginny chimed in, "Dumbledore'll probably get the Ministry to let you bring... them over... who are they, again?"

"It's... never mind, I'll introduce you if I can get permission to bring them here," Isaac said, "What about you, anyone ask you to the ball?"

"Yeah, actually," Ginny said, glad to have a break from her charms homework, "Neville, he... he asked me,"

"Oh, that's nice," Hermione said, "I guess that I'll see you there then,"

"Yep... you still haven't told us who's asked you to the Ball," Ginny said.

"Oh, she's been..."

Isaac was silenced by the book Hermione had been looking through prior to his arrival hitting him in the arm.

"... You haven't told them?" Isaac asked.

"I don't want people to make a big deal out of it," Hermione hissed at him, leaning back so Ginny couldn't hear her when she tried to lean across the table to hear what she had said.

"Oh, come on!" Ginny pleaded, "Who's asked you?

Ron's being insufferable about it, and..."

"What's Ronnie been up to now?" Isaac asked with a weary sigh.

"He's claiming that she's lying about being asked to avoid being humiliated," Ginny said, sounding equally weary.

"Oh... Hermione, I shall tell no one, on the condition that you as well do not tell anyone, just so that I can enjoy the look on Ron's face when he realises just how wrong he is,"

"Deal," Hermione said, reaching out to him and shaking his hand.

"Great, I'll come to grab your soul in ten years, y'know, the usual," he said before pulling out a book on bewitching items to make them nearly weightless for him to read.

"That's a... Supernatural reference, isn't it?" Hermione checked.

"Yes," Isaac said, "Yes it..." he broke off as a thought passed through his mind.

"Luna?" Isaac asked, "You can't go to the Ball, since you're a year out, can't you?"

Upon receiving a nod of confirmation, Isaac proceeded.

"Well then,

Miss Lovegood, as it seems that I shall be unable to get permission for my... friend to come to Hogwarts, would you like to be my date to the Ball?"

Luna looked up from the magazine she had been reading.

"Yes," she said, "I would like that, thank you,"

"Glad to hear," Isaac smiled as he returned to his book.

He didn't miss the excited grin that Ginny shot her friend before they started talking about dresses and makeup.

They eventually dragged Hermione into the conversation when they started bringing up hair care products that they could use.

"I'm sure you're friend would have loved to come," Luna said, rolling up her magazine, "He must miss you a lot,"

Isaac had been about to try using the spell on a stone he had grabbed when his head shot up to look at Luna, the same for Ginny and Hermione.

"How do you know who he is?" Isaac asked, ignoring the double take that Ginny did.

All he got in response from Luna was a brief shrug before she left to go send a letter to her father about sending her dress to Hogwarts.

"That was really nice of you," Hermione said as Ginny hurried after Luna.

"Yeah... cause, see, this way.

Ginny has at least one friend from her year there who she can talk to.

In the event that Luna wants to go chat with her, then it's fine since we're going as friends, and if she drags Ginny, plus, by extension, Neville over, then we've got more people to talk to.

She'll probably enjoy the ball more than me, I'm just trying to make it so there's less of a chance that I'll get unbelievably bored,"

A shriek from somewhere across the Library tore through the quiet, almost tense, air.

Isaac frowned for a moment before his hand flew to his shirt pocket.

"Speaking of things getting bored," Isaac said, getting up quickly, "I've got to go find a mouse,"

Hermione shook her head as she watched Isaac dart off towards the source of the commotion.

It wasn't long before he returned, something small and dark blue in his hand.

"... running off without telling me," Isaac chastised quietly, "What if you had run over a rune and gotten trapped, eh?"

Fizz squeaked lowly, probably as close to an apologetic tone that he could get.

"Just take care next time, ok?" Isaac said before setting him down and fishing a couple of marbles he kept in his bag for Fizz to chase.

"He seems to be getting a little cooped up," Hermione said, watching Fizz chase after a marble that ran down the length of the table.

"Yeah... maybe I should send him home for a few days, let him be able to have a nice run around without worrying about any magic mouse traps," Isaac muttered, pinging the marble back along the table when Fizz brought it back, "You never know, maybe somebody could take him with them when they go to work, give him a nice change of scenery for a bit,"

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Phoenix, Arizona.

Eyeless Jack whistled idly as he walked down the street.

The moon was hidden behind a thick layer of clouds passing over that blocked out all light, only the feeble lights flickering at the top of the street lamps.

Coming to a stop outside a dull looking apartment block that towered above him.

Beneath the blue mask upon his face the cannibalistic demon smirked before he leapt up and grabbed onto a stone ledge a foot or so above him, pulling himself up before grabbing onto the next one after that, and the next one after that, and the next one after that, until he reached the window he was after.

Prying open the window was easy, slipping into the room so silent that even if there was somebody in the room they wouldn't have noticed him was easier still...

And there just so happened to be somebody sitting at a desk, back to the window, in the room at that moment.

Jack's footsteps barely made a sound as he slowly made his way to his oblivious target.

The quiet hiss of the knife he had brought being taken out of its sheath went unnoticed as the man bobbed his head along with the beats from the music blaring through his headphones.

Stopping less than a step away from him, Jack slid the mask up and off his head before placing it down on the desk next to the man, wanting to see if his idea would work.

He didn't notice it right away, starting in surprise a few moments later.

"Woah!" the man exclaimed before he jumped out of his chair a little.

The man started laughing as he picked it up.

"Alright, very funny, Kat," he teased, not knowing that 'Kat' wasn't there right now, "You're little arts and craft project was scary, _ha ha_ ," he called sarcastically, standing up and turning around, "Now, can you..."

He was cut off as soon as he saw Jack standing there, completely silent, and staring at him with viscous black goop running out of the empty sockets where his eyes should have been.

Jack's emotionless expression changed when, with a verbal 'click', his mouth split open into a wide grin that showed off each and every sharp tooth in his mouth.

Before he could get a chance to scream Jack had sliced across the front of his throat, grabbing his arm, and throwing him onto the bed.

The knife was forced into his stomach and pulled along its length until the knife came out the already existing gash across his throat.

Jack sighed as he watched the twitching body below him steady, nothing moving, not even the lungs, before he began whistling again as he peeled back the skin of his torso and began examining the man's organs.

His whistling turned to a groan as his stomach let out a loud growl.

He slowly looked around the room before turning back to the body and sighing.

"What the hell..." he muttered before he lunged forward and tore the ribcage open.

He tossed the stack of bones onto the pillow before grabbing a lung with his teeth and tearing it out, ripping large strips off with his teeth as he split it open like a squishy, bloody, coconut.

Just as he tore out the man's pancreas he heard the door hit the stopper on the wall, the shattering of a glass, and a large gasp.

The man's flatmate was standing in the doorway, her eyes widening as she took in the sight of her friend flayed on his bed being eaten by an eyeless monster.

"Boo," Jack growled, feeling a sense of pride when the girl's eyes rolled backwards into her head before dropping to the floor.

He could already taste the blood that seeped out the wound in her leg from where she fell on the shattered glass... but he needed to finish up with his first kill.

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Manila, Philippines.

It felt like their hearts had leapt up into their throats.

Their feet slammed into the ground, step after step, trying to propel themselves faster, and faster, to get away from him.

They had been wandering alone by themselves when they saw him.

The moment of pure terror as they watched a man with a horribly scarred face easily cut down a man thrice the size of either of them while laughing would haunt their dreams for the rest of their days.

Rounding a corner they saw a nearby car stopped at the side of the road, a large map spread out on the hood.

Joshua let out a pant of relief before turning to point the car out to Christian...

Christian was standing there, wide-eyed, and almost... unnaturally vacant.

Without warning, Christian fell to the ground, revealing the scarred killer that they had seen pulling a crowbar out of the back of his head.

"Ouch," the man drawled unsympathetically, "That's gotta hurt,"

The scars across his face seemed to be pulled tighter as a wide smile spread across his face.

Just as Joshua turned to start running, and yelling for help, the man grabbed his arm.

He was pulled back and thrown against the wall before the man leapt over to him, pinning him to the wall by slamming the crowbar into his neck.

Joshua struggled to shove the long piece of metal away, but the man was holding both ends of it tightly, forcing him upwards by his neck.

His body was suspended by the killer's grip on the crowbar cutting into his neck... his vision began to cloud... his futile attempts at freedom were getting weaker... his gasps of breath got smaller...

His body fell to the ground, passed out from a lack of oxygen.

Lui, or rather... Sully rolled his neck, feeling satisfaction at the cracking noises before spinning the crowbar in hand and whaling on Joshua's head.

After making sure that he wouldn't get up again, Sully threw the crowbar into the bushes nearby and started dragging the bodies of Christian and Joshua out of sight.

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Samuel jolted in his bed, panic washing over him enough to trip him up and fall onto the floor.

He cried out in pain as he felt his nose break under the fall.

His mother and father had run into the room after hearing the crash and scream, hurrying him to the closest hospital.

When he had been asked about what had happened, he told them the truth.

Just a bad dream... a very bad dream...

Little did he know that he had been watched all the way to the hospital... and that all his friends would wake up in similar states of panic... all relieved that it had just been one... bad... dream...

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Endnotes.

Right, hope you've enjoyed this weeks chapter.

And, as I said, the answers to the reviews.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Yeah, taking your advice there.

Ok... might draw the line a little at using a horse's block of salt just because of germs... but you do you...

Yep, I remembered what it was, you'll be seeing it... eventually...

Yeah, that egg sounds hellish.

I think they'd have to be cut from metal, or perhaps soaked in methanol so that they're flaming cards that he throws.

A little... might borrow it for a future story...

Free food is always worth celebrating.

Erm... maybe, maybe not... I hadn't really... well, that's a lie. I have planned this.

They're irritatingly endearing and that's the best description of them I can come up with to describe them.

Maybe... maybe not. I haven't decided how I'll kill him just yet. I want it to be good, but it's hard since there's going to be so many people waiting for it that I don't want to disappoint anyone.

I think I did a good job describing a panic attack.

Even blessed holy metal can't do anything against Slendy's mojo.

That is one of the reasons, another is that he just feels slightly disappointed if he didn't partake in the cause of any explosions in his area.

He does enjoy sneaking up on people, it's a handy skill.

There wouldn't be enough coffee in the world to make me enjoy the Yule Ball.

It's L.J, what did you expect? He has a carnival full of zombie children, they don't really impress him anymore.

Kage is doing well... or, he will be when his hangover clears up and he isn't getting pestered by drunken morons.

I've heard of Jordan Persegati, I really like his artwork.

Thank you!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Yeah, I did too.

...

...

I WANT SALTED CARAMEL TEA RIGHT NOW! I AM BRITISH, I DESERVE THIS!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Honebar;

Dance, magic, dance... 'wiggles booty in chair'

Love that movie... three guesses who my fav character is...

I can't wait for you to see the Chaos chapter that's coming out soon.

Well, last time I had popcorn come out with L.J there was a mouse trap hidden in it.

Mead is alcoholic honey? So it's basically alcoholic sugar... I NEED MEAD!

Drawing is cool, I've wanted to get back into drawing for a while but can't decide on anything.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Hehehehe, I think one or two people might be able to guess who I'm having Isaac go with.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

No, Isaac does not get a split personality.

And even if he did it would not be Specs, Goggles, or... Tobisaac... ok, no, that just sounds like a ship for Toby and Isaac... NO!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Thank you!

I don't know, probably not in the next couple of chapters.

You'll probably find out soon.

Dumbledore will pay.

Eventually.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Dex-Halo Twitches;

Isaac will eventually turn full Creep, just not yet.

Dumbledore is always up to something.

Hey, give the... give Slendy some slack.

He made something that could protect Isaac from ever being traced, it was all he thought that world would go to keep Isaac in their sights since they can't do anything from a legal standpoint.

That is why you don't piss off a demon with a hangover.

Oh my! An orange peel couldn't kill you... you must be soo hard...

 **(X) Review (X)**

Joshua. Obryan. 549;

Cookies for days, it's like, "Bayonets for days,"

Kagekao just had a bad morning, and drunken idiots weren't too helpful with it.

Hahahahahaha... puns...

 **(X) Review (X)**

Cyber-Kanochi;

Kagekao is one of my faves as well.

I did have an alternate idea for the story when I was getting ready to start writing that would have had Kagekao find Harry, but I scrapped that idea after I read "Freaks should stick together" as it followed pretty much the same idea.

Kagekao deciding to break into the Dursleys to steal, finding Harry, and taking him with him.

 **(X) Review (X)**

DarkDragonessFlies;

Thank you!

Ok, the Itsy Bitsy story is on Reddit, yay, thanks for that.

Thank you, again.

 **(X) Review (X)**

DHLcosplay (Guest);

...

60 chapters... I'm gonna buy a cake at 104, cause that'll have been two years... now let's see if I can make it to chapter 104... I'll just buy a cake anyway...

 **(X) Review (X)**

YingYanWriter;

There does seem to be a sneaky man around... or maybe I've been watching too much Ainsley...

Three guesses who the little voice reminds him of.

Yeah, he's made a plan for the dance, don't you... well, you already saw what his plan is... so... figuring out what tense to write these in is tricky...

L.J's scene was fun, really enjoyed that one.

Enjoyed Kagekao's that bit more though.

Your work sounds fun... 'thumbs up'

Good luck!

(X) Review (X)

Ok, that was the last review I got.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks chapter, and I hope that you enjoy the next.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	61. Chapter 61, The Ball, PT1

Chapter 61, The Ball PT1.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Well, hello again.

Another chapter... and this one is gonna be... interesting.

Yeah, I'm going for interesting.

So, I'm on top of the world right now.

Not literally, can't stand the cold... so Scotland is a brilliant place for me... but a friend of my dad has gone on Holiday...

And they needed someone to watch their dog for three weeks!

So now there is a doggy bed in my room, next to Toby's Vivarium, and I already have a good amount of dog hair around my room.

I am very happy right now!

But, you came for the story, and I have nothing else to talk about, so enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

The student body was abuzz with excitement.

Christmas day was fast approaching, which also brought about the Yule Ball, and everyone could not stop talking about it.

Across all the houses everything was discussed.

From shoes and dresses to dates and music.

Everyone seemed to forget about the Tournament for a few days, even house prejudices were at a low as everyone talked with everyone.

But what Isaac found most interesting was what Hermione asked of him.

And that was how he found himself frowning with amusement and satisfaction at his reflection.

"Well... it works..." he told Hermione as he sat back down in the chair he had been using before.

"How well did it..." Hermione dropped the question when she saw Isaac pulling at his hair, "Really well then," she finished

"Oh yeah," Isaac agreed, letting his hair fall back down.

Hermione had followed up on a bit of advice from Ginny about taming her hair and purchased a couple of bottles of Sleakeazy's Hair Potion to try out.

She had gotten Isaac to be the lab rat and try a bit.

Now, Isaac's hair looked like a hairdresser had held him in place and straightened every last hair for a few minutes on end over, and over, again until it was the flat strands it was now.

Isaac raised a hand and removed his fringe from his eyes.

"I might nab a bottle off of you," he said, feeling his fingers run through his hair as easy as if they had been turned to silk.

"I can see why," she said, "You don't look like you've had Hedwig style your hair now,"

"At least mine looked like hair," Isaac snorted, "You look like someone's spray painted two tonnes of string brown and super glued it to your head... ow, ok, sorry," he apologised when Hermione hit him with another book, "Remind me to send you a few books,"

"You want to give me more things to hit you with?" Hermione asked sceptically.

"They're not exactly books, it's a manga that Ben showed me the show of," Isaac explained, "I think you'd like them because one of the main characters goes around hitting people with books when they annoy her,"

"We'd get along pleasantly, then," Hermione said, returning to her book and leaving Isaac to play with his hair.

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Wisconsin, Bucknuckles bar and grill.

The roaring crowds around Hoody grew to a deafening roar as he shook his hands, ready for the next opponent.

There were currently three men lying draped across chairs nearby after trying their hardest to best him.

He had won, naturally.

His next opponent was a man that looked like he could have picked up the rotor of a battleship and thrown it a good few feet.

Hoody cracked his neck in anticipation for what was to come, clenching his hand around the man's as both of them tried to prove that they had the stronger grip.

"Hope you're ready for some tougher shit," the man cracked his knuckles, and, to his credit, to a normal man it would have been a very intimidating sight.

Not to Hoody, though.

Hoody merely smirked at the man, no words needed to tell him to bring it.

The barmaid put the tray before them before backing off.

"Three..." she started counting down.

"Two..." everyone leaned a little closer.

"ONE!" she shouted.

The two men started downing shot, after shot, after shot, after shot, from the glasses that had been set down for them.

Hoody kept his eyes focused on the hulk of a man before him, not breaking his stride as he downed each shot as if they were nothing than glasses of water.

As soon as the last shot glass had been slammed down on the table the men stared at each other for several... long... tense... seconds...

Before the man started roaring in laughter.

"Round two!" he shouted to cheers from the rest of the bar, waving over the bar staff with his wallet.

Around them, more money was being handed around from people making quick bets on them.

The bar staff brought a new tray and the man and Hoody started downing shot, after shot, after shot...

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Fred Weasley walked the corridors alone, a rare occurrence since where you normally found one, the other would be at their side.

But he was alone this time, mainly because he had needed the toilet and George had not.

He had just left the bathroom when something grabbed him and, with a whirl of black smoke, he found himself back in Laughing Jack's carnival.

"Heyo, Freddie," Jack said after Fred's brief panic had ended, his heart still going as fast as a jackhammer though.

"Hi," Fred gasped out, trying to get his breathing back under control.

"Probably should have given you a heads-up about this," Jack muttered, more to himself than Fred.

"About what?" Fred asked, his panic starting to return.

"Oh, nothing major," Jack said with a quick salute, "Just felt that now was a good time to check up on you, see if you have any questions, or just do a little catching up in general,"

Fred rolled his eyes at the second salute and froze with a small amount of fear at how relaxed he was in the presence of Laughing Jack.

"C'mon," Jack said, giving him a nudge in the shoulder to get him moving, "I'll give you a quick tour while we talk,"

Laughing Jack guided Fred out of the large circus tent in the centre and out into the main grounds of the carnival.

The hordes of zombie children paused for a moment, a few taking a couple of steps closer to see what the ginger thing was.

"Oh, come on!" Jack called out to them, "You all know I've gotten a Proxy,"

Jack suddenly wished that he hadn't said that.

As soon as he announced the spectacle both he and Fred were swarmed with zombie children, all eager to get to know their best friend forever's new friend.

"Ok... erm... J-Jack?" Fred called out when a few tugged at him.

"Ok, give him some space, come... Jenny!" Jack called out when a small zombie child jumped up on Fred's back, "Sammy, stop encouraging your sister!"

The zombie child in question swung on Fred's arm.

"Bloody... twins have psychic connections!" he threw his arms up in defeat, "Those two immediately know when I bring a twin pair in here, whether they live or... get off him!"

Fred had nearly fallen forwards onto the ground from being used as a jungle gym, a few of the taller zombie children had caught him beforehand and pushed him back up.

"Give him space!" Jack commanded and most of them dispersed, save for Jenny and Sammy.

Fred shivered as he heard the soft chittering between the two zombie children.

The girl jumped off of his back and started running off into the depths of the carnival, her brother following shortly behind her, their arms out as if they were pretending to be planes.

"Sorry about them," Jack said, patting the dirt that had been trecked up Fred's back away, "They have a habit of getting really excited when another pair of twins come here,"

"Y-you don't say," Fred looked around anxiously.

"Come on," Jack said, "Don't have much time so we might as well go to the food court,"

"This place has a food court?" Fred asked.

"It's a carnival designed to be everything that a child would ever want," Jack said, spinning around, "What don't we have?"

The food court turned out to be a small space around the size of the entrance hall with various stands around the edges.

"Hot-dog? Burger? Cotton candy? Flapjacks? Pisses off Toby that we don't have waffles, but we have those," Jack listed off.

"I'm good..." Fred said, watching a quick stream of zombie kids grab things off the stands and then run off back into the carnival.

"Alright, suit yourself," Jack said, "Anything you wanted to talk about?"

Fred looked around, taking in the sight of the grey-scaled world around him.

"Why?" he asked.

"Y the letter? Why the food court? Why do we exist in the universe, as in what is the purpose and meaning of life? Gotta be a little more specific?"

"Why do you bring them back?" Fred asked, "The... the kids, why do you bring them here?"

If Jack had been expecting a question, this would have been one he would have thought he would have gotten later.

"What did Isaac tell you about me?" he asked.

"Not much," Fred admitted.

Jack leant back and sighed.

"Y'know that thought experiment?

Let's say that you're at home, and you're reading a newspaper.

And the front story is that a mass murderer with forty dozen kills under his belt has been caught. Name published, where he grew up, a picture of him back when he was just an innocent little kid...

Now say that you had a time machine.

Would you go back in time and kill him as a kid even though that, at that point, he has not killed anyone, and is as innocent as Mr Rogers?"

Though Fred didn't know who he was, he got the point anyway.

"Can I... can I stick with the kid to try and change the future?" he asked.

"And like that you've covered the basics of what I do," Jack said, holding his hands in the air, "Though I'm not going into the past to do it, I stick with any kid that I get drawn to and see if I can get rid of whatever it is that's drawing me to them.

If I can, then I remove any trace that I ever existed from their minds.

And if I can't..."

He drew a long finger across his neck.

Fred had a slightly vacant expression on his face.

"Do they... did you ever leave a kid when you..."

"Still felt the draw?" Fred nodded, "Yeah, I did a couple of times, and it never ended well..."

"What happened?"

"Ever hear of 'Elizabeth Báthory'?" Jack asked him, "Let her go, I'm just thankful that I managed to do good enough a cover job on her that people still debate it.

People still talk about whether or not she did the kills, I'm glad nothing about the satanic reasons behind them got out,"

Fred frowned, he was sure that he knew the name from somewhere, he just didn't know where he had heard it.

"You want to see something?" Jack asked, standing up and offering his hand to Fred to help him out of the chair.

Fred took it, hesitating for just a moment before Jack pulled him to his feet and led him to a dilapidated tent near the back of the carnival.

Jack nodded for Fred to go inside, holding the curtain open.

A small pedestal, whatever was held inside its glass case was concealed by a sheet of red velvet, stood in the centre of the entrance.

"Further in," Jack said, drawing his attention away from the case.

Fred walked deeper into the tent, wondering if he was finally going to be killed, when...

He frowned in confusion as he found himself surrounded by faded pieces of paper, various scribbles on them all.

Each of them seemed to depict the same thing over, and over.

A small child, something they were playing with, and what looked like a rainbow coloured clown.

"After each... job, I have to clean up after myself," Jack said, "Remove anything that hinted I was still there.

In the end, I'm left with a fair few pictures, normally.

So I bring them here," Jack gestured around the room, "Pin them up, something to remember each of them by...

Cause... sometimes, I'm able to do it," Jack told him softly, "I'm able to change the future, or whatever metaphor we used earlier, I can change events so that I don't need to kill them,"

Fred looked down the many, many, rows of pictures on the wall and his eyes fell to the small plaques that stood out from the wall.

True, for most of the ones he could see, there was much more red than there was green...

But, every so often, there would be green writing on a plaque.

Fred nearly jumped when he felt a hand settle on his shoulder.

"I should get you back," Jack said, "Don't want anyone to notice you've been spending time with a serial killer,"

Fred gave a small huff of laughter as Jack walked him back to the front of the tent.

"What's under there?" he asked as they passed the pedestal again.

To his surprise, Jack froze where he stood.

"Something from the very first kid that met me," Jack said in an... odd tone of voice, "Come on,"

Jack didn't say anything else on the matter as he led Fred out of the tent and, in a swirl of black smoke, took him back to Hogwarts.

"See you around," Fred said as Jack disappeared in another cloud of smoke.

A quick glance around him revealed that he wasn't too far away from the bathroom where Jack had grabbed him.

Hitching his bag up a little higher on his shoulder, he set back off towards the Great Hall.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Christmas Day.

Isaac couldn't help the wide grin that spread across his face as he stretched out his arms...

Before jumping up a little and nearly throwing the thing on his chest across the room and into the large space heater in the middle of the room.

"Ok... next time, Dobby, just... poke me in the arm for a bit until I get up," he said to the elf who was teetering on the edges of his feet.

"Merry Christmas, Mr Isaac Rogers, sir," Dobby said happily.

"Hey Dobs," Isaac gave a quick huff of laughter at the happy little wiggle Dobby did at being given the nickname, the Christmas bobble that was tied onto the end of his hat jiggled as he moved, "How are you?"

"Dobby is fine, Mr Isaac Rogers, sir," Dobby said, "Dobby is just wanting to give Mr Isaac Rogers his Christmas present,"

"Dobby, you don't have to call me 'Mr Isaac Rogers' all the time, just Isaac is fine," Isaac said, taking the package wrapped up in what looked like old newspapers.

"But Dobby wants to give his respect to Mr Isaac Rogers, sir," Dobby said, "Dobby would still be... still be with..." he beckoned Isaac closer with a bony finger, "... _masters who were very bad wizards_..."

Dobby's body went into spasms for a moment before Isaac threw an arm around him, catching him before he tried to jump off the bed and slam his head into the chest of drawers next to him.

"Dobby is sorry, sir," Dobby said, flopping like a pathetic ragdoll, "Dobby still finds it difficult to talk about old masters sometimes,"

"It's alright, man," Isaac said, setting Dobby down on his pillow as he unwrapped Dobby's gift.

Isaac snorted in laughter as he held up the pair of socks.

"Dobby is making them himself, sir, from the wool that Dobby buys," Dobby said proudly.

"They're pretty good," Isaac said, holding up the mismatched socks, looking at the different patterns on them.

Dobby did another little happy wiggle as Isaac pulled them on.

"Thank you, sir," Dobby said happily, "Dobby has to go back to the kitchens now, Merry Christmas, Mr Isaac,"

"Well, that is... marginally better," Isaac admitted, "But wait a moment, got something for you,"

Dobby gasped and closed his eyes, holding his hands out in front of him.

Isaac opened his trunk and searched for the clothes that had gotten too small for him, casting a quick shrinking charm on them.

"Here, sorry they're not wrapped, ran out of wrapping paper," Isaac said as Dobby gasped at the flannel shirt and beanie.

Dobby jammed the hat on his head, his ears getting flattened against the side of his head.

"Thankyouthankyouthank you..." Dobby's thank you's seemed to meld together to form one, continuous, word.

Isaac gave another soft huff of laughter as Dobby did a little spin, messing up a couple of the buttons of the shirt before he disappeared.

Around the room, Dean, Seamus, and Neville were waking to similar sights.

A quick well-wishing from the others before tearing into the pile of presents that were stacked at the end of their beds.

The only thing that had Isaac frowning that morning, was the change in Ben's gift pattern.

All the past times Ben had given him a gift they had been either game based, new tapes for his walkman, or just a box of his favourite sweets.

This time, he had done something different.

Isaac turned the package over, watching as it flopped around a little.

He could tell that there were either a couple of tapes or a box of sweets held inside as well, judging by where the wrapping bulged out a little, but he had no idea what the other thing was.

Tearing the wrapping paper off three things fell onto his lap.

A couple of new tapes, a couple of snack boxes of chocolate...

And a bundle of what looked like leather straps?

Isaac's head fell onto his shoulder as he picked up the slip of paper and the bundle, letting it fall open for him to look at and read.

Realising what it was he sprang to his feet, nearly falling out of his bed since a mattress was not the most stable surface to be standing on, and began pulling it on.

Before anyone could ask what it was, he had leapt off the bed and ran into the bathroom to look at himself in the mirror.

A chuckle escaped his lips as he adjusted the straps, running a hand across the branded flame patterns that had been stamped into the leather.

If the others hadn't been in the room, then he would have immediately started filling out the many built-in hilts with the throwing knives in his trunk, as well as the big hunting one Jeff had sent him two years prior.

He found the bits that allowed him to tighten the, if the manufacturer's letter was correct, custom made harness with enough spaces for him to fit all the throwing knives he had, as well as the hunting knife, the axe that Toby had given him, there was a specially designed strap for that on the back, and the pocket knife Sirius had sent him that morning, and still have spaces if he wanted to add more if, and when, he got them.

When he finally got changed he found Hermione, wrapped up in the scarf he had sent her, conversing with the twins, who were wearing the new mud flaps Isaac had decided to get them after seeing the state of their old wool hats.

The scarf had been a perfect pick for Hermione, the rich blue wool had been charmed water repellant and warming, and it had taken some convincing to get L.J to make sugar free versions of his sweets for him to wrap up in its folds as L.J saw anything that was diet or sugar free to be an affront to his entire lifestyle. Her fingers ran over the images of books that looked as though they were flying like birds as she talked about what the Yule Ball they were going to later would be like.

The hats for the twins had the same charms, though there was also a couple of pouches in the flaps that covered their ears that had also been filled with a few of the safe sweets from L.J.

Breakfast that morning was a quick one, people wanting to get out and try out their new gifts.

Isaac wished that Hermione hadn't caught him trying to sneak away when they got back to the Gryffindor Tower to get a warmer change of clothes for another snowball battle.

They had managed to convince Hermione to join in, instead of her sitting somewhere safe nearby and reading a book, so the twins had immediately claimed her for their side.

"You guys go on ahead, I think I left something upstairs," Isaac said, turning around to walk back down the corridor, but Hermione caught him by the arm.

"Did you actually forget something, or do you just want to go 'the fun way' downstairs?" she asked with a stern look that, when perfected, could rival McGonagall's.

Isaac didn't say anything for a moment.

"So, you think that just because you've nabbed Hermione that you can finally beat me?" Isaac asked, walking down the corridor after the twins, Hermione following with a smug look on her face.

Half an hour later, Fred and George called for a timeout.

"How... are... you..." Fred panted, "... so good?" he finished after taking a deep breath.

"Because I like to win," Isaac said with a wide grin, "And you two are useless at snowball fights,"

George snorted.

"We do not suck at snowball fights,"

"Then prove it," Isaac said, kicking a large amount of powdery snow into the air before disappearing.

"I really hate that jacket," Fred growled.

"I really love this jacket," came Isaac's voice, hidden amongst the snow, the white jacket blending him in with the uneven landscape.

The twins, and a slightly sodden Hermione, called defeat after another half of an hour.

Isaac's merry smile kept up throughout the entirety of lunch, though there was another small announcement as to why lunch was going to be extended a little.

As the younger years, save for those who had been invited as a date, were not allowed to attend the Yule Ball lunch would be extended so that they could have a more filling meal before snack foods would be served to them in the common rooms as the Yule Ball had a special dinner.

Hermione ran ahead of the others, saying she needed a little extra time to get ready, so Isaac ambled back with Fred and George.

Isaac had not yet opened the zipped grey bag that Teer and Helen had said contained the formal clothing for the ball.

The only thing that made it seem wizarding, in comparison to everything else, was the deep black cloak with rich navy blue trimmings.

"So... where exactly are the Ravenclaw dorms?" Isaac asked, descending back down to the common room half an hour later.

"It's..." Fred broke off when he caught sight of Isaac, "God damn, you can tidy up,"

"Course I can," Isaac snorted, moving a few strands of his hair out of his face, "Just because I can't be bothered for day to day stuff doesn't mean that I can't decide to look my best once in a while,"

The sample of Sleakeazy's that Hermione had given him had been used to give his hair a silk-like feeling after he had showered.

Beneath the cloak he was dressed in a deep red, could have been mistaken for black if they didn't have the cloak to compare it to, waistcoat over a plain white shirt and matching red tie.

Onyx cufflinks glinted slightly in the flames from the fireplace.

After getting what he might have called the most vague directions to a place in history, if he hadn't seen Jeff forget the words 'bathroom' and 'toilet paper'.

L.J was still shouting 'tissue paper for the asshole' just to annoy him.

Despite that, Isaac managed to find the entrance to the Ravenclaw tower... just not the portrait that would open the passage into the room.

After looking around for a while he eventually found the brass knocker held in the mouth of an eagle.

Hesitating for a moment, he reached up and let it fall back down onto the plate.

" _Feed me and I live, yet give me a drink and I die_?" came an elegant voice from the eagle knocker.

"Fire," Isaac shrugged.

"Your intelligence shines through," the eagle purred before the door it was protruding out of swung open to reveal a stone staircase.

"Huh," Isaac tilted his head before walking up.

"What are you doing here?" a Ravenclaw fifth year asked, their tie undone while they tried to get rid of the creases in his robes.

"Picking up my friend for the ball," Isaac said, "Is she ready?"

Whispers had broken out around the high stone walls, many students eager to see who he was taking.

"Hello, Isaac," a soft voice called over to him.

"Hey, Luna, you look lovely," Isaac said as she thanked him and curtsied in her pale white dress that made it look like she had been carved out of a pearl.

Isaac offered her his arm to help her down the stairs, holding the door open for her.

For fifteen minutes, nobody in the Ravenclaw common room muttered a single word.

It was only when Professor Flitwick let them know that the Ball would be starting soon that the room burst into action of everyone getting ready.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Wisconsin, Bucknuckles bar and grill.

Masky struggled to keep his hand over the man's mouth, his stomach taking hit after hit, as the man tried to free himself.

This guy had been giving them grief for the past month.

The dude had been unlucky enough to catch one of them, E.J, mid-kill last month and had recorded it.

By the time they had been alerted to the footage's existence, the man had already made a copy on a hard drive and disconnected it from anything that Ben could use to erase it.

So they had sent him and Hoody to track him down.

While Hoody distracted the men inside the bar, Masky was to try and get the location of the hard drive.

"It's a simple deal," Masky said, "Give me the video, and you get to live.

Make it harder for us, and we'll feed you to a horde of zombies and our cannibal friend, y'know him, he's the guy you got the video with him diving headfirst into some dude's corpse for a little snack,"

"Burn... in..."

"If the next word out of your mouth is 'Hell' then I'm just gonna snap your neck now," Masky said as the man spat out the word.

Masky shifted his grip on the man's head before twisting hard, feeling the snap of a few bones in the man's neck.

"Ooh... not a clean break," Masky tutted, "Didn't kill you straight away...

Save me a seat in Hell, next to the big guy himself if you can," Masky watched the last vestiges of life leave his eyes before grabbing his ankle and dragging him off.

He pulled him a good half mile down the road before rolling him into the ditch along the side and dumping his backpack next to him.

The next thing he did was open a couple of bottles of beer and started pumping the, in his utmost opinion, waste of good booze into the man's blood. Pressing down repeatedly on his chest to force the heart to pump the now useless blood around his body.

By the time he was finished, Masky was in need of a drink himself and he had wasted the two bottles he had brought with him making the schmucks death look like an accident.

When he walked back into the bar, things did not show any signs of slowing down.

He passed a behemoth of a man, who was singing an out of tune song to himself, as he made his way to the man in a yellow hoodie sitting at the table that many were crowded around.

The merry-faced man smiled, holding up a couple of the twenties to his good friend, as he downed shot, after shot, after shot, against what must have been the sixth guy to take him on.

"You gonna get in on the action?" some random guy asked as he traded in a twenty for a good pint and change.

"Against him?" Masky, now back in Tim mode, laughed, "Mate, I live with that machine.

Him giving me these is his way of saying, 'sorry I got pissed off my tits again, please take care of me when I get a hangover'," he said to the now raucously laughing man.

People seemed to finally catch on to the fact that Brian couldn't be beaten in a drinking game after the eighth person admitted defeat.

To his credit, or to the credit of whatever had been served to him, Brian did stumble a little as he got up, despite being able to walk out of the room in a straight line.

When the two of them got back to The Mansion Jeff and Liu ran to get 'Hoody's Hangover Hut' ready for him, filling the cabinet with nearly every painkiller and headache tablet they had, refilling the water cooler, as well as checking on the insulating padding that muffled any sound going in or out of the hut.

 **"Any luck locating the recording?"** Slenderman asked as Hoody ambled off towards the Hut.

"Nada," Masky said, lighting up a cigarette, "Not on him, gonna check his apartment once Hood's settled in,"

Slenderman nodded, turning and disappearing from sight.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Mississippi, Daleville.

Jeff was happy.

Why was Jeff happy?

Because Jeff was working.

Now, normally when someone says that they're happy because they're working you assume that they are a sociopath.

But, to avoid confusion, Jeff is not a sociopath... he is a psychopath... or, at the very least, prone to extremely violent tendencies and antisocial behaviour.

And what exactly was his work that day that made him so happy?

L.J had given him a bet, though the arm that he had hit to get his attention was still hurting a little more than it probably should have.

And so that was how Jeff found himself stalking a group of fifteen stereotypical 'jock' douchebags that reminded him of another group he had the... displeasure of meeting years ago.

He even thought that he smelt burning bleach for a moment.

His already unnaturally wide grin seemed to stretch wider for a few moments, a feat that would have baffled biologists who would have been very shocked that someone could still use their mouth after having the muscles that allowed the jaw to open and close sliced through.

The first three jocks fell almost insultingly easy.

They were the lagging tail of the group, the ones that needed a moment to catch their breath.

Jeff had taken the time they were using to nab themselves a quick smoke break to scale a tree nearby, work his way over to the tree that they were resting against, and drop down.

He used the momentum of his falling body to drive a knife straight into the first jock's head, landing on his shoulders to force him down.

His two smoking buddies had leapt back in shock, only to find a knife thrown into their throats.

There was a reason that Jeff knew where to get the kid his first throwing knife set from, he had gotten rather well at finding the perfect balance between price and quality.

They fell to their knees, one of them dumb enough to yank the knife out, before falling onto the ground. Their blood steadily soaked into the pine needle covered ground.

Jeff tore the knives free from the other two, picking up the one that the third had taken out, before giving them a quick shakedown, plus a quick wipe with the sleeve of his hoodie.

He had gladly accepted the offer of Isaac to charm it permanently unstainable as an early Christmas present, all he needed to do was pop it in the wash as you would a normal hoodie and the blood, dirt, mud, or anything else that it got coated in would be washed away with ease.

While following along behind the others of the group, waiting for another member to stray from his pack, he tried to get the hang of whistling again.

Jeff had been fairly good at it before his metamorphosis to the beautiful sadist he was nowadays, but the gashes in his cheeks didn't help matters, so he would have to wait until the jagged cuts healed over again to see if he could pick up his old hobby, or just cut his losses.

He licked his lips in anticipation when two more hung back to see what was taking the, what was now, three oversized bags of fertiliser so long.

The fifth jock put up a little bit of a fight.

Jock number four hadn't seen him coming until it was too late, slamming his head into a tree and forcing the largest knife he had through until the body was stuck there.

Jeff felt like getting a little dirty with this kill.

First, he whaled into the jock's chest so that he was so winded he could barely draw in a feeble gasp of air.

Then, Jeff slowly dragged his body over to a more rocky patch of ground nearby, picked up a hefty stone that probably weighed more than a cinder block, and slammed it down on his mouth.

'Five down, ten to go,' Jeff thought as he planted a foot on the tree and began pulling with all his might at the knife still holding the fourth jock up.

'Scratch that... six down, nine to go...' Jeff amended as when the knife finally came free it had flown out of his grip and hit jock number six, who had went to go with jock four and five, but arrived too late.

Now jock six had dropped to his knees, dead a few seconds later, with the knife sticking out his forehead, making him look like some morbidly deranged unicorn.

Jock seven and eight were taken out a couple of minutes later, the two of them stopped for a quick piss on a tree.

Jeff had made quick work of them, a deep gash through the back of their necks for the both of them, as he was getting really tired of the muddy forest, irritating bird songs, and just how cold it felt.

Jock nine had given him another decent fight.

The rest of the group had reached the lakefront cabin they were walking to and jock nine had gone to go find 'the lost morons', bragging that he had spent a year doing wilderness survival with the Scouts and had reached the rank of 'Scub'. *See author notes.

When jock nine had found Jeff he immediately called him out for the freaky makeup... that was... until Jeff responded by licking each and every scar along his, by now, globally recognised smile.

Jock nine had tried to run, but Jeff had caught him.

He had tried to throw the jock to the ground, but the prick didn't want to get a little muddy, so jock nine had fought back, elbowing Jeff in the face.

Jeff let out a deranged growl and grabbed the jock by his mouth, before forcing him down to the ground, and pulling at his mouth until the muscles, tendons, and flesh that made up the jock's face gave, allowing him to rip the man's jaw off with a ragged spray of blood.

After casually tossing the man's jaw off to the side, Jeff made his way to the cabin.

The remaining six jocks complained when the power went out and sent jock ten to go see what it was.

Then came the sound of a loud bang, sparks, and scream.

The remaining five jocks ran out to see that jock ten's burnt corpse had been forced, head first, into the panel that held all the breakers, fuses, and supplied power throughout the entire cabin.

Jeff stepped around from the side, revealing the glistening knives in his hand, and threw his head back.

He took delight in how the final five looked sickened, horrified, terrified, and disgusted all at the same time before he let his head fall forward so that he could glare at them.

"Boo," he grunted.

One jock fainted, one threw up as he ran, slipping on the vomit and falling over, and the final three jocks ran inside.

The sounds of locks clicking only made Jeff laugh, the rough sounds only heightened the terror of the jocks.

After stamping down hard on the neck of the fainted jock eleven, taking great pleasure in knowing that he could break a man's neck just by standing on it, he dragged the vomit-stained jock twelve to his knees.

His nose wrinkled at the rancid smell so he made quick work of sawing through the man's neck with his largest knife, savouring the jock's screams of pain while they lasted.

Once the head was free, Jeff threw it as hard as he could at the large window that would have given the inhabitants a wonderful view of the lake.

The edges of his smile seemed to drop a little as the head only hit the window with enough force to crack it.

Thankfully, he still had something else to throw.

Jock thirteen had been the dumb one to go see what had banged against the window.

Peeling the curtain back slowly, he found a red stain on the window in the centre of a spider's web of cracks in the glass.

A grunting sound forewarned the sound of something else being thrown into the window.

Jock thirteen fell over the coffee table as the headless body of jock twelve crumpled to the floor.

Barely a moment later, Jeff had sprung through the window and drove two knives deep into jock thirteen's eyes.

"Sorry about the noise earlier," Jeff said, looking up from his crouched position on the coffee table over the slightly twitching corpse of jock thirteen, "But your friend over there really lost his head out there," Jeff nodded towards the body of jock twelve.

Jock fourteen ran into the kitchen, jock fifteen taking the spiral stairs to the first floor three steps at a time.

Jeff hummed an old nursery rhyme that he remembered fondly, he had ended up liking it more when he learnt the origins of the song as well as the other verses. **see author notes.

Jock fourteen had just found something to use to defend himself when Jeff came up behind him, still humming the song.

When jock fourteen had tried to use the corkscrew to stab him, Jeff quickly turned the weapon against him by slamming the corkscrew into jock fourteen's eye.

After that, he knocked him over, and dragged him by the hair to the oven.

He kicked the oven door open and started slamming it closed on jock fourteen's head.

When the body was a crumpled mess, Jeff turned his attention to the last jock.

"Knock knock," Jeff rapped politely on the only locked door up there, "Room disservice,"

After hearing a barely concealed whimper Jeff kicked hard at the handle, causing the door to fly open.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" the jock screamed, backing himself into a corner, "LEAVE ME ALONE YOU FREAKY LOOKING BITCH!"

Jeff paused in his walk to the jock.

"... freaky... looking?" Jeff tilted his head to the side, cracking his neck as he did so, "Freaky... looking?"

Each time he repeated the jock's words, a new layer of malice and glee was added to them.

"Well... how unbelievably rude," Jeff tutted, "Y'know... you wouldn't like it if it happened to you...

Now... there's an idea!"

Before the Jock could do anything Jeff had tackled him, forced his mouth open, and was pressing with the blade of the knife against his cheeks.

"Now, stay very still," Jeff teased, "This is going to hurt... _a lot_ ,"

The jock's screams as Jeff carved a smile into the sad little jock's face brought more happiness to his ears.

"Now... that was the mouth," Jeff tapped the bloody blade against the jock's carved cheeks, "Now comes the delicate part, you got a light?"

Since the jock didn't have a light, Jeff had been forced to throw him over the railing and onto the living room floor so he could have time to look through the pockets of jock eleven through fourteen.

After finding one in jock thirteen's pockets Jeff burnt away jock fifteen's eyelids, almost wanting to dance to the sounds of the agonizing melody he was releasing.

Once jock fifteen was whimpering on the floor, clutching at his defiled face, Jeff went searching through the cupboards.

"Decent stuff you got holed away in here," he called, spinning the bottles of whisky he had found as he set the large yellow tub he had also deemed necessary to bring down.

Jock fifteen cried out in more pain after Jeff smashed the two bottles over him, glass shards mingling with alcohol that burned every cut on his face.

Just when he wondered when the torture was going to end something else was poured over him... something with a rather strong stench of disinfectant.

"And this completes our class on, 'why you don't insult the deranged lunatic who's here to kill you'," Jeff said cheerily before setting jock fifteen ablaze with the lighter from before.

Jeff watched outside as flames quickly engulfed the living room.

To his disappointment, the rest of the cabin didn't catch on.

He'd have to ask Toby about how to properly burn down... a... place...

Jeff groaned and held a hand to his head, which had started throbbing painfully.

"The fuck was I doing?" he muttered to himself, "Fucking... humming while I killed that ass?

Fucking hell, I feel like I've been on one bad trip,"

After checking that jock fifteen was most certainly dead, he didn't want a repeat of Jane, he began making his way back to The Mansion.

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The Mansion.

"Wait... you did what?" E.J asked L.J, a look of disbelief upon his grey toned face.

"Well... we saw what happens when Toby's on a high from this stuff, you weren't that little bit curious about what Jeff would have been like?" L.J said, rolling the bottle of valium in his hand.

"No, because I'm not particularly suicidal,"

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Endnotes.

*In the Scouts, the term 'Scub' will be given to someone who has recently moved up from Cubs into Scouts and has not yet been invested.

** " _London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down_..."

Ok, that was the story.

No idea what I've written since I'm answering the reviews before starting, need the little boost from answering reviews before I can start.

Ok, I can safely say that I KILL IT when it comes to writing kill scenes.

'drum riff'

But, in all seriousness, Jeff's scene takes up one-third of the chapter!

Holy Hell! That was fun to write!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Ooh, sorry to hear about that.

I hope that you are able to recover your files.

I've made it a habit to hit 'CTRL' + 'S' whenever I pause for a moment.

I'm glad that I can brighten your day.

Isaac's admitted it, yes, and now I get to torture more people with feels than ever before.

I'm glad that you liked it!

 **(X) Review (X)**

DarkDragonessFlies;

Thanks, been trying to find that one for a while!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Galra-din;

Hehehehe...

Thank you, hearing that people hate having to wait a week to read these just fills me with glee because I've roped all of you in, hook, line, and sinker.

Did I get a fav from you?

SCORE!

I can't wait to give the 10k special a bit of an update for the story... hehehehe...

I'm glad that I've managed to please you.

I don't know so keep gushing about how marvellous I am.

 **(X) Review (X)**

GoldenGirl'sChicken223;

...

...

...

Welcome?

What?

I... I mean, I get what you're saying, but...

what?

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

I know, I've gotten a few more since that chapter...

I don't back down from challenges, though.

If I reach it then I will have to figure out what I'm going to write...

Doesn't mean that I have to publish it, though...

HA! Loopholes!

I think it's actually taxes that are the root of all evil, how could a biscuit, or cookie, be evil?

It's gonna be handy... wait, we're at the end, not the start, god damn it!

Ok, I think what you've seen me give him will definitely help him in the long run.

...

I'm not _that_ predictable...

...

It'd probably be for people in this fic, since I have zero experience writing for anyone else.

Dream away, nothing holds back dreams.

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

He's a cannibal demon without any eyes, I really don't think that he cares about what you have to say in regards to his eating habits.

TO AMAZON!

I used to work there, actually, big place, and cold.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

I'm not the biggest fan of spicy things, but I don't mind them that often.

Will try ginger tea, though, it sounds nice.

1, because they were basically teenagers, around 14 to 16 years old.

He may kill indiscriminately, but even he knows that at that age people are prone to fits of utter stupidity.

2, He just left them around the side in the alley.

3, Did I mess up the spacing of the chapter?

No, I didn't, Isaac never got mentioned in the Slendy scenes, he didn't know about them.

 **(X) Review (X)**

wow-im-satan;

I'd had that planned for a good few weeks, so congrats to you for figuring out what I was going to do.

I wasn't exactly sure about it to begin with, but now I will happily put a picture of the two on my walls if I get one that fits the style of my other posters.

Ps, thanks for the Hellhound!

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Isaac probably could find a rune sequence that causes massive explosions... idea for another chapter stored away.

Pfft...

I'm going to quote you here, "... an advanced version of the exploding snap cats..."

Thank you for that, gave me a good few minutes of laughter.

I hope it's gone well.

Death by Aztec Ritual actually pales in comparison to what I've come up with.

I'm not saying any more on that front.

Good to hear, there's one thing that I can do well.

Yeah, that's how I would have felt as well.

BBQ's trump dances in my opinion as well.

They're not bad, love Jordan's artwork.

I've already given the reasoning for why he is taking... has taken Luna to the Ball so I'm glad that you approve of my choice.

The kills were fun to write, I'd forgotten how much fun they were.

I think the Creeps invading Hogwarts for the ball would be a worthy EXTRAS chapter.

Sully / Liu hadn't shown up for a bit so it was nice when his name popped up in the choice box.

Fizz has been a little cooped up, so sending him back to The Mansion seemed like a good idea for a bit.

Hermione will soon learn how much Isaac really needs his stress snacks.

Does anyone know where I got the inspiration for that? Hint? It's from my favourite show.

Coffee highs are fun.

I'm glad that you like it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Luna is one of my favourite characters from the books.

I'm glad that you liked it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

You're the one that put it there!

Did you really not think that one through?

Go shake your head under a stream of salt.

Luna and Ginny... I mean... I could.

It definitely is one of the ships that I could have seen in the original story.

Most... if not all... ships in this are same sex, aren't they...

Oh well, SPREAD THE GAY!

'fires glitter cannon'

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

WELCOME!

DR. Smiley isn't one that I knew of.

Thanks for the story, and I doubt that he'll be appearing.

You've got your answer in the chapter.

Liu didn't have the deadline set for Christmas, it was by the end of summer after Isaac's fourth year.

Locklear had the bet that the two of them would have done something by Christmas.

Liu did employ duct tape to help Ben and Isaac, you should have seen 'Werewolf' on EXTRAS.

I want to write a chapter where everyone just hyper ships the two of them and tries to get them together at every instant.

Yeah, impulse control is a problem that the two of them has, Liu just has a better grasp on it than Jeff.

I NEARLY THREW UP JUST READING THAT!

THE FUCK!

Forget grass, how the fuck does anyone find that appetising?

It's like Satan challenged you to find the most disgusting thing on short notice.

I'm skipping the rest of that paragraph for the sake of my stomach.

Better Than Sex Brownies?

I'll be trying those.

Yeah, does work better, though.

YinYang makes writing reviews and sending it to DP so annoying!

I have to send the chapter off later than I would feel comfortable so I can answer him, sometimes add them just before I upload that chapter!

He's a delight, though, and it is fun to get them, regardless of when, and it really isn't that big a problem now that I think about it...

Plus he's consistent, so that's a plus.

That sounds like something that E.J would most definitely like.

Don't worry, I like long reviews, gives me more time to figure out what to write.

I'm glad that you liked it, hope you liked this one too.

 **(X) Review (X)**

kidterminator;

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

Isaac has plans for everything.

If Dumbledore tries to take Isaac from Ben you can expect a very angry Ben to have his fun.

Yeah, Hermione's been pretty mellow lately.

E.J is a cannibal, explain why he should listen.

Slenderman definitely needed some screen time... what about cats?

 **(X) Review (X)**

Ok, that was the final review for this week.

I hope that you all enjoyed this.

The original idea was to do the Yule Ball as one entire chapter, but I started hitting a bit of writer's block towards the end here and decided to split it into two chapters.

You got a kick ass kill spree with Jeff though to make up for it, so I think that balances things out well enough.

Also, I GOT A DOG!

Well... not really, I'm watching him for 3 weeks because his owners are out of the country on vacation, but for 3 weeks (2 once this chapter goes up) I can pretend that I have a doggy of my own!

His name is Chase, and he's a walking gas bomb... he's also a little afraid of the dark, so he needs to sleep somewhere with lights on at night... like Toby's heat lamp... in my room...

And the windows need to be closed since it's winter over here...

Do you see my problem?

Can someone send me a gas mask, please?

If there's not a chapter next week, assume I've died from 'Doggy Death Farts'.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	62. Chapter 62, The Ball, PT2

Chapter 62, The Ball PT2.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Sorry but I need to have a little rant before I start.

So right now my Dad is not in my good books.

I was sick the night/morning after uploading chapter 61 which meant that I couldn't go to my new job's work induction.

Called up and sorted my absence out with the front desk (They're open 24/7) and cancel my alarms so I could have a lie in before putting a note on my door saying that I've been sick and that I've called work to notify them.

Jump cut to the next morning, Dad's shaking me awake and telling me that I have to get up for the work induction, even though the job involves a high amount of customer to employee interaction.

He ignored the note on the door, threw a temper tantrum about how I was sick, crumpled up the note I had written, and threw it at me, blue tack and all, before storming out.

Now, I could understand his feelings, if he had actually bothered to ask me how I was doing with my now very sore head and a stomach that felt like it had been twisted into knots.

So no, I am not very happy with my dad right now.

Sorry about that, needed to get it out somehow.

But, you didn't come here for the drama of my life, you came to see a murderous Harry Potter, who's gotten the attention of everyone's favourite data-ghost, and been raised by my personal favourite axe-wielding pyromaniac.

So, enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

Isaac was not a stranger to whispers being cast his way in the halls of Hogwarts.

He was not a stranger to his every movement being watched as he walked through the halls of Hogwarts.

But he would admit that it was... curiously odd to being surrounded by the whispers and watchful eyes and it not be _him_ that it was all directed towards.

"I think they expected you to be with someone better," Luna said, holding onto the arm he had offered as they jumped the fake step of the staircase.

"And who would I have gone with?" Isaac asked, "I hardly talk to anyone outside of Gryffindor, save for Blaise and Draco, and they have their own partners, nor do I think that I match their type.

For those I do talk to within Gryffindor, it would only be Hermione or Ginny that I would have asked as a friend, and they both had their own dates too..."

"And the one you would have asked is a world away," Luna picked up where he had trailed off.

"... yeah, besides, you're fun to be around, a friend, and have a talent for knowing just what to say at any time,"

"You really see me as a friend?" Luna asked.

Isaac pretended that he didn't notice how she walked a little taller, or how her eyes lit up, at hearing that.

"Course I do," Isaac said, smirking at the dropped jaws of nearly everyone that they passed, "I don't see why I wouldn't, or shouldn't,"

The whispers surrounding them followed their path to the Great Hall where Professor McGonagall was waiting for them.

"There you are Mr Rogers," she said, looking them over with an approving eye when she saw the effort he had put into his hair, "Champions are meeting over here,"

She led him and Luna over to where Cedric and Fleur were waiting.

Fleur's date made an odd choking noise as he took in the sight of Luna on Isaac's arm.

Cedric had an odd look in his eyes, as did Fleur though hers was something more akin to confusion.

"Hi," Isaac said, revelling slightly in all the confusion that was going on.

"Bonjour," Fleur said, snapping out of whatever was eating at her first, "Et, qui est ton ami?"

"Elle s'appelle, Luna, et pouvez-vous parler Anglais, si vous plait?"

Fleur frowned and looked around them.

"OH! Pardon, sorry," she said with a quick shake of her head, "I got lost in my own thoughts for a moment,"

A polite cough got their attention as Krum walked up, Hermione on his arm and trying to keep the smile off of her face.

"And taking three times as long as it did for me to get ready was well worth it," Isaac said and her face split into a wide grin.

Her hair had done what Isaac had long believed impossible.

It was lying sleek and smooth, ending in an elegant knot that rested on the back of her neck.

She was wearing robes of an airy periwinkle blue and, now that she wasn't carrying around a heavy book bag everywhere, she seemed to be carrying herself a little taller.

There was also one last thing that he noticed.

"What did you do?" he asked her.

"Do what?" she asked, unable to keep the blushing smile off her face, "Hi, Luna,"

"Hello," Luna said politely while Isaac continued.

"Hermione, I have known you for four years, what did you do?"

Hermione seemed to blush a shade deeper.

"Well... I might have gone to Madam Pomfrey to get my teeth fixed," she admitted.

Any further conversations were quelled when the red tartan-clad Professor McGonagall returned to call the Champions into the hall.

They followed her into the Great Hall in a line of pairs.

Isaac didn't need to see Hermione's face to see that she had a look of faint smugness at the sight of the 'Krum Fangirls' that had been stalking him every time he entered the castle.

The other thing he enjoyed was seeing the looks on all the, to his very accurate guess, Ravenclaw students in the Ball when they saw that the little oddball of 'Loony Lovegood' was on Isaac's arm.

At the head table, the lead officials of the Tournament clapped politely, along with the rest of the hall, as the Champions were led into the room as if they were show dogs.

The one thing that put him on edge was when he, unfortunately, caught sight of Ron.

He was standing alone and had a look on his face that made Isaac feel like he'd be shoving his head down to the floor again in the next month or so.

Most of the judges wore expressions of varying happiness, though Karkaroff's looked like a more like a polite version of Ron's grimace, and then Isaac noticed the second thing that had him questioning things.

In the place of Mr Crouch was Percy Weasley, a brief chat with him revealed that Mr Crouch had been taken ill and, as his Personal Assistant, would be taking his place until he was feeling better.

After pulling out Luna's chair for her, and sitting down himself, Isaac noticed that the plates before them were empty.

His answer for how to get food came shortly after when Dumbledore looked thoughtfully over a copy of the menus on the table and said, "Pork Chops,"

Around the room, everyone started ordering their meals.

As Isaac tucked into a lovely piece of veal, he cast glances up and down the table.

Hermione seemed to be teaching Viktor how to properly pronounce her name, Fleur's date seemed more concerned with looking at Fleur than making sure that food got into his mouth, Cedric and his date were chatting to each other between bites.

"How's your chicken?" he asked Luna, stabbing a few string beans with his fork.

"It's very nice," Luna said, "I hope the house elves aren't working too hard to arrange everyone's orders,"

"I'm sure that they can handle it," Isaac nodded as he spoke, "They probably couldn't have done it if not,"

As he turned back to his plate, he noticed Fleur looking at him with mild confusion.

"I thought you would have asked another boy from your dorm," she said when Isaac asked her if something else was on her mind and caused him to nearly choked on his drink.

Only Luna didn't do a double take at Fleur for being rather tactless though Cedric did have the same look of curiosity that she had, even if his was a little more polite.

Madame Maxine who was the closest to the Champions had, like Isaac, nearly choked on her drink, turned to reprimand her student for being disrespectful, but was stopped when Isaac spoke before she could.

"Because he's in America," Isaac told her, "I couldn't get permission for him to attend, so I asked Luna if she would like to come with me,"

Luna gave a happy little wave at being mentioned.

Fleur gave him a sad little smile, "So, how long have you been out going with him?"

Madame Maxine kept a close watch on Fleur, ready to ask her to stop if she said anything overly intrusive, rude, or inappropriate.

"I... this would have... he doesn't exactly know that I like him that way, wait... hold on, how did you know I'm... still working out what I am, but how did you know what I was?" he asked, going off on a little tangent.

"Well... you didn't seem to be affected by the..." she broke off, trying to think of the right word, "... charms that I have from my Grandmother's side," she settled on.

"Eh?" Isaac asked, a little confused.

"My Grandmother is a Veela, they tend to have certain... effects on the males," Fleur expanded upon what she had said before.

"Oh," Isaac mused, "Cool," he said before returning to his veal and wondering how Fizz was doing back at The Mansion.

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The Mansion.

Ben rounded the corner, chasing after BRVR and Fizz.

Fizz had taken it upon himself to teach BRVR how to properly run around the place which resulted in the Masky getting knocked over three times, Jane getting coffee spilt on her five times (that were at least accidental), Smile and Eris getting involved thinking it was a race, and a broken door.

Jason hadn't been too pleased when they had sent back the covering for the frame for him to repair after it had been torn in several places.

Subsequently, Fizz had been banned from teaching BRVR how to run around.

That didn't stop the midnight blue mouse from starting races with BRVR though, which was why Ben was currently running after the two before they caused more problems.

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Isaac shrugged and cut into his veal, he was sure that everything was fine.

Talks soon descended back to separate conversations.

Viktor telling Hermione about how different Hogwarts was compared to Durmstrang.

Fleur made comments about how she held the decorations Beauxbatons furnished their halls with at Christmas upon a higher pedestal than the ones that Hogwarts had brought out.

Her date seemed to care less about what she was saying, more distracted with looking at her than making sure that the food he was eating made it into his mouth.

Soon enough, all the food disappeared from the plates and Dumbledore stood to address the hall, asking them to stand as he had done.

With a wave of his hand, the tables flew to the sides, leaving a large space in the centre of the Great Hall.

"Time for the dance," Isaac muttered to Luna, pulling her chair out and offering her his arm once again.

Isaac nearly froze and burst out laughing when he saw the appearance of the band that would be performing that evening.

Needless to say, he much preferred Jeff and L.J.

Isaac took Luna's hand in his own, praying that the brief lesson with Hermione was enough, and waited for the music to start.

The music seemed very disconnected compared to the attire of the band members as he and Luna walked around the room in a waltz.

Eventually, others began to join them in the dance.

People cleared a path for the two large bodies of Hagrid and Madame Maxine, not wanting to get trampled.

"Nice socks, Rogers," the gruff voice of Professor Moody, who was doing his best to waltz with Professor Sinestra despite the peg-leg, muttered as they passed.

"Thanks, Dobby the house-elf made them for me," Isaac had realised what pair he had grabbed to put on as he was tying his laces and wasn't bothered enough to change them, "He's a pretty good... elf,"

The two teachers moved away, ending their very brief conversation, and the song came to an end not that long after.

Isaac bowed, as did everyone else to their partners, before taking Luna's arm again to return to the table for a drink.

"That was rather nice," Luna commented, taking the offered bottle of butterbeer.

Isaac nodded politely.

To be honest, he had found dancing with Luna to be...

He didn't know what to call it.

Wrong felt a little too insensitive, even for him, and the closest word he could think of would have been uncomfortable.

"Oh, look, there's Ginny and Neville, shall I go see if they would like to get a drink as well?" she asked.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, I'll get the bottles," Isaac said, turning around to see where any unopened bottles were.

Isaac leant back against the table, his legs crossed over one another, as he watched the dancing students out in the middle of the Great Hall as the band, he couldn't recall their name, started a song that seemed to fit in more with their mid-eighties aesthetic.

Fred was dancing with Angelina, swapping every so often with George so he could dance with Katie and George with Angelina.

"Hey strangers," he said as Luna brought Ginny and Neville over, "How's the Ball going?"

"Alright," Neville muttered, blushing.

"Stop it," Ginny hit him softly in the arm, "You did fine in the dance,"

Isaac noticed how Ginny was walking as if the edges of her feet felt a little tender.

"What do you think of the music?" he asked them, it was a little too outdated for his tastes.

"They're pretty good," Ginny said; trying, and failing, to hide how much she enjoyed the band.

"I like them fine enough," Neville agreed, his head swaying side to side a little as the band continued playing, "What about you?"

"Eh, I prefer L.J and Jeff," Isaac shrugged, "Then again, I'm biased against them since I live with them so... eh," he shrugged for a second time.

Neville let out a soft gasp, "I thought that was just a rumour,"

"Nope, Jeff's the guy who taught me how to play," Isaac confirmed with a shake of his head, "And no, before you ask, I don't make it a habit to play for others, just when I'm in the mood,"

"Well, hopefully, I'm in the room next time the mood hits you," Neville said.

"C'mon," Ginny said to Luna, "Let's let these two talk,"

Luna had a mildly amused expression as she let Ginny pull her forward, back out onto the dance floor.

Isaac watched the pair go out, catching glimpses of Hermione and Viktor laughing as they danced, Madame Maxine giving Fleur a slight reprimand of something before going off with Hagrid, Blaise and Draco leaning against a table across the room from them, taking it in turns to cast subtle trip jinxes at Pansy, who was trying to talk with some Slytherin upper years.

"So what songs do you know?" Neville asked him.

"Hmm?" Isaac hummed, turning his attention back to his fellow Gryffindor, "Oh,

Well, there's that song that Jeff..." Isaac broke off in an odd flinch that looked like a cross between a shiver and a seizure, "... showed off with, three guesses who L.J was talking about with 'giving P.T.S.D to a kid, some basics that you'd have been taught in primary school, and some other interesting ones that I thought I would have liked to know,"

"Primary school?" Neville asked, confusion evident upon his face.

"Yeah, you know, that thing you attend before starting secondary school... is it not primary school in the UK?"

"I've never heard of that," Neville said.

"Elementary school?" Isaac tried, "No, that's definitely the American version...

You never went to a primary school?"

Neville shook his head.

"Education starts at Hogwarts," he said, "Nothing beforehand, and it's apprenticeships either with, or outwith, the Ministry from experienced practitioners if you want to learn more,"

Isaac and Neville spent a good few minutes talking about the differences between education in the Muggle world and Magical world.

Neville found the concept of being taught basics at an establishment for purely the developing years rather interesting, as well as the idea of further education for anyone wanting to pursue their chosen profession before going into an apprenticeship.

Isaac meanwhile wondered just how underdeveloped the Magical world truly was.

"Hey," Seamus said, Dean following shortly behind him, "How're you two doing?"

"Not too bad, just entertaining Neville with the idea of colleges," Isaac replied, finishing off his Butterbeer.

"Cole-whats?" Seamus asked.

"I'll explain later," Dean muttered to him.

Seamus reached past them to grab a Butterbeer of his own.

"Still can't believe you came with Loony Lovegood," he muttered, tossing the bap back onto the table.

"I can't believe that it's not butter," Isaac said, "Or that you've not noticed that your shoelaces are untied,"

Seamus looked down and frowned.

When he looked back up he felt something scratch down the space between his eyebrows to the bridge of his nose.

He squinted his eyes to see the cocktail stick that Isaac had scratched him with.

"If that was my wand, then there'd be a rather nasty boil that made you look like a tri-clops with a severe case of hayfever right now," Isaac said, a chill upon his voice.

Seamus gulped and nodded. The message had gotten across.

"So how are you two liking the Ball?" Dean asked, stepping in to play mediator.

"It's alright," Isaac shrugged, "Could have had better music, though,"

Seamus blanched at him.

"Mate, _it's The Weird Sisters_ ," Seamus said in a hushed tone, "Top band in Britain,"

"Is that Magical Britain only, or does that statement get the opinion of Muggles?" Isaac asked.

Seamus turned a little red and took a swig of his Butterbeer.

I'm gonna go try the punch," Isaac said, leaving Neville to chat with the others.

Professor Moody grunted at him as he took a spoon full from the large bowl, his magical eye watching a group of seventh-year students who were milling around nearby in an innocent manner.

Isaac spent another good hour or so wandering around, chatting with people who stopped him, laughing at jokes with his school friends, and having rather engaging discussions with Luna.

There was one part of the conversations that caused him to choke on his drink.

He and Luna had started talking about their childhoods, when...

"... Daddy always made sure that he was able to make time for me, he even let me sit on his lap while he was making revisions for his stories and asked me for my opinion on topics,"

"Really?" Isaac asked as he smiled into his goblet of punch, watching Moody chase the group of seventh-years out of the hall, the flask that the seventh years had brought flying through the air to beat them around their heads.

"Yes, and it was interesting to see the Laughing Jack at Halloween,"

Isaac nearly choked on his punch.

"I'm..." cough, "I'm sorry? What?"

Luna looked undisturbed at what she was saying.

"Laughing Jack, your friend from home, he came here on Halloween," she said, swirling the last dregs of her Butterbeer around the bottom of the bottle.

Isaac glanced around, leaning in close.

"What do you know about him?" he asked in a low tone.

"Well, he plays and sings rather well, you live with him, and he has that story," Luna said, seemingly undisturbed at Isaac's change in demeanour, "You know, that story about the clown, they have the same name, apparently,"

Isaac leant back, disguising his sigh of relief as a sigh of movement.

She was calling him the name from the story, she didn't actually know that the story was real.

"You know... I think I'm rather tired," Luna said.

Isaac glanced down at his watch, seeing it nearly at the halfway mark past eleven.

"Yeah, getting pretty late," he muttered to himself, stretching as he shook his head, "Would you allow me to escort you back to your tower?"

"My, what a proper gentleman," Luna giggled, "Would you like to get your cloak?"

Isaac thought it over for a moment.

"Nah," he said with a shake of his head, "Neville and that are watching it for me,"

"Alright then," Luna said, standing up.

Isaac offered her his arm once more, giving brief waves to those that saw them, as they walked back to the Ravenclaw tower.

"This was fun," Luna said, her voice starting to sound tired now, "Thank you for bringing me,"

"It was indeed, and thank you for the pleasant company," Isaac said, reaching up to knock the knocker.

" _When is a door, not a door_?" the eagle asked.

"When it's been blown off its hinges," before Isaac could give the actual answer, the knocker spoke again.

"A change in the method may yield the same result as the first," it said before the door swung open.

Isaac blinked at the open doorway.

"Oh my... it accepts _sass_!" he said excitedly, "I must say, I think I prefer your entrance method,"

Luna laughed before giving Isaac a quick hug, "I'm sure it will go well with your friend, good night," she said before turning to retire for the night.

Isaac stood there as he watched Luna ascend out of sight, the door closing shortly after.

He sighed, shaking his head before he began making his way back down to the hall.

In all honesty, he was starting to feel tired himself as he made his way back down the many, _many_ , stairs and so he made it his plan to grab his cloak, bid goodnight to Hermione, who had just run past him with tears streaking down her face, maybe get one last drink of punch, and...

Isaac spun to watch Hermione hurry out of sight, small, wet, drops of water on the ground from where she had passed him.

When Isaac reached the bottom of the stairs he was just in time to see a rather irritating redhead walk out the front doors.

He did not like the look on his face.

"Vare is Herm-own-ninny?" Viktor asked.

"Pretty close, good job," Isaac said at his attempt to pronounce Hermione's name, even some of the guys back home had gotten it wrong a couple of times.

Not Hoody though, he got it in one go when correcting E.J.

"I don't know," Isaac admitted, "Did you see who she was talking too before you went for drinks?" he asked, pointing at the glasses in his hands.

"She vas talking to a boy with bright orange hair," Viktor said, looking around, "And vhen I come back, she vas gone,"

"Did you hear what they were talking about?" Isaac asked.

"Not really... I did hear a word or two as I went for the drinks, it was... how do you say... it's... 'dirty water', and something else..."

Viktor broke off when he saw the dark look that had flitted across Isaac's face.

"I don't think that the ginger said anything too nice to her," Viktor raised his thick eyebrows and tilted his head that the American accent that Isaac was now talking with, "She's gone back to the tower.

If I don't come back with her, then I'll bid her a good night on your behalf,"

"What is that ginger's name?" Viktor asked, putting the drinks down, "I vould like to have a talk with him about what he said,"

"You leave that ginger to me," Isaac said, an odd look in his eyes, "Hogwarts is my war zone.

I know the nooks to every cranny.

I know the routes.

If that prick really has said something to upset Hermione, then he's not going to have a very good time this New Year," Isaac promised him.

Viktor looked pleased with what Isaac said, but didn't back down, "And vhat if I vould like to give him my piece?"

"Then I will be happy to arrange every single spectacle to be within your line of sight," Isaac said, meeting Viktor's steely gaze, "Hermione is one of two things that keeps me coming back here.

If Ron's done something to upset her, then he's just going to find out just how long I can hold a grudge,"

"And just how long is that?" Viktor asked him.

"Till I get bored of being petty," Isaac said, "And I never get bored from being petty.

Plus, I've got the ultimate discount from a very successful prank voyeur,"

Viktor thought things over for a moment.

"If it helps, I have a friend who gets fifteen percent off from Laughing Jester supplies?" he offered.

"I get ninety percent off," Isaac said, "I live with L.J.

Plus, he was one of the guys who came to sing at Halloween,"

Viktor did a quick double take.

"Really?"

"Yep," Isaac nodded.

"Anton is going to be pissed, he loves that shop,"

Isaac turned with a snort, "Good luck in the second task,"

"You too," Viktor said, taking the drinks away to a group of Durmstrang students who had taken over a table in the corner.

After getting his cloak from the table, he tossed it over his shoulder and made his way back to the Gryffindor tower.

"HEY! Isaac!" a voice called after him.

Isaac sighed as he wondered what else could interrupt him tonight.

He did frown, however, when he saw it was Cedric who had called out to him.

"Hey?" Isaac said.

"Hey, listen... I never really thanked you for that hint, with the dragons," Cedric said, gently pulling Isaac out of the way in case someone else came up the stairs.

"It's fine," Isaac said, "Look, not too..."

"Does your egg wail when it opens?" Cedric asked him, glancing nervously around.

"Yeah, and relax, we only have to do the actual tasks without help from anyone else, we can get as much prep help outside of them,"

Cedric frowned, thinking things over for a moment.

"Pine Fresh," he told Isaac after a moment, "It's the password for the Prefects bathroom.

Take the egg and... and give it a listen in the water,"

"Cedric," someone called over, probably his date for the Ball.

"Got to go, good luck," Cedric said, patting him on the arm.

Isaac watched Cedric go back to the girl that he swore he had seen somewhere on the Quidditch pitch before.

In the brief encounter, Isaac had nearly forgotten about why he was heading up to talk to Hermione.

He knew that he couldn't go up the stairs to the girl's dormitory, and he couldn't be bothered getting his cloak and sneaking up by avoiding the gender-detection runes.

"Hey," Isaac flagged down Lavender as she came back up, "Could you get Hermione for me?"

Lavender frowned at him but went up to see where Hermione was anyway.

"She's not coming down," she said, leaning over the railing, "Did something happen?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out," Isaac said, grabbing a piece of discarded parchment, quill, and an ink pot.

He quickly scribbled something down on the parchment before handing it up to Lavender.

"Don't look at it, but tell me Hermione's response,"

There was something about the steel edge in Isaac's voice that made Lavender listen to him and not look at what he had written.

"She didn't really say anything," Lavender said, returning a minute or two later, "But she nodded, so... take it as a yes?"

Lavender backed away from the bannister, calling a hurried good night, as she saw Isaac's face darken, the returned note seemed to curl in his hand.

"Tell her I'll handle it,"

She was gone before it burned in a quick flash of green flames.

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Isaac looked up at the ceiling of his four-poster bed, the curtains drawn around him.

He sighed as he let his head sink a little further down into the cushions, his head abuzz with thoughts.

Making a decision, he got up and turned on the Gameboy.

Sleep seemed to evade him for a short while, and when he did finally drift off into Morpheus' domain.

"Hey, Specs," Ben said, "Merry Christmas!"

"Hey, Ben..." Isaac said, wishing he could match his positivity, "How are things back home?"

"They were pretty good, so..." Ben was practically dancing on the balls of his feet.

Isaac couldn't help but feel his spirits lift, which was ironic considering who he was with at that moment, as his friend's eager smile split across his face.

"Loved it, man," he pulled Ben in for a hug.

The happy laugh that Ben made as he eagerly returned it gave Isaac a few more moments of happiness before they awkwardly let go of each other.

"So... how are things back in The Mansion?" Isaac asked, "Fizz isn't giving you too much trouble, is he?"

"Fizz? No, he's been fine," Ben said, not wanting Isaac to think he couldn't handle looking after him, "And for everyone else, I don't know, most of them are still asleep,"

Isaac snorted as they appeared in the field, a layer of frost and snow covering the ground.

Ben shivered a little he looked out over the glittery snowscape.

He had made it so that it wasn't actually cold, but the sight of it was enough to send a shiver down his spine.

"So... I take it that you haven't opened any of your presents yet?" Isaac asked him.

"No, been waiting to chat with you," Ben said, "How was that... Ball?"

"It was... both boring, interesting, dull, and eventful," Isaac settled on, telling him about his night.

"Sounds like it would have been fun just to watch," Ben said, laughing as they reviewed part of Isaac's memory of the night.

"Yeah..." Isaac trailed off before closing his eyes.

"Specs?" Ben asked him as the scenery around them changed to the Great Hall as it had been that evening.

Ben looked Isaac over as he now stood before him in the formal attire that he had worn earlier that evening, watching as Isaac's hair lay flat against the side of his face and how he had to tuck the longer strands of his fringe behind his ear.

"C'mere," Isaac said, grabbing Ben's wrist and pulling him into the middle of the hall, "May... may I have this dance?"

Ben looked up from the hand held out to him and into his glistening emerald eyes.

"What took you so long to ask?" he asked, feeling a blush race through his cheeks as Isaac laughed and took his hand.

"You know any music that would work for a waltz?" Isaac asked him.

"Erm... probably, give me a mo," Ben frowned as he thought for a moment.

A few moments later a song started playing around them, not as slow as the one that the band had played and it sounded more hopeful than mournful. *

"Not too bad," Isaac said as the sounds of a violin joined the piano.

Ben felt another blush ripple across his face as Isaac gently clasped his hand, dropping his other hand to his side.

"I feel a little underdressed," Ben mumbled, looking down at his hoodie, jeans, and scuffed up trainers.

"I'll lead, and I think you look perfect," Isaac smiled as he started walking a bright red Ben through the first few steps of the dance.

Ben let Isaac pull him along, soon finding his feet as he and Isaac danced...

That was until he caught the floor with the edge of his trainer and fell forward onto Isaac.

Isaac laughed softly and when Ben tried to take a step back, so he wasn't pressing his face against Isaac's chest, he held him a little tighter. Keeping him close.

Ben was wondering if the blush would ever leave his face as Isaac continued dancing.

The song slowly came to an end and neither of them wanted to let go from the other.

"I miss you, Isaac," Ben said softly, feeling the arm that now circled him tighten.

"I miss you too," Isaac mumbled softly into his hair.

"I've had enough,"

Ben frowned and looked up at him.

"I think I've reached my limit with this place," Isaac admitted, "I'm going to finish this year, send a letter saying that I've had an accident and will be staying at home to recover, and then never go back if I can help it,"

Ben looked up at his best friend.

"Really?" he asked, "You're going to give up magic?"

"I'm not giving up magic," Isaac said, meeting the gaze from eyes as blue as the deepest sea, "I'm just cutting pretty much every single tie I have to that place.

I'll probably stay in touch with Hermione, maybe Draco, but I really don't see myself going back for a year five unless something really big happens,"

Ben didn't say anything as he let his head drop back down onto Isaac's chest, the two of them meandering around the field once more.

The music had stopped playing a while ago.

"Wait... you haven't opened your gifts yet, haven't you?" Isaac asked him.

"No, not yet," Ben admitted, "Why?"

Isaac smiled and rested his chin on the top of Ben's head.

"Why?" Ben asked again, "C'mon, what'd you get me?"

"I'm not telling," Isaac all but sang.

"Come on, tell me," Ben almost pleaded, he could hear the tone in Isaac's voice and he knew that there was definitely something amusing the ebony haired teen.

"You'll just have to wait," Isaac said.

Ben huffed, a sly thought crossing his mind.

Isaac yelped as Ben tucked a leg behind his own and pulled him over.

Both Ben and Isaac tumbled to the ground, flurries of snow flying into the air as the two rolled over each other until Isaac had Ben trapped beneath him.

"Where were you going with that?" Isaac asked, panting slightly as he looked down at a flushed Ben.

"... I don't really know..." Ben muttered, shoving Isaac's hands away so that he fell down again.

Isaac spent a moment laughing before he grabbed Ben and rolled him over so that he was on top of him.

"I can't wait until I get to come home," Isaac muttered, brushing snow out of Ben's hair.

"I miss Christmas with you," Ben said, flicking bits away from Isaac's cheeks.

Isaac sighed contently, despite his earlier contempt at Ron's actions, he was feeling definitely happier now.

Ben closed his eyes as he let his head drop down onto Isaac's chest once again, smiling softly as Isaac's arms settled around him.

"I wish I could be back at The Mansion with you, and Toby, and everyone else," Isaac sighed softly.

"I wish you were back here too," Ben mumbled softly into the fabric of his shirt.

Ben shuffled up a bit when he felt Isaac try and pull him a little closer.

"Hey, Ben..." Isaac tilted his head up a little so he could see him properly.

"Yeah?" Ben asked, opening his eyes and not wanting to look away from Isaac's.

"Would you... like to go...

Do you want to go grab a couple of burgers with me when I get back?" Isaac asked, nearly wincing as it took all of his self-control to speak clearly, and not have it come out as a garbled mess of vowels and consonants.

Ben froze a little, his mouth a little dry, as something seemed to burn a little brighter inside him.

"I... I... I..."

"It's alright if you don't..."

"I'd love to," Ben cut off Isaac's embarrassed mumbling, "I'd love to go get burgers with you,"

Now it was Isaac's turn to freeze a little before his face cracked open in another wide smile.

Ben was matching the smile that he felt could put Jeff's to shame as he ran a hand through Isaac's now messy hair, the effect he was using to keep it straight and flat gone like the fake Great Hall.

As he made to remove his hand Ben found that his fingers were trailing down the side of Isaac's face.

"Ben?" Isaac said, his own hand settling gently on Ben's shoulder as he made to move a little closer.

"Yeah?" Ben asked, leaning in too.

Isaac bolted upright in bed, an intense pain tearing its way through his head and it took every shred of his willpower not to cry out in pain.

It felt like someone had dragged fish hooks through his skull and out his eyes, the afterimage of a blushing Ben still there every time he blinked.

What urged his panic on, however, was the smell of something burning.

He tore his curtains open to see thin wisps of smoke coming out of the drawer where he kept the Gameboy.

A glass cup was on its side, the water it had once held spilling out into the drawer.

"Shit!" Isaac hissed as he quickly took the Gameboy out, shoving a few pairs of socks at the puddle of water.

The Gameboy gave a few more sparks before the screen died out with a fading flicker.

"Shit..." Isaac held the now dead Gameboy in his hands and he couldn't help the shaky breath that escaped him.

Isaac gently rubbed a few droplets of water away from the screen, wondering what had happened to Ben.

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Endnotes.

* 'A Beautiful Mind' by Travis A King.

And that's the end of the chapter.

Hope you enjoyed it, feel like I've had a fair bit of fun torturing you all with feels.

Sorry for a lack of CP scenes this week, but I felt like it would have been too big a disconnect between what I'd written if I'd included them.

There's going to be a good few CP scenes next week, and I'm trying to convince DP to try and write one, so you'll see if I was successful or not in a week.

Oh, and you'll never guess what's happened again.

Another impromptu date night because nobody turns up to the Explorer pub nights aside from me and my boyfriend.

Oh, and of course...

LEMSIP SEASON!

I've got another fucking cold! I'm going to end up drowning myself in Lemsips again.

I took the ability to breathe through my nose in vain, and now I'm reaping the consequences.

'sad SteamGeek01 noises'

This is trying my patience, and I have a very tempting bottle of Gin nearby.

It's Brewis Ginley Gin, I got bottle 133 out of 500.

BUT, considering that The Yogscast kept the first 50 bottles.

I've technically got bottle 83 out of 450.

Anyone else watching the Jingle Jam?

So, what have I gotten in terms of views?

 **(X) review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

Hmm... if Isaac got high on valium...

I smell an EXTRAS chapter sometime... or maybe when he's back at The Mansion.

I liked it, when are YOU uploading your next chapter?

I've never read one of those types of stories before, I've read similar where someone goes to another universe where Harry Potter is real, but they've always been from another fictional world.

Mostly Supernatural, because I'm a sucker for Destiel subtext... and you know what they say about subtext.

 **(X) review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

I know.

Coffee highs are fun, aren't they?

I could add a ritual to his death, but I really like the torture that I've come up with.

Ooh... that's Game of Thrones level stuff... eww...

I do really like Luna, she needs to be in more fics.

What was that chapter again... oh, yeah, I remember now.

Fizz is gonna get a little bit of 'R&R'... and by that, I mean... insert pun for something about killing that begins with r here...

The scene with Karkaroff was not based on Supernatural, it was Doctor Who.

Yeah, surprising fact about that potion, wasn't it?

Drunk Hoody is fun to write, and fairly easy, I just have him sit down, smile, and knock back drinks as if they're Pringles.

How much? Erm... at least 7 trays filled with shots of various drinks... probably more than Tyrian Lannister drinks in a season.

Fred and L.J still need a little more screen time so I can get stuff set up for later.

Christmas is always a little fun to write, and this time was no exception.

I really like the idea I came up with, I think it fits well with Isaac.

I'm going to recreate it one day, except with a duster coat instead of a cloak.

Hehehehe, your Grandma is brilliant.

Jeff's scene was fun to write, and now you know what I think would happen if Jeff got high on valium.

I love both of those for their dark origins.

I'm glad that you liked it, hope you liked this one too.

 **(X) review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Jeff's scene was pretty good, wasn't it?

I will have that tea by the end of this year!

I worked Amazon in Customer Returns for a month in July, and I could not go through a week without having something sex-related coming through the conveyor.

 **(X) review (X)**

acherongoddess;

I'm glad the wait was worth it.

Fred and Jack needed that scene, they'll be having a few more in the future.

 **(X) review (X)**

mewmaster89;

Welcome!

Thank you!

Lulu, I'll need to do some reading to get to know the character, but if I can work her in, then I don't see why not.

HA! You will be forced to wait a week, like everyone else!

'cackles'

 **(X) review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

I do most of my reading on my phone too.

I'm glad that you liked the chapter.

The Fred and L.J scene will be a recurring thing after a while, L.J will need to check up on his Proxy and Fred will need to have a little training in the future.

Thank you!

 **(X) review (X)**

Katoptris12;

Ok, I'm gonna make sure that Chase doesn't get anything extra when I get home (Sitting with my Grandpa while I write this).

 **(X) review (X)**

The Crazed Crow;

Welcome!

Did a little double take with your name there, thought you were 'The Smiling Crow'.

What, even Slendy gets curious sometimes.

Plus, it wasn't a mission, it was a bet that L.J made with him about killing 15 people in a single 'job' so it was more Slendy still let him out when he was high as hell.

 **(X) review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

Thank you, I'm going to be doing small tweaks to it soon since my next EXTRAS chapter does a little to affect it.

I am going to take a screenshot of that comment to prove that someone thinks I'm hilarious, thanks for that.

I know Satan too, he leaves reviews regularly and gave me a Hellhound!

The mayo-corn flakes-hot sauce abomination of putrid, festering, vomit!

Ok, those are combos that I can stomach a little because I like every one of them separate... but together... no.

Well, Liu did have the 'Pukey The Elf' story that he told Toby.

I could, but that breaks the Geneva Convention.

I just like animals. All animals.

I now have a never-ending list of food to try.

Well, I'll see where the story goes.

If it makes sense, then it might happen.

Favourite Madam Macabre song?

I'm torn between 'God Syndrome', 'Carol of The Bells', 'Golden Strings', and 'To The Ark'.

 **(X) review (X)**

Sabriel Orion;

Welcome!

I don't know if you're new or not, but I don't think I've seen that name before... well, outside of looking up fanfics to read.

I'm glad that I can give you your fix of Creepypasta.

I'm going to have to start copy and pasting what I say about Luna.

I like her too, she's underrated in some fics.

I think I've got an EXTRAS chapter idea right there, definitely more of a Crackfic version.

I hope that wait was worth it.

 **(X) review (X)**

Alex Brin;

Welcome!

Yeah, I think I got some things mixed up in the fic.

I'll probably go fix it later.

 **(X) review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

If you thought the scene with L.J and Fred was sweet, I'm looking forward to what you're going to say about this one.

They're easing him into the world, not everyone can handle being thrown in the deep end on their first go.

Yep, Dobby's learned his lesson.

Yep, Ravenclaw's really wronged Luna, and now they're reeling from repercussions.

L.J is insane, I think we all knew that. He just enjoys every second of it.

He's a Staffie cross, can't remember what the cross is. The problem for the death farts has been sorted.

Where is the thing about Slenderman herding cats from?

I didn't give Slenderman any scenes with cats, what's going on?

Masky does end up keeping most of the peace around The Mansion, doesn't he?

 **(X) review (X)**

Ok, that was the last of the reviews.

Thank you all for reading, and I hope that you enjoyed.

See you in the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit so if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	63. Chapter 63, Christmas and aftermath

Chapter 63, Christmas aftermath.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Christmas is coming soon, ain't I excited!

So our decorations went up this week on Thursday, and I got to sleep through it all because I had a little overtime that day, today as well, and seeing as I have the night shift, I really like my new job!

For anyone wondering, when you go to a store and see all the tagged bottles of booze on the shelves, that's my job.

So, a new week, a new chapter, a new cup of Lemsip for me to drink.

FUCK! Still too hot.

Ok, so things have definitely gotten better.

Job's going well, night shift is... interesting.

Kind of a reality disconnect since you don't really see shops in the middle of the night with nobody around.

But, real life is kinda boring, and a house full of murderous teenagers, demons, two ghosts, two demon dogs, a really tall dude, and a wizard is way more fun.

So, time to get back to them,

Enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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The Mansion.

Sally was a blur as she ran down the halls.

Masky and Hoody were already awake from her rather enthusiastic wake-up, the loud yelp from somewhere else telling them that either Liu or Jeff had been woken up.

Hoody went off to try and do a little Sally themed damage control while Masky went to see if Ben was back from visiting Isaac.

"BEN!" Masky threw the door open when he saw Ben collapsed on the ground, two thin trails of blood dripping out of his nose.

Ben let out a feeble groan as he let Masky help him to his feet, feeling his arm get thrown over his shoulder as he was half dragged out of the room.

"What happened?" Toby asked, taking Ben's other arm, alerted by Masky's shout.

"I don't know, found him on the floor," Masky told him, "Get E.J, or Locklear, whoever's up," he told Hoody who was a few paces behind Toby.

Locklear was waiting for them by the time that they dragged Ben into the room, a set of antiseptic wipes waiting in his hand.

"Your friend of a few words didn't say what happened," he said, kicking out a chair for them to sit a groggy Ben down into.

"Passed out on the floor, hasn't said anything, groaned a little," Masky told him, setting Ben down in the chair,"

"... Isaac..." Ben mumbled, trying to lean forward as if to get up.

Locklear pushed Ben's head gently back, the bright light of the small torch flashing between his eyes.

"It may be good to get your cannibal friend back in here," he said to Masky, "I will admit I have little knowledge on how a ghost... computer... what is the term for him?"

"We call him a data-ghost," Toby said, cleaning away the blood from Ben's nose.

"Eyes react the same, they just look freaky," E.J grumbled as he walked in, tugging at his shirt.

"Your shirt's on back to front," Toby said to E.J as he settled down on an empty bed.

"I know!" E.J snapped at him, "It wouldn't be on wrong if I had gotten time to actually put the damn thing on without Sally going ballistic at stupid o'clock in the morning,"

"It's eight," Masky sighed.

"That's stupid o'clock in the morning somewhere," E.J grumbled once more, "I only got about five hours of sleep,"

"Did anyone see you this time?" Masky asked, earning a growl thrown his way.

"No, they didn't,"

"Good, I don't want to be running around playing clean up on Christmas," Masky grunted.

"Ok, I'm just sleepy, what's your excuse for overdosing on bitchy pills?" E.J asked as Toby moved past him to get the painkillers on Locklear's orders.

"I'm just up and I haven't had... thank you," Masky broke off as Hoody shoved a large mug of steaming coffee into his hands.

"You might want to get your golden eyed friend to check on your brother," Locklear said to Toby when he came back, "According to the patient, he was with him when whatever it was happened,"

"I'll go find Teer," Toby said hurrying off to go find him.

A few minutes later he came back in time to see Ben walking out, Locklear following shortly after to keep an eye on him since he was refusing to use the ice pack.

"Teer's gone to check on him," Toby confirmed, stepping out of the way to let Ben and Locklear past.

Sally had already dragged Clockwork into the living room to help her open her presents.

Ben took an empty seat on the couch and looked out over the paper-strewn floor before him.

"This is yours," Sally said in an excited voice as she passed him a box wrapped in paper pattered to look like a P.C.B.

Ben didn't need to look at the tag attached to know who it was from, he had gotten fairly good at learning the little idiosyncrasies that belonged to Isaac, but he still read it to see what...

He frowned as he read the small notice written alongside his name.

~Get ham before opening!~

The numerous scratches underlined the warning made Ben fell oddly compelled to do as he was told before opening the box.

"Why do you have ham?" Masky asked as Ben came back through.

He was used to seeing random things that would have most people questioning their sanity, but randomly getting up just to grab a box of ham was one of the... rarer occurrence.

"Was told to," Ben said as he carefully tore through the wrapping paper.

Sally squealed when she unwrapped Isaac's gift to her, the holographic kaleidoscope image of unicorns running in an endless loop chased after each other.

"What did you get... Ben?" her question trailed off when she saw that Ben hadn't moved in the past couple of minutes.

Before she could go over to him Teer appeared above the middle of the living room, something wet held inside a bag.

"The kid's ok," he said, putting the bag down, "Bit of a bad headache, but alright nonetheless...

What's up with Ben?" he whispered to Masky.

"I don't know," Masky whispered back, getting up and going over to look in Ben's box.

Masky let out a soft groan before letting his head fall back as he went through to the kitchen.

The distant sound of a cork being pulled out a bottle answered their unasked questions of what he was doing.

"I'm not dealing with this!" came the shout after the sound of slammed glass on the counter made a few of them wince.

Everyone jumped when Ben moved, he had been as still as a statue for a few moments prior before carefully lowering a hand into the box and saying something barely audible.

"Ok... he either said;

'I might marry him'

'I'm a merry men'

'I my Marian'

or 'Limelight marzipan'," L.J said, "My money's on 'I my Marian'..."

Any further jokes that L.J would have been about to make were cut off when Ben tenderly lifted something out of the box.

"Oh sweet Jesus," Toby said, his jaw hanging open.

"He can't be serious," Jeff and Liu both wore similar expressions of disbelief.

"That explains the ham," Clockwork nodded.

Something small, scaly, and fierce looking was trotting around Ben's palm. Its tiny head shook side to side before it snapped at Ben before stretching out...

"He... he sent me..." Ben's mouth was slowly going from shocked beyond the capacity for rational thought to the widest smile that they all thought that they had ever seen him give, "He sent me... _four_ ,"

As if on cue, another pair of wings pulled another dragon's head up into view.

Ben was quick, though very cautious, to scoop that one up too before setting them both down on his lap and opening the packet of ham up.

The dragons on his lap immediately turned to face him, their heads skyward as they snapped at the piece of now torn ham that Ben had peeled out.

He let out a soft chuckle as he heard the sound of the other two dragons scrambling around the inside, trying to find the ham, before carefully picking them up and setting them down on his lap so they could eat the slice of ham as well.

"Wait... is Teer back yet?" he asked, his head snapping up to look around.

"Man you were all kinds of spaced out," Teer laughed, "The kid's fine, bit of a headache but he's back asleep right now, with a little help to ignore the pain," Teer admitted to his small role in helping Isaac rest, "But that's about where the good news ends.

Gameboy's fried, glass of water broke, or something, and gave it a shower,"

Ben's face fell faster than it had lit up when he looked at the slightly sodden bag holding the now defunct Gameboy.

His attention was soon gotten by a low gurgling from one of the dragons as it tried to climb up his sleeve.

Although Masky could tell that having four tiny dragons flying around would be an absolute nightmare of a headache, even he couldn't keep the fond little smile off his face as he watched Ben gently push it up so it could rest on his shoulder.

"You do realise that because of this you're gonna be Isaac's bitch for the rest of eternity," E.J said, accepting the drink of... he didn't really know, it's alcoholic, he's gonna be drinking it, from Masky.

"Yep," was all Ben said in reply.

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Hogwarts.

Isaac woke, bleary-eyed, and slightly disorientated.

He sat on the edge of the bed, trying to remember everything that had transpired the night before.

His memories seemed like a quick blur, from Hermione crying, to Cedric's advice, to dancing with Ben, finding the destroyed Gameboy, and Teer showing up to check on him.

Grabbing his glasses off the nightstand, he looked around to see two out of the five curtains still drawn around the beds.

Going by placement, Ron and Neville were both still asleep.

A malevolent grin seemed to stretch across his face as he narrowed his eyes on Ron's bed and he wished that he hadn't sent Fizz home on vacation for a couple of weeks because he had a fair few ideas for Fizz to _cut his teeth on_.

When he finally made his way down to the common room he felt another little bubble of rage well up inside when he saw Hermione nearly jump and run out of the common room at the sight of someone coming down from the boy dorms.

"Come on," Isaac said, "You can help me plan revenge on a certain ginger dick waffle,"

Hermione nodded, passing Isaac as he paused to let her go down the portrait hole first.

This seemed to be the right thing to do as when she had disappeared from sight a snort came from the stairs behind him.

"Still don't know why you're sticking with that know it all," Ron grunted at Isaac.

"I still can't believe that you don't know how to keep a dipstick in suspense," Isaac said coolly.

Ron, thankfully, was as dumb at that moment as his hair was orange and scoffed at Isaac.

"Well? How do you?" he asked.

Isaac only looked at him with a blank expression before turning and walking down the portrait hole without saying a single word.

He caught up with Hermione a floor down, gently waving aside her concerned question of what took him.

"It's fine, now... how to properly knock that dumbbell off his pedestal..." Isaac mused, scratching under his ear as he thought.

"Doesn't your friend L.J own a prank store?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah,"

"And didn't he send you all the things you used against Lockhart in our second year?" she followed up.

"I plead the fifth,"

"Then it would seem to me that if there was anyone who could properly shove that over bloated slug back in line, then it would be him," she said, an icy determination in her eyes, "Now, does his store have a catalogue?"

"A what?"

"Get me a list of what L.J has on offer," she said, her eyes lit with a vengeance that even Isaac was a little wary of.

"Of course, ma'am," Isaac said, putting on the snootiest British voice he could muster and snapping to a salute.

Halfway through Breakfast Ron descended and Isaac enjoyed that every so often, amidst the looks of malice that he would send them, he would also look their way with a look of confusion.

The looks were turned to complete anger, however, when the Durmstrang students entered the hall.

Viktor looked around the hall, found the fairly distinct sight of Hermione's bushy hair, and gestured for his friends to join him.

"Which one is... Anton?" Isaac said after a moment of trying to remember the name that Viktor had said the prior night.

By the way that one of them froze, he had a fairly good idea who it was.

"Here," Isaac fished something out of his pocket and held it out to him.

Anton hesitated for a moment before taking it.

"This is fake," Anton said, disbelief across his face.

Isaac didn't say anything just handed him another card with ~No it's not~ written on it.

"How do you have a voucher for sixty per cent off?" Anton asked through a huff of laughter.

Isaac handed him another card with ~I live with him~ written on it.

"Wait, you..."

Isaac cut him off with another three cards.

~Yes, I live with him~

~Yes, the voucher is real~

~Yes, L.J really is that good at predicting outcomes~

"I... yeah, that answers everything I was going to say," Anton admitted after muttering something in Bulgarian.

After a few minutes of eating, during which Viktor seemed pleased with the agitated looks that Ron cast their direction every so often.

"So, anyone up for a snowball fight?" another Durmstrang asked, wondering why the Gryffindors around him looked like he had said something dangerous.

"Oh, I'm always down for a snowball fight," Isaac said, leaning forward, "Fred, George..."

"We get the Durmstrangs!" they said immediately.

Isaac's smile could have put the Grinch to shame.

"Ok, you two get them caught up with what we do, I'm going to go get my..."

" _NO_!" Fred and George grabbed him before he could walk away and began frogmarching him out the doors.

"I hate that coat," George seethed.

"You are not getting to use that coat," Fred carried on.

"We are finally beating you," George finished, not seeing Isaac draw his wand.

"Alright, but I get a twenty seconds for a head start," Isaac said, rolling his shoulders.

"Deal," Fred and George said at the same time as Isaac took off running through the snow.

" _Accio coat_!"

"Damn!"

The Durmstrangs had followed them, at Hermione's prompting, and were now pretty confused at what had happened before them.

"Isaac is a goddamn ninja when it comes to snowball fights," Fred muttered.

"We've been trying to beat him for three years, _nothing_ ," George sulkily added on.

"Ready or not..." came a sing-song call that was far too eerie for their liking.

The next second a snowball came flying through the air at them, hitting George in the back of his head while the splatter caught Fred full in the face.

Hermione cleared a large stone near the entrance as a place to seat, tapped her wand against the book she had brought with a muttered, " _Impervius_ ," before settling down to watch the chaos unfold before her.

"How long do you think it'll take them to catch on?" Hermione jumped when Isaac spoke to her.

"What are you doing?" she asked, knowing he had something up his sleeve.

"Watch," Isaac snickered, " _Accio snowball_!" he said in a loud whisper.

Hermione watched as something small and white flew through the air.

Isaac lowered his wand, pulling the snowball down, before swiping hard left.

Since learning to use the spell for the first task, Isaac wanted to learn a little more about it and found that you could control the path that the summoned object a little by changing your wands position.

Hermione watched as the guided snowball smashed into one of the Durmstrang students, knocking him into a second, and causing the both of them to fall over into the snow.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes as everyone sent snowballs in the direction that the snowball Isaac had summoned came from while the two Durmstrang students stumbled over each other as they tried to get up.

"You know that's cheating," she said, putting a bookmark inside the book and carefully reaching into the pile of snow next to her.

"It's not cheating, those two are using spells to make snowballs, I'm just using my natural ingenuity to my advantage by combining that with the summoning spell,"

Hermione hummed in agreement before shoving a large handful of snow into his face.

"Now get out there and play properly," she said, taking out her book once again.

Isaac grumbled before making three snowballs and firing them off in rapid succession, not missing a single shot.

The combined efforts of the Durmstrang students and the Weasley twins lasted another twenty minutes before it was only Fred, George, Viktor, and one other Durmstrang student trying to beat him; the other Durmstrangs sitting on a patch of cleared ground next to Hermione.

"Come on, Isaac," George shouted out over the area they were in, "Time to end this little game,"

"We'll have a standoff," Fred called out, "One on one, one snowball each, ten paces,"

"Like a Western cowboy film," Viktor shouted out, his hair thick with snow.

"You know... you're right about one thing," Isaac's voice seemed to come from nowhere, "It is time to end this little game,"

Isaac watched from behind his perch up a tree before pointing his wand at the four who had, for some reason, bunched up close.

" _Wingardium Leviosa_!" he cast and the snow at their feet rose up around them.

Carefully turning his wand, Isaac was able to get the snow to start spinning and he started to cackle.

He cancelled the charm as the four of them ran out of the mini-snow-tornado he had created around them, the snow falling back down to the ground around them before he jumped down and snuck back over to the group.

"I think I believe you when you say that you have never been able to beat him," Viktor admitted, shaking free from all the large amounts of snow that had gathered all over him.

"I hate that coat," George grumbled.

"You love it,"

Nearly everyone, save for Fred, George, and Hermione, who were used to his sneaking by now, jumped.

"That was fun," Isaac said, way to cheerily for someone who had spent a good twenty-five minutes dashing around the freezing cold snow.

The Durmstrang students watched the American walk back to the castle, saying that he had to send a letter, before muttering amongst themselves at what had happened.

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The Mansion.

Ben pushed the door to his room with his foot as his hands were occupied by the large metal cage that held four little dragons that were looking around the room.

It had been a good call to move them upstairs as it seemed that they didn't like loud noises that much and Liu had decided to start singing a song that Jeff really didn't like.

His version of 'Frosty the Snowman' re-dubbed to become 'Pukey the Elf'.

Jeff was currently chasing his brother around the lower level of The Mansion, trying to get him to stop singing a song about the time they had those beers.

He wiped the small amount of sweat that had built on his forehead away, not because the cage had been particularly heavy but because when you were holding four tiny dragons that could breathe fire, as Toby found the hard way when he petted one a little too hard, you tended to panic a little.

The miniature of the dragon that Isaac had fought was climbing up the bars, the little hooks of his wings making it look like a very scaly bat.

"Spiky, no," Ben said when Spiky started chewing on the bars, "Stop, that's not...

Blue stop pulling on Whisky's tail!" Ben phased his hand in through the bars to pull two of the dragons apart before they started fighting and burnt something near the cage.

Once the fighting pair were separated Ben let his head drop so it hit the top of the cage when Emmy jumped up and curled on his once empty hand.

He settled him down on the patch of stones that Isaac had sent alongside the cage, Hedwig had taken a well-deserved rest after carrying everything over two separate trips, for them to rest on.

Just as he sat down on the bed to watch the dragons run around the cage he felt something within the data streams of The Mansion, sighed, and pressed his hand on the screen, hoping that...

"Dammit, Jeff," he muttered, crawling into the screen to go deal with the footage that had caught Helen during his latest outing.

Travelling through the data streams was... interesting.

In a way, Ben felt like it would never get old.

But at the same time, it hardly ever changed.

Streams of digital date whizzed around him, branching off whenever a separate connection was established.

If you blinked then you could miss so much and yet also miss so little.

He believed that no two lines of code were alike, little nuances from whoever wrote the program slipping in here and there, but telling two lines apart was like trying to tell the difference between raindrops.

Eventually, he came to the server that held the footage.

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Helen tugged at the scarf around his neck as he trudged through the cold snow that spun it's way around him in the wind, feeling as if his legs were going to give out.

He held the bundle of tissues to his nose, trying to stem the flow that ran freely and fast.

The lights up ahead gave his destination an aetherial glow... if he could just reach it...

An exhausted, yet relieved, sigh escaped him as he nearly fell over when he stumbled through the doors.

The warm air brushed over his face as he shuffled forward, grabbing the items for which he had made the journey as he passed.

"I'm sorry, sir, but store policy limits the number of items that you can buy," the lone cashier said when Helen dropped ten boxes of Lemsip down on the counter, a few packets of tissues amongst the mess.

Helen looked around the store.

It was only them.

He grabbed the cashier's head and slammed it down onto the register, watching as they fell to the ground, before he shoved the many, many, Lemsip boxes into a bag.

As he turned to leave, he saw the small dome of a security camera watching him and let out a low, disgruntled sighed.

Once outside, the scarf tight around the lower of his face, he sent a message off to Ben to get him to remove the footage before sending another to Teer because he could not be bothered walking back to the Slenderport.

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Hogwarts.

Much to Isaac's disappointment, the snowy season passed away faster than he most certainly have liked.

Then, not too long after the New Year rolled around, he was met with a brand new set of problems.

First, Rita Skeeter had struck again.

As Isaac had later found out from Draco, Rita had declared Hagrid to be a half-giant which had caused the man had locked himself in his house out of shame and fear.

Isaac had gone down to try and talk to Hagrid, only hearing the scratching of Fang from within.

The second problem was the new sense of urgency that came from the fact that the second task was fast approaching.

What made matters worse, was when he figured out the clue.

Cedric's hint was definitely worth its weight in gold, even if he had to loan Professor Moody his map after he forgot that there was a trick step in the stairs and he might have considered going back there at another time just to enjoy the baths.

He had just managed to keep a hold of the egg, but he had slipped through the stairs and gotten stuck to his waist.

Due to his arm getting stuck, he was unable to pull himself out and was forced to wait until someone came to pull him out.

Luckily, Professor Moody was feeling rather sympathetic to Isaac's plight at the moment and pulled him out, foregoing a detention for being out past curfew.

His sympathy grew a little when he picked up the map for Isaac, his magical eye going ballistic when it looked it over.

Isaac felt like letting Moody borrow the map for a short while seemed like a good exchange for getting away without punishment as he hadn't been using it all that often anyway.

He sent a letter to Toby, telling him about everything that had happened from the Ball, to what the second task was going to be, and what was going to happen, as well as asking for any diving knives that they had that would be a little easier to use than normal ones underwater, as well as a wetsuit, before asking if there was anything else that could be done about Rita.

She had continued to refer to him by his old name and he sorely wanted to see her mangled corpse roasting over a bonfire with a hungry E.J turning the crank.

Another thing he asked of Toby was not to tell Ben what the task was.

He knew that Ben would rightfully freak out and he didn't want Ben to worry about him.

Isaac and Hermione had pretty much permanently booked a small cubicle in the Library before they started pouring over every book that they could find, looking for a way to allow someone to breathe underwater for at least an hour.

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The Mansion.

Toby read over the letter, letting it fall down to the table as he lay back in the chair he occupied.

"The kid write back?" L.J asked as he walked through.

"Yeah... you can read the letter, but you can't tell Ben about it," Toby said, shoving it towards him.

L.J looked suitably confused until he read it through.

"Ok, do these guys have _any_ common sense?" L.J asked, "Who in their right mind would think that this is a good idea?"

"I honestly don't know," Toby said as L.J read on.

"Sounds like he's going to need a few things headed his way," L.J's smile was predatory when he read that Isaac was reaching his limit with his ex-friend Ron, "I'll send him the stuff, by the looks of it he's going to be going to be raising a little... Hell..."

Toby frowned as L.J trailed off from reading the letter.

"Something wrong?"

L.J hummed and looked up at him.

"No... shouldn't be... I need to go check some stuff," L.J gave him back the letter, "You'd better hide that before Ben finds it,"

Toby nodded as L.J left the room.

He'd be having a very serious talk with Isaac about that place when he got back.

But right now he needed to go see if Slendy was available.

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Rita Skeeter was in a very happy mood when she opened the very nice bottle of Sherry that she had been saving.

The Daily Prophet had removed her address from any of their records so there was no way for that upstart from the American Ministry to find her.

All she had to do was write her articles and send them in for printing.

There was no way that they would listen to that meddlesome American, they had never heard of the so called 'rules and laws' that he spouted about the Potter boy's name so why should they have to listen to them.

She filled a large glass rather generously as a reward for another successful article.

As she raised her glass to take a sip she spotted something out the corner of her eye and stopped.

But when she turned to look, she only found the empty corner of her room that she had been meaning to get a plant for.

She let out a mirthless chuckle and raised the glass to take her drink.

After all, it was rather amusing.

It's not as if something could actually be _that_ tall.

It was only her overactive imagination.

Besides, who would, or even could, be bothered to make suits that long?

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Endnotes.

Spiky – Hungarian Horntail

Bue – Swedish Short-Snout

Whisky – Chinese Fireball

Emmy – Common Welsh Green

Ok, that was another chapter.

Sorry that it was a little shorter this week, but I was given some overtime at work and didn't have as much time to write as I normally do.

Right now I just have a bunch of 'Words.' where the actual story is to go so I can give myself space to write this and answer the reviews.

Did someone say reviews?

Let's get to them!

 **(X) review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Yes, they are.

Fizz is having fun, I think I'll have him tag... will have had him tag along with a job in this chapter.

I'm still figuring out what I'm going to do with Fred.

I love that coat that I gave Isaac.

It's a pure white coat that he's charmed to be heated on the inside so he just sits in the snow and launches snowballs at people while they can't see him.

Your Great Grandma still sounds badass.

I think Liu would use Sully as a threat towards anyone who did/does that.

I need to look up that.

Yeah... that sounds a little more fitting for Isaac and Toby.

I always think that a story where Luna goes dark would work well just because she got so broken that they could have easily swooped in and gave her the strength that she needed, read a good Dark!Harry fic recently where that was sort of what happened.

Fleur talking to Isaac was actually a little tricky.

I really don't know how to properly write bi-lingual characters so I spent about half an hour looking up things to avoid. Hopefully, it didn't seem to off.

Fizz knows, he just doesn't care.

Ben's getting a decent work out watching those two, so he's fine.

I'm glad that the Ball was done well, it came off as a little boring to me when I first read the book.

Oh, pretty much everyone who knows that Jeff and L.J live with Isaac knows after Halloween.

I love the trope that the Ravenclaw knocker will accept any answer as long as there's at least some logic to the answer.

Ron... well... you've read the start of it.

I'm going to enjoy torturing him in the future.

I have been waiting for the dreamscape dancing scene for weeks!

I have been planning it for literal ages!

And let me bathe in the salt that you are all throwing my way. Suffocate me in salt.

Ben is going to... Ben having a silent meltdown when he opened the present was brilliant to write.

Never say that I don't please the readers. You wanted DigitalMagic, I just like to torture all y'all.

Give me the salt!

The Gameboy has reached its breaking point, Ben's going to have a fun few months trying to get it back to working order.

I'm glad that I can bring a few glimmers of hope into your life, hope you feel better soon.

 **(X) review (X)**

cirrusseaeagle;

Ron should probably go see a psychiatrist when he gets home.

 **(X) review (X)**

Zekedavis;

I think I might have them go to horrorcon, but I'd have to go there myself so I can get a feel for the place.

But it would definitely make a pretty good chapter for EXTRAS.

 **(X) review (X)**

iCPM;

YAS! MOAR SALT!

Drown me in the salt.

I will treat that lady to a hell of a week because I have a very good talent at sneaking.

I love the fics where Luna is a seer and just talks nonsense that she knows is true.

Well... you've got that right... hehehe, I love cliffhangers.

Industrial strength Lemsip you say?

'scoots closer'

So what you want in exchange?

Ok... industrial strength Valium sounds like an EXTRAS chapter just waiting to happen.

 **(X) review (X)**

mewmaster89;

I'll do that.

Yes, I think you will find that you can wait for the next chapter.

 **(X) review (X)**

wow-im-satan;

YASS QUEEN YASS!

Pics or it didn't happen.

In fact, you know what... I'm not gonna doubt Satan...

 **(X) review (X)**

Honebar;

Ron better get his will ready.

It's fine, enjoy your life.

Yep, water beats electronics.

Luna is a delight to write.

I think that you'll be pleased when I write it.

Thank you!

 **(X) review (X)**

Sweet Smilie;

Hehehehehe.

That glass has earned the spite of every fan who reads this.

'drum riff'

That pun... 'sigh'

It's not the flu, it's just a cold.

Ok, you kind of lost me near the end there.

Something about...

Where is all the stuff about cats coming from?

 **(X) review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

He's not that bad usually, but it's my third job since job 1's contract ended, job 2 didn't have the space to keep me on past the probationary period, so the fact that I was sick and had to miss the first day for job 3 didn't seem to good.

You've seen what I did to Ron.

I haven't had the tea just yet, I haven't bought it because I need to buy Christmas prezzies.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I giggled my ass off every time I got a sex thing through.

 **(X) review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Oh, trust me, you're gonna be cursed with lots of feels torture before it happens.

 **(X) review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

Dad's fine read that last review where I talked about it.

Awesome, looking forward to Sundays.

MORE SALT!

GIVE IT TO ME!

 **(X) review (X)**

Fire Elemental Frank;

A little salt, still tasty.

Was this a preferable alternative?

 **(X) review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Thank you.

Well, you've seen what happened.

Well... cliffhangers... y'know...

Cause he doesn't have an interest in women in that way.

 **(X) review (X)**

Siggy (Guest);

No prob.

Hehehehe

They're pretty much primed to get together, but I love torturing people with teases.

 **(X) review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

Oh, I love to hate and hate to love to cringe compilations.

Cool, Satan is the best, isn't he?

The Hellhound is busy eating the fairies in my garden, they've been ruining my mom's plants.

I like pretty much all kinds of coffee, particularly if they're mixed with chocolate.

You've read what I wrote, what did you think? Liu pesters Jeff enough.

Yep, I've got at least 3 places to go right off the bat if the zombie apocalypse happens.

I really like my animals.

What is it with you and leaving reviews that are heavily based on food?

Carol of The Bells was uploaded on Myuuyi... Myuji... the dude who joined her on a few songs.

I do listen to Lindsey, Roundtable Rival is my go-to song whenever I'm playing Black ops by myself.

Thank you, little bit more salt heading my way this time, so I'm enjoying this.

 **(X) review (X)**

Mitsuki (Guest);

Thank you!

I've felt like the CP side has been a little over-shadowed by the HP side so I think this is a good way to start offsetting that.

Torturing my fans with Ben and Isaac is just too fun to stop now.

 **(X) review (X)**

PunguinBandit523;

Welcome!

Understandable, I've got a reviewer who hasn't changed a single thing in their reviews since chapter 13!

Parents can be irritating, can't they?

I love HP/CP crossovers as well, but I might have run out of stories to read.

I'm glad that you think I've found a healthy balance with the story, seems that all I need to do is get the HP/CP side balanced out now.

Oh, the fluff... the fluff... I think nobody has anything bad to say about the dance sequence save for complaining that it ended too soon.

What did you think of the song I chose for them?

You've seen what Ben's been up to since that night, how do you think he'll react to the second task?

I do feel better, Lemsip season has ended, finally!

But it always comes back with a vengeance later on...

 **(X) review (X)**

nobody51;

Squee away, assert your dominance over your roommate!

 **(X) review (X)**

YingYangWriter;

Ron's gonna get his comeuppance, don't you worry.

Luna well... hehehehe...

I might need to have a talk with someone about the animals of The Mansion...

That is pretty much BRVR, but more like a newborn foal.

It is, but you can't get to annoyed at him.

Isaac and Ben were close, yeah, and I'm loving the torture of them right now.

Ok, thank you, that clears up a lot.

Masky pretty much is damage control for Slendy, yeah.

 **(X) review (X)**

Ok, that was it.

I hope that you enjoyed this weeks chapter.

I'm going to try and work around writing with the overtime I'm pulling, but this is just a heads up in case it's either a little shorter than normal or a little late as I don't get home until 6 / 7 am.

But, this has been another chapter, and I think I've worked out a fairly good idea where I'm going over the next few chapters.

So, I'll see you all in the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!

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Luna Lovegood hummed idly to herself as she sorted out her books for the next day when she heard something move behind her.

"Hello, Laughing Jack," she said to the tall figure that stood behind her, "It's been a long time,"

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	64. Chapter 64, The Return PT3

Chapter 64, The Return PT3...

The Mandatory Filler Chapter PT3!

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Come on, sing it with me!

" _Because it's FILLER!_

 _FILLER TIME!_ "

Oh, I'm a cheesy, cheesy, bastard.

So, time to put in another filler chapter, oh what joy.

One week of me writing various and different ways to kill people and interject that with little scenes that fit the alternate chapter title.

And what's happening peeps?

I want to hear what your little Christmas traditions are.

Mine normally involve opening the stockings with brothers out parents rooms before a quick picture on the stairs and then going downstairs to turn the living room into a paper bombsite.

Another thing I did this week was go drinking with a friend... will have gone drinking...

I hate tenses!

Ok, I'm going to have gone drinking by the time this goes out, you'll find out the state I was in at the endnotes.

But, I've run out of stuff to ramble on.

I'm gonna answer the reviews, put a big space for the store, and go open some name pickers to see who's having a little fun, throw a dart at a map to see where they go and roll a dice to see how many they kill.

Yes, that really is my process.

Enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

Luna looked up at the tall clown before her.

"Hello, Moonlight," Laughing Jack said, his shoulders dropping a little, "It definitely has been a long time,"

"And who's fault is that?" Luna asked, turning around to pour Jack a glass of water.

"You knew that I'd leave one day," Jack said, taking the glass and watching as the water rippled.

"Yet, you didn't forget me," Luna smiled, tilting her head to the side as she sat down on the bed.

"I can say the same about you," Jack looked at her with an inquisitive gaze, "How do you remember me?

I removed the memories, took every picture and doll..."

"Oh, I do miss those,"

"... how can you remember me?"

"Well..." Luna whispered, beckoning for Jack to lean closer, "... I don't think you noticed...

But I'm a little strange,"

Jack couldn't help the bark-like laugh that escaped him.

"No, I definitely noticed that...

Little Luna Lovegood... the oddball to end all oddballs,"

Luna bowed her head and smiled.

"And you have your share of experience with oddballs, my friend," Jack's face dropped a little as Luna spoke, "How are they all?"

Jack gave another brief chuckle, glancing around to check that it was truly only them.

"Out of all the kids I ever met... you were the first to ask about me beyond what my name was," Jack shook his head.

"And you're avoiding the question," Luna said, "How is everyone?

Anybody new turn up?"

Jack smiled and sat down on the bed next to her.

"Well...

Who do you remember?"

Luna tapped her chin as she thought.

"Have you heard from your friend, the one who makes toys?"

"I think the last thing that I know he did was blow up an illegal casino in... I can't remember where, because someone there broke a number of his toys," Jack said.

"Suitably extreme for him," Luna nodded, "Anything else?"

Jack sighed and looked at her.

"I've never had this situation before," Jack said morosely, "I'm not too sure what I need to do,"

"Do you need to do anything?" Luna asked, "You did your duty, I just remember that you were there and then left once you had to.

And it's not like I have any intention of telling anyone else about what happened in my childhood,"

Jack looked into her eyes, trying to find any hint that she was lying.

He'd have to ask Isaac how he knew when someone was lying, the kid was amazing at it.

"Alright... now, where to start..."

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Calgary, Canada.

"Why did you think this was a good idea?" Adam asked his friend.

"Because...

I don't know, man," James cried, "I was drunk, I didn't think that they'd remember, they'd had more than us!"

Adam was sorely tempted to hit James with one of the rocks on the ground around them.

"The next time you decide to go after some skirt, don't drag me into your mess!" Adam hissed as the cold water lapped at his thighs.

"Look," James sighed, "All we need to do is find her stupid watch, everything around here is grey, so a _fucking_..." James squealed a little as he slipped over a rock and fell into the cold water until it was above his waist, "... gold watch should be easy to spot,"

Adam made a point to not go over the patch that James did.

James, much to Adam's ever-growing displeasure, somehow kept the effort to find a tiny watch in the very big river up for the better part of two hours before even he gave up what Adam had called a fruitless endeavour from the beginning.

As the pair made their way through the forest, it was quicker to just go through than around, an odd noise made it's way to their ears... it was almost like a third pair of footsteps had joined them.

When he mentioned this to James, he was met with a dismissive shrug and, "It's probably the wind or something,"

"Funny,"

Before either of them could turn, the sound of something spinning through the air hurtled towards them.

James let out a strangled gasp as his body lurched forward, smashing into a tree and sliding down, the handle of an axe sticking out of his head.

"That's what I call my axe,"

Adam turned just in time to see a gloved hand grab his face, forcing him back until his back hit the rough bark of a tree.

By the time he'd raised a hand to try and get free himself when he was pulled forward, only to be slammed back into the tree.

"Let me GO!" Adam screamed, hitting the tree for a third time.

"Hmm..." his head hit the tree again,"... let me think..." his head hit the tree again, "... nah," the disinterested reply came just before something sharp and cold cut it's way through his throat.

The hand let go of him so in his final moments he was able to see the facemask and goggle wearing man standing before him as darkness slowly swallowed him.

Toby rolled his neck, taking a slight bit of pleasure from the clicks, before walking over to James' fallen corpse.

"Oh, hi, Wind, how was your day?" Toby mischievously asked his axe.

"Oh, hey Toby," Toby shook his axe up and down a little, putting on a high-pitched voice, "I've been having a lotta fun!"

"Oh, that's good to hear," Toby smiled at his axe, sliding it back into the loop on his trousers and making his way back to The Mansion.

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Montreal, Canada.

Alexander Strausberg drummed his fingers on the leather upholstery of his chair, his eyes trained on the closed doors to the room.

A quick glance to the sides showed the five guards he had around the room before his eyes fell upon the briefcase sitting at his side.

Three sharp knocks at the door made him jump slightly.

He nodded to the guard closest to the door, giving his permission for them to open it.

Three men, one making every single person in the room feel a few inches shorter, walked in.

"Mr Thalmann, I presume," Strausberg said, inclining his head to the man.

 **"You presume correctly,"** Thalmann's even tones had everyone in the room standing a little taller, **"Is the item that we discussed here?"**

Strausberg forced his eyes to meet the gaunt man's, stunned at how they seemed to be made of the blackest marble, before pulling the briefcase onto the table.

"It has been in my family for years," Strausberg pulled out a linen wrapped object, "Many have made offers to buy it, as you can see, none of them could find a price tag I gave within their reach,"

Strausberg carefully unwrapped something made of heavily tarnished silver.

 **"None have our... resources,"**

"True," Strausberg muttered, "Did you bring the money?"

Thalmann turned to both of the men at his side.

The men carried identically plain silver briefcases to the table, spinning it around so that when it opened Strausberg could see the rows of bills stacked within.

 **"Two thirds now, reception is holding the other final, to be received once the transfer has been made,"** Thalmann said curtly.

Strausberg nodded curtly to Thalmann, wrapping the item back in its shawl, before turning to the guard to his immediate right and nodding once more.

The guard and all the others drew their guns, silencers aiming at the three men.

"I'm sorry to conclude our business on such a sour note, but I have no desire to let this particular piece leave my possession," Strausberg drawled.

Strausberg closed the suitcase holding the item before picking up the suitcase with the money.

"I believe we are done here," he sneered at the men, turning to leave as...

The guards in the room nearly dropped their guns out of shock as something akin to black smoke formed into a thick tentacle shot out of thin air and through Strausberg's neck.

Strausberg was lifted into the air, the suitcases falling from his twitching grasp, before being thrown at the two guards next to the chair.

Masky ran at one of the men, pushing the gun away and slamming his fist into the man's throat, Hoodie doing the same on the other side of the room.

Slenderman let 'Thalmann' melt away as he quickly dispatched another two guards tried to fire their guns.

The final guard had made a run for the door but was stopped by two pairs of arms grabbing him before he could reach the door.

Before he could try and get a shot off, the gun was torn from his grasp, the magazine being slammed down his throat, as he was dragged across the room.

His struggles were without reward as he soon found himself being lifted off the ground and smashed into something that cracked.

Masky and Hoodie kept pushing him hard against the glass, which soon splintered under the combined strength, and the man was forced through.

The wind whipped past him as a flurry of glass escorted him to the ground well over seventy stories below.

Masky leaned out the recently broken window, watching as the man fell out of sight, and whistled.

"Long way down," he muttered to Hoodie.

A hum of confirmation was all he received.

 **"If you are done admiring the view,"** Slenderman said, picking up the suitcase that held the item they were here for, **"Then perhaps you could clean up,"**

With that he disappeared, the two giving off the barest flinches as the wave of static washed over them.

Masky sighed and began searching for his phone in the jacket.

One reason he didn't like wearing suits, he always forgot which pocket he put things in.

Another was because wearing a tie makes him feel like he's being strangled.

"You grab the cash?" he asked.

Hoodie waved the wads of money that they used to hide the bombs, courtesy of a rather energetic pyromaniac, before pocketing them.

No sense in wasting good cash, after all.

Hoodie kicked the twitching corpse of Strausberg as made his way to Masky, the two of them waiting until they were reaching the doors of the lobby before Masky made the calls.

The first was to the suitcase that they had given to the reception.

A few moments later, the lights in the tower flickered, panic ensuing on every floor as everything electronic seemed to stop working simultaneously.

The second call was to the bombs they had left in the now very bloody meeting room on the top floor.

A large explosion blew out the remaining windows, spurts of fire billowing out the sides before curling upwards.

Many screamed as they looked up, some running out of fear of terrorists, out of fear of falling debris, and some merely standing there and gaping.

"Bar?" Masky asked Hoodie, receiving a solitary grunt of agreement from his mostly silent companion.

"Where'd you wanna go?" Masky asked, letting him decide where it was they went.

Hoodie paused as he thought, a smirk flitted across his face before he led Masky away to a rather decent pub he knew a few states over that did really good fry-ups.

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Hogwarts.

Ronald Weasley was not having a good week.

He had woke up one morning to find that nearly every article of clothing in his possessions seemed to have suddenly become riddled with holes, rendering them near unwearable.

Then, every quill seemed to break halfway through being used.

One thing that seemed to look up in his favour, though, was a bag of sweets he had found at the bottom of his trunk when he had been looking for some un-torn clothes.

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

It was too easy sometimes, he thought to himself.

Go to a pub, gives you easy pickings from a plethora of drunks, find a loner sitting by themselves and pick the keys from their pocket.

Of course, this only worked if they had their keys on them, it was a flaw, but more often than not they either had a fair few notes in their wallet or keys to a car.

But tonight, he picked the wrong target.

She had seemed fun, at first, even offering to bring him back to her place.

Even straight out giving him the keys to her car so he can drive them.

Then things started to go wrong.

The directions she was giving him led him to an old road that led down to this farmhouse that could have given O.O.S.H.A enough work to keep a department busy for a year.

"You, erm... sure that this is the..." he broke off as something slammed into the side of his head.

"Thanks for making this so easy,"

As he turned to try and fight back he found himself staring into bleached white skin surrounding eyes as black as ink.

He scrambled backwards, struggling to find the door handle.

In his panic to escape, he turned away from the nightmare before him to try and get out.

His cry as something sharp was stuck into his shoulder.

Just as he managed to get the door to open the knife was stuck through the back of his head, the tip of the blade going through far enough so that when his head hit the window it cracked under the force.

Jane sighed as she wiped the small amount of blood away from the knife, pushing the door open a little further and rolled the body out, before driving off.

The next morning.

Jeff rolled his neck to get the crick out as he descended into the garage and nearly dropped the mug of coffee he had.

A growl escaped him as he walked around the car, taking in the dust and mud splattered bumper and hood.

What made the decision to beat the ever living shit out of Jane the next time that he saw her was the sight of the cracked window and blood splattered seats.

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New York, America.

Clockwork hummed as she walked along the empty corridor.

"So... remind me what I'm doing again?" she asked.

"Ben's overloaded with handling Masky and Hoodie's little firework display, so we need you to get rid of the footage of when Jeff killed that guard when he took that stupid bet with Liu," Helen said, "Also do you know what he did with the Centurian helmet he stole?"

"No idea," Clockwork said, "Ok, found the server room, give me a few moments,"

Clockwork debated whether or not she should just kick the door in instead of trying to pick the lock, she could pick locks but it was definitely not a strong suit.

"Ok, I'm in the room," Clockwork said, picking the phone back up.

"Judging by the lack of smashing sounds, you didn't break the door down," Helen paused and the sound of something being drunk, "Ok, you got that flash drive that Ben prepped?"

"Give me another moment," Clockwork searched through her pockets before finding the flash drive, "Got it, what do I do?"

"Plug it in,"

Clockwork rolled her eyes as she put in the flash drive.

"Ok, now what do I... oh,"

BRVR popped his head up on the screen, shaking and looking around.

"Hey, bud," Clockwork said, waving when BRVR noticed her, "Helen... is BRVR supposed to be on the flash drive?"

"I think that's Ben's backup for when he can't do it," Helen's voice was temporarily muffled with the sound of rustling paper, "All he wrote was...

'Plug in and watch the sparks fly'," he read out, "So I think BRVR's the backup plan,"

"Ok...

BRVR, can you help me with something?" she asked.

BRVR flicked his ear.

"I'll take that as a yes... do you think you can get rid of the video of Jeff?"

BRVR looked at her, flicked his ear again, and disappeared.

"Helen, he's disappeared, I can't... what the hell's going on with the lights?" Clockwork broke off as the lights overhead seemed to turn the room into a disco.

Clockwork yelped as a server bank a little down the way let out a few sparks, wisps of smoke curling out of the vents.

BRVR reappeared in the screen, looking incredibly pleased with himself.

"Ok... is the video gone?" Clockwork asked.

BRVR screwed his face up in a moment before ducking back down.

A few moments later another server bank sparked and a soft orange glow appeared in the grill before BRVR came back to the screen.

"Great, come on, back home we go," Clockwork said, giving the screen a quick high-five.

She flinched as a brief shock rippled through her arm as BRVR bumped the screen to respond.

A few moments later BRVR was back in the flash drive and Clockwork began making her way out of the museum.

Clockwork sighed as she walked out into a corridor being drenched in water from the sprinklers.

"You just had to set off the sprinkler..." she broke off when she saw the body of a guard on the ground.

Large black marks on the ground and across his body.

Clockwork sidestepped the body and made a mental note to not get on the bad side of BRVR.

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Hogwarts.

Ron's week seemed to be getting worse.

Those sweets must have been off, his stomach had been very upset the entire night after he ate them, and things were just not going his way.

The parchment that his homework was written upon seemed to fall apart before he could finish them.

His ink seemed to congeal faster, causing him to spend that little more from his already small savings to buy more.

And Potter still kept the way you keep a dipstick in suspension from him.

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It could see her.

Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere...

Rita shook her head as she tried to think and ignored the stray paranoic thoughts that seemed to intrude on her every quiet moment.

So she'd had a few nightmares that had been based around the idea that there was a stalker in the forest outside her house watching and following her... forgotten to clean her shoes so they were a little muddier than normal... found doors and windows that should have been locked open...

She shook her head again.

No, it was just a little stress from working, that was all...

Right?

Rita shook her head once again and looked at the freshly printed article on the table next to her.

She had finished it mere moments before, ready to send off to the Daily Prophet.

And as if on cue, her eagle flew into the room for her to send it away.

As she watched her latest masterful article fly off she picked up the cup of tea she had made herself and take a sip.

Rita raised a hand to her head, rubbing at the dull throb that had begun building before setting her teacup back down before making her way to her bedroom.

An early night of sleep seemed like the best option here as she stepped off of the carpet onto the mossy floor of the forest...

The world seemed to tilt as Rita looked around, wondering just how, and when, she had left the warm comfort of her home for the dark and claustrophobic trees of the nearby forest.

"Hello?" she called, the quaver in her voice betraying the bravery she was so desperately trying to prove she had.

An odd clicking from some bird, or some other animal, surrounded her as she tried to get her bearings.

Eventually, after wandering for... she didn't know how long she had been wandering, she came across the first thing that gave her any sort of bearings.

Though... she did wonder what the importance of what looked like a piece of paper covered in childish scribbles was.

Rita jumped as the sound of something breaking behind her snapped through the air.

"H-hello?" she called again, "Is... is there somebody there?"

There came no reply.

Even the other sounds of the forest seemed to become more muted and distant as she looked around.

Eventually, she found the outline of somebody.

"Hello? I'm afraid I'm rather lost," she called out to them, making her way over, "Can... can you tell me where I am?"

She got no response.

"My – my name is Rita, Rita Skeeter," she gave a nervous chuckle, "I write for The Daily Prophet," she hoped that her introduction would spur the figure into action.

And indeed it did.

The figure, a rather tall man, turned to face her, and...

Rita gasped, falling over and hearing the tearing of her dress on some upturned roots. Her hands flared in pain as she cut them on some rocks while scrambling backwards from the thing before her.

The thing had no face.

It held no colour to its skin as if it had been carved from the purest of white marble and adorned with a pristine black suit.

Long limbs, almost as long as she was, hung at its sides as it slowly turned to face her.

Shadows seemed to condense behind the thing, forming twisting tentacles that became lost in the equally twisted branches of the trees.

Rita's vision began to shake, her head abuzz with what sounded like a thousand hisses all mere inches from her head.

She felt something wrap around her neck, limbs, and torso before the feeling of the muddy ground disappeared as she was lifted into the air.

"... no... no..." she cried feebly as if all of the energy had been drained from her body, "... no, please... someone... anyone... help me..."

Rita screamed as she sat upright in bed, her breath nothing more than frantic gasps as she clawed at her arms, neck, and chest, trying to rid herself of the feeling of whatever it had been that had grabbed her.

She jumped again when a tapping came from the window.

Her eagle was sat upon the ledge, scratching to be let in... but there was something familiar in its claws.

Normally after sending in an article the editor in chief would send a letter with a cheque for her to cash in at Gringotts, but it seemed as though they had sent back the article as well this time.

Rita let out a huff of disbelief.

"They probably sent me the first issue," she sighed to herself, "Why else would they send back..."

She broke off as she read the letter.

~Rita,

I know this is a slightly strenuous time for you right now, those M.A.C.U.S.A busy-bodies sticking their noses in and all, but if this is some sort of joke then we really don't have time for this right now.

I don't know what you're playing at sending us this nonsense, but we at The Daily Prophet need you to pull yourself together.

I will give you the benefit of the doubt that maybe you sent the wrong folder, but these scribbles are not something we can publish.

Send in the article as soon as you get this!

Your Boss~

Rita looked flabbergasted at the letter before tearing open the tube that should have contained a perfectly masterful article about how Dumbledore was neglecting his duties at the International Wizarding Confederation.

A horrified gasp left her throat as she dropped the pictures that she had pulled out.

Numerous scratchings of crossed out circles, faceless figures with black suits and red ties, paranoid declarations of 'SEES ME' and 'NO EYES' stared up at her.

"No... no... no..." she cried to herself, running towards the door and throwing it open.

She didn't notice the mud stains on her bedsheets, or the dried up dirt on her legs, hands, and feet.

Upon reaching the back door to her garden, she barged out and screeched out into the forests.

" _You aren't real_!" her cries echoed back, " _You can't be real_!

 _Whatever it is you are_ , _leave me alone_!"

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Endnotes.

Without anything in the actual story, this word doc is already 7 pages long and I am so sorry that this is a little late.

I was sick pretty much all of Friday, had to cancel a work shift, and couldn't get this sent off to DP before now.

I know that it's pretty short compared to what I normally put out, but I'm starting to hit that patch of writer's block again. Hopefully, it'll be gone soon.

Probably sometime before Monday, I'll swap it out with one that has been checked over by DP.

Also, that EXTRAS chapter that I was working on, I'm going to try and get it ready for Christmas!

So I found out that I don't really get that drunk, no matter how much I drink.

I just get a little more giggly and a little light headed.

Also, no hangovers, loving that!

Ok, that was another chapter.

And it's 3 days before Christmas, this year has gone pretty quickly for me.

But, I've got a good few reviews to answer.

 **(X) review (X)**

Katoptris12;

A, how could you!

B, quite a lot of people.

C, now I have... it looks like a Grandad that is eternally pissed off with the kids next door because the parents never discipline them when they misbehave.

D, that would be amazing to write, but I don't think I'm going to have him turn up in scuba gear... maybe in an EXTRAS sometime.

 **(X) review (X)**

iCPM;

S-A-L-T!

I'm fairly certain that there's an EXTRAS chapter in the future where I'll have to actually marry them.

Luna is boss, and I'm fairly certain that she could probably be as calm as a cucumber while things exploded and burnt to the ground around her.

I need to finish another EXTRAS chapter before I can start another.

Did you get cramps? I feel you.

 **(X) review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

I think quite a lot of people missed that little bit at the end.

Thank you.

I hope that it's a good one!

 **(X) review (X)**

wow-im-satan;

I don't watch Voltron, but I will join you in glaring at it because you seem like a cool guy.

The snowball fights were fun to write, even if they weren't that long.

The twins are awesome.

 **(X) review (X)**

.549;

'clap'

Puns, yay.

Please be here all week.

The mini-dragons are awesome, and I'm fairly certain that I'm going to have a little fun with them in the future.

Well, not really as there are rules about inserting the writer into the story, but I just wanted to give someone in the story my ailment and dependency on Lemsips and Helen seemed like the best choice.

 **(X) review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

SALT! Glorious SALT! I'm anxious to try it!

Yes, I sang that.

The nightshifts aren't that bad, or my work on the night shifts aren't that bad.

The cold is over, just a little snotty now.

 **(X) review (X)**

Matt the Hedgehog Android;

Welcome!

Yes, she most certainly is.

 **(X) review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Fizz will probably have gotten involved in this chapter.

The coat is awesome, yes.

I don't think they'd care that much, only if they got hurt.

Dark Luna fics are fun, yeah.

The original title for this chapter was going to be "Ron's reckoning", but that seemed like too much of a giveaway and I didn't have enough time to get more of his punishment in.

Hermione in one of L.J's workshops would be catastrophic.

That dance scene was something that I'd been waiting to write for ages, and it paid off!

Ben and the dragons... I have a thing or two planned.

Sally is a ball of chaotic energy at any given point.

Ben is going to be fine.

That is... well, in a word, hilarious.

Ben has most definitely accepted that Isaac owns his ass after those dragons.

I've wanted to do more with those two for a while, and that seemed like a good place to start.

Did you really doubt Toby's ability to find things to do with fire?

Erm... do you want to know the first idea I had for Blue's name?

Horny.

It was the first thing that popped into my head because of the horn on its face and... you can see why I didn't go with that.

Helen is not a bitch, you will respect Lemsip season!

Rita is on the shit list of _every_ (save for the obvious one) CreepyPasta in The Mansion.

Isaac deserves his goddamn bath after all the shit he's going through.

I think everyone agrees that Ben should only hear what the task actually was after it's happened... also get ready for more feels...

Listening to it now, LOVE IT!

I'm glad that you liked it, hopefully, I can.

 **(X) review (X)**

Sabriel Orion;

I feel your pain, do you have a day shift or are you on the night shift like me?

I'm glad that you loved the past two chapters, and I'll be having a little fun with all the chaos I can cause very... well, this chapter...

I HATE TENSES!

 **(X) review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

'sigh'

Just because I have two characters talk to each other, doesn't mean that I'm going to have them get together.

 **(X) review (X)**

mewmaster89;

Thank you.

Happy Holidays to you too!

 **(X) review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Thank you!

Let's see what chaos I could cause with those dragons... see what chaos I've caused...

I HATE TENSES!

 **(X) review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

I agree with everything in that first paragraph.

Well, the Devil does were Prada!

I'll show myself out...

I love coffee so I'll suffer to drink it all so you don't have to.

Always prepare for the zombie apocalypse.

Animals are better than quite a few people, yes.

Yeah, food is great.

I'll have listened to them by the time that this chapter has gone up, so I'll probably have liked them since I don't really dislike any music.

 **(X) review (X)**

TheCrazedCrow;

We all do.

 **(X) review (X)**

MagamiNekia;

Yes, Luna knows.

Ben would probably have a meltdown.

Hehehehe... you've seen what it was... and I ain't done.

 **(X) review (X)**

YingYangWriter;

Lemsip is my blood a few times of the year.

There are probably better ways to wake up than that, yeah.

I refer to stupid o'clock often as I spend a good portion of my life at stupid o'clock in the morning.

I really need to get that shirt or at least a poster with 'Look at this shark eating a cheeseburger'.

Yeah... you probably don't want to know where he's been.

You really don't want to get on Hermione's bad side when she's angry.

Isaac always wins when it comes to snowball fights, you don't get trained on stealth and accuracy by Hoodie and lose to some prankster twins who go for flair over slyness.

Jeff probably has a fair few stories that he can use against Liu, but he doesn't want to use them because he wants to try and show that it doesn't bother him.

It is not working.

Lemsip is life, Lemsip is life, Lemsip is life...

I'm gonna try that next time I have a cold, it sounds lovely.

Erm... what pineapple?

Rita is going to have one hell of a time!

Yep.

 **(X) review (X)**

Ok, that was all of them.

I do hope that you enjoyed this chapter.

I can't wait to torture you all next week.

Have fun, my children,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	65. Chapter 65, The Second Task

Chapter 65, The Second Task.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Ok.

I know I've been doing the reviews at the end, but there's one that I need to put at the front.

ShulkXMelia23;

First off, Welcome to the story!

Second, it is.

For a summary of the review, they're saying that the story seems to be dragging and losing reading interest.

And I agree.

They've made it clear that they're not insulting me, but I've been going through a writer's block lately, spurred on by work kicking my sleeping schedule's ass.

So, I'm going to do a little of what my original plan was for the Hogwarts years for the rest of Goblet unless I need to do more detailed scenes.

Brief summaries to skip large periods of time and get to the actually interesting parts.

With that being said...

MERRY FOCKING CHRISTMAS TO YE ALL!

When I'm writing this, it's not happened yet, so I'll save my big Christmas celebration for the end... even though throughout the story I've had them celebrate Christmas about 5 times on screen...

Anyway!

I'm giving the skip button a big ol' thwack and getting straight to the second task!

But, first, I've got to wrap up a clown and a Ravenclaw.

I hope that you enjoy this,

Also... 90,000+ THOUSAND READS!

WOOOOO!

SteamGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

Luna smiled as Laughing Jack finished his story.

"Sounds like not much has changed," she said, "But... at the same time, so much is different,"

Jack nodded, glancing over his shoulder when he heard something.

"Yeah, you're right about that..." he turned back to face her.

"I shan't mutter a single word of this to anyone," Luna held up her hand as if swearing on something bigger than the two of them.

"I know you won't," Jack smiled.

"Goodbye, Laughing Jack," Luna's smile just barely reached her eyes.

"See you around, Moonlight," Jack said, disappearing in a slow swirl of black smoke.

That morning, Luna awoke to find something on her dresser.

Something small, a mix of black and white, was sat next to her wand.

Luna smiled at the small effigy, tying the ribbons attatched to the end of her bag.

The next morning, when Fred Weasley passed her in the halls, he did a double take when he saw the small effigy of Laughing Jack swinging from the bag of a Ravenclaw.

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Dumbledore sat alone in his office, thoughts and ideas swimming around the inside of his mind.

The second task of The Triwizard Tournament was upon them and he had a decision to make.

Choosing Diggory's hostage was easy, his relationship with the Ravenclaw Chang allowed him to spend less than a minute of his precious time to decide.

What was occupying his mind now, was who the Potter boy's hostage should be.

He had considered the Ravenclaw that Potter had taken to the Yule Ball, but he had overheard that Potter had only asked her as a friend only.

Had the fallout with the youngest Mr Weasley not occurred then he might have chosen him, however, he suspected that Potter would leave him at the bottom of the lake out of spite or for a laugh.

Both of the Slytherins were out, would not sit well if he chose a Malfoy. The repercusions of someone Potter would sorely miss being the son of one of the Dark Lords most trusted would be too innapropriate.

He leant back in his chair, stroking his beard.

It seemed that he would have to tell Karkaroff to select another hostage for his champion after all.

A quick letter out the window later, charmed to fly itself to Igor's ship as Fawkes was too important for such a trivial matter, he could return to what he had been focusing on before.

There had been a few mysteries that riddled him with questions over the past four years.

Who had caused the deaths leading to him losing the Potter boy?

Where did he live now?

How could he get the Potter boy back under his control?

And what was 'The Ark'?

While the answers to the first three still eluded him, the fourth had some progress.

Back at Halloween, he had questioned the singer that he had brought in about just what it was.

It had been a long shot, he would admit that to himself, but it yielded the smallest piece of a clue that he would take over nothing.

In her controlled for, the woman had said;

"The Ark is many things, and home to more,"

When asked about The Ark in the song, she had said that it references an unknown watcher, something that follows unseen and undetected.

His question of where The Ark was gave him an answer more confusing than his original questions.

"It is everywhere and nowhere,"

That answer had been the last thing he had been able to get before he was alerted to someone coming up the stairs, forcing him to cancel the spell and quickly alter her memory so she thought they had discussed whether or not the students had enjoyed the performance.

His body seemed that little more weary as he stroked his beard.

So it seemed that this 'Ark' was either a place, a person or a collective.

He sighed as he looked over at the bookcase.

There, disguised as two old and non-descript books, were two plans of his.

It seemed that he would use one before the year was out.

The other...

He had deemed that option the last resort.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Isaac woke to the sounds of a loud crack before he just missed getting hit by a stray leg from the scuffle before him.

"... gerroff me..."

"... Rogers need this!"

It took Isaac a few moments to realise that what he was looking at was Neville Longbottom apparently wrestling with Dobby.

He let the two tussle for a few more seconds, it was rather an amusing sight afterall, before breaking it up.

"Now... as amusing a wake-up call as this was... what in the absolute, back-ass, dumb-fuck hell is going on?"

Dobby and Neville stopped struggling, turned to face him before they broke apart and started talking over each other.

Thankfully, he had played with Ben, Toby, and Jeff in the same room, so he was used to trying to decipher the many voices overlapping one another.

"So... you both tried to steal... I'm going to assume that I heard this wrong, 'Willyweed?"

"Gillyweed," Neville corrected him.

"Thank you...

So, you both tried to steal Gillyweed for me, and fought over it because you didn't know that you were both stealing the same thing for the same reason?"

Neville and Dobby both looked extremely sheepish.

Dobby had ended up being able to keep a hold of the Gillyweed and handed it to him.

"Ok, so what does this stuff do?" he asked the two.

"It will allow Mr Roger to breath underwater, sir," Dobby said eagerly.

"Should last an hour, that was the time you've got, right?" Neville asked, worried incase his idea wouldn't work.

"Hour to get back something I'll sorely miss, yep," Isaac nodded, looking over the thing he had been given, "So... is this a plant, or some sort of pickled bodypart of some strange animal thing?"

"It's a plant, grows in the Meditteranean," Neville told him as Isaac muttered, "Oh, thank god..."

"Wait, what time is it?" Isaac asked, glancing down at his watch.

"You've got two hours before the task," Neville said.

"Blimey, cutting that close," Isaac sighed, pushing his hair out of his face, "That's... just long enough for me to get something to eat,"

At the mention of eating, Dobby bristled.

"Dobby should get back to the kitchen, sir," he said, straightening the mismatched clothes he wore, "Dobby wishes you luck, Mr Isaac Rogers, sir,"

"Thanks, Dobs," Isaac said, patting Dobby on the head before he disappeared with the same crack that had first woken him.

"So... how are you friends with an elf?" Neville asked, watching the space where the elf was moments before.

"Freeded him from an abusive owner and he took a liking to me," Isaac said, "Was also the reason the archway was shut at the start of our second-year, that bludger that led to... _Lockheart_ removing the bones from my arm," Isaac said with a grimace of distaste at saying the man's name as he told Neville to wait for him while he went and got changed.

"You shouldn't eat before swimming, you'll get some stomach cramps," Neville said, getting up out of the chair he had sat in while waiting to follow Isaac out of the portrait hole.

"Nah, that's just a myth," Isaac said dismissively.

The Great Hall was abuzz with anticipation, people around him wished him good luck, some wondering what the task was, and some who just wanted to eat in peace without anyone bothering them because they had enough on their plate (Isaac).

Hagrid waved encouragingly to him.

The giant of a... well, more like half-giant of a man's self imposed isolation had lasted roughly a four days before Isaac broke into his house near several times.

On the first day, Isaac had set out a large pot of tea, even started a stew, before the man woke up.

The second day Isaac stole Fang in the morning and didn't return him until the evening.

Day three Hagrid had finally spoken to a hidden Isaac, telling him to leave him be when he kept casting cleaning charms at the pots and pans.

Hagrid finally broke and let Isaac in after finding that Isaac had the holes in a few of his vests, supplied a large amount of wood for his fire, and another large pot of tea.

It had taken a few more days before Hagrid was out and about once again and, apparently, a visit from Dumbledore had a little to do about that, and now the man was sitting as merry as he could be at the staff table.

But, there was one thing that puzzled him, however...

"Have any of you seen Hermione?" he asked, looking around for the sight of bushy-hair that he had gotten used to seeing whenever Hermione was near.

Various replies of no came his way, even from the ever observant Draco.

Eventually, the time for the task came.

Making sure that the Gillyweed was still in his pocket, Isaac joined the bustle of students making their way to the lake.

Something that he had noticed during his time in the Great Hall, however, was the fact that Percy Weasley was sitting in for Mr Crouch again.

The ginger had nodded to him when he passed as he and the other judges made their way to a table on a raised platform that overlooked the likely cold waters.

Once everyone was gathered at the lake, Dumbledore pointed his wand at his throat and spoke to the crowd in a magically boosted voice.

"Welcome all, to the second task of The Triwizard Tournament!"

His declaration was met with a loud cheer from the spectators.

"Last night, something was taken from out four champions and now rests somewhere in the lake.

They will have one hour to find it and return to the surface!"

Dumbledore removed the enchantment that had amplified his voice and turned to face the champions.

"Champions, you may begin at the sound of the cannon,"

Isaac shirked off his cloak, tossing it to the side before unclipping the clasps of his braces before taking off both the shirt and trousers so that he was only dressed in the vest and shorts he had worn underneath.

This action seemed to have been mirrored by the other champions, what was different about him, however, was the fact that he was wearing Ben's gift for him from that Christmas past.

Now though, each slot that he could had been filled with the throwing knives, the hunting knife Jeff had sent him two years prior, and even the two knives that he used in Potions.

This accessory gathered a few odd glances from some in the crowd, wondering where he had gotten all of the knives from, as he tossed his shoes and socks onto the pile as well.

The cannon was fired and each champion began wading their way into the...

'How in the name of everything that burns is this water not frozen?' Isaac thought as the frigid water lapped at his bare legs.

He let out a soft groan as the ground dipped slightly and he sunk down to his waist.

It was at this point that he remembered the Gillyweed and shoved it into his mouth, chewing on the plant while wondering if he could remember tasting anything that tasted more like rubber than this.

At first, nothing seemed to happen.

Then, a few moments later, it felt like a wet cloth had been wrapped tightly around his face.

The very air around him seemed to be suffocating him as he raised his hands to his neck, feeling the gills that had...

Gills?

Isaac quickly dived his head under, taking in a large... breath of water and...

"Holy cow!" a stream of bubbles escaped Isaac's mouth when he found that he could breathe underwater.

It was a good thing that the water was muffling his voice, otherwise he probably would have freaked out a fair few people with the cackle he let out... probably the same people who looked shocked at the amount of knives he had.

Isaac felt the webbing that had weaved it's way between his fingers, looking down to see that his feet had stretched themselves out to become natural flippers, before swimming out deeper into the lake, hoping that he didn't come across the giant squid that he affectionately called 'Kraken,' time to time.

Swimming deeper into the dark waters, which were definitely feeling a lot warmer now, he eventually came to large swathes of kelp stretching upward that was swaying gently in the slight current.

As he was swimming over it something grabbed at his ankle.

He turned to find a Grindylow clutching at his foot, a few more swimming upward towards him since one had found a prey.

Just as the others got closer they paused when the now evicerated corpse of the first gargled on his own blood before gently floating back down into the kelp.

There was a moment where the Grindylows watched the body fall away before they all bared their teeth and began swarming around him.

The second darted, trying to scratch at his neck to find a knife cutting through its face, slicing open its eye and cheek.

As it swam away, the third charged at him, it's webbed claws stretched to...

It hissed as half of its hand was cut off with a swipe that Isaac felt very proud of.

The final two hissed at the thing that had quickly dispatched one of them and disfigured two others before swimming off after the injured.

Isaac set the knife back in its holster before he began swimming deeper into the depths.

Once he cleared the kelpy fields, he swam down the drop into the murky waters below.

His wand was held out before him, a bubbly Lumos had lit his path.

Eventually, he heard the echoey calls that had come from the egg he had won in the first task.

He followed the eerie song deeper into the lake, swimming deeper still into the depths.

As he looked around he glanced upward to where the only source of light was, aside from his wand.

The surface of the lake was indistinguishable from anything else around him, save for the rays of light that just made their way to through the depths.

Isaac couldn't help but pause for a moment, floating idly and looking up... wondering if this was what Ben saw before...

He slowly raised his hand upward, as if trying to get a scale of just how far away the surface was and tried to imagine watching it get further and further as he sunk down before his vision faded...

The song started again, snapping him out of his state, and he swam off in its direction.

As he swam into what looked like an underwater town the Merfolk of the lake started coming out.

He watched as they stood at the glass-less windows, open doorways, and what could be considered front lawns, there was even a chained Grindylow at one of the houses.

Isaac sneered in return at the leers that were sent his way as he swam past.

Up ahead, where the... road, he guessed, was taking him was a dais with what looked like a broken ornate archway stretching over it.

Strung up by bits of seaweed by the ankles, were four figures.

Their skin looked as if they had been crafted out of wax and weighed down.

All of their faces were scrunched as if waiting for something to happen, and the green glow from the Merfolk's natural lighting gave them an eerie, almost ethereal, glow.

A lone guard, who looked nothing like the mural on the wall of the prefect's bathroom, was watching him as he approached.

At the base of one of the hostages, was Cedric.

He had just untied the knots around who must have been his...

They had to rescue their friends?

They had...

Isaac paused for a moment as a mild flush of anger pulsed through him.

The Tournament was already dangerous for the champions, now they were putting students who hadn't been chosen in harm's way.

What if the squid had seen the new additions to the lake and decided that they wanted to see how nice they tasted?

What if one of the champions couldn't find this place?

He assumed that someone would come down and get them, but he didn't have much trust, nor confidence, in the people running this mess.

Cedric had finally gotten his person untied, that Ravenclaw that Isaac could never remember the name of, and turned to start swimmig away with her.

Isaac paused before roaring with laughter at Cedric, the stream of bubbles escaping him were sporadic as he was doubled over in the water.

When he finally looked back, and giggled a little more, Cedric tapped his watch with his wand before pointing at the surface.

Getting the message, Isaac nodded and swam towards who must have been his person.

Hermione looked like a china doll someone had tried to give a bath, there was something about the glow, plus the effects of whatever spell had been put on her, that seemed to give Isaac an odd vibe.

It was like someone had brought an animated character out from the depths of the uncanny valley and made them a reality.

Just as he dived down to cut Hermione free, a knife in hand, a shark swam past him.

Isaac nearly swung said knife into the shark's leg before he realised that sharks do not, in fact, have legs.

If Isaac had thought that Cedric's method of getting down here, looking as if he had a floppy bubble stuck around his head was funny, then Krum's method of turning himself into half a shark was delightably stupid and set him off on another round of laughter.

After he finished laughing for a moment, he swam over to where Viktor was trying to bite through the seaweed bindings off of his friend and cut the seaweed for him.

The shark nodded at him, which gave Isaac another bout of giggles, and swam off.

He twisted around so he was facing Hermione and dove down to cut the seaweed.

A quick slice made short work of it and soon he was pulling Hermione back to the surface.

It was when he was passing over the kelp forest again when he saw something fast moving out the corner of his eye.

A Grindylow was zooming around.

Another darted below him.

Three more flitted out of the kelp strands and Isaac immediately felt on edge.

Isaac started swimming a little faster to try and get away.

A horde of Grindylow burst out of the kelp.

He shoved Hermione away, casting a quick levitation charm on her to help her ascent, before spinning around and facing the countless Grindylow rushing him.

Isaac drew the hunting knife, holding it tightly as he put a throwing knife in the same hand as his wand so that he could cast a spell, flip his hand around, and stab something.

The first group of Grindylows swarmed around him, their long fingers scratching at any piece of skin that they could get at.

Group two started grabbing him, dodging the swipes of the knife and steams of near boiling water from his shouts of, " _Relashio_!"

A third group began obscurring his vision, knocking his glasses off, and scratching him further while they tried pulling him deeper as well as replacing the ones that he had killed during their attack.

The fourth and final group swam around him, creating a current that disorientated him further.

Isaac spat out a large amount of water in his mouth and...

His mouth suddenly felt a lot wetter than it had been moments before, and the water was getting colder by the second.

The webbing was disappearing from between his fingers and he could feel his flippers turning back into his regular feet.

A few more dead Grindylows floated away, but the throng that replaced those was overwhelming.

Some of the Grindylow seemed to get a little smarter now.

A small group of them broke away, tore off some of the kelp, and started swimming around him so that his arms and legs were tangled.

In his attempt to cut the kelp a lucky ram from a Grindylow knocked the hunting knife out of his hand, the throwing knife got caught in the side of another that fell away, blood making a morbid cloud around it.

The Grindylows started pulling him down towards the kelp forest.

Isaac spat out the final amount of water from his mouth, hoping that he could make whatever oxygen he had left in his lungs last.

He let his body go limp, focusing on calming his heart rate and trying to remember the spell that Professor Lupin had said that worked on large groups of Grindylows.

" _Regio Libertatus_!" Isaac flicked his wand at the Grindylows.

A large shockwave rippled out from around him, a burst of orange that pushed the Grindylows away burst out from the tip of his wand.

The Grindylows floated in the water for a moment before swimming away, deterred from the wizard that had slaughtered their numbers.

Isaac smirked at his victory... then the rush of adrenaline left his system and he could properly feel how much his lungs were burning... how much his vision was... clouding...

His arms felt like they were weighted down... like they were made of metal...

Out of the corner of his eye Isaac saw... something glint...

Then his foot touched the top of the kelp forest.

The quick jump that Isaac had from something slimy and disgusting pushed a final bit of adrenaline into his system... he raised his wand skyward...

" _Ascendio_!" he choked out.

He felt the water rush past him as he shot skyward.

In the sudden shift he nearly let go of his wand, but thankfully he had gripped it tighter out of reflex.

As soon as he broke through to the surface he took a large gulp of air and nearly choked on the water left in his lungs, coughing it up as he trod water.

He looked around, not seeing where everyone was but that was mostly because his hair had flopped down and obscurred his vision.

After he had pushed his hair back off his face, Isaac started swimming towards the closest out cropping before looking for the castle to try and get his bearings.

After he had found the blurred image castle he began walking back to the shore where he had begun.

After a few minutes of walking, someone shouted out from the crowd.

"THERE HE IS!" the screech got everyone looking and soon there was applause as Isaac stumbled down a muddy embankment to get to them.

"Don't crowd," he said to the blurs that had run towards him, "I've lost my glasses and I will punch anyone who gets too close,"

A tut told him that someone that had come over was Madam Pomfrey.

Isaac followed the matron over to where the other champions were sat.

A blurry image of something with a large amoutn of brown... he assumed it was hair, got up and started running towards him.

"I'm going to assume Hermione," Isaac said as they got closer.

Hermione's threw a towel around his neck.

"Isaac! What happened?" she asked, helping him over so he didn't trip over any more...

"GAH!" Isaac yelped when he stubbed his toe on another rock.

"The spell broke when I reached the surface, but you were nowhere to be seen," Hermione went on, helping him sit down while Madam Pomfrey cast warming charms, healing charms, and probably a diagnostic spell or two.

"Grindylows are little water goblin bastards, that's what," Isaac shivered before the warming charms took hold, "I fought off a few before I found you, and they can really hold a grudge..."

Isaac had a temporary moment of panic before his hand flew to his neck.

He let out a sigh of relief when he found the chord and pendant.

"Give me a moment," Isaac muttered, getting up and walking over to the water edge while Viktor helped Hermione get a water beetle out of the tangles of her hair, " _Accio glasses_!"

Isaac waited for a few moments before a thought came to him.

"Hermione, could you help me with... oww!" Isaac groaned when something shot out of the water and hit him.

Isaac let out another groan as he dropped down and started looking for his glasses.

Thankfully, they were easy to find and soon he was able to see clearly.

"Right... I think I'll save the other things I need to summon until I have a shield," he said, sitting back down on the log they were using as a bench.

"Why, what else did you drop?" Cedric asked, passing him a cup of something hot he had been told to give him by Madam Pomfrey.

"One throwing knife, and the hunting knife," Isaac muttered, taking a sip, "Really liked that hunting knife, little shits... Oh! Hot chocolate," his mood definitely perked up a little.

"The judges have reached their decision!" Isaac nearly dropped his hot chocolate when Dumbledore's, once again, magically enchanted voice boomed out across the grounds.

"The Beauxbatons champion, Fleur Delacour, was unfortunately removed from the task after an attack from creatures native to the lake and has, unfortunately, not been able to retrieve their hostage.

The Mer-chieftan has assured me that while her hostage shall be returned immediately, she has, again, most unfortunately, been awarded fourth place for this task, however, for the exceptional use of the Bubble-head charm, we award her, twenty-five points!"

Polite applause rang out for Fleur, who had bowed her head while Madame Maxine talked to her softly in French.

"But, arriving first, five minutes before the time limit, Cedric Diggory!"

The crowd's applause was close to thunderous as Cedric bowed his head.

"Mr Diggory, also using the Bubble-head charm, was able to rescue his hostage from the lake and therefore he has acheived first place in this task with forty-seven points!

Next to arrive back with their hostage was the Durmstrang champion, Viktor Krum!"

Shouts of encouragement and congratulation rung out once more as Viktor's friend gave him a hearty thump on the back.

"Mr Krum arrived back here a mere minute before the task ended, reaching second place, and using a partial animal Transformation, has been awarded forty points!"

More cheers from the crowd held up Professor Dumbledore's speach at the end of the task.

"And finally, while Mr Isaac Roger's hostage reached the surface mere seconds before the task ended, Mr Rogers himself was held up by, what I have been told was an uncountable number of Grindylows by the Mer-chieftan.

Nonetheless, Mr Rogers successfully rescued his hostage using Gillyweed to great effect and has attained third place in this task with thirty points!"

Shouts and cheers from the student body echoed around them.

"The Mer-chieftan has also asked me to return these," Dumbledore said to Isaac, his voice no longer amplified.

Dumbledore held out the throwing knife as well as the hunting knife.

"He retrieved these for you after you had shot off to the surface, a few more seconds and he would have been bringing you back himself,"

Isaac looked towards the lake where he could just make out a figure below the water, the top of their head sticking out to watch them.

He nodded to the figure, who disappeared with a splash a few seconds later.

"Thank all that is sacred for that," Isaac said, putting the knives away, "I really was not looking forward to summoning these out of the lake,"

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The Mansion.

Eyeless Jack was almost tempted to dose Toby with valium again, to Hell with the ban on using it after Masky had spent two days teamed up with Ben and The Puppeteer cleaning up the mess that Jeff had left behind when Laughing Jack had dosed him before he had sent him off on his merry way.

Lui was still a little displeased with L.J about that, he had been keeping the clown on his toes by only talking to him with a passive aggressive tone that you couldn't help but feel wary of when you heard it.

Once the screech of Hedwig was heard, Toby leapt off the couch with enough force to nudge it back a little and fling open the windows hard enough for them to bounce back and hit him in the hands and face.

Lui calmly walked past him and held his arm out for Hedwig to land upon while Toby went off looking for tissues to stem the flow of blood out his nose.

Held within Hedwig's grasp was two letters, a red dot on the corner of one marked the letter they were to keep from Ben.

He took the letter with the red dot and stuffed it under the cushions of the nearest couch.

"Someone want to go get Ben?" he asked.

"I got it," Toby said, dabbing at his nose with a wad of tissues.

Thankfully, it had been one of the rare occasions where Ben had been asleep when Hedwig had turned up so it was easier to hide the letter that would have told them what actually happened.

Liu carefully handed Hedwig over to Sally, as soon as she had heard that Hedwig was coming that day she set about getting things ready for her arrival.

Once Hedwig had begun drinking from the bowl of water that Sally had prepared ahead of time, there came a slow trundle down the stairs.

"Isaac's letter come?" Ben asked blearily.

"Yep," Liu said, opening the letter and handing it to Toby.

Toby read out the version that Isaac had changed so that it was getting their hostage out of the forest on the grounds of the castle.

It was considered a good idea by everyone in The Mansion to not let Ben know about what the task actually had him doing until Isaac was back at The Mansion.

Ben was barely managing to keep himself awake as Toby spoke and eventually he told them that he would just read the letter himself later.

As he walked up the stairs he glanced back to see if anyone was following him.

Once he had cleared the landing he walked as fast as he could without making a sound back to his room, locking the door behind him.

He found that he worked best when there was hardly any noise, despite a fair few thinking that he did his best work when listening to music.

Ben pulled the chair out from under his desk, sitting down before he cracked his knuckles and looked over the disassembled Gameboy before him.

He had finally replaced the broken P.C.B, as well as the components that had been too water damaged to be saved, and now all that was left was to solder the new components onto the new P.C.B.

Determination pushed Ben to keep going, despite the call to sleep that was trying to lure him back to within the snares that were the folds of his bed.

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Rita Skeeter rubbed her hands to warm herself as she watched from her hiding spot amongst the trees as the students of Hogwarts returned to the castle.

Once she got back to her house, she would have a riveting article that was practically begging to be written.

Oh... the story she could spin about the Potter child, Granger, and Krum would be spectacular.

After all, her readers all enjoyed a juicy love triangle.

It was just what she needed to kick herself out of the funk that she had found herself in.

She changed into her beetle animagus and began crawling over the wall of Hogwarts, easily slipping through the railings and stepping from her kitchen into her living room, a cup of tea in her hands.

The tea slipped from her grip and fell to the floor.

As it smashed, sending scalding tea all over her feet, Rita nearly collapsed against the wall.

"Wha... how..." she could have sworn that she had just climbed over the wall of Hogwarts, nowhere near where her cottage was.

She shook her head violently, snapping it from side to side, as if physically trying to shake off whatever was tormenting her.

After a moment of panic, she realised what was going on.

It was all stress.

Stress was making her see these things out the corner of her eyes... stress was causing these lapses in her memory... stress was behind the nightmares... it was all stress...

She raised a hand to her breast, trying to calm her erratic heart rate.

Sitting on the table, in front of her chair, was the typewriter that she used for all her articles.

A piece of paper was halfway through being printed on so she assumed that it was the article that had been...

She collapsed onto the sofa, not believing her eyes.

There, on the paper, was an admission statement about being an illegal animagus, breaking federal laws, tresspassing, bribing people to make statements for her stories, and...

Ice seemed to run it's way through her blood as she read on, her face losing all colour.

"No... no, I never... I'd never..."

The end of the letter... it was almost as if...

Wide eyes took in the final lines of the writing that declared that, by the time these words would have been read, she would have long since passed on from this world and signed in her own handwriting.

Rita jumped once again when something moved behind her, but the empty space behind her was as barren as usual, not even a shelf as it would have been too awkward to move around when passing behind the couch.

She quickly darted for her wand only to find that when she picked up the handle that was the only piece that came with.

The delicately broken pieces of her wand slowly rolled away from where they had been positioned so it looked like it was still whole, the Unicorn tail string glinting slightly in the candle light.

"... no... no, it can't be..."

Rita fell to the floor, clutching her head, as a wave of static passed through her.

She screamed as the pain built, feeling as if someone had set fire to her very skull.

A soft padding seemed to make its way through the maelstrom of confusion that was ravaging her.

Tearful eyes took in the sight of well polished, black leather, shoes standing on the tacky carpet.

Her face, no... her entire body began shaking as her eyes continued up the skeletal frame of the well dressed...

Rita screamed again, but not from pain, no... this time, it was fear... dread...

The thing before her had no face, an expanse of white that seemed to have a more powerful gaze than even the most war hardened veteran.

Bone thin arms ran alongside the body, leading to hands whiter than the purest, most untouched, snow.

Rita couldn't move as her vision suddenly cut out, as if she was trying to look through a rushing blizzard in an empty field that stretched out for miles.

Every so often she'd catch a glimpse of her surroundings, but even then the face of that thing still seemed to have been imposed over everything she could see.

A passing neighbour heard the screams and went to knock on the door, surprised when it just fell open.

Calling inside, there came no reply so the neighbour pulled the door tightly shut before searching the potted plants and stones around the small porch for a spare key incase that the owner ever locked themselves out.

After finding such a key, they locked the door, replaced it under the pot, and left with the plan to check up on them later.

Little did they know that the reporter was no longer within the confines of her home.

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Endnotes.

Christmas cheers to you all!

I got a Creepypasta poster from Red Bubble!

It's the one with Jeff, Ben, Eyeless Jack, and Ticci Toby going from left to right. My dad's getting me a frame for it before I put it on my wall.

I love it! I love Christmas! I love food! It was a good day!

And chapter 66 will be going up in the New Year!

What's everyone's plans for celebrating the turn of the year?

I'm going to spend the night with my boyfriend camping... get your minds out of the gutters right now!

Well, I think I'll need to get to... wait... chapter 66...

I know exactly how I am opening next weeks chapter.

But this was another chapter and I've got reviews to get to.

 **(X) review (X)**

acherongoddess;

I do have a few plans for the dragons, no spoilers!

Rita's torture has begun, what to do next... what to do next...

I hope I've had a great Christmas too!

 **(X) review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Yep, Fizz is back at Hogwarts, otherwise, The mansion wouldn't be standing once the year was done.

The coat is away until the next winter.

You've seen the extra couple of CP scenes that I put in that I didn't have time to put in last week, so yeah... she is...

Toby is just a magnet for fire, I think we can all agree on that.

You don't have Lemsip?

I feel sorry for you.

Slendy is having fun, yes.

Ben will be finding out the task soon enough.

The song was good, thanks for introducing me to it!  
Luna is an odd little duck, isn't she?

I'd actually been planning that since chapter 5!

I feel like if there is anyone in The Mansion that would talk to inanimate objects, then it would be Toby and Helen.

Masky and Hoodie definitely know how to manage their budgets.

Smart people don't challenge them, morons regret it.

Ron's retribution has just begun, let's see what else I can smack him with.

I hope it was fun to watch.

BRVR gets out for a little while, I think it was about time.

Rita losing her mind is so fun to write, just wait to see what I have planned.

Ooh... you alright?

I hope that it didn't cause too much trouble over Christmas.

 **(X) review (X)**

Sabriel Orion;

Overnighters are starting to annoy me.

Chaos will either have been uploaded on Christmas or will be ready soon.

 **(X) review (X)**

iCPM;

Of course, Luna knows.

She's not insane, she just knows a bit more than most.

BRVR can travel the same way as Ben.

Through storage disks, through internet connections, ethernet, wires... anything that carries an electrical signal or charge.

Chocolate fixes everything.

Ooo... I wish you luck...

 **(X) review (X)**

rosis isis and rai the kitsune;

I'm sorry to hear that.

Understandable.

I hope that things get better in the future.

She should.

 **(X) review (X)**

Honebar;

I'm glad that you liked it.

I think I need to do more day to day stuff, not just the kills.

Ron's going to be put through Hell by the time I'm done.

Rita's going to get her final comeuppance soon enough.

It's not a bit of a filler... well, it kinda is since I couldn't finish it on time...

Filler, filler time...

Jeff likes that car, alright, just let him have a nice thing.

I think I might have Toby make a bomb that explodes in a big smiley face just because of that image, thank you!  
My Christmas plan was to gorge myself, open presents, drink some Gin, and probably piss some people off with my snarkiness, smarminess, and ability to be a smart-alec.

 **(X) review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

Isaac isn't a Creepypasta yet, he's still a Proxy at the moment.

His snapping shouldn't be too far off now, but it'll still need to wait until book 5 begins.

Luna knows about L.J and some of the others, but only what L.J told her.

 **(X) review (X)**

. 549;

Yeah... that's pretty much a summary of her torture.

Seriously, go read it, it had me giggling.

 **(X) review (X)**

Matt the Hedgehog Android;

Yes, she is.

 **(X) review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Luna was a kid that survived L.J.

The bit at the start, if it wasn't understandable, was that her mother was experimenting on her to see if she could influence the natural Seer abilities that Luna had to be even more powerful.

The mother's experimenting would have snapped Luna, and she would have gone too far, so by killing the mother L.J was able to save Luna.

When he tried to leave, and take the memories, Luna somehow remembered, probably due to Seer abilities.

Drinking with family, eating, and opening presnets together can be atrditions all on their own.

 **(X) review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

Puns for everyone!

I'll enjoy both.

I LOVE FACT FIEND!

I'll check it out.

Food is good.

I'm glad that someone else has my tastes.

I hope things get better.

Satan is probably pretty fun to hang around... if you can stand the screams of the damned.

If you ever decide to fix it and post it then I'll look forward to reading it.

All of that sound amazing, I really want to read it now.

Happy Holidays!

 **(X) review (X)**

YingYangWriter;

I really enjoyed writing that, and I think I'll have to make an EXTRAS chapter one day about killing annoying HP characters in different ways.

He does, there probably is.

I'll have a look around and see what I can find.

I think it came as a surprise that many might have seen coming but would still be shocked at anyway.

I hinted that her mother would have actually been the reason that she snapped... I do not want to imagine what an evil Luna would be like...

Jane is an ass.

-laugh break-

Yeah, that's basically him there.

Rita did make it to the second task, she's just not going to get to the third now...

Yeah, three guesses what's happening next chapter.

First two don't count.

I hope everything turned out alright.

 **(X) review (X)**

SpiritBlackPaw;

WELCOME!

Welcome to the story!

I love your picture, that eevee is so cute!

Thank you, I'm glad that you like it.

I have heard of the brothers, but I didn't know if I wanted them in the main story or not.

So I suggest that you check out the side story I have for this called 'EXTRAS'.

It's got the origin of Eris, Isaac playing one hell of a prank on the Creepypastas, a chapter where Isaac gets turned into a Werewolf, and one featuring the brothers.

Ooh! I love drugging my characters! Thanks for the suggestion.

 **(X) review (X)**

So that was all the reviews... I feel like I'm forgetting something...

Oh yeah!

I've ended on another cliffhanger...

Well, you can suck it! I love cliffhangers and that is a gorgeous one to end on!

Thank you all for reading, I gladly await the salt, and I'll see you both in the next one and in the New Year!

Peace out pals!

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	66. Chapter 66, Bye-bye Beetle

Chapter 66, Bye-bye Beetle.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

EXECUTE CHAPTER 66!

I have been waiting a very long time for a time where I'm able to quote Palpatine!

And it finally happened!

EXECUTE CHAPTER 66!

I am way too giggly right now compared to what's happening to this chapter.

So... what did I do last chapter...

Nearly drown Isaac.

Forget to have him try and use his fire hands underwater... also I need to come up with a better name than fire hands.

And kidnap an annoying writer.

Well, I'm going to be having a fun time this chapter.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same about Rita.

Enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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Tall trees, completely barren of any leaves and unable to bare a single piece of fruit, that seemed to twist around themselves the further they stretched skyward grew endlessly into the darkened sky above, rolling grey clouds that seemed to block out all light had spread out as far as you could see.

Which wasn't far, the dense trees blocked far too much and the fog that crept through did even more to limit the sight of anyone unfortunate enough to end up there.

For this was the forest of The Slenderman.

If the ground could show it, then it would show the decades worth of blood that had been soaked in.

If the trees could show it, then they would show the many handprints of the desperate that had run through there.

If the air could speak, then it would speak of nothing but the screams that had run out from pain and fear.

And there, in what was probably the darkest clearing that there was, lay a solitary figure.

Once elegant curls of hair were spattered with mud and were now clumps that had begun to fray.

Chipped nails once painted a beautiful ruby slowly picked up the muddy water that it lay in.

The silence was all there was to be heard, not a creak nor a sway in the wind nor the soft pattering of some wildlife critter darting through the undergrowth.

The sky that seemed to be on the verge of breaking out into a full blown thunderstorm to rival any of the storms in the past decade was the first thing that the figure woke to see.

It took a moment for Rita's vision to settle enough so that she could actually see, despite her glasses being long gone.

Rita's memory seemed slow, as did every other function that she was capable to perform, as she lay there.

One by one, her memories of the events that had transpired slowly came back.

Trespassing at the second task of The Triwizard Tournament... making her way home... typing and realising that the typewriter wasn't putting down her words... something grabbing her neck and lifting her out of her seat... that tall thing standing in the corner of the room... somehow forgetting it and making tea...

Rita's breathe caught in her throat as the final memory came through, that of her down on the floor as the thing stood before her while everything went... fuzzy...

She bolted upright, slipping on the slight patch of mud that had ruined her clothes, and looked around. Her eyes were as wide as an owl's as they took in every tree, root, branch, cloud of misty fog, and stone that she could see.

That thing had to be here somewhere, it wouldn't let her go that easily.

Shakily, she got to her feet and winced as something crunched under her bare foot.

If there was one thing that Rita knew at that moment, it was that crunch, for that was the crunch of glasses underfoot.

Rita ignored the state of her ruined, expensive... oh, so very expensive... dress and picked up her glasses.

A large crack had spread its way across the left lens but, other than that, they were thankfully intact.

She wiped away the mud and grime on the only part of her dress not yet ruined by the mud before sliding them on, trying so very hard to ignore how they felt a little slimier than normal.

Her eyes twitched from tree to tree, trying to determine if one of the gnarled and twisted branches that seemed to stretch towards her was the thing that had brought her here.

Slowly she began to make her way forward into the mist covered ground, jittering hands clutched tightly to her sides as she tried not to think of what was squelching between her toes.

After wandering for an unknown amount of time... she wondered for how long she had been lying there, for she did not know how much time had passed... it seemed that every faint tick from her watch seemed to grow more distant, as if the moment between seconds was stretching out like the sprawling forest before her.

Rita's eyes caught sight of something bright white that stood out like a beacon against the grey, black, and shadowy forest around her.

An outstretched hand reached out for it as if she were a drowning woman grasping for a final lifeline.

Crisp paper ruslted under her fingers as she moved closer to read what was written in thick pen.

~ **F-O-L-L-O-W-S~**

Rita's eyes, though already wide somehow seemed to stretch that bit further as she took in the warning.

What she had thought was thick pen lines had turned out to be countless smaller lines done over each other over, and over, again as it warned of the thing that follows.

Next to the vertical writing was what looked like an extremely crude drawing of the thing that had taken her, as well as a non-descript tree.

But there was one other thing that caught her eye.

There, on one small corner of the paper, was a tiny number, ~ **1~**

A rusty nail was all that kept the paper from dropping to the ground, forced into the tree and it seemed that the paper had been forced upon it in turn if the way the edges of the hole looked was to be taken into consideration.

Rita looked around, determined to either confirm that she was alone or that she would soon meet her fate at the hands of the monster, before ripping the page off the tree.

As soon as she did that, a slight breeze picked up, swirling the mist that lurked around her.

This was enough to spook Rita back into movement, the knowledge that there was someone else there besides her and the monster in this God-forsaken forest burning like a final ember of hope within her as she made her way through the misty forest.

While she was walking something else came as a revelation to her.

She was walking in complete silence.

Rita raised her watch to the good lens, peering through the faded smears of muck to see that the hands were completely still, not a gear turned, nor spring releasing.

"... one... two... three... four..."

The chant echoed through the trees and... Rita could... she could almost swear that it... that it was... a young girl... a child.

Up ahead, in another small clearing, someone was sat on the ground.

Their legs crossed as they played with something on the ground, a pink dress getting stained with the mud and was probably torn from stones or twigs.

Rita had been about to call out to the young girl sitting on the ground... until she sung the next part of the song...

"... who's knocking at Death's door?" the little girl sang as Rita froze, just off to the side.

The girl was tying a piece of brown string around a small bundle of sticks.

"... five... six... seven... eight...

Will they open up the pearly gates?"

As the girl sang her song sent, it a soft chill down Rita's back, like a sliver of ice had been traced down the centre of her spine.

The girl flickered in and out of existence for a moment, causing Rita to fall backwards onto a tree.

A dent had sunken into the girl's head, from which poured a steayd stream of blood that ran it's way down her face, staining her gown.

"... nine... ten... eleven... twelve...

Naughty sinners go to hell,"

The girl paused her song, raising her head and turning to face Rita.

Rita looked into the dark green eyes, pupils that had slightly misted over seemed to see right through her.

"You shouldn't be here," the girl said curiously, tilting her head as if looking at an odd picture.

An odd choking noise escaped Rita, who's voice seemed to have been left in her luxurious cottage.

"You shouldn't be here," the girl repeated firmly.

Rita began standing a little taller, freezing once more as she felt something crumple against her neck.

She spun around to find another note stuck to a tree, but she quickly decided that the bloody child that had sung the morbid song was a little higher on the list of priorities that she had right now...

But by the time that she had spun back around the child had gone.

The clearing was devoid of anything that could have possibly indicated that she had been there... save for the small wooden effigy that was stood on the ground, facing Rita.

Rita turned her shaky gaze down to the small figure made of wood and string.

Longer sticks had been tied together to make its legs, and a piece of red fabric scrap had been tied around its neck as a tie to complete the look of the thing that had taken her.

Her breaths were nothing less than frantic as she turned around to look back at the piece of paper.

While the same style of scratched writing had been used on this one, the message was different.

"... Always..." Rita's voice was barely anything more than a croak, "Always watches... no eyes..." she read out, staring at the crossed out face that the writing was framed around.

Moving her thumb, Rita found that there was a small number ~2~ written in the corner, just as the first page had...

And just as before, the air picked up so that the breeze grew a little stronger.

The rise in the wind brought thicker fog that rolled across the ground.

By the time that this new layer of fog had reached the clearing, Rita had already taken off running through the trees.

Branches threatened to swipe down at her as she ran under them, the two pages she had collected clutched tightly in her hand.

The trees eventually gave way to a large clearing, in which sat three large boulders.

Rita glanced around, feeling on edge for some reason...

It felt like every tree was moving in to surround her, the natural paths that she had ran down seemed to stretch out so that they looked endless.

She wasn't sure why, but she felt like the air had suddenly gotten cold enough so that she should have been able to see her own breath.

As she debated whether or not she should try climbing the rocks to see if she could find an edge to this infernal forest a chill passed against the back of her neck.

Rita felt her breath get caught in her throat, ice seemed to have flooded through her veins, as she slowly turned around to look behind her.

The path she had come down seemed to get longer as she looked back down it.

A solitary tree stood on the end of the path, standing at the end of a fork she hadn't noticed before.

She had been about to turn around and continue walking towards the boulders when the tree seemed to expand.

Rita's hert seemed to seize for a moment as she realised that the tree wasn't getting wider, but rather that tentaces that seemed as if they were made from the blackest smoke were appearing from behind it.

Turning and running, Rita hurried to the boulders in the middle of the clearing, forcing her way into a crevice that was left between the three.

'I'm safe here,' the thought raced through her head more times than she could have ever counted, ignoring the pain from the numerous scrapes she had gotten when forcing herself into the hole, until another, more fearful, thought broke through, 'Unless that thing reaches in with those...'

Before the thought had finished crossing her mind she was already squeazing back out through the other side of the crack and pressing her back to the stone.

She stifled a scream as she pressed her back against something that sent searing pain through her shoulder, spinning to find a third note impaled on another rusty nail in the stone.

In her panic, she had fallen into the nail and now there was a damp feeling spreading its way across the upper of her back.

A pressing hand returned with blood as she took the third note.

There was no writing on this one, merely another scribbled drawing of the thing surrounded by trees.

The wind picked up yet again, forcing mist to flow through the crevice where she had hidden, but this time it was accompanied by a wave of static.

As Rita clutched her head, wincing as the paper cut at her ear, she took off again, following the path until a loose stone sent her sprawling onto the ground.

A painful cry left her as she landed on the ground, falling into a tree at her side as she went.

Twisting around, she saw that the dried mud on her foot was slowly being stained crimson as the cut sent searing waves up her leg.

She hissed as she set her foot back down, limping forwards after grabbing the pages.

There was a brick structure ahead, grime, moss, and decay visible at even the far distance that she was, but it was better to have a few moments of refuge rather than keep running through those woods.

There was no door to the building, it reminded her of those out houses that muggles had in fields as their poor excuse for a bathroom.

Chipped tiles, broken lights, and grime were strewn around every square inch of the floor.

Rita ignored a room after peering inside and finding nothing to warrant going in further before she kept going and froze inside another.

This room was nearly as barren as the first...

What set it apart was three things.

Another page stuck on the wall, this one filled with the words ~ **LEAVE ME ALONE** ~;

A chair;

And someone sitting upon that chair.

Their eyes were closed, their grey skin making Rita think that the person was long dead.

She edged her way into the room, wary that if something were to attack her now then she would probably be as dead as the person in the corner.

Just as she reached the picture, a hand shot out to reach her wrist.

The person whom she had thought dead was coughing, their hand latched tightly on her wrist.

"Water..." he managed to cough out, looking up at her with pleading hazel eyes.

Rita, who had screamed when grabbed, had fallen away, pulling the person with her.

"Water..." he choked on his own words, which sent them into another coughing fit.

Once Rita had gotten over her shock she spoke to him.

"I... I'm sorry, I don't have any," she said, realising how thirsty she felt as well.

The man let out a long-suffering sigh.

"Well damn," he muttered, "First friendly face I see here, 'side from my own mug, and..." the waved off their sentence with a groan, getting up from the chair and dusting off his hands.

"Toby," he introduced themself with a hand to help Rita up.

"R-Rita," she said, hesitating a moment before taking the hand.

Now that she could see him clearly, he looked a lot younger than she had thought him to be originally.

"Nasty cut on your foot," he said, pointing at the still vibrant red gash, "Stones around here can be killer,"

"Were you the one writing the notes?" Rita asked, the three pages still clutched tightly in her hand.

To her dismay, he shook their head.

"Me? No, been looking for whoever has for a couple of weeks now," the man said with a morbid chuckle, "Was hoping that it'd turn out...

 _You've been taking them_?" he said, taking a step back away from her.

Rita now looked at the pictures with fear.

"Man... I was using them as landmarks... well, suppose those three are from the woods, right?" he asked as he flipped over the picture on the wall.

"Two from trees... one from those boulders..." Rita admitted, wondering just how badly she'd screwed them over as he bit into his finger and started drawing something with the blood on the back.

"Aah, that's not too bad," Toby shrugged as he spoke with a wave of his hand, returning to the picture on the wall, "Don't really go in them woods any more, don't have the energy to outrun that kid and Mr Tickles,"

The young man looked at Rita's expression of utter bewilderment.

"Y'know, the Mr Men character?" the young man went on, "Orange guy with the long arms... though, you look like you're a bit too old for those books,"

Rita would have been taken aback at being called old if it hadn't been for the monster that was stalking the woods, the small ghost child, and the stranger in the room with her.

"So, who you seen?" he asked her, "Tall guy? Little Miss Creepy? Switchy or Grinny?"

"W-who's 'Switchy',?" Rita asked, "I've... I've seen the... the one without a face, that... little girl... but I've only seen those two,"

The guy sighed, his head making an involuntary twitch.

"Switchy, he's... I think the dude's like a coin. Two sides.

One side'll give you a quick and easy out, the other's gonna wanna take his sweet ass time with you... you didn't talk to the kid, did you?" he asked.

"N-no," Rita said, sure of her word that she hadn't spoken to her.

Good, thing's like a pirahna when someone tries to talk to her, lost this junkie to her when she... you don't wanna know and you wanna hope that you don't meet the others any time soon," the guy grunted, stifling a yawn against the back of his hand, "Right, here's what I've managed to work out.

Tall dude and the girl just wander through the trees.

Switchy tends to stick around this place and the silo, alternates every few hours.

Then there's the dude who... let's just say that he has very a painful smile," he broke off with a grimace, "So, we should be good for... my watch needed a new battery long before I came here," he shrugged, does yours work?"

"No... what if... Switchy or the other come here?" Rita asked.

"Grins McGee doesn't come round here, he's about those old trucks most of the time. If he ain't there then he's probably at the tunnel.

Switchy shouldn't be here for another couple of hours, I didn't have that long a..."

Toby broke off as a set of faint footsteps echoed through the halls.

"Shit," he swore low to himself, "I must have slept for longer than I thought,"

Toby turned back to the picture, drawing a few more things in blood, before tearing it off the wall and handing it to Rita.

"Right, these are the places where the other pages are, this is number five, you've got three. Halfway there.

I don't know about an exit, but the guy's got to be numbering them for a reason.

Most I ever found was eight. Never grabbed them, but they've got to do something.

Now, I'm down for the count, bell's been rung.

You, you've got life, spirit, when I get you the chance, you run like Hell, you get those pages, and you get outta this shit-show," Toby said, looking at her with a determined look in his eyes.

A tune whistled by the unknown third started getting louder.

"When he sticks his head in here, I'll buy you some time.

You get those pages," he hissed at her before moving to the side of the wall next to the door.

The whistling told her that Switchy was right outside the room.

A heavily scarred face was grabbed the moment he looked inside by Toby.

Toby pulled Switchy into the room and weakly slammed him against the wall.

"GO!" Toby shouted at Rita, who had frozen at the sight of the scarred person before her.

She jumped at Toby's shout as he launched himself at the person, forcing the crowbar that they held back from his face.

Rita ignored Toby's screams as she ran out of the building and out into the open.

Another wave of static washed over her as she tried to look at the blood map Toby had given her.

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Toby screamed as he handed Liu back the crowbar, wiping away the grime he had put on his head.

Liu was doubled over, a hand clutched over his mouth.

"Did she buy it?"

"Like me in a candy store with a sale on," Toby said as he turned away to scream some more, flapping his hands like a stereotypical blonde in a cliched horror movie.

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Rita ran to the tall silo that stood out above the treeline, but as she got closer the static got worse and she saw that the tall thing was already there.

Skidding to a halt, causing more damage to her already battered black and blue feet, Rita turned to start running the other way.

She had just passed the brick building again when somebody stood out.

The man with the heavily scarred face watched her run past, blood splattered across his face and dripping down the crowbar.

Rows of large rusty containers stood not too far away.

Rita ran into the rows, desperate to find a place to hide.

As she ran, she saw the white of another piece of paper against the orange hue of the rusted containers.

She grabbed it as she ran, ignoring the gust of wind that nearly blew her over.

'five... eight... three... I can...' just as she came into sight a large white tunnel something shot out and barrelled into her.

Rita's head hit the ground with a heavy thud and darkness took over her vision.

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"Hello, hello," Jeff said in a sing-song voice, "Time to..."

He broke off and looked closer at Rita's face.

"Oh... oops..."

A skidding noise from somewhere just ahead had him looking up.

"Goddamn it, Jeff," Toby sighed, "Oh well... you wanna go get Sally, me and L... Sully'll get her tied up for phase three,"

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Rita found herself stirring awake again, not knowing how long had passed since she had been knocked down and out.

"I think she's up," a young voice somewhere to her left said.

"Lemme see... yeah, she's back," another, slightly older, voice said after they hit Rita in the knee with something cold and metallic.

She would have shot forward, but the straps on whatever she was tied down to held fast.

Immediately, she started panicking and tried to free herself.

 **"Be still,"** a voice echoed through her head, accompanied by a piercing wave of static.

Rita let out a pained whimper.

"Can we get on with this already?" a fourth voice asked.

Rita's glasses had fallen off at some point so all she could see where the blurred outlines of a small child and somebody wearing a black and grey scarf.

A third person stood off to the side, their back to her with their hood up.

Her glasses were jammed back on her face, cutting into the bridge of her nose, before she was lifted up off the table and forced to kneel on the ground.

"Can you stop looking at that trash and help here?" the one with the scarred face and scarf said to the one who was reading something on the wall.

The figure didn't reply, they just dropped their hood.

"In a moment, this one's not actually that bad,"

Rita felt her heart skip yet another beat, wondering just how much more it could take before finally giving out, as she stared at the tangle of black hair.

That hair reminded her of a certain Hogwarts student that she was sure wasn't entirely too fond of her.

The figure raised a chalk-white hand to clear their throat and began reading aloud.

"Of course, many would have to wonder about the safety of the young Harry Potter, forced into this perilous situation, but one would think you wouldn't have to think about the safety of Potter's housemates," he read out.

The one with the scarred face sighed before moving over to go read it.

"Yada – yada – yada... seems to enjoy forcing himself into dangerous situations.

A quote from a source inside Hogwarts says that Potter enjoys a variety of potentially harmful activities, even nearly injuring a fellow housemate with a large knife that quite clearly shouldn't be permitted on the grounds, and has reportedly assaulted various students as well as a teacher in the past...

That's got to be that dumbass in his second-year, right?" he asked.

"Think so," the one who had originally been reading the article as he turned to face the second, "Student's got to be that ginger prick, hasn't it?"

Rita felt another sharp hiss of air escape her from shock as she saw his face.

Large gashes that had cut right through the cheeks to give him a permanent smile stood out like spilt ink over snow in contrast to the rest of his bleached white face.

Unblinking and bloodshot eyes turned to face Rita, "It's kinda funny how close she got on some of this,"

"Yeah," the other agreed, "I mean... rumours of continued abduction, encouraged dangerous activities, suspected criminal acts... she's basically describing the first week of his holidays home,"

 **"May we get back to what we are here for?"** the echoey voice asked, drawing attention away from the wall.

Rita frowned for a moment before a harsh realisation dawned upon her.

She was back in her house.

Her writing room, specifically.

On the walls were articles that she had written over the years, every best seller replacing another that hadn't sold as well.

 **"Has Laughing Jack returned yet?"** the voice asked and something in the corner caught Rita's eye.

The tall thing was standing in the corner, it's blank face watching her.

"Not yet, but we've got one last thing to do," the one with the scarf said, "Go get him,"

The one with the carved face seemed to smile a little wider, if that was possible, before leaving the room.

"Ooh, Sully, what's this?" the small ghost girl asked, pulling herself up to look at something on the table.

"That's a typewriter," Sully, the one with the scarf, said to her, lifting her up so she could stand on the chair, "It's pretty much just a very old way of printing, look.

You push these down, and it puts the letters on the paper," Sully tapped a few keys to type something out.

"S-a-l-l-y, that's me!" Sally said, "Can I try?"

"Go for it, I don't think that the... cow over there's going to be using it much longer," Sully paused, he had been told off for using certain words in front of Sally before.

Sally let out a happy little giggle before pressing the keys in a random order.

Rita watched as her precious typewriter suffered at the hands of the child, for a moment she lamented the retuning she would have to do after that ham fisted infant before she remembered that she was currently at the mercy of a group of monsters.

A grunt got the attention of everyone in the room, followed by a bump, and soon the one with the scar-smile was dragging somebody into the room.

She caught the sight of brown hair and grey skin that she recognised belonged to Toby, the survivor that she had met in the small brick building.

"Now... let's play a game," Sully said, moving the chair that Sally had recently vacated when the smiling one had brought Toby in so that they could seat Toby down.

Toby's head lolled over slightly, ropes binding his arms to his side and a cloth in his mouth.

"Let's play... what happens to dear widdle Toby," Sully spoke down to Rita in a condescending baby voice.

Toby slowly lifted his head, looking at Rita with unfocussed eyes.

"Cause... there are quite a few things that I wanna do to this guy, and we do have a limit of one person that can die right now," Sully went on, sucking air in through his teeth, "So... it's let me have my fun with Toby here, or..."

"Him! Kill him, please... please! Just let me go, please," Rita pleaded, tears flowing down her face.

Toby looked at her, a blank look in his eyes.

Sully laughed, "Well, I get to do whatever I want to you..."

Much to Rita's surprise, Sully gave Toby a quick peck on the cheek before untying him.

"Thank you," Toby said, rubbing his wrists, "Got my... aah..." he sighed as he took his axe from Jeff.

"... wha... what..." Rita muttered, watching the scene unfold before her.

"Did you guys know I was debating whether or not I would take Drama lessons before all this?" Toby said, cracking his neck and twirling the axe with practised ease.

"... you... y... you..." Rita began to hyperventilate.

 **"Now that you have had your fun, can we get to the main reason that we are here?"** the echoey voice asked and Rita's head slowly turned to look at the thing in the corner.

"Alright," Toby sighed, "Now...

Rita, would you like me to explain what's going on?

Well..." Toby stuffed the gag that had been in his mouth into Rita's, "... you've been getting a little too mouthy lately and it's kinda pissing me and a few others off.

Namely, my little brother... Isaac," Toby let the axe fall hard on Rita's foot.

Her muffled cry of pain brought a smile to Toby's face.

"Now, considering that you've got as many brain cells as I've got land deeds to royal estates, you probably don't know who he is.

See, he used to go by another name, and he ditched that name because there was an estimated several metric tonnes of bullshit that came with it.

That name was Harry," Rita's head shot up, looking at the slightly blurry Toby through tear stained and bloodshot eyes, "Harry Potter.

And I think you deserve to know the truth, you've got an article about his favourite night on your wall over there," Toby nodded to a framed article on the wall, "I'm the one that killed his Aunt.

I'm the one that took him away.

I'm the one that had him brought up amongst murderers and monsters...

And I'm quite annoyed that you've flaunted the laws here," he added on with a cheesy grin, "After all, that whole point of changing his name was for his own protection, y'know, so that the murderer that killed his aunts doesn't find him,"

A swirl of black smoke appeared in the room.

Rita's vision grew fuzzier as she felt about to pass out again.

A seven-foot clown, dressed in only black and white, had appeared before her. In it's long, claw-like, hands was an odd contraption with heat warning symbols on its sides.

"Nope," Rita cried out again as something was stabbed into her neck, "Not havving you pass out again," Jeff said, removing the needle.

"So, where'd you want... that the bitch?" Jack winced as something hit him around the back of his head, "Sorry... that the nasty person that we gonna give a lovely bath too?"

"Told you it wouldn't be me," Sully muttered, glancing upwards.

"This is her," Toby confirmed, "Now, Slender over there tells me that you can turn into a wee little beetle... yes, I know, I that was a terrible attempt at a Scottish accent," he said with a wave of his hand, "But if you were to entertain us for a bit, then I think we'll be more likely to make your death that much less painful,"

Rita's eyes flicked between every member in the room, from the axe-wielding teen before her, to the two scarred killers, to the small child playing with her precious typewriter, the clown with a morbidly sharp smile and to the tall figure who stood alone in the corner.

"I... really don't see how you could fail to understand that," Toby said, looking disappointedly impressed, "So I'll be a little more straight forward.

Turn into a beetle,"

Rita's wide eyes snapped back to him.

After a few moments of muffled pleads, Toby removed the gag.

"Please, let me go, I..."

She was cut off by something getting slapped across her face.

"Enough of that," Jeff said, handing the clown back the fish he had borrowed, "Now, since Toby's question was still a little too difficult for you to understand.

Turn into a beetle, or we'll feed you to a demonic cannibal who has a tendency to play with his food,"

Rita's whimpers racked her body, but she finally complied.

Sally looked up from the typewriter to watch Rita slowly transform.

Soon there was an extremely fat beetle sitting on the ropes where the disgraced writer had been moments before.

"Ok... that was kinda worth keeping her alive for," Toby admitted, "You guys want anything else you... OI!"

As he had been talking, wings had unfurled from underneath the shell and Rita had taken off in a very shaky flight.

She didn't get too far, Sully's hand shot out and grabbed her before she could fly away.

Free from her bonds, Rita decided to try and make a fight, the best she could hope for would be to at least get one of them and...

'NO! No... NO!' Rita would have screamed out loud, but she couldn't.

She had tried to change back into a human and fight the one that had grabbed her, but she found herself unable to transform back.

"You are keeping her from changing back, right?" Sully asked, keeping his hands tight around the Rita beetle.

 **"Yes,"** came the Slenderman's reply, **"She shall not be able to transform back,"**

"Thank... you," Sully quickly changed what he was thanking.

"Right, things ready to go," Laughing Jack said, bending over the contraption, "Put her in,"

Rita couldn't see what was going on, all she saw was a brief shine of light through the window before she found herself in a metal box that burned her slightly.

"Right, how do you do the thing?" Toby asked.

"Well... give me a moment..." Laughing Jack said, getting the manual open, "Ok... press that down to close the box..."

All light vanished, leaving Rita in total darkness.

"... check the temperature... looks good...

And then push that down so... yeah, that one, that's it..."

Rita listened as the odd instructions were relayed.

She had tried to move, but something sticky on the bottom of the box had kept her securely in place.

A few moments later, if she could, she would have been screaming in agony.

"Ok, what's next?" Toby asked.

"Well, it says once you've done that, you've to just wait for it to set," Laughing Jack said, showing him the manual.

"Aww... well how long does it take to set?" Toby asked.

"I dunno... I'll take it back to my carnival and bring it over when it's done," Laughing Jack said, picking up the box, "See you... oww, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot..." he muttered as he disappeared in a swirl of black smoke.

Toby sighed as he watched the last bits of smoke dissipated into the air.

"So... who wants to go raid the kitchen?" he asked, breaking the silence that had hung around for a moment.

He was met with mumbles of agreement.

"Can I take the typewriter?" Sally asked, sliding the page back as Sully had shown her.

"Yeah, sure," Toby said, helping her pick it up.

After making sure the fridge was well and truly empty of anything worth eating they finally decided that it was time to send that fake suicide letter in.

"Well... I'll see you guys back at The Mansion," Toby said, "I want to make a quick stop before I get back,"

"Alright," Sully said, "You'll probably see Liu when you get back, I'm feeling a little tired," he gave Toby another quick peck on the cheek, ignoring the over-exaggarated gagging sound from Jeff.

Toby watched as Sully picked Sally up to carry her out, Jeff kicking the door closed behind them.

"Right... now for my quick trip," Toby muttered to himself, rubbing his hands.

He hopped to the front of the fireplace.

"Yep, very quick trip,"

Within three minutes a roaring fire was going, and a marshmallow on a stick was being held over the flames.

Toby sighed as he bit into the gooey treat before standing up and grabbing a few pillows off of the couch.

He held one in the flames for a few moments before tossing it over to the opposite couch, repeating the process and throwing that one onto the other couch.

When the third one caught Toby quickly ran into Rita's bedroom, twirled, and threw it into the open closet.

Once a large amount of smoke was filling the room Toby went back to the living room to find it in a similar state of destruction.

He leapt onto the back of the couch, toppling it over, before shoving it so that it was closer to the fireplace.

Toby looked for a shovel to remove the dead embers and burnt charcoal, he had just one thing to do.

After finding a very dusty fire shovel, Toby scooped a large number of burning coals and embers out of the fireplace.

With a grunt, he spun around, scattering the burning coals all over the room and threw the shovel through a window.

"Aah," Toby sighed, "My work here is done," he clapped his hands as he watched the flames roar into new life with the sudden boost of oxygen.

Toby whistled as he walked out of the house, leaving the door open to let more air into the house.

Whilst he walked, he debated with himself whether or note he should get BBQ pizza or a meat feast.

He was leaning more towards BBQ at the moment for some reason.

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Hogwarts.

Isaac jogged at a brisk pace towards Dumbledore's office, he had been sent there by Madam Pomfrey to get Professor Dumbledore about a situation that had occured.

A mere fifteen minutes ago Isaac had been outside chatting with Viktor Krum abour the tournament so far.

They had been walking past a thick part of the forest when Isaac heard something, stopping Viktor to distract him with the strawberries on the hill.

When he felt something grab his arm from behind he spun around and punched whoever had grabbed him as hard as he could in the face.

If Viktor saw the brief flash of blue then he didn't mention it.

"What the... Oh... I am in deep shit," Isaac muttered as he looked down at the unconscious form of Mr Crouch sprawled out on the ground, a few whisps of smoke from his slightly singed moustache and eyebrows.

They had dragged the unconscious tournament official to the hospital wing, upon which Madam Pomfrey had helped them get him onto a bed and told him to go get Professor Dumbledore.

After cycling through every possible password that he could think of.

"Cockroach Cluster, really?"

Isaac ignored the ridiculous password and took the steps four at a time until he had caught up with the spiralling stairs.

He knocked quickly on the door, without stopping, until he was told to come in.

"Mr Crouch showed up on the edge of the forest and... passed out, and now he's in the hospital wing,"

Dumbledore took a few moments to comprehend what Isaac had said before leaping out his chair and telling Isaac to lead the way as well as to tell him everything that had happened.

Isaac did as he was told, save for changing a few details to make it seem like Mr Crouch had simply dropped down when he reached them, and not too long later they were approaching the hospital wing.

"Where's the fire?" a gruff voice called out.

Dumbledore slowed down to a brisk jog as they saw Professor Moody limp towards them, stowing something in his pocket.

"Mr Crouch has passed out on the border of the Forbidden Forest," Dumbledore said, "Mr Rogers has brought him to Madam Pomfrey with the help of Viktor Krum, could you go and get Karkaroff, as his student was involved he shall need to be here,"

"Aye, I'll go get him," Moody grunted before limping off out the doors and towards the ship.

When they finally reached the hospital wing they found Madam Pomfrey running towards them.

"He's gone!" she said, "Barty Crouch, he's vanished!"

"He's gone?" Professor Dumbledore asked, "Did anyone see where he went?"

"No, I left to go get some basic healing salves and when I got back Krum was unconscious on the floor and Crouch was nowhere to be seen," Madam Pomfrey went on.

Dumbledore hummed softly to himself before walking into the hospital wing.

He lifted Krum off the floor and onto the bed that Crouch had been on before, reviving him with a spell that came with a flash of red, not unlike the stunning spell.

Once Krum was awoken Dumbledore tried to get him to relax.

It was partially working before Karkaroff barged into the room, demanding to know what had happened, Moody not too far behind him.

His temper took a foul turn when he learnt of Krum being attacked and started ranting about how this was all a ploy to try and remove their champion from play.

Isaac rolled his eyes at this and, knowing that he had already said everything that he knew, turned out and started walking back to Gryffindor tower.

It had been a long day, he wanted to sleep.

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Endnotes.

And that's the way that the beetle crumbles.

So, that was fun, and I think everyone will enjoy that particular punishment.

So how did you all enjoy the first chapter back after the New Year?

Before I get to the reviews, I'd just like to point out how my sleep deprived mind reminds me of what I need to write.

Normally, I write a basic cliffnote in the space where the actual chapter goes, like;

'Lots of knives on Isaac'

'Isaac in lake, think how Ben must have felt'

'Grindylows be assholes'

'near drown :('

'he live'

'summon glasses, get hit with glasses'

But all I did this week was;

'death'

I love sleep deprived me, he's so straight forward... and I can no longer use that phrase... he doesn't beat around the... can't use that either... well, half the time I can... he's very blunt.

Anyway... wait... what's that marching my way?

'gets buried under reviews'

 **(X) Review (X)**

Sabriel Orion;

I can work overnighters, but thankfully the most I've ever had to do is 4 in a row, then I get 3 days of recovery, then back to 4.

I like to sleep as well, which is why I can sleep right through the day, 8 am to 8 pm.

So, hopefully, I'll be able to keep up.

I'm glad that you liked it, EXTRAS needs more love.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Yes, it was, thank you very much.

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

I love Luna too, I want to see more Luna centric works when I get the time.

A charm bracelet with the killers on it for Isaac... I mean... I guess I could do that, with like... a gaming controller for Ben, axe for Toby, balloon or party popper for L.J, paw for Smile, a knife for Jeff, flower for Sally...

Next question, who would give it to him?

Ben will find out.

It's a fanfic, everyone needs a chapter dedicated to the 'You lied to protect me, why did you do that?' trope.

I really can't say much about when it happens as I want the emotions to be real enough, but trust me.

An EXTRAS chapter where they all compare experiences could be fun, maybe like one where they're playing poker and they decide to talk about it. I dunno, maybe in the future.

Well... that's a lot of hands...

I forgot to have him try and use it, but my idea is that since it's underwater, fire probably wouldn't work. If it did, he'd probably end up scalded alongside all the Grindylow.

I think the lake would have been a good place for another mini-snap... goddamn it, why don't I remember my plot elements.

Crazy makes the world go round.

Do I bring sanity? I'm supposed to take it away.

Awesomeness fufilled?

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

I feel like I need to write an EXTRAS chapter where Toby somehow gets rocks to catch fire.

I think that's a very probable idea. He can't feel pain or heat, so he'd probably be pretty good at it.

If you don't have Lemsip then I feel sorry for you.

When I come to America, I will bring a packet or two with me.

Slendy has fun. He's this ancient being who's origin has been lost to time, why shouldn't he have fun?

Oooh... spoilers... spoilers... spoilers...

Well... thanks for reminding me about it, guess what's happening the next time I have to do a quiet moment in The Mansion.

Covering Ron in rotten fish... now I am...

Well, now Rita's lost her life, good times.

I'm glad to hear that.

Tell me that you at least tried to cough 'Jingle Bells'?

Luna and L.J is something I'd been planning for literal months!

If there's anyone it would freak out it would be Fred, though we have the obliviousness that no amount of fanfic editing will ever be able to remove to thank for Isaac not noticing.

Of course he learned nothing he can put to a solid answer. What is The Ark?

Even the actual creators, Troy Wagner and Joseph DeLage, haven't said who or what it actually was.

Hehehehe... I liked having Dobby and Neville get in a little tussle, it made sense to add a little something in since the two things that "Moody" did to try and get Isaac on the right track for passing the second task.

I think we can all agree that Isaac is pretty immature when compared to canon Harry.

Hagrid is one of the few things that Isaac doesn't mind about the magical world, plus he would be considering it practice to make sure that he isn't getting too rusty with his other practices.

Of course, it got some use, it was going to happen eventually.

I think that if Isaac was asked about them then he'd just try and bluff his way out.

"Mr Rogers, where did you get all those knives?"

"What knives?" he asked, polishing the hunting knife.

"The knife in your hand,"

"What knife in my hand?" he asked, twirling it with practised ease.

Frustrated McGonagall noises.

I like the name Kraken as well.

You know how I have Toby, one day I'm going to get an Axolotl and call it either Kraken or something else if I come up with a better name.

Death to the Grindylows.

In my head, it was either Anton or Georgi.

If I had a little more time then I would have written how Isaac would have stolen a shield from a suit of armour, hid behind it, and then summoned them, bringing a dead Grindylow body with it.

I think that [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS] when he [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS] and then when they [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS], so you've got that ball of angst and fluff coming your way.

Toby will always find a way to out slapstick Leslie Nielson.

Ben's fine, he's done worse, and stupider, plus he was pretty awake, he just wanted to be left alone to work.

Yeah, he did.

Punishment over, and I think that that's a very good way to end her, don't you?

Oh wait, you don't know what I did to her, ha ha ha...

Third task... third task... spoilers...

I might do a part 2 to CHAOS at some point, not right now though, got some other stuff to focus on...

I'm glad you enjoyed this, I'm waiting on your review for this one so hop to it!

I plan to.

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Home Alone is a pretty good film, I like it.

Did cause me to plan how to turn my house into a death trap though.

Tell your sister that I approve, though I actually have those parts I prefer to tell people to crawl back inside their mothers if they're going to be spawn camping little baby bitches...

'SteamGeek gets sedated by orderly'

Fireflies are the opposite of waterfalls... do you think aliens use the same numeric system of counting that we do...

 **(X) Review (X)**

joshua .obryan .549;

Rita forgot the number one rule, don't piss off The Slenderman.

Even if she offed herself, Slendy would just bring her back.

This is going off the idea that he's done it for his Proxies a few times over the years.

If you try to argue that then I'll remind you that this is an ancient entity who really doesn't give a damn about what you think of him.

That sounds... interesting...

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

I'm glad that you liked it, hope the New Year is going well for you.

Rita died, that's what happened.

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

WELCOME!

I'm glad that you like it.

They will get together... eventually...

Yes... yes you could.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

Well... we were, then we both decided that Scotland this time of year is too cold to even bother so we just stayed at mine and got a bit drunk, and that's all you're getting to know of what happened.

Rita ain't MIA, she DAF, Dead As Fuck.

Cause of death, Pissed off The Slenderman.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt the Hedgehog Android;

Yes, yes it did.

Yes, yes they did.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

Puns really butter my bread, other wise it's a little too rye for my taste.

Hehehehe.

I love Fact Fiend and... wait... do you hear that... marching towards us...

It's the Dong of Devoe!

Do you listen to The Correspondants?

Fear and Delight is my favourite so far, and a good portion of it is because of the camera work that they did.

Satan sounds like she's doing fine, that's nice.

Yep, at least you have Satan.

Never say never, you might get drunk and post it, or you might actually spend a little time trying to make it something worthwile to read.

I think you'll have liked this chapter, and I had fun with this.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YingYangWriter;

Yeah, that was a fun little thing to write.

That does sound like a pretty cool idea, whether or not I'll implement it into the story is a different matter entirely.

I like using weird words.

Like yacht.

That's how you spell it, but it just looks... off...

Giving Dumbledore the short straw is always amusing to me, no matter the situation.

Now imagine if there was a Creepypasta like Schrodinger from Hellsing, now that would be an awesome addition to The Mansion.

Dumbledore is going to have a fun time when he dies, but I still need to work out just how to do it.

I liked having Dobby and Neville get in a little fight, change of pace, y'know.

I have listened to many a screaming matches before, I consider it something that I could put on my C.V at this point.

Oh... I have Dead By Daylight, but it can't run on my laptop, graphics card ain't powerful enough.

'sad Steamgeek01 noises'

Ben would have hated the Winter Chapter with a passion.

I'm having a few conflicts with how to write Isaac as a killer.

When he's going after someone morally wrong, then it's easy.

But the killers in The Mansion don't give two damn if you're naughty or nice, death comes for you all anyway, they're just moving you forward in the line.

So I'm trying to find a nice common ground between how he acts in canon and to how he would have been raised in this.

Jeff would most definitely have been annoyed, those things cost... well, he probably stole them, but it needed effort!

Rita's end has come and gone like an entitled Fuckboy.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Guest;

Re-read the last chapter.

 **(X) Review (X)**

And that was the reviews.

So... that's another character from canon that's died a little too early, or at all... who's next?

Seriously, give me people you wished had died in the canon and I'll probably kill them off.

But, it's a new year and I feel like I should change up how I write these chapters...

I couldn't even type that with a straight face, namely because I am not, but you get the main idea.

Get ready for some new stuff heading your way.

Old faces, new faces, angst, fluff, and torture... plus my weekly dosage of salt from your reviews when I end on cliffhangers.

But before I leave you, I must ask your opinion on the next EXTRAS chapter.

I know what the next actual chapter that I'm going to write is, but would you guys just like a chapter there dedicated to the little Headcanons that I come up with, or find interesting, about the Creepypastas in the story?

Laters,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	67. Chapter 67, Mischief, Mutts, and

Chapter 67, Mischief, Mutts, and Marshmallows.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, rise for the national anthem of the recently killed.

"So long.

Farewell,

Auf wiedersehen,

Fuck off!"

Aah, joyous music... you may all be seated, or continue standing, I don't really care.

Chapter 67, oh boy.

I feel like going from the second task directly into the third task would've been a little too quick, so I think that this sort of filler chapter should be pretty nice for you all.

What's happening in this chapter?

Well...

That's for me to write, and for you to read,

Enjoy,

Steamgeek01.

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Hogwarts.

The day started out as any other day would.

Isaac woke up, got changed, made his way down to the Great Hall for Breakfast, laughed at a few lame jokes that were tossed around, went to his first class, went to his second class.

It was during the first break, before lunch, that the day took a sharp left turn off over the cliff edge of normality... or what would pass for normality at a school filled with a thousand odd wizards and witches.

He had made a quick turn to go to the bathroom and just before he walked in he froze.

For a moment there, he had flashed back to the early days of when he was at The Mansion.

Confusion washed over him, for why would he suddenly reminisce of a time he was barely eight years old?

Isaac shook his head, still wondering why he would randomly remember the time that L.J tried to prank him with...

He froze, his hand barely touching the door, and looked up.

Leaping forward, Isaac barely missed the bucket of mud that fell down onto the ground where he had been stood moments before.

Laughter rang out in the hall, despite the prank missing its mark, and Isaac stuck his head out to look at who had tried to pull one over him.

It didn't take long for him to find the culprit.

Isaac narrowed his eyes at the tall ginger at the end of the hall, who was still putting his wand away.

"Game on," Isaac mouthed at him before returning to the bathroom, he had been going there for a reason, after all.

He would have been content making little slights at Ron every so often for the rest of the year because of what he said or did to Hermione at The Yule Ball, but if he was going to try and get him in public...

Ron had no idea just what he was getting himself into.

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Laughing Jack's Carnival.

The children crowded around Laughing Jack's workshop, peering in through the curtains as they watched their best friend forever work.

They all let the curtains fall back when Jack paused and looked back, not wanting to get caught prying.

Inside the tent, Jack rolled his eyes at their antics.

As if a small crowd of around two hundred odd zombie children could go easily unnoticed.

He returned to the boxes in front of him, ticking items off as he went.

"Could one of you go and get me some of the spare cans of cheese spray?" he called out.

After a brief moment, the thunderous sounds of all the zombie children going off to find the cheese spray echoed around the carnival.

Jack sighed as he looked over the boxes he had amassed.

He did not feel sorry for whoever had pissed off Isaac this time around, not one bit.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Isaac stroked the back of Hedwig's head as he sat on the bed, feeling the need to quote some of the old Bond movies that he had seen, as he watched owl after owl bring box after box into the room.

"Jack's definitely outdone himself this time," he muttered to Hedwig, receiving an agreeable hoot in response.

The next Saturday, everyone seemed to wake up on edge.

All except for one person.

Ron Weasley woke up as normal as he normally would, completely unaware of the consequences of his attempted prank yesterday, as he made his way to the bathroom to begin the day.

Isaac watched from his perch, not needing the invisibility cloak to hide, as Ron entered the bathroom.

This had been the first time in ages that he had truly gotten to try out most of his skills as a killer despite being unable to kill his target, so he would settle for just making their life miserable instead.

The first step for taking out a target, or, in this case, pestering them to the point that they surpass frustration and become extremely apathetic, learn their routine.

Ron always got up later than the rest in the room, even Isaac himself, which caused him to make classes by the skin of his teeth sometimes.

This also meant that he would be alone when going through his morning routine.

Pushing open the bathroom door, Ron yawned obnoxiously loud and made his way to the sink.

There was a little cubby-hole for each of the inhabitants of the room in which they kept whatever they used in the shower or for brushing their teeth.

Ron was too busy yawning to notice that when he squeezed out his toothpaste to brush his teeth it had a slightly orange tint... until he stuffed it into his mouth and promptly gagged a second later.

After nearly throwing up in the sink, Isaac had been sure to ask for a few out of date cans of cheese, Ron spat out the cheesy tasting sludge that he had tried to brush his teeth with.

He grimaced at the tube, wondering just how out of date his toothpaste was, before grabbing Isaac's instead.

Isaac was very fond of his foresight at that moment and bit down on his hand to stop the cackle as Ron gagged once more.

It was then that Ron noticed that a note, apparently written by Seamus, Isaac thanked Helen for teaching him how to mimic other people's handwriting, that said someone had put cheese spray or something in their toothpaste and to use his since he had gotten a new tube the night before.

The next thing that Isaac was pleased to watch was when Ron spent a few minutes repairing his shoelaces from frayed ends that nearly caused them to fall apart completely, forgetting that Hermione had taught him a spell to instantly fix them in their second year.

Once Ron had descended from the room to leave for breakfast, Isaac dropped down from his hiding spot, went to his chest, grabbed a fresh can of cheese, and sprayed a small amount in his mouth before turning to face Ron's bed.

A wide grin grew across his face as he rolled his neck.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

When Ron returned to his room later that day, to change shirts after a gravy boat bumped off his plate and splashed him, he paused.

For a brief moment there, he felt that same sense of unease that everyone else had awoken to earlier that day but quickly disregarded it.

With that, he went over to his dresser to grab one of his shirts out... but felt that same sense of unease once again.

Shaking it off, he picked up the shirt, stripped off the gravy splattered one, and threw it in the hamper, before tugging the new one on and...

He snapped his head side to side before looking around, there had to be a reason for whatever it was that was causing him to feel this way.

Unbeknownst to him, a solitary figure was watching him from above.

Isaac was crouched in the rafters of the room, silently stretching his way across as he watched Ron seal a letter to send off.

As Ron stood to leave, Isaac hooked his legs around the beam he was sat on and let himself slowly spin around so he was hanging upside down.

Ron, who was already walking to the door, had his back to him.

Not only did he not see Isaac, but he also didn't hear the whispered spell, nor did he feel any change as he walked out of the room with the back of his shirt now a neon pink.

Isaac stretched out his arms to catch himself before dropping to the ground in a handstand before righting himself and pulled out a box from his hoody pocket, sprinkling the contents over Ron's bed.

He pulled the duvet back over so the bed looked untouched before calmly making his way downstairs.

"Hiya, Isaac," the ever-eager voice of Colin said.

"Hi, Colin..." Isaac broke off to eat a biscuit, the cogs in his head turning as he slowly chewed, "Hey, Colin... do you want to help me with something?"

Judging by the brief gasp, and the sparkle that appeared in Colin's eyes, that was a yes.

"Right, well, here's what I want you to do..."

 **(X)** Later, at Dinner **(X)**

Ron practically lapped up the soup, ignoring the owls since he wasn't expecting a reply so soon.

"Hey, Ron, you got a letter," Colin said, sounding a little jittery.

Ron looked at the parchment in the third-year's bandaged hands, taking it without saying a word to Colin as he watched the barn owl fly away.

He stuffed the letter into his pocket, planning to open it later when he was away from prying eyes.

Isaac sighed, cutting into his potatoes as he debated provoking Ron into opening the letter.

With a shake of his head, and eating a biscuit, he decided against it.

Reason one being that it would be too obvious, even by Ron's standards, that it would be him behind all of this...

Plus, what would surely be leaking into his shirt pocket would be three times as annoying.

He had taken extra care when opening the tub that day and charming it so that a banishing spell wouldn't work on what was held inside.

Truth be told, he had no idea if the spell would work.

They hadn't covered it in class yet... or so he thought, or didn't remember at the least, and he didn't want to risk letting a small amount out in case the spell had worked since he wouldn't be able to get rid of it... and this stuff never left.

After dinner had ended, Ron retreated towards the Gryffindor common room like everyone else and claimed a chair in the far corner of the room.

As he took the letter out of his pocket he looked at the odd, slanted, writing that looped around itself slightly.

Shrugging, he tore open the letter and a large amount of something sparkly showered over him.

Thankfully to him, nobody seemed to notice the large amount of glitter that now covered him, the chair, and a small area of the carpet below him.

Ron let out a grunt of frustration as he took his wand out, muttering a cleaning spell.

He frowned as the glitter remained where it lay.

After giving his wand a brief cleaning with a fistful of his robes, he tried the cleaning spell again...

Then he tried a banishing spell...

Then he tried a different cleaning spell.

Ron was half tempted to throw his wand across the room in frustration after the glitter remained steadfast around him.

Isaac watched as Ron got up, physically dusting himself down before making his way upstairs.

A smirk spread across his face... before it fell with realisation.

He had forgotten just how far glitter can spread... and since they can't banish it...

A quiet groan escaped him, they would be finding glitter around the place for the rest of the year.

"Did I do well?" an eager voice from somewhere to his left asked.

Isaac opened an eye, looking at the nervous Colin.

"You did great," Isaac said, holding up a biscuit for the third-year to take and his other hand for a high-five.

Colin grinned wildly as he nearly missed Isaac's hand when returning the high-five.

Isaac watched as Colin went back over to where his younger brother... the name would come to him in a moment, and his friends were.

Yawning, and rolling out a crick in his neck, Isaac decided to turn in early for the night.

Bidding Hermione and Seamus a good night, Dean was too busy focussing on his Herbology homework, before heading up.

Just before he reached the door to their dorm, Isaac heard a painful yelp from within.

Another smirk spread across his face as he knew that Ron had probably laid down on his bed to find that a large amount of bearded dragon barbs had been scattered all over the bedspread.

Later, just as Isaac was settling down to sleep, a clicking came from the window.

Hedwig was outside, shaking her feathers as she waited for Isaac to open the window and relieve her of... of the bag in her talons...

Isaac brought her inside, holding her close to warm her up from the cold air blowing around the outside of the tower.

He lay her on the bed, wrapping her in a scarf he pulled from a drawer, before opening the bag.

Inside sat something that brought a truly happy smile to his face.

The Gameboy looked better than new, and felt a little lighter, perhaps.

"I know what you're doing," a grumpy voice said from behind him.

"Opening a package from my home?" Isaac said to Ron, turning around to look at the red-head.

"That's not what I meant," Ron said, sitting up, "You're the one that's putting all that crap everywhere,"

"What are you on about?" Isaac asked, wondering just how frustrated he could get him.

"That gunk in the toothpaste, those... spike... things, all that glitter, that was all you!" Ron declared, pointing at him.

"I have... I understand a third of what you're talking about, since someone gunked up _my_ toothpaste as well, but I have no clue about what you're going on about," Isaac said, snickering on the inside as Ron's face steadily got a little more red.

"You fucking liar!" Ron seethed, standing up off the bed.

Isaac, while a good bit shorter than Ron, raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

"Is showing that you can get out of bed supposed to intimidate me?" Isaac asked, "Now, before you decide to go all neanderthal against me, just remember that I can twist your arm off as easy as opening a banana,"

Ron glowered at Isaac, who only looked bored, before stalking back into his bed and drawing the curtains around his bed.

Isaac smirked to himself, stroking Hedwig's head, as he looked at the Gameboy.

Now that he had a moment to think... did he want to talk to Ben.

He had no idea how Ben would be feeling after the event at Christmas where the Gameboy was broken and Isaac remembered that Ben looked slightly fearful, or shocked, when he had leant in.

For a moment there, Isaac was tempted to leave the Gameboy in its drawer and turn it on tomorrow...

Steeling himself, Isaac took a drink from the glass at his bedside, before moving the jug over to Neville's table, and turned the Gameboy on.

He moved Hedwig over to his dresser, making another small next out of the scarf and a jumper, before settling down himself.

Sleep seemed to evade him that night, despite feeling rather tired, as he lay there.

Then, without warning, he found himself in the field once more and with something latched tightly around him, pinning his arms to the side.

For half a second, he braced himself to flip the person off of him and onto the ground, but then he caught sight of the blonde hair and green shirt.

"Hey, Ben," Isaac smiled, returning the hug as much as he could.

"Hey, Spe... Isaac," Ben said, squeezing that little tighter.

"You alright?" Isaac asked as the two of them stood there, holding the other.

Ben didn't say anything to reply, but Isaac could feel the motion of Ben's nod.

"You?" Ben asked.

"Yeah," Isaac said after a moment.

He would have asked Ben what he remembered from Christmas but their moment was interrupted by something small, fast, and yellow launching itself at them and landing in the space between their two heads.

Isaac laughed as his vision was obscured by the very energetic BRVR as the bleep noises from text boxes seemed neverending.

"Hey, buddy," Isaac managed to free a hand to scratch BRVR's head.

~Izak is back!~

~Izak is back!~

~BRVR missed Izak!~

~Bin missed Izak!~

~BRVR missed playing with Izak!~

~Did Izak miss BRVR?~

"Yeah, I missed you, bud," Isaac laughed, reading the messages quickly before they vanished.

At this point, they had sat down on the soft ground so that BRVR could dart around them to work off his energy.

Eventually, Ben made a rabbit for BRVR to chase through the meadows while they talked.

"So, what's been happening in Che'z murder?" Isaac asked, "I've been gossipless for months now,"

"You sound so needy," Ben sighed, "Well... there was one big kill... but I can't tell you about that,"

"Aww, come on," Isaac most definitely did not whine.

"I can't, Toby's put a ban on me telling you anything, wants to tell you himself, if I could, then I would tell you... but my hands are tied," Ben said, teasing him by sounding overly sympathetic.

Isaac nudged him in the shoulder, pushing him over into the dirt.

"Jerk,"

"Bitch,"

Ben frowned at the sound of Isaac flopping over and groaning.

"I miss T.V," Isaac sighed after a moment.

"Come on, surely things can't be that boring?" Ben asked after a moment, "How was the second task... what was that?"

Isaac bolted upright, nearly falling back over after a brief dizzy spell washed over him.

When Ben had asked him about the second task, he couldn't have helped but think of the moment the Grindylows had tried to keep him under and the world around them briefly flashed from that memory.

"Must've been BRVR," Isaac hoped that Ben would believe him.

Ben looked a little doubtful, but he kept any suspicions to himself.

"The task was pretty boring," Isaac said, thinking about the times he had been in the forest, "Lots of wandering, it was... OH! It was one of those escort missions, where you have to reach the hostage and bring them back,"

Ben grimaced as he sat up, he hated those missions.

"Oh... that's... uh..."

At that point, BRVR came back over with the head of the rabbit held in its teeth.

It put the head at Ben's feet, looking up at him proudly.

"Well... that lasted longer than I thought it would," Ben admitted.

"Did you catch that all by yourself?" Isaac asked, scratching BRVR behind his ears.

BRVR spun around on the ground, a few sparks arcing off his cheeks in glee.

"So, what do you want to do, it's been a while, hasn't it, what'd you wanna play?" Isaac asked him.

After thinking for a moment, BRVR did another little wiggle and spun around.

A red disk appeared in its mouth and BRVR dropped it at their feet before running off.

"Well, three guesses what he wants done with this," Ben said, picking up the frisbee and throwing it after the blur in the distance.

"So, anything that you can tell me about?" Isaac asked as they watched BRVR run towards them.

"Well... Jeff and Jane have had their deal changed by Slendy when they ended up breaking a large part of the training room," Ben said, "Now they have two half-hour sessions a week to beat the ever living shit out of each other,"

"Ooh... bet they took that with a grain of salt," Isaac said, picking up the frisbee and throwing it in the opposite direction that BRVR had started running.

He could have sworn that BRVR blew a raspberry at him as he ran after it.

"Yeah, three guesses what Jane did," Ben offered.

"Something stupid?"

"Naturally.

She argued with Slendy and, when he didn't budge, stole a jerry can and set fire to part of the forest,"

Isaac winced and felt sorry for Jane for a brief moment.

"What'd Slendy do?"

"Bitch slapped her into the side of The Mansion and stuck her up a redwood in some national park," Ben said, just containing his laughter... which broke when Isaac fell to his knees and the two were soon lying on the ground.

They would've gone on laughing for a good few more minutes if Isaac hadn't gone into a coughing fit.

"You alright?" Ben asked, helping him sit up.

Isaac made a shrugging motion since he couldn't answer.

"I... My lungs are..." he struggled to catch his breath.

"Ok, hold on," Ben said, steadying Isaac so he didn't fall over.

A second later, Isaac was lying down in bed, his cough still painfully persisting.

He clasped a hand over his mouth as he made his way to the bathroom, practically flooding the sink to try and get rid of the cough.

By the time he was able to breathe normally, the front of his shirt was soaked and his hands were shaking.

After taking a few more gulps, and changed his shirt, he returned to bed to try talking with Ben again.

Thankfully, the brief rush of adrenaline that Ben had given him to help wake up had gotten out of his system fairly quickly and he fell back to sleep a lot faster than before.

"Welcome back," Ben said, the meadow reforming, "You alright?"

"Better, no idea what that was," Isaac said, looking around.

"You do look a little pale," Ben peered at his face.

"If I'm still coughing my lungs to shreds tomorrow, I'll go to Madam Pomfrey," Isaac promised, "Now... I've been feeling a little death-deprived, who's been up to what?"

Ben thought for a moment before smiling.

"I think I know just the one...

So, Slendy finds out that this big-wig banker has a thing to go in the attic..."

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Isaac's mood definitely increased with the return of the Gameboy and the letter that he hadn't noticed the night before.

Apparently, he was to expect a visit the next time he was in Hogsmeade as Toby had, apparently, came up with an ingenious way around the limited contact rule.

Hermione had deemed that a break to Hogsmeade would do Isaac some good since he had, admittedly, been looking a bit pale that day.

So that was how Isaac found himself thinking of ways to split away from Hermione as the two of them walked the main road of Hogsmeade.

"Isaac!" Hermione gasped quietly as she grabbed his arm and pointed to the entrance to one of the alleyways.

A large black dog was stood there, it's tail wagging.

"Oh, is that Sirius... Oh..." Isaac broke off in realisation.

"Come on," Hermione started tugging his arm to go after the dog.

Isaac hoped that Sirius wouldn't say anything revealing about his home while Hermione was there, lest he have to call in Teer to come down and wipe her memory.

There had been a few Ministry employees down at Hogwarts after the disappearance of Mr Crouch to look for him, and with the time it would take for a letter to get to Teer Isaac had a feeling that the search would be extended.

He hoped that someone would just dig up Mr Crouch's body so that the whole thing would be over and done with.

There had been two times he was called out of class to answer questions because of it, one time with Minister Fudge there.

By the time Isaac had left that particular interview, he had sorely wished that Slendy would let him kill the man at some point, though he would have preferred to break the man's arm when he tried to call him 'Harry' again.

Isaac found himself wishing that the year would hurry up and end so that he didn't have to deal with Hogwarts any more.

Sirius led them a little way out of Hogsmeade, to the forest nearby.

"I think we're far enough away now," Sirius said after he transformed back from his dog form.

"How you been?" Isaac asked him as he settled down on a log.

Sirius was truly looking a lot better than the last time he had seen him, though that was probably due to being let out of the endless loop that Slendy had been keeping him in until he chilled out.

"Much better, Remus says hi, by the way," Sirius said, taking the offered biscuit from Isaac.

"You're staying with Professor Lupin?" Hermione asked.

"As the ever adorable stray he took in," Sirius said with a roguish smirk, "Nobody's any the wiser since I left a trail of people spotting me all the way down to Egypt...

Now, how's the Tournament going?" Sirius asked.

Isaac gave a slightly disgusted groan as he rubbed the faint blue lines under his eyes, "Where to begin...

I... honestly just want this year to end and go home, I need to blow off a little steam,"

Hermione frowned a little at the odd look on Sirius' face when Isaac said that before speaking.

"Has there been any news on Mr Crouch?" she asked.

"Not a thing," Sirius shook his head, "Completely vanished.

That Weasley kid that worked for him is under investigation as since when he stopped making appearances he'd been sending in letters for what he was to do, so they're trying to determine if they're legit or not, or if someone's been messing around with his department,"

"D'you know anything about the final task?" Isaac asked, chewing slowly on a biscuit.

"What they're doing this year? No.

What they've done in the past?

Anything from turning the forest into a maze and letting the champions run around with a bunch of creatures they shoved in there, to an all-out duel, and giving them some big monster to fight,"

Isaac groaned as he took out another biscuit.

"Well, Isaac's already fought a dragon, so they're probably not going to have him fight another monster for the final task, so it's more likely that they'll have him go against the other champions or through some sort of obstacle course," Hermione reasoned before muttering to herself about various defensive spells, jinxes, and curses that they could look into.

"She's got her priorities right," Sirius said, accepting another biscuit, "How much does she know?" he whispered when he was sure that Hermione was thinking too hard to pay them any attention.

"Nada," Isaac whispered back, "So, anything else that I should know?"

"Watch out for Karkaroff," Sirius advised, "Ex-Death Eater, and nobody ever truly hangs up their robes, only reason he's not still locked up in Azkaban is because he flipped on a bunch of others, and taking out someone that everyone in the Wizarding World credits for the downfall of one of the darkest wizards of all time would definitely be a way to get back into their good books,"

Isaac grimaced at the reminder of just how popular his old self was.

"Anyone else that's got a few connections to that bunch of assholes?" Isaac asked, wondering just how much more he was having to deal with while reminding himself, 'Just a couple more months... just a couple more months...'

Sirius let out a short, bark-like, laugh.

"Oddly enough, Barty Crouch does have a tie or two," Sirius said and Isaac looked at him like he had taken the last piece of cake, "His son got caught up with a bunch of Death Eaters not too long after You-Know-Who's downfall, sent to Azkaban and died there,"

"Oh, what a shame," Isaac said flatly as he rubbed his tired face.

"Are you feeling alright?" Sirius asked.

Hermione stopped going through the list in her head to look at Isaac.

"It's just a cold, or something," Isaac said, taking another biscuit out his pocket to eat.

"Regardless, you should go see Madam Pomfrey," Sirius said, looking concerned, "Cold or not, you'll need your strength for the final task,"

Isaac nodded in agreement, "Alright, I'll see her when I get back,"

Sirius looked a little relieved when he heard that.

"Hermione, do you mind if I had a quick word with Isaac, alone?" Sirius asked her.

Hermione nodded, getting up and saying that she'd be waiting on the edge of town for them.

After checking that Hermione was a good distance away Sirius turned to Isaac with a grim look on his face.

"What happened to Skeeter?" he asked.

"Who?"

"Rita Skeeter, the Daily Prophet reporter," Sirius went on, pulling something out of his pocket, "She starts writing stories about you, goes into hiding, and then there's a story about how her home has been burned to the ground and an investigation into her apparent suicide after a confession labelled her as an illegal animagus, as well as fraud and..."

"I don't know anything more than what you've just told me," Isaac cut him off, "I haven't left Hogwarts, and there's a rule limiting contact with the Wizarding World back home,"

Sirius nodded, slightly relieved that Isaac hadn't been apart of her death.

"Your brother's getting a little antsy about the final task, he feels like you've left something out from the letter about the second task," Sirius went on.

Judging by the mildly guilty look on Isaac's face, there was.

"I'll tell him in person, but I'm fine," Isaac said, meeting Sirius' eyes, "Anything else?"

Sirius rummaged in his pocket for a piece of parchment.

"He asked me if I knew any hard hitters," Isaac unfolded the piece of parchment and looked at Sirius' slanted writing, quite surprised that he had immaculate penmanship.

On the parchment were a series of curses and hexes, what they did written next to them, and a line with arrows to show wand movements.

"Those are some of the big ones that we used to use back in the day," Sirius said, "Don't let McGonagall catch you using them... if she does, blame Moony,"

Isaac rolled his eyes at him before getting up to leave.

"Isaac..." Sirius stopped him with an arm to his shoulder, "Take care.

The last task is always the hardest,"

Isaac nodded, patting the hand on his shoulder before going off to catch up with Hermione.

Sirius watched Isaac go off after his friend and for a brief moment, he felt something tug at his heart as he watched someone who was practically a stranger when they should have been someone as close as a son.

He pushed those feelings aside, however, because he knew that it was partially his own fault that Isaac had been raised by those monsters, the Dursleys, and while his current family weren't exactly the most morally righteous... well, it wasn't too far a stretch from hypocritical for a Black to be judging the morals of somebody else.

"So, what else are we gonna do?" Isaac asked, falling into step next to Hermione.

"I don't think we really had a plan, just to mill around... what did Sirius want?" she asked, looking around to see what stores weren't too busy.

"Well... if I tell you then I'll have to teach you one of my favourite sayings," Isaac said, looking into a candy store across the road.

"What saying?" Hermione asked, dragging him to a supplies store so they could get a few refills on ink and quills.

"Repeat after me," Isaac cleared his throat, "I... Plead... The Fifth,"

Hermione looked rightfully worried.

But not nearly as worried as Cedric, who had stopped a few feet away.

"Should I run?" he asked, chuckling nervously.

Isaac hummed in mock thought, "Don't know, haven't decided yet,"

Cedric gulped nervously.

"Well, erm... I was just... we were... me and the other champions were planning a bonfire, just a little good luck thing before the final task, and I said that I'd find you,"

"You had me at bonfire," Isaac said, "Where and when?"

The rest of the Hogsmeade trip passed by with little further excitement, save for Isaac discovering that Honeydukes was giving out free samples of a new peppermint that allowed you to breathe out a small amount of fire.

Needless to say, there were a few bags of them in his pockets as he walked back to Hogwarts.

After a quick trip to Madam Pomfrey, she had to agree that he looked rather peaky, where he got a few vials of a low-strength pepper-up potion to take before bed and after lunch, Isaac started looking over the list that Sirius had given him.

There were a few there that seemed like they'd be fun to use as a prank.

One hung the person by the ankle, another caused toenails and fingernails to grow painfully fast, one gave the person heartburn for an hour.

Isaac shook his head, looking for some of the more offensive spells.

After highlighting a few that he'd have to try later, he set out to go join the others by the lake.

He made his way to the small outcropping that he had surfaced on the other side of at the end of the second task, tossing something between his hands.

"Hello," he said to the other three.

Fleur looked up from the lake and patted at the log she was sat on.

Cedric and Krum were crouched in front of a pile of wood, a threadknit bag with a pack of sausages and marshmallows poking out the top just to the side.

"So, how've things been?" Isaac asked Fleur as Cedric and Viktor tried to get the fire going.

"Things have been good, Gabrielle has been fine, she is good," Fleur said, "How is your friend?"

"Hermione's fine, she's been going into study overload lately, for exams," Isaac said, looking down at the two others, "You need a hand?"

"We got this," a slightly annoyed Cedric replied, "Woods just a little damp,"

"Move," Isaac said, gently pushing the two to the side, "I got this,"

Isaac stuck his hand into the pyre and clenched his fist.

A few seconds later blue flames had encircled his hand, licking the slightly damp logs as they started to burn.

Soon the pyre was steadily smoking, an amber glow shining from within, and Isaac removed his hand.

"There we go, so..." Isaac broke off as the other three jumped back, "What?"

"Hand," Cedric choked out, trying to get his wand out from his tangled robes.

Isaac looked over to his hand and realised that it was covered in fire.

"Oh, sorry," Isaac shook away the orange flames that had clung to his hand, the blue ones returned for a moment before his hand was no longer engulfed in fire.

Fleur's eyes had gone wide at the sight of the blue flames, as brief as they were alight.

"So... yeah, I don't really have a way to explain that other than, y'know... magic," Isaac shrugged.

"You mean... your hands going on fire is... is normal for you?" Cedric asked.

"Well... kinda," Isaac shrugged, "So, marshmallows?"

Cedric had spent long enough at Hogwarts to know when you're not going to get an answer out of Isaac and just tossed him the bag of marshmallows.

It took a moment for the other two champions to get over their shock at how a fourteen-year-old was incredibly calm about the fact that he could set himself on fire and not suffer for it.

However, when they discovered that he had no problem holding his hand out to roast a marshmallow on, they soon warmed up to the little quirk.

"So... I found a thing," Isaac said as the fire started to burn low, pulling something from his pocket, "It's leftover from the thing that Toby sent me for the first task,"

Cedric, Fleur, and Viktor all leaned away from him as he tossed the small, black, ball up in the air.

"It was in a box with a bunch of danger stickers," Isaac went on, enjoying their reactions way too much, "So, who wants to set it off?" he asked with a wide grin, pulling the tab off so it started sparking.

After the other three were practically behind the log, or had their wand out to cast a shield charm, Isaac threw it up above them.

A small bang, barely above that of a Christmas cracker, before a small shower of glitter rained down on them.

"You can see why I didn't use it in the task, not really that helpful against a dragon," Isaac said, picking up the marshmallow he had been about to roast and holding it over the flames.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Thankfully, for Isaac's sanity, the rest of the year started to pass by fairly quickly.

The exams came and Isaac suddenly felt the tiniest piece of appreciation for the task as he didn't have to sit any.

Hermione still dragged him into her revision times, when they weren't practising charms and jinxes for the third task.

Sirius had been right, the third task was indeed a maze.

Bagman had shown them the land next to the Quidditch pitch being transformed into a large maze.

He had also informed them that Hagrid would be supplying a large amount of creatures to add into any of the traps that the teachers were placing there.

Isaac felt a quick surge of dread as Hagrid had quite happily informed them a few classes ago, that there were still a few Skrewts alive.

Bagman, once again, tried to corner Isaac to give him some aide, but another quick mention that the Weasley twins still wanted their money back got him practically running away.

Whether or not they actually did, Isaac didn't know. It was just nice knowing that there was a way to get rid of the man without causing another search for a missing official.

The day of the final task was soon upon them, and everyone seemed to be teeming with barely contained excitement.

Isaac was planning to spend the day in Gryffindor tower, maybe go to an unused classroom to practice a bit more.

After breakfast he had planned to put a few of the wasted marshmallows from the bonfire in Ron's bed, melted, obviously.

But his plan was slightly derailed with the arrival of Professor McGonagall.

"Mr Rogers," she said, looking down at him through her glasses.

"I don't know what it was, but I didn't do it," Isaac said.

A weary smile appeared on her face before she told him to follow her.

Isaac sighed, leaving his barely touched plate of waffles, and getting up.

As he followed behind her, he wondered just what was important enough to warrant interrupting breakfast.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Endnotes.

Well, I've got about precisely 0 actual story when writing this part.

And I need to ask a quick thing...

Who's here from Granny Duck?

For those who don't know who that is, don't worry about it, it doesn't matter that much.

Anyway, time for the reviews!

What have I got this time?

 **(X) Review (X)**

Wingzero512;

Welcome!

Hiken or Igni...

Ok, I had a quick look to see what there was on those two things.

Hiken is apparently a cricket player from Dubai and Igni is...

I'm going with Igni, and you can bet that Ben will name it!

Thanks!

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

I didn't hot-glue-gun Rita, though that idea is pretty close.

Nah, the roach motel is too good for her.

Yeah, very little actually happened that chapter, just driving Rita round the bend and getting Crouch sr out the picture.

Yes... unlimited... **POWER**!

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

The first word out my mouth when I saw your review was, "Jesus," followed shortly by, "Christ!"

I'll make a note of that.

#I think I would die without Lemsip, though right now I need mucus cough medicine.

My lungs don't seem to like working. I don't have asthma, but they just love to be malfunctioning. Evidently, they're really fond of Steam Powered Giraffe.

I enjoyed having them toy with Rita before offing her, and I think you'll like what happened to her, find out next chapter!

What's the canon thing?

Well, next chapter you'll see who's come up.

Oh... shit... what's the reference?

Eh, next year then.

I love being able to play with his obliviousness, it's such a fun way to put in plot devices later on if I forgot to mention them earlier.

I loved Fred's reaction.

I love screwing Dumbledore over with his schemes, can't do it for much longer, though.

The size difference between those two was the main reason that I did it.

Yep.

You act like I didn't plan for Isaac to use Ben's gift for the first time in the lake.

Let's face it, that kid would be Colin.

They're cute as all hell, aren't they?

Are you asking me to put Viktor with Anton?

Why is... screw it, everyone's gay!

You get a boyfriend!

You get a boyfriend!

You get a boyfriend!

You get a Poon!

'Ben death noise'

Oh for... I'll have PM'd you by now.

Rita's punishment was fun and I enjoyed having everyone toy with her.

Well... spoilers...

Like I've said, I enjoyed having them toy with her before her death.

I think that was my best chapter in terms of scene building.

She was on the most novice of all novice levels, plus she was supposed to have been chased by Jeff in the tunnel, but he tackled her and knocked her out by accident.

I've had Sally's song written down for a good while now and I swear that I've heard that melody I sung it to before.

I had thought of it just being Slendy toying with her, but I like that version much better as well.

I'm glad that you like the descriptions.

Of course Rita would throw him under the bus, she's a selfish little bug.

I think that I'll have to make that joke at some point in the future.

Rita got too close, one of the reasons that Slendy let them use his forest.

Yes, those thoughts did belong where you said.

No, you'll never find out what they were because I don't think I'll ever write a lemon.

'sees follow count'

Oh... shit...

That's pretty close to what the bet was...

Fuck! I'm like 20 follows away before I have to write a lemon... uh oh...

Yes, having her get eaten by a cannibal would have been torture, but I much prefer the actual punishment I thought up for her.

You'll find out the climax to the punishment next week.

Erm... you actually kinda... yes, that.

You always raid the kitchen, never let food go to waste.

Jeff is definitely a little savage drama queen.

Don't tell him I said that.

Always roast the marshmallows, yes.

YOU NEVER WASTE FOOD LIKE THAT... unless you're throwing them at assholes... then let the flaming treats of terror rain down on your enemies.

He's fire-punched people before, first was Lockhart.

Sleep is good, worship the sleep.

Pyrokinesis might be the technical name, so they'll that's probably going to be the other name for it.

Why scream when you can have... in fact... yeah, should have had some more pain in the chapter... oopsie.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Katropis;

I am as well, see MyraZinshu for example.

It is.

...

Really... what... what did you not understand?

Barty got K.O'd by Isaac at the forest, they took him to the hospital wing, and then Moody did his thing, just as he would have done in the book.

That's why I put him stuffing something in his jacket at the end.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Wave bye-bye to the buggy bitch!

Toby and Liu are a little adorable, but I regret having them get together that early on, which is why I'm writing an EXTRAS chapter that focuses on the build-up to the relationship.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

'sighs'

Did you actually read the chapter?

He had to rescue Hermione while Krum rescued one of his Durmstrang friends, who Myra thinks I'm going to have him get together with.

I had to take a break writing here for a moment to watch BigJigglyPanda get crushed under a tower of pizzas.

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

I love them too, except the fourth and the fifth.

Except for French Stewart in the fourth and Malcolm McDowell in the fifth.

It says you're a crazy loon, and I wouldn't have you any other way.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt the Hedgehog Android;

Well... not roasted...

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

Welcome!

My, my, aren't you an interesting little crossbreed.

I'm glad that you like the story.

It's definitely an interesting little idea, mixing HP with CP.

Awe, I'm blushing now.

I will, have you checked out EXTRAS yet?

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

Gossip needs met, check.

I'd much prefer it if you bought me a G&T or a rum and coke, but I'd take the beer regardless.

When Fleur finds out about the fire hands she most certainly will.

Let's face it, everyone will be jealous of Ben when they finally get together.

And, if I'm timing this properly, then it'll be happening in around 2 or 3 chapters at most!

 **(X) Review (X)**

wow-im-satan;

DAMN YOU!

Do you know how close you were, no... I have to do this.

Ok, I've messaged you so that you can be the 666th reviewer!

Because with your username you have to be, that's why!

Anyway, the actual reviews now.

Yep, Rita deserved everything she got and more.

Damn it, so close.

You were almost 666th review.

Gucci keeps trying to catch up with me!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Yep, I'm glad that you enjoyed it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Guest;

Yes, I am fabulous.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Sabriel Orion;

Like the title says, wave bye-bye to the beetle.

Just wait for the EXTRAS chapter, I think you'll agree with some things.

Yeah, unfortunately, I was only a festive worker, my contract expired on the second.

Coffee is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

 **(X) Review (X)**

joshua. obryan. 549;

Do you know how annoying your name is to type responses to?

Rita has most certainly bugged out of life.

I didn't put her in a roach motel, no.

But that would have been a pretty good case of irony.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Yuki-no-HIme (Guest);

Welcome!

I'm glad that you like both this story and the EXTRAS!

I think there is a lot of potential for crossovers and I think that I'll have a lot of content to upload for a long time.

I do have an EXTRAS chapter planned where Isaac meets the original canon Harry, but I'm going to be uploading before it.

Though, it will be a very long time before I start that.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Embersprite;

I'm glad you liked it.

The Slender-woods have been a little forgotten, yeah, but The Mansion is located in a very far corner of the Slender-woods, maybe even the centre.

Rita has reached the end of the line, and been booted out of life.

Don't apologise for insanity, insanity makes the walnut go BATMAN!

Well... that's a food combo... okay then.

Erm... ok...

So... here's my thought process when thinking this.

'Ok, this seems like an interesting idea for an EXTRAS chapter'

'... ok, that's a little grim'

'What?

Suuuuuuure... it's the radishes...

Well... probably.

I have no plan to ever stop writing... unless death occurs.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic writer;

I wasn't bready for that pun!

I will admit to a small crush on Karl, he just seems like such a cool guy to hang out with.

Crashing and burning, while emotionally and physically exhausting, actually sounds fairly fun to do right now... yee...

I do recommend them, Fear and Delight is my fave.

Oh Christ, tell me that those dumbasses got in trouble with the police.

I do enjoy a good boning... oh, wait... deboning... yeah, that too.

Toby twitches would definitely cause a double-take at the least.

But the men in white are watching you.

I love hearing creepy versions of songs.

I actually have a sort of similar story.

I was alone in my house, it was late at night. I went to the kitchen to get a drink since I was one thirsty boi and as I was stood there, not moving except to raise my hand to drink, something behind me creaked and whistled.

Now... my first reaction was to think, "Shit, I'm the first five minutes of Supernatural!"

I leapt across the kitchen and grabbed the salt shaker and may or may not have emptied somewhere from half to a third by shaking it around the air around me.

I feel disappointed in my writing now.

I've got a scaredy cat reading this, I need to do more stuff from the victim's P.O.V.

Well, send me the link to whatever you put out there.

I love Rita's punishment as well, you'll see what happened next week!

I'm writing a new EXTRAS chapter that's going to be a little different but I think everyone's going to like it, and it will have a bit on actor Toby.

Hope the chapter was epic enough for you.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Phoenix373;

Well... have you considered its whiplash from my awesome writing?

 **(X) Review (X)**

YingYangWriter;

I can't remember, and I can't be bothered to go back and check, I'm very sleep deprived again.

I loved writing Rita's demise.

I loved having Toby mess with Rita's head for a bit, just wait for the next EXTRAS chapter for the reasons why he was such a convincing actor.

Sully... well, I'm not going to that area of writing just yet...

Well, duh. (In regards to 'creative sadists')

It's no prob, after that one from FANactic I was a little tuckered out for a bit.

Ooh, how was skiing? I prefer snowboarding.

My body asks me that as well at times.

 **(X) Review (X)**

And that's all the reviews I've gotten... wonder where some of the earlier reviewers are...

TheMarpasChappers, where you at?

Ender the multiverse Detective, where you at?

Kurokitsune666, where you at?

And the one who had a few existential crises and threw me for a loop because I thought I was missing reviews?

Where are my OG crowd at?

'lonely Steamgeek01 noises'

Oh well, I've got everyone else until their return.

And you all have to wait until next week to learn what I've done to Rita and who's turned up.

Hope you enjoyed,

Steamgeek01.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	68. Chapter 68, The Final Task PT1

Chapter 68, The Final Task PT1.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

And we're here!

So... I am gonna have a bunch of fun with this...

What to do... what to change... what to keep the same...

I dunno, I've just opened the word doc to write this.

But, I've got a chapter to write, but I've also got some reviews to answer, and there's one more thing that I'm slightly giddy about.

At this moment, the morning after uploading chapter 67, the total views is at 97,297!

We are at the final stretch before 100,000 views!

So... I feel like I should get another EXTRAS chapter ready for that milestone, Y'all agree?

Anyway, time to procrastinate is over, enjoy the story,

SteamGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

Isaac followed Professor McGonagall down the rows of tables.

For a moment Isaac thought that he was being taken to the head table, but Professor McGonagall led him to the door that he had gone through the night of the selection.

"In you go," Professor McGonagall had an... odd expression on her face, as if she was trying not to smile, "And I want any damage kept to a minimum,"

With that, she left Isaac standing at the door.

After shaking his head in confusion, Isaac went through the doors and down the stairs.

"... no, it's 'Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, both Yemen's, Kuwait, and Bahrain,' then it goes onto 'the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Portugal, France, England, Denmark, and Spain',"

"Oh, yeah, I thought it went 'Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, both Yemen's, Bahrain, and Kuwait', then going to, ' the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium' and so on, and so on,"

Isaac froze at the bottom of the stairs, fighting the urge to laugh.

Toby was leaning against the fireplace, chatting idly to Eyeless Jack, glamoured so that nobody realised there was a cannibalistic demon in the room, all while Smile was sat on the floor, looking irreparably bored.

Smile's ears perked up and he let out a loud bark when he saw Isaac, shaking a little on the floor as if he wanted to run over to him... E.J must have bribed him with two packs of sausages to act like a normal guide dog.

The two of them paused in their conversation to look down at Smile, and then up to where Isaac was stood.

By that point, Isaac had practically covered most of the distance in the room and was already jumping over to them.

Toby caught him, resisting the urge to spin as he'd probably hit something, and the two of them laughed.

"What are you doing here?" Isaac asked once Toby had let him go, "What are you both... what?"

"Apparently, the family of the participating champion can come to visit so they can watch the final task," Toby said, trying not to laugh, "So, I opened the invitation to those that wanted to come down and...

L.J was busy handling backlogs, Sally's a little too young for this kind of thing, so Jeff and Clockwork stayed behind to watch her, Jane... you can guess why she isn't here, Liu and the Doc stayed behind to make sure Jane didn't cause too much trouble, Helen and Teer are in Cuba..." Toby trailed off, trying to remember who else there was.

"Masky and Hoodie are in town, two people maximum to come to the castle, and Ben's got work to do, but he'll be in touch soon enough," Jack picked up, a smirk on his face.

Isaac crouched down to rub Smile's fur after the big dog jumped up a little to get his attention.

"So, the task isn't until this afternoon, what do you want to do until then?" Toby asked while Jack had a devious smile on his face.

"Well, I'd like to finish my lunch, so how about we go back to my house table?" Isaac offered.

"Food is good, and we'll get to find out what mayhem you've been up to," Toby said, patting him on the back.

"Give me a hand, Smile doesn't exactly have the best track record with uneven cobble floors," Jack said, holding a hand out to Isaac.

Toby reached down to pick up the bag they had brought with them as they made their way out of the room.

"Hold on," Jack said, before turning to face a spot near where Viktor was talking to a couple, who must have been his parents.

"Tova e grubo da se govori za "nepochteni ne-mag'osnitsi," zad gŭrba si," he said. (1)

Viktor and the father turned away to hide their laughs at the rapidly paling mother.

"Priyaten den," Jack said with a wide grin before tapping Isaac twice on the shoulder to get him to lead on. (2)

"What did you say to them?" Toby asked as they made their way up the stairs.

"Doesn't matter, heard worse from worse," Jack shrugged.

When they came to the top of the door Smile started shaking.

"Relax, I'm sure you can mooch off some kid," Jack grumbled, "Right, let's get this over with,"

Once Toby had walked through the door a few heads turned to look their way, then things got a little quieter when they saw Isaac helping someone else through the door.

"Right, steps just ahead," Isaac said, helping Jack down them.

"Stop smiling, you look like you're enjoying this too much," Jack whispered, a small grin on his lips.

"I'm just so happy to see my family again," Isaac said, "Regardless of any... problems that they might have,"

"Oh yeah, well I'll show you problems," Jack didn't bother hiding his grin now, "Right, lead the way, eye-boy,"

"Now who's enjoying themselves too much?" Isaac asked as he led Jack after Toby.

"I'm just happy to see my family again, well... not see, but you get the picture," Jack squeezed Isaac's shoulder, hitting a little pressure point so he jumped.

"I recognise that hair," Toby said, interrupting the squabbling, "Long time, no see, Hermione,"

"Oh, is this the brain box?" Jack asked, "I finally get to meet the person that saves me so much hassle,"

Hermione blushed and bowed her head a little.

"Hello," she said meekly.

"Hi, I'm Jack," he reached out slowly.

"Hermione," she clasped his hand before he knocked something over, "It's nice to meet you,"

"It's nice to meet you too," Jack said, letting Isaac guide him to his seat, "Sit,"

Smile bumped against him while sitting down, causing his arm to bump against the table.

"So, what's been going on in the grand ol' castle of dull?" Toby asked, looking around the Great Hall, "How've your classes been going, anything interesting happen, or how about some good old fashioned gossip?"

"Well, there was someone who messed with a few things in the Gryffindor tower," Isaac started, resuming his waffle.

"Now who would do such a thing?" Toby asked, scoffing in mock disgust before pulling a can of spray cheese out his bag and putting a little on a cracker he had taken from a bowl in front of him.

"I know so disrespectful," Isaac agreed, taking an identical can of spray cheese out his bag.

As the two of them ate their crackers Toby turned to Isaac with a thoughtful look on his face.

"You alright?" he asked him, swallowing the rest of the cracker, "You look a little pale,"

"Getting over a cold," Isaac muttered, "I was bound to get one one of these days,"

Toby hummed in agreement before diving back into the bag and pulling out a small paper packet a few moments later.

He handed it to Isaac with a satisfied look on his face as he watched him unwrap it.

Inside was something on a black chord... something amber...

"Found that in a rather nifty little store," Toby said, nicking a bit of waffle off his plate, "And for the price I paid, it better be real amber,"

Isaac pulled the chord out and looked at the attached item.

A rounded bauble of amber holding a beetle dangled freely from the chord.

"Oh, cool," Isaac said, undoing the clip and re-attaching it around his neck so the amber-caged beetle sat against his chest.

"Y'know what we have to do now, though?" Jack asked, before breaking off in a familiar tune.

"Oh, yes, we'll spare no expense," Toby laughed.

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Albus Dumbledore watched at the head table as Isaac laughed alongside the two visitors.

He had planned to have Minerva tell the boy that there was an unfortunate problem with getting any foreign visitors from the states in to visit, but she had already sent letters off to the boy's guardians inviting them to the castle.

Before anyone could notice the brief glare he had directed at the trio, plus their dog, he directed his gaze back down to his soup.

His plans seemed to be falling apart faster than he could salvage them... it seemed that he would have to implement one of his last chance back-up plans...

Dumbledore started to eat a little faster.

He wouldn't have much time to ensure that this plan would succeed, and he wouldn't have enough time after the final task of the tournament, so he would have to prepare everything before the tournament ended.

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At some point during lunch, Draco and Blaise had come over to see what the excitement was all about.

And that's when Jack started being evil.

A little while into the conversations about how things had gone in the past two tasks, which left Jack wondering what the odd change in Isaac's speech pattern was, he made a polite offer to one of the twins.

"Would you like a sweet?" Jack offered kindly, "I'm going to ruin my appetite if I have anymore,"

"Sure," George shrugged.

Jack grinned in the direction of the twin and took off the dark-tinted glasses that he wore as part of his 'blind teenager' disguise.

"There you go, take one," Jack said with a grin.

While the glamour prevented anyone from seeing what he really looked like, he had to these plugs he had made so that none of the goop spilt out over his face.

The added benefit of those cups was that, since they were hollow, he could use them to hold something small... like a few sweets...

But what he really loved about putting things in there was the disgusted looks on people's faces when he offered them some literal eye candy... though, L.J had the _really_ literal eye candy.

George took a few moments to comprehend what was happening before he shook his head and declined the offer.

"Come on, have a sweet," Jack hissed in laughter, "Take one, how many times are you going to be able to say you've taken something out of someone's eye?"

"What's he talking about?" Blaise asked Isaac.

"Have some candy," Jack said, leaning towards where he had heard Blaise speak, grinning wide and letting them see the few sweets he had stored in the holes.

Needless to say, there was a thump that was felt along the table as Blaise nearly jumped out of his seat.

The rest of lunch passed with little more mischief, aside from Smile mooching some sausages off of a group of first years who were sitting on the table next to them.

"Right, we've got the day until the task comes around, wanna show us around?" Toby suggested.

"Oh, I can't wait to _see_ what there is to do here... oh, wait," Jack said dryly, taking a sip of 'tea' from the thermos that Toby had provided him with.

They had gotten away with hiding what it really was by having Jack claim it as 'medicine' he needed for a condition he suffered due to having lost his sight.

"Well, might as well go stretch our legs, Smile might need to relieve himself," Jack said, following the leash until he got to Smile, "... ok, who gave him hot dogs?"

After taking Smile outside Isaac took them along a few corridors that might have interested them along the way to the Gryffindor tower.

"This place had better be worth it," Jack muttered, he was still annoyed over the false step they went passed earlier on their way up.

"The view is, but I mostly want to take the chance to mess around with Ron's stuff some more," Isaac said, grinning even though he knew that Jack couldn't let on that he knew that he was grinning. ++

"It's nice to just be able to _talk_ to you again," Toby said, putting his arm around Isaac's shoulders in a one-armed hug, "I can't imagine what being _alone_ by our standards can feel like,"

Isaac nodded before turning to face the portrait of a lady wearing pink satin robes and looking at them with an extremely disapproving look.

"I thought that you were aware of the rules?" the fat lady sniffed, "A cat or an owl or a toad, and I don't recall _dogs_ being on that list,"

"Who's the bitch complaining?" Jack asked.

Even through the poor excuse of sight that he had, he couldn't see anyone other than them there.

"Door guard," Isaac said, "Portrait covers the entrance, say the password to be let in,"

"The picture is talking," Toby said, and Jack wondered if Toby had snuck anything from Masky's stores.

"What do you mean the picture is talking?" Jack asked, ignoring the indignant huff from what must have been the picture.

"The pictures on the walls are apparently alive," Toby said, "And I do not pity their existence one bit,"

"You must be the bogeyman to them," Isaac said, nodding to the portraits on the wall, "I don't think people made of paint on paper would want to be around a serial pyromaniac,"

"Do you think I can't hear you?" the fat lady asked shrilly.

"Do you think we care after you mocked our friend?" Toby asked.

"Perhaps a better question was why she thought she needed to tell off a 'blind person' for having a guide dog," Jack asked, more icy than the cubes in the juice that morning.

Jack took that moment to scratch his head, shifting the glasses so that they were off his face for a moment.

An odd choking noise came from the portrait as she swung open.

"You enjoyed doing that, didn't you?" Isaac asked Jack once they were in the common room.

"I love making morons feel uncomfortable," Jack replied, tilting his head as if listening for anyone else there, "We alone?"

"Yep, nobody's here, must still be down at lunch," Isaac said.

"Alright, please tell me that you saw what I did?" Toby asked Isaac, glancing at the back of the portrait they had come through.

"Portrait guy, green hat?" Isaac asked, receiving a nod from Toby, "Yeah, he follows me around sometimes, think he's star-struck,"

Toby sighed.

"As much as I want to hope it's that, have you spoken to it?" Toby asked, "Cause it seems like he's tailing you,"

"I know, and if I pretend that I haven't noticed, then we can do the thing," Isaac nodded.

"What thing?" Jack asked.

"Well... there's a corridor with a few empty portraits, just scenery, and if he were to stop in one while I'm tying my laces... and Fizz just so happened to knock it off the wall... and that when it fell it somehow just... combust from that little black box that I totally didn't get from Toby, then he would be stuck in that burning picture, unable to get out," Isaac finally took a breath, grinning wide and looking far too innocent.

Jack and Toby shared a quick glance, Smile flicking his tail at Isaac's leg to get attention.

"How long have you had that planned?" Jack asked.

"Few weeks, just been learning how far away he'll stop from me," Isaac said, stroking Fizz's back when he climbed out from his little napping spot in his shirt pocket and up onto his shoulder.

When Fizz noticed that Smile was there with them, he scurried down to settle on Smile's head and started resting on the warm fur.

"Right, it's nice to know you've got something planned, but how are you gonna get past the fact that a bunch of portraits would probably see you?" Jack asked.

"I... may have a thing..." Isaac said, "Come on,"

Isaac led them up to the dorm room and crouched down at his trunk.

"Thanks," Toby said when Isaac passed him a bag of marshmallows, taking one and popping it in his mouth.

"Can you spread a few on Ron's bed?" Isaac asked him as he looked for something else, "They're the ones that fell in a puddle when we were packing up,"

Toby looked down at the bag, still slowly chewing.

"No prob," he muttered before dragging back Ron's duvet covers and spreading a few out.

Isaac let his trunk slam back down and stood up, a shimmering cloak in his hands.

"So... you know how Slendy said not to let everyone mess around with any magical stuff I had if it could cause problems?" Isaac shook the cloak open, "Well... this thing used to belong to James Potter, I was given it in my first year and I thought the best way to not let anyone fuck around with it would be to not tell anyone that didn't ask about it,"

Toby looked down at the shimmering cloak.

"And what is it?" he asked.

"Watch," Isaac said as he spun the cloak around, pulling it over his shoulders.

A few seconds later he had disappeared completely from sight for Toby.

"Woah," Toby said, letting the bag of muddied marshmallows fall out of his hands.

"What's so special about it?" Jack shrugged.

Isaac and Toby turned to look at him.

"You can... you can see him?" Toby asked, stunned.

"Standing there with that weird coat thing? Yeah," Jack said, not getting what the big deal was.

"Erm... Jack, can you... maybe take a look with... normal vision..." Isaac said.

Jack sighed but did as he was asked.

"What the hell?" he asked, swapping vision from what he normally had and what everyone else saw.

"You can see me under the cloak... ok, that's good to know," Isaac nodded, "Invisibility cloak, works on everything, except cannibalistic demons,"

Smile let out a low bark, looking Isaac in the eyes even when he took a few steps to the side.

"... and demon dogs,"

Smile shook to get rid of the tickling sensation on his fur, that had turned out to be Fizz climbing back down to go back to Isaac.

"Right, let's get these roasted and head out before anyone realises that we wasted marshmallows," Toby said, pulling out a box of matches as Isaac took the cloak off

It took Toby and Isaac working in tandem to get all the marshmallows into a goopy mess all over the bed sheet, and under the pillow, before they pulled the duvet back over to hide their mischief.

As they descended from the tower that portrait of the man in the green hat was still following them.

"There's actually something else I wanna show you guys before we go to Hagrid's," Isaac said, ducking them down a side corridor.

As he spoke, Jack noticed something small zip down Isaac's leg and run ahead of them.

"Apparently there's a pretty cool looking trap in one of these portraits, I haven't found it yet, though," Isaac said, looking in the pictures.

"Really?" Toby asked, looking around to check where their tail was, "Beartrap, deer, moose, booby trap, what kind?"

"Well, I asked the twins and they called it an 'idiot trap'," Isaac said, "I found the picture with it, but I can't remember which one it was... maybe this one,"

Isaac stopped them in front of a picture that held a few trees swaying in the breeze.

The man with the green hat stopped a few pictures away, far enough so that he could still keep an eye on the Potter boy and his 'family' but not get seen.

"Or maybe it was this one..." the Potter boy said, turning to look at one on the other side of the room.

As he leant forward to see where the boy was looking he felt the world tilt away.

Before he knew it, something had pushed the picture away from the wall, trapping him in that picture.

"No, it was that one," he heard the Potter boy say before casting a silencing charm.

"Yep, definitely an idiot trap," one of his companions said, the one with the slightly greyed skin, not the deformed one with the dog.

The canvas rippled as something hit the back of it and soon a burning sensation seared through him.

Thanks to the silencing charm, no sound could be heard save for the soft crackles of the steadily building fire.

"Give me a hand," the Potter boy said and for a moment the man was able to see the ground as he pressed himself into the furthest corner away from the flames.

He hoped for a moment that as they moved him he'd be able to jump into another portrait so that he could escape, tell Dumbledore what had happened so that he could finally bring the brat back under his control, but that chance never came as he was thrown out the window.

The frame cracked on impact, crumpling over itself, and giving the flames shorter to travel to slowly burn every last piece of canvas into ash.

"Well, that was fairly easy," Isaac clapped his hands to get rid of the dust that had built up on the frame that had, in turn, stuck to him.

"Yeah, and now I'm happily disappointed," Toby shrugged, "Would have thought there'd be some sort of jiggery-pokery to make it harder to burn the paintings,"

"Yeah, logic is apparently a foreign concept to them," Isaac agreed.

They stood there, watching the burning frame for a few moments before deciding that if they were caught here then it would be fairly hard to explain what they were doing.

"So... Hagrid?" Toby suggested.

After murmurs of, "Yeah, sure, why not?" the group made their way down the flights of stairs back to the entrance hall.

As they made it to the final flight of stairs they had to move to the side for the next lot of students making their way up the stairs to the classrooms used for the exams.

A passing Hermione and Blaise told them that it was for Ancient Runes.

"Oh, shame, I was actually kinda looking forward to doing that one," Isaac muttered.

"Really?" Toby asked, "You looked forward to an exam?"

"Isn't that the one where you just draw stuff that does stuff?" Jack asked.

"Yep," Isaac nodded as they waited for the last of the students to move past, a few first and second years stopped to ask if they could pet Smile, "Draw a few runes for the first half, translate a few sentences for the second, would have been one of the easier ones,"

"Sounds easy," Toby shrugged.

Hagrid was more than happy to let them come in for a cup of tea, as he didn't have a class at the moment, and let Smile have a run around the paddock next to his house with Fang.

"Yeh know... he reminds me of this dog I saw in Hogsmeade a few years ago," Hagrid nodded to the window when Smile jumped past, "'Cept the fur on his stomach was red, funny little thing,"

Toby and Isaac shared a quick glance while Jack kept a stony face and said, "Oh really? How interesting..."

As Hagrid shook his head, muttering about daft little things like that, a thought came to Isaac.

"Hey, Hagrid, how's Fluffy doing?" Isaac asked.

He hadn't seen the big dog since his first year, and he wanted to quiz Hagrid on a few suspicions he had.

"Fluffy's been doing fine," Hagrid said, "Dumbledore had her moved to this sanctuary in Greece, or there abouts... heard there was a little trouble with something goin' around the place and killin' folks a few months later, but that all seemed to calm down,"

"Cool, so I was wondering what would happen if Fluffy had puppies with another dog?" Isaac asked.

Hagrid laughed, nearly falling off the table.

"Firs' you'd need another Cerebus to do that with her, though...

If she was shrunk, she has to be to make travel easier for her handlers, then she might be able to with a normal sized dog..." Hagrid scratched his bear as he thought, "Though Cerebus' only have one pup per litter, and chances are that the pup would probably have a few problems..."

"Like a second head?" Toby asked.

"Possibly..." Hagrid picked up his bucket-sized cup of tea and took a long swig, "Possibly..."

Hagrid seemed too distracted with the idea of Fluffy having puppies to hear anything else that they said so they left him there in his contemplation.

"Well, that was a good way to waste... fifteen minutes?" Toby guessed as he still hadn't replaced the battery in his watch.

"Yeah," Jack sighed, "So, what else is there to do?"

"Erm... I could show you the..." Isaac broke off as a group of Hufflepuff's and Ravenclaws going to a different greenhouse for a different part of their Herbology exam passed them.

Once they were gone Isaac looked around for anyone else before continuing.

"Chamber of Secrets?"

"Oh, isn't that the place where you nearly died to that fuck off snake?" Toby asked.

"... maybe..."

The chamber was, as usual, just as Isaac left it.

Considering he was supposed to be the only one able to get in there, that was a bit of comfort.

"This place looks more mysterious and exciting than the actual school," Toby complained, "Why does a cave look more magical than the magic school?"

"What would you expect the school to look like?" Isaac asked him.

"The candles would be floating balls of blue fire, maybe make the supports a little more gothic in design, keep the pictures and moving stairs, a moat, because what castle doesn't have a moat? And maybe dust every so often," Toby started listing off.

A barking from somewhere ahead of them stopped Toby's ramble and the three of them turned to look at Smile as he padded back... a large bone in his mouth.

"And he's found the basilisk," Isaac said.

Toby whistled at the skeletal remains of the king of serpents lying there.

"Hey, what did you think of your Christmas gift?" Isaac asked as his eyes fell on the lower jaw of the skeleton.

"Pretty cool," Toby said, fishing out something white on a chord around his neck.

"Well, there's the source," Isaac nodded to the basilisk.

Toby looked at the tooth on the chord around his neck then to the skeleton.

"This has gotten several times more cooler than it was before," Toby said.

"So, since I told you where the tooth came from, answer me this... where'd the beetle come from?" Isaac asked him, picking up the amber-encased beetle around his neck, "Because apparently, that bitch of a reporter could turn herself into a beetle,"

Toby sighed and placed a hand on Isaac's shoulder.

"I plead the fifth,"

"Come on!" Isaac most certainly did not whine, "I wanted to go kill her this summer,"

"You could've mentioned that," Toby said, "We'd have recorded it,"

Sooner than Isaac would have expected, the final task rolled around and soon he was standing in front of the rest of the school.

Toby was sitting in the stands next to Hermione and the others, while Jack winced a little at the explosion of noise, as everyone roared in applause for the champions reaching the final task, even Smile let out a long howl that lasted longer than most of the clapping.

"Welcome to the final task of the Triwizard Tournament!" Dumbledore declared to the crowd, causing a few more smatterings of applause.

Isaac rolled his eyes as Dumbledore thanked the students, champions, Ministry, and the other school heads for helping make the return of the tournament the success that it was.

The last scores were announced, Toby's whistle at when his own giving Isaac a happy little smirk on his face, before what the final task was.

"Somewhere deep inside the maze before us, Professor Moody has placed the Triwizard cup.

Our champions will have to not only navigate the maze, but battle and defeat any of the obstacles in their way..."

Isaac zoned out a little as Dumbledore went on and adjusted the strap of his harness so it lay a little comfier.

A cannon blasted, jump-starting his attention, and he watched Cedric take off into the maze.

"You're after Krum," Moody grunted, causing Isaac to wonder when the man had gotten there.

The cannon went off a few seconds later and Krum stalked into the maze.

Isaac exchanged one last nod of luck with Toby as the cannon went off for the third time and he took off running into the maze.

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Endnotes.

(1) "It's rude to talk about 'dishonourable non-wizards' behind their backs,"

(2) "Have a lovely day,"

++ That's a sentence that makes sense... right?

Ok, so the view count just before uploading is at 99,671...

Meaning that once this chapter goes up I will have broken 100,000 total views!

And I am so sorry that I didn't have the actual task this chapter.

I had a lot of things happen this week, plus a bit more writer's block, and I was still writing this a few minutes before uploading.

I'd wanted to have it so this was the chapter that had the task, but time got the better of me and I made a choice.

You get Isaac hanging with Toby this chapter, and I get an entire week dedicated to making the third task the way it should be with a Creepypasta raised Harry Potter running around.

So tell me what you want to be changed, what you think should remain, and I'll be sure to put it in. Consider that my apology for it not being this week.

And I'm going to pretend that I put a clever segway into the reviews here.

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

Sirius doesn't know what the thing Isaac's hiding about the second task is, he could maybe slip up and tell them that Isaac is hiding _something_ , but he wouldn't know what the actual secret is.

I'm glad that you liked the chapter, hope that the pain is gone.

Well... yeah, that seems like a good idea, doing that soon.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Wingzero512;

Yeah, thank you for the suggestions.

I did not think to check google translate, and the only thing I've ever seen of One Piece is that transgender queen in charge of the mini-hell.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Phoenix373;

Well, that tiny shred of my ego was wrong... your idea sounds better.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

And another 'Jesus...'

I don't mind long reviews, keep pouring out every thought.

The more I have to go on for things to improve, the better.

Well, here's to our bodies not being able to support themselves.

'raises a glass of Gin'

Kind of close to a paperweight, what did you think?

Yep, some Creeps at Hogwarts, what could go wrong?

That doesn't explain the reference!

I hate being sick over the holidays as well.

I love all the things people do with how oblivious Harry can be in their stories.

Fred is going to have a bit more to do in the future.

I'm considering what to do with Colin, there's probably some potential for him somewhere... kinda like Jay from Marble Hornets. Knows something is out there and wants answers, especially since his idol is involved.

I bet you £20 that it was a man that named the 'Horny Toads'.

It's not sexist, I'm a dude, and I know for a fact that a majority of us are a bunch of dipshits.

I don't have a thing against gay characters, would be extremely hypocritical of me to do so, it's just... I don't know how to properly word it... most of the ships so far have been same sex, and while it is nice to see representation, it's also a cliche somewhere for fanfiction.

I probably forgot to send you the message, I'll have to check what it was.

He will, don't you... well... if I wrote enough, then he did... I hate tenses.

Yep, blame Jeff.

I know that I know the melody, I just can't place it.

I'm gonna punch a hole in the wall when I figure it out.

I really want to try insect candy, going to order over those tarantula's that Mini ate as a challenge... maybe chocolate will make them taste nice.

Definitely know about it now, he's not planning to return, so why should he care what people know?

I'll probably utilise flaming marshmallows at some point, whether irl or in the story.

Ron has practically put a hit out on himself at this point.

L.J will always supply any prank endeavour.

I just really like the image of 200 + zombie children trying to be stealthy.

Ron could probably starve if he was locked inside a superstore.

I really need to use that name at some point, like... I will start carrying a packet of glitter around just to say 'anti-magic slut dust' or 'magic anti-slut dust' then throw it at a bitch.

Everyone's favourite tool for letting those two talk is back.

I love BRVR interrupting them, he's like a cat with terrible timing.

Not a second case from drowning...

Jane did get off easy, I've probably said this in an earlier chapter, but Jane snapped that little bit further than Jeff. That's why she's so... volatile.

Sirius was going to make a comeback at some point.

Of course a few Creeps would be coming up, why would I pass up an opportunity for them to get there?

Hermione guarded them, as you can tell.

AWWW!

They sound so cute!

I hope your kitty ends up being a sassy kitty.

 **(X) Review (X)**

joshua .obryan .549;

Not roach motel... I wish I had done that at some point, I might re-write part of the chapter to involve that, it's too ironically beautiful to pass up.

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

I love Werewolf as well, I do have a habit of thinking of ways to come back to it, especially now since I've got to change a little to reference CHAOS.

It just made sense in the context of the story, plus everyone seemed to like them, my dorky ass included.

Well... fluff and torture, y'know, the usual stuff for fanfics.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

You will wait, HA!

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Everyone sings that song, it's too addictive.

Yeah, I didn't either until I found it when channel surfing.

Eurgh, take it there was a lot of disinfectant spraying done?

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

I think I'll leave Victor ambiguous, since it isn't too central to the story.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Thank you!

I might have him kill a few pests from Hogwarts at some point, or how about an EXTRAS chapter dedicated to the disposal of the irritating?

I hope this met your expectations.

Yeah... I have no idea what happened there either... wanna borrow a straight jacket?

Happy New Year! I had a wonderful weekend.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

I don't know, maybe, those guys did a lot... loved that ending.

Fleur did notice, but I don't think she'll get a chance to discuss it.

More like 1 or 2 now...

torture time!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt the Hedgehog Android;

Yes, he was very pissed off.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Honebar;

Long time, no write?

Where have you been?

Ben probably is to blame.

You are kinda on the right track.

What did you think of his reaction?

I hope the chilli turned out well.

Spicy enough to make Toby say he needs some milk!

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

I want to hear more about their drunken rambles, I've been watching the 'uncut' videos more.

Yeah, but it's sleep, so...

Any order, up to you.

Well, it's nice to hear that you're alright.

Sounds like your uncle and dad were pretty smart.

I think the most I get is a neck twinge every so often, I hope things get better

That end bit makes it sound like you're learning how to be a secret agent.

Let them know we know about what?

Same.

Your mom sounds fun.

Paranoia gets to me a lot, not so handy when you're prone to late nights and get thirsty a lot.

It depends on my mood whether or not I want to watch horror, but I do like a good slasher.

I might check your stuff out sometime.

I think I should have one of them call a knife or gun 'Suspense' at some point.

I torture you because it's fun and I'm an evil bastard.

 **(X) Review (X)**

NightSong02 (Guest);

Well, what's better than reading all 67 chapters, now 68, in one go?

Doing exactly that, but with cake and hot chocolate... unless you're lactose intolerant (me)...

THANK YOU!

I do have to disagree with one thing, there are a few cringe parts here and there, and there most certainly is torturous things happening... just... not in the writing style...

I'm 50/50 with Ron, I can read fics with him as either nice or bad with ease, it's a testament to Rowling's work that you can have so many of these subtle nuances of how they could have gone either way.

My OCD is a little peeved since George isn't a Proxy like Fred, and I might change that in the future... or keep it like this and have it remain a little thing to set this story apart since most people who write stuff about the twins have them go through the same stuff, and not only have one of them go through it.

I've been debating uploading to sites like WattPad and AO3 as well, it would take some doing to go through all the chapters, download them all since I did a little editing here and there on the site that hasn't been done to the files on my laptop, and then fix things up a bit so they can be uploaded to A03.

It would be a little easier to put who appears in the story and a better disclaimer in the tags... maybe, definitely maybe.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Zebralord23;

WELCOME!

I'd remember a name like that if they ever left a review before.

I so wanted to get a Ben shirt when they were on sale, but I missed it.

Did get the, "Stop it, I'm... BEES!" shirt though.

I'm glad you like the story, if people keep coming then I'm doing something right.

Chapter length was a worry since I used to write them a little longer, plus they seemed longer back when the responses were at the top.

I'll be sure to do my very best.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YingYangWriter;

It is hilariously adorable that Ron thinks he can keep up with Isaac.

Apparently, cheese spray is a thing in America or cheese in a can.

I can't have cheese anymore, recently found out that I'm lactose intolerant.

I hope the third task will be worth the wait

Ooh, story time!

... yeah... cool, take it that it was a biology class... cool... hehehehe... that's funny...

I might write an alternate punishment where they keep her alive as a pet for a while, that might be interesting.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Ok, that was the last review I got for last chapter.

I hope that you've all enjoyed this chapter.

Next week... well, you know what's happening... and if I've got the timeline planned out, then, from after this chapter, there will be one chapter before you finally get DigitalMagic.

But, until then, I hope you've enjoyed, and I hope you enjoy the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	69. Chapter 69, The Final Task PT2

Chapter 69, The Final Task!

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

I see you typing the jokes!

Stop it!

Ignore the chapter number!

BE MATURE!

Anyway, how Y'all doing?

I'm doing as fine as a wine that is divine in the summertime and I bet you all know why...

 **100,000** TOTAL VIEWS!

'plays victory music'

Woohoo!

Another milestone under the belt, let's see where I can go from here.

I think I end up getting around 2000+ views each time I upload a chapter now, so that means I must be doing something really well for people to keep coming back to read each time I upload a chapter since there's 387 of you all... plus any people who don't have an account and have a tab always open that they refresh to see if the story has updated... which is what I did for a story back before I had an account.

The time for the final task is here, and I hope that the wait is worth it.

I explained why I split it up last week in the endnotes but, if you don't read them, it was because I hit another brick wall of writer's block for a good few days and was still finishing the chapter when upload time came.

So, I split it up into two parts.

I get more time dedicated to the actual task, and you get a little fun thing with Isaac and Toby being brothers with a sarcastic cannibal and dog watching them.

And I've got a bunch of reviews to answer so I'm gonna get to those now and stop procrastinating.

Also, thanks for all the suggestions for what to change in the third task.

That was sarcasm, just in case that you couldn't tell.

One last quick thing, I decided to try using Spanish for the faux-spells instead of Latin this time around.

Not really sure why Google Translate had it auto selected to translate into Spanish when I loaded it up so I just went with it... I kinda like using that a little more than Latin now, to be honest.

Anyways, enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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Hogsmeade.

At a table in the corner of a lone tavern, two men were sat.

Talk had started slowly, for one of them, anyway, and the other had always seemed to convey just what was either needed or deserved, with mere facial expression or less than a sentence of twelve spoken words.

Dusk had started to set when the darker haired one put his drink down, looking pensieve out the window.

"Come on," Tim said to his companion, "I don't know what it is, but I don't like this feeling,"

Brian drained the last of his goblet, adjusted his hoody, and got up to follow his friend out, a small pile of golden coins left on the table as a means of payment.

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Hogwarts, an hour earlier.

Isaac could feel the slight chill in the air as he looked back just in time to see the hedges close behind him.

He turned back to face where he was running and found himself less than a foot away from running into a wall.

Spitting out the leaf that had gotten stuck in his mouth, Isaac looked at the two options before him.

Neither option seemed to give any hint to whether or not they led to the cup.

"When in doubt..." Isaac muttered to himself, "... hug the left wall,"

Isaac wondered whether going left was the right idea as the cannon went for the fourth, and probably, final time.

The hedges seemed to tower around him, faint mist rolling through the spaces that coated the ground in a thin layer of milky white wisps.

A small smile crept it's way onto his face as he couldn't help but be reminded of the comfortingly encompassing woodland of his home.

Although, the smile did turn into a mild grimace as he brought up his hand to stifle his cough.

The grimace was, in turn, quickly replaced with a locked jaw as once he rounded a corner he came into a stretch of ground where somebody was stood.

Just as he reached a hand to the knife on his belt the person turned around, and Isaac found that he was facing himself.

Isaac couldn't help but let his jaw drop in confusion for a moment.

"Here we are again," the not him said, "Different place, but you know how this is gonna end,"

Confusion temporarily clouded Isaac's mind for a few seconds more before one of the clone's eyes sunk into nothing, a stream of blood gently trickling out the void.

"Oh... right, hey," Isaac sighed, "Can I just... _not_ deal with this right now?"

The boggart's laugh was grating, like a man choking to death while laughing in uncontrollable hysterics.

A faint shimmer of something akin to shadows seemed to pass through the air behind it like a trail.

"Can you just... _not_ be this?" the boggart gestured to itself with a hand that's veins were slowly turning black, "Can you..."

It stopped speaking to catch the knife that had been thrown at its throat.

"How... rude..." it sneered, "I'd ask if you had been taught any manners, but like those heathens could teach you anything more than to..."

Isaac growled and darted forward, the hunting knife slashing through the air where the boggart had been a mere second before.

He had to dodge himself when the knife the boggart had caught sliced past his ear.

"Will you just accept it!" the boggart roared as Isaac jumped away from him as he swiped for a second time, "I am your end, your final destination..." as it spoke, Isaac brought the knife round to parry it's next attack as it's one remaining eye shifting to a pale yellow, "... nothing you can do will..."

The boggart looked down at the knife sticking out of it's chest before pulling it out and looking at Isaac with a look of irritated boredom, letting the knife fall to the ground.

"You are not my end," Isaac said, whipping out his wand and casting one of the spells that Sirius had given him.

" _Despedidaro!_ "

Isaac raised a hand to cover his mouth from laughing too hard as the boggart was tossed over fifteen feet into the air and out of sight.

After replacing both knives back in the harness Isaac pressed on, feeling a little disappointed with himself at how tired he was already feeling, he'd have to do a little more cardio work to keep in shape if he was feeling tired this early on.

His hand was constantly on the hilt of the hunting knife after the encounter with the boggart, not wanting to be caught unaware by anything else.

A shriek in the distance echoed over the rows of the hedges but Isaac pressed on, wondering if the boggart would change to another's fear or stay as... him...

Isaac was so caught up in his thoughts that he nearly walked into a large cloud of golden mist that hung in the air before him.

Banishing charms did nothing, nor a vacuum spell, and the mist persisted.

Sighing to himself, Isaac took a deep breath and darted forward as fast as he could.

He couldn't help the gasp that escaped him when the world seemed to flip itself around.

Isaac looked...up to the ground...

"Of course, I'm upside down, why wouldn't they have something utterly stupid to..." Isaac broke off, looking at the hedges and the path to try and figure out what to do.

The walls of the hedge maze weren't that far apart, enough space to run without scratching yourself, but definitely not enough space so that he could fully outstretch his arms.

From where he was stood, he could easily jump and grab onto the branches of the hedges so that in the case that the mist did pull him away from the ground he'd not go very far.

Steeling himself by taking in a slow breath, Isaac crouched down and rubbed away any sweat that had built on his hands... the ground made a faint grating noise as the grit under his shoe was pushed back...

Isaac pushed hard against the ground, reaching to grab the hedges... and landed a foot away back on the ground.

He looked around as the mist behind him made no motion to follow, nor did it look like he had ever disturbed it at all.

With a shake of his head, Isaac pressed onward, wondering what other mind games that he'd come across while trying to end this stupid game.

Eventually, Isaac came to a long stretch of a path with three branches that went off to the sides.

He glanced down the first cast off and saw something large that was made of sandstone with a mane of black quartz that seemed to have an aura of 'I will kill anyone that comes near me' hanging in the air around it... of course, the faint shimmer of red on its front paws, and the trail on the ground, added quite a bit to Isaac's decision to pass on by without a second glance.

The second path, however, seemed a little more straight forward.

There was only a long stretch dirt that led to a small space in the middle before continuing on in more narrow paths.

'Huh... that looks like a mini-boss zone in a video game...' Isaac thought to himself, '... next path...'

The third one seemed normal... save for the long, black, and hairy legs of a spider that stood over twelve feet tall and had a white, viscous, ooze dripping from its fangs that slowly fell to the ground in large clumps.

Isaac doubled back to the second path, hunting knife in one hand and wand in the other.

His steps were slow, ready to leap to the side or roll under anything that stood in his way, and his breathing slow and calm.

Once he was halfway through the space, he stopped. He looked around. He sighed.

'Nothing, well... that's a bit of a letdown,' he thought.

As he made to move on Isaac found that he couldn't move his legs.

Looking down, Isaac found that dark green vines had started spreading up his legs, holding him in place.

Now that he thought about it, the hedges here were a lot darker than the other ones and less leafy...

"Oh, shit..." Isaac muttered, trying to remember the name of the stupid plant that he and Hermione had gone up against back in their first year, "Come on... Weevil's Glare... Devil's... Devil's Wares... Devil's Flares... Devil's... screw it," Isaac decided when the plant reached the hem of his shirt.

Isaac put the wand and knife back in the holster before clenching his fists.

A streak of blue fire circled his hands before they were fully engulfed, filling the area around him with shimmering light and warmth.

The plant's tendrils peeled away from his legs with haste, desperate to get away from the fire.

Isaac dropped to the ground and quickly grabbed ahold of a bundle, watching with satisfaction as the flames caused them to whip around in a violent fury.

A creaking noise behind him gave Isaac the heads up he needed to roll out of the way just before a large grouping of the tendrils swung past where his head would have been.

He swung out with the hunting knife, taking off the end of a large number of the tendrils that had sprouted off to try and, presumably, kill him.

Another group slashed towards him for another attack and Isaac instinctively swung a flaming fist in retaliation at the vines.

His eyes went wide as the flames spiralled away from his hand, circling around themselves as they formed into what could almost be called a misshapen ball that barely missed the ivy-like vines before colliding with the hedge wall.

Isaac was sure that if the plant could shriek, then it most certainly would be.

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Back in the stands.

"Hey, Toby..." Jack broke off from making eye-puns at Fred during the forty minutes since the task bad begun to see just how much he could cause Laughing Jack's Proxy to squirm, "... is it just me... or is something burning?"

A low bark from Smile had the two of them look off in the direction of where a plume of smoke was steadily rising from the maze.

"I think I know where Isaac is," Toby said, a proud look on his face as concerned mutterings broke out amongst the other watchers.

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Back in the maze.

Isaac had left the burning plant ambush behind as he continued on, an insanely wide grin on his face.

'Ben is going to freak out when I tell him I did that,' he thought as he twirled the hunting knife.

One of his goals, being able to throw fire with his hands, had finally happened.

True, that when the flames returned to his hand they were a little feebler now, but Isaac hoped that it was just because he had used a bit more power to throw the fireball that it would be dimmer for a little while.

He was so caught up in his own thoughts that when he walked past the stone pedestal which held the Triwizard cup, he merely thought, 'Oh, cool cup,' and proceeded to walk on through the small stone pavilion.

It took until he was halfway down a path that led away from the cup that he realised what he had done and doubled back.

Something seemed... off...

For what was supposed to be the final task of the tournament, he had gotten here fairly quickly... or, at least, it felt like he hadn't been in the maze very long since most of it was just him meandering amongst the hedges and fighting a few things here and there.

He circled the cup, looking for anything that might have suggested that it wasn't the real thing, but he didn't seem to find anything that suggested that it wasn't the actual Triwizard cup.

As he contemplated that, another thought had popped into his head.

"Wait... I've won?" Isaac looked around.

He was the first to reach the cup.

Isaac gave a snort of laughter as he, the least magically trained, the youngest, the unwilling participant, had been the one to reach the cup.

If he wanted to, he could end the tournament right now, get whatever participation medal bullshit they would give him, and then finally be able to leave that world behind...

His hand was barely a couple of inches from the cup when he paused.

A smirk settled on his face as he backed away, sitting down with his back against one of the stone pillars that held the make-shift roof over his head.

In all honesty, he didn't see any point in ending the tournament _just_ yet...

If the other champions hadn't reached here yet, then they were probably duelling something else in the maze... and he wasn't going to ruin their fun so soon.

He stifled a yawn against the back of his hand as he stretched out his legs for a rest.

Isaac felt as if he had barely just gotten comfortable when the sounds of someone yelping in pain, and running fast, reached him.

Getting up with a groan, Isaac looked down the paths until he found what the source of the noise was.

Cedric was limping away from...

"Jesus Christ on a bicycle..." Isaac muttered as he saw a nearly six-foot Blast-Ended Skrewt charge up the path.

Drawing his wand, Isaac called out to Cedric.

"DUCK!"

Cedric looked at him in surprise before flinging himself down a side path, out of the way.

" _Atravesarii_!" Isaac cried, watching as the shimmering dark-silver bolt flew through the air.

The spell hit the Skrewt head on and it's shell cracked open.

It let out a loud squeal of pain as its innards split open with the shell, a large hiss of what smelt like phosphor slowly leaked out from the now still body.

Cedric got up to his feet, shaking a little.

A deep cut across his face sending a thin layer of blood down the side of his head, clotting in his hair.

"How... what in the... what was the spell?" he asked, looking at Isaac with something akin to fear.

"Found it in a book," Isaac shrugged.

Cedric probably wouldn't have reacted too well to being told he had learnt it from a supposedly mass murderer.

"Wait... is that the cup?" Cedric asked, wiping some of the blood away.

Isaac turned to look back at the shiny blue and silver cup.

"Yep," he said, turning around and sitting back down where he was sat before the interruption of the oversized slug of murderous intent.

"Why didn't you take it?" Cedric asked, looking between him and the cup.

Isaac let his head fall back with a sigh.

"One, I wasn't supposed to be competing.

Two, I couldn't care less about the tournament.

Three, if I grab the cup, then the tournament is over and anyone still running around out there would get taken out of the maze, and I wouldn't want to ruin anyone's fun..."

Cedric took a half-step back away from Isaac after he saw the smile that had spread across his face.

"Four, I don't want to win.

And five, whoever takes the trophy now will have to deal with the knowledge that I let them win,"

Cedric looked at the cup before back to Isaac.

"You could have won... you should have..." Cedric took another step back and sat down on the ground opposite Isaac.

"Ok, I know what I'm doing, what are you doing?" Isaac asked him.

"I would have gone down in the first task if you hadn't told me," Cedric said, wiping more blood away, "You deserve to win,"

Isaac sighed again, letting his head fall back with a dull thud onto the pillar.

"I've just given a literal list on why I don't want to win, do you need me to keep on going?" he asked.

"You got here first, you won, whether I take the trophy or not," Cedric said, "You've managed to get through every task, even being the underdog..."

"You told me about holding the egg underwater," Isaac interrupted, "I would have been completely clueless for that task... true, I wouldn't have nearly been drowned by a clusterfuck of Grindylow if you hadn't told me, so y'know... thanks for that,"

Cedric looked at him with a thoughtful look.

"What if we both take it?" he offered, "I have to live knowing that you technically won, you can step aside and say that I won.

It's a win for Hogwarts, and both our houses, and we can pretend that it was down to the last second,"

Isaac fixed Cedric with a thoughtful look.

"Alright, fine then," Isaac said before getting up, dusting his hands off on his trousers, "Let's get this mess over and done with,"

Cedric got to his feet, taking a stand on the other side of the cup.

"Ready?" Cedric asked him, his hand above one of the cup's handles.

"Just grab the thing on three," Isaac said, "One... two... three,"

The two of them grabbed the cup and a distantly familiar tugging at Isaac's naval started as everything spun around them.

Cedric and Isaac were thrown to the ground, the cup flying away from them.

"You alright?" Cedric asked Isaac, helping him sit up after Isaac ended up on all fours and coughing violently.

As Isaac struggled to catch his breath he was vaguely aware of someone shuffling nearby.

Then, a weak hiss of a voice called something that had Isaac quickly grab his wand and handle of the hunting knife.

"Kill the spare,"

" _Avada Kedavra_!" a vaguely familiar voice cried.

The ground and the surrounding area was lit up with a flash of sickening green that streaked from a hunched over man.

A thud nearby had Isaac look over to see the crumpled form of Cedric lying on the ground, and quite dead.

Just as Isaac had gotten to his feet, a streak of silver shot towards him and he quickly found himself back on the ground as he struggled to breathe.

The ground left him as he was picked up before his back was slammed against something that moved to hold him in place.

Isaac was able to slow his breathing enough that he wasn't about to cough up a lung and a rather pitiful realisation dawned upon him.

'I was taken down... by the goddamn tickling charm!' Isaac could have screamed at himself if he wasn't preoccupied with trying to get out of whatever restraints had been put against him.

Aside from what seemed to be a giant stone scythe holding him against a skeletal grave marker, a thick rope had been tied around his torso, pinning his arms to his side.

His wand had been taken, but it seemed that the shuffling mass had left all of his knives in the harness.

Just as Isaac started trying to push one of the knives so it fell into his hand the hiss-like voice spoke again.

"Do it... now!" the raspy voice commanded.

The shuffling man wheezed as he picked up something wrapped tightly in a cloth, carrying it over to a large cauldron.

Isaac held back the urge to retch when he saw the flayed child-like thing that had been previously wrapped in the cloth.

The man dropped the thing into the cauldron, a dull thud signalling that it had hit the bottom.

"B-bone of the f-father, unknowingly g-given... you will resurrect your son," the shuffling man stammered slightly and Isaac was sure that he had heard the voice somewhere before.

The grave below Isaac cracked open and a fine stream of white powder flew out and into the cauldron.

"F-flesh of the s-servant, w-w-willingly sacrificed... you w-will resurrect y-your m-master," the man raised a silver dagger over his hand.

Isaac watched with a curious fascination as the man brought the dagger down upon his wrist.

The man's pained cries echoed around the empty graveyard as he brought the dagger down for a second time, and a third, and a fourth, until the appendage was finally severed from the arm.

Weeping pitifully, the man picked up his hand and dropped it into the cauldron.

Silver sparks were shooting out of the surface, which in turn looked like liquid, black, diamond, as the man wrapped his stub in the folds of his cloak.

The man gulped down his cries as he turned to face Isaac.

'Oh, it's him, it's... what's-his-face... who is he again...'

"Blood of the enemy... forcefully take..."

Pettigrew grabbed Isaac's arm, cutting away part of the shirt so that he had access to Isaac's forearm.

"Take my blood and I will burn your lungs from the inside out..." Isaac spat at the man.

Isaac clenched his teeth, hissing painfully, as the knife was dragged down his skin.

Pettigrew fumbled with a vial from within his robes, pushing it against the gash in Isaac's arm.

The vial filled in seconds before Pettigrew stumbled back to the cauldron as Isaac tried to stem the flow of blood by pressing it against his leg.

"... you will resurrect your foe..."

Pettigrew tipped the entirety of the vial into the cauldron and hurried back.

The cauldron bubbled violently for a few moments before the potion held within evaporated, covering the graveyard in an unnaturally grey mist that lingered for a few seconds.

"Robe me..." a high-pitched voice demanded as someone slowly lifted their arms from the cauldron.

As Isaac watched a tall, bald, and incredibly pale man rise up from within the cauldron he felt something rise within himself that he fought to keep down and focussed on keeping the cut in his arm pressed against his side.

Voldemort had returned.

Isaac watched as the newly resurrected Voldemort did something to Pettigrew...

'That's his name, Pettishrew... Pettigrew...'

... that caused him to howl in pain before he began pacing around the small space in the graveyard, talking about how Isaac was stood on the grave of his muggle father, how he had murdered his father, how the house on the far hill belonged to his father, and all the while, Isaac fought the urge that was building within him.

Suddenly, loud cracks echoed around the graveyard that brought out a startled hiss from the rather large snake that Isaac noticed was slithering around the tombstones.

Voldemort turned to address the black-robed people who had gathered in a circle around them, calling them out on how they had lied to avoid prison and hadn't continued the fight that they had started.

Something that Isaac did feel rather proud of was the fact that Walden Macnair, the man who he had killed back in his third year, was supposed to be standing in one of the many spaces that made up the circle of Death Eaters.

A name that Isaac wasn't surprised by was Lucius Malfoy, but that mostly came from the conversation he had had with Blaise and Draco, also in his third year.

"Now, some of you may be wondering about our... _special guest_ , one could say the guest of honour," Voldemort sneered, "Why so quiet, Potter? Not got anything to say?"

Isaac had been holding the urge in for so long, but now... he couldn't hold it in anymore...

He burst out laughing.

"Oh... my... god..." Isaac managed to wheeze out, "You... you..." another wheeze, "You look like a really good detail artist drew a face on an egg!"

The Death Eaters shared a few confused, and a couple of scared looks with each other.

"It's like someone... you are neon white! I can see the veins on your head, you're that white!" Isaac howled with laughter.

Voldemort seemed taken aback for a moment, before drawing a wand that looked as if it was fashioned out of a bone.

" _Crucio_!"

Isaac let out a quick gasp as the feeling of a thousand razor blades being pulled across his skin simultaneously.

"What's the matter, Potter?" Voldemort sneered, "Not got anything funny to say now?"

Voldemort lifted the curse.

If the statue wasn't holding Isaac up, he felt as if he would have collapsed onto his knees as the coughing fit started again.

"Aah... and shall I tell you all another thing, my dear followers..." Voldemort asked, turning around to face the Death Eaters, "For another member in our ranks has performed a task to aid us in getting Potter here today...

For this follower has been dutifully slipping Potter a little poison for Lord Voldemort... how are you feeling, child?

A little short for breath?"

As Voldemort monologued Isaac had managed to get his breathing under control again, though he knew that he definitely wouldn't be running a marathon anytime soon, he could at least breathe without having to spend a month coughing like a cat with a two-foot wide hairball in its throat.

"I wonder just what has filled your head over the years..." Voldemort regarded Isaac as if he were an attraction at a fair, "For you see, dear Lily Potter's sacrifice is what gave Potter the protection to survive all those years ago.

So all the rumours about him being an exceptionally 'p _owerful_ ' wizard are dirtier than the blood of your common Mudblood... and that very protection now flows within me...

For, you see, before I could not touch you without enduring agony... and now..."

Voldemort triumphantly raised an arm above his head, slowly bringing his thumb to the faint scar on Isaac's forehead.

When contact was made Isaac looked at him with boredom as nothing happened.

Voldemort snarled, turning away with his robes billowing around him.

The next thing Isaac knew, the statue holding him released him and the ropes fell away.

"Pick up your wand, Potter," Voldemort snarled, "I assume you know how to duel?"

"I assume you know I'm going to tell you to drop dead, regardless of whether I'd have a wand or not," Isaac said, picking up his wand and standing up.

 **(X)** Heads up, I made a slight typo in Voldemort's name in the next sentence. I was tempted to fix it, but it made me laugh too much so I left it in, S.G. **(X)**

Voldemorty's lip curled in a sneer.

"You have spirit, you would have gone far if you were to choose to join us," Voldemort gestured to the robed men behind him.

Isaac looked at them before back to the pale man before him.

"Three things...

One, I wouldn't join you morons if it meant unlimited cake.

Two... I'll come back to that one in a moment.

Three, _you_ lot are seriously trying to take over the world?

You are wearing flares, you cannot take over the world with 'Disco-Fever',"

Voldemort's sneer turned into an insulted grimace.

"How dare you..."

"And back to the second thing," Isaac cut across him, "Have any of you noticed something a little... well, funny?

The ' _great_ _Lord_ ' Voldemort is about to not only fight a fourteen-year-old in a duel... but felt the need to poison said opponent so that they could have a better chance at winning," Isaac smirked internally as he looked at the silent Death Eaters, "So, now you know the real reason he would never let me join your little groupie... he feels too threatened by me,"

" _Crucio_!" Voldemort screeched, but Isaac had foreseen the curse and rolled out the way behind a tombstone.

"Do nothing!" Voldemort shouted to his followers, "He is mine to kill,"

Voldemort flicked his wand at the throwing knife that had been thrown his way as Isaac had rolled again, casting a charm to destroy the tombstone, but the boy had already moved on.

" _Grafuegos_ ," Isaac flung the curse at Voldemort as he moved to another tombstone.

Voldemort's eyes went wide as he sent the curse flying off into the house on the hill and a few moments later a window was blown out as an amber glow started spreading across the wall.

" _Girarus_ ," Isaac cast the jinx at Voldemort, making his way to a new spot.

Voldemort just barely managed to block the jinx, casting more destruction charms at the tombstones.

"Stop playing, Potter!" he snarled, "Little tricks and running like a coward seem so unfitting for that first-year I met... what was that advice you gave me?

'Never attack someone who lives with deranged killers'?" Voldemort sneered, rubbing his chest, "Tell me... just how far from the Light has their o' so precious lamb strayed?"

"You really want an answer to that?" Isaac asked after he had calmed his breathing again.

He couldn't keep dodging with whatever poison he had been given affecting his lungs.

Looking around, Isaac noticed a small maintenance shed that stood not too far away... and he recognised the red cannister that was propping open the rotting door.

Isaac slowly got to his feet, walking calmly back towards the clearing.

He had stowed his wand and the hunting knife back in his pocket and harness respectively.

Voldemort seemed mildly surprised at Isaac's boldness.

"Y'know, I can't do much with my arm bleeding like this..." Isaac lifted his bleeding arm.

He raised his other hand and snapped his fingers.

The blue flames, tinted green once more, circled his hand before the entire thing was engulfed in flame and firmly grasped his bleeding forearm.

The Death Eaters let out shocked gasps, even Voldemort's crimson eyes went wide at the sight of what he was doing.

Isaac gritted his teeth through the pain of cauterizing his arm, but he needed to do something to make sure he wouldn't bleed out.

"Now..." Isaac shook his arm before re-drawing his wand, his left hand still aflame, "Where were we?"

"How can you..." Voldemort didn't get to finish his thought as Isaac raised his wand, but he wasn't pointing it at him.

" _Accio_!" Isaac shouted.

A thin sneer appeared on Voldemort's lips as he didn't even feel anything on him budge...

Then he saw the Potter boy cock back his flaming hand as if to punch something.

Isaac gritted his teeth and forced all his might into throwing another fireball at the rapidly approaching jerrycan.

Relief flooded through his system as he watched another shimmering blue and green fireball leave his hand and fly towards the jerrycan.

Just as Voldemort turned to see where the fireball was going he caught sight of the object hurtling towards him.

He was just barely able to cast a shield to protect himself before the two collided in an ear-splitting explosion.

Through the ringing aftermath, he was just able to hear the Potter boy cast the summoning charm another two times.

A hiss of pain escaped Voldemort's lips against his will as the knife Potter had thrown at him before cut his cheek as it was summoned back to his owner.

Out of the corner of his eye, he was able to see what the second item Potter had summoned was.

Isaac stretched out an arm to catch the Triwizard cup as the Death Eaters scrambled for cover from the explosion.

He winced as the world was tugged from his feet once more as the cup took him from the graveyard, the impact of catching the cup had re-opened his quick patch-job on the cut in his arm which was now bleeding freely again.

A different explosion sounded from around him this time, this one an explosion of applause and cheer.

Isaac's knees buckled under him as he landed.

The cup fell from his grasp as he went down, but his vision had already been swamped with darkness and he had lost consciousness before he hit the ground... vaguely aware of someone calling his name...

Toby had been the first on his feet, cheering wild and proud when he saw Isaac return.

His celebration had lasted a mere second before he took in the sight of the beaten, bloodied, and weak form of his little brother.

Before anyone else had moved towards him, Toby was tearing his way down the stands as fast as his legs would carry him.

"ISAAC!" Toby shouted, pushing Dumbledore to the side as he ran to his side.

Others had started to notice that something was wrong now, whether it was the sight of Isaac falling to the ground or the beginning of the small pool of blood that was starting to soak into his clothes.

"Isaac..." Toby gasped, gathering him in his arms and ignoring the cries of what was happening that had started being called out.

"Let me see," a woman Toby vaguely recognised as the school nurse said, kneeling down next to him.

Toby watched as the woman muttered a spell to stem the flow of blood from the large gash that ran the length of Isaac's forearm.

"Wha's happening?" a gruff voice grunted.

"We need to take him to the hospital wing," Madam Pomfrey declared, standing back up.

Moody nodded, turning around and barking at the small crowd of Tournament officials that had gathered around to clear a path.

Toby lifted Isaac up into his arms, holding him tight and praying to whatever god might have been paying attention that his tics wouldn't cause Isaac any pain, or for them to fall over.

The tics seemed to mostly be affecting his neck and wrists, as they did when he was anxious or strung up.

They caused Isaac to jostle a little, but at least he was able to walk in a straight line after the limping form of Moody and Madam Pomfrey.

"... graveyard... Voldemort... killed Cedric..." Isaac muttered feebly.

"Hang in there, I got you," Toby said, hoping that whatever part of Isaac that was conscious could hear him.

"... poison... spy..."

Toby's breaths were starting to become as ragged as Isaac was.

"He-e..." Toby growled as his tics messed up his words, "... he say-s-s p-poison-n-ned,"

Madam Pomfrey cast a worried glance backwards at them as Moody flung the doors to the hospital wing open and Toby hurried inside.

He set Isaac down on the nearest bed and Madam Pomfrey waved her wand over Isaac's torso in a circular motion.

Her paling face told Toby all he needed to know as far as confirmation for Isaac being poisoned went.

As she hurried to her office to get the necessary potions a gruff voice called out, " _Stupify!_ "

Madam Pomfrey collapsed to the floor as a streak of red light hit her in the back.

 **(X)** Back at the stands **(X)**

"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?" Jack growled, ducking his head that the explosion of noise.

"I-Isaac turned up, and... oh my god..." Hermione whimpered, "His arm... he collapsed, there was blood everywhere, he... oh my god..."

Jack felt an icy chill pass up his spine as he reached down to unhook Smile's collar.

"Go to him, I'll catch up later," he said to the whining dog.

Smile took off down the stands, knocking over Dumbledore in his haste.

Once he was clear of the stands, Smile paused and sniffed at the air.

As soon as he had found the scent of blood that was heavy in the air, he ran towards the castle, following the smell to a set of barely open doors.

Toby glared at the heavily scarred man that was pointing a wand at them, a delirious look upon the man's face.

"All year... all my hard work..." the man licked his lips feverishly, "All to send _Potter_ to the graveyard so that my Master could be returned to his former glory..."

The man limped towards the bed.

"Sneaking the boy's name into the Goblet, giving him prods here and there so that he'd be able to beat the tasks..."

'Holy crap... I am actually thankful that these guys are morons...' Toby thought as the man boasted about being one of the Dark Lord's most trusted.

In the time that the man had been talking, aside from getting ready to break every bone in the man's body one at a time before strangling him with his own intestines, he had been able to come up with five plans that were easier and far more efficient than the dumbass one that they had used.

"... and imagine how glorious the rewards shall be when he finds out that _I_ have vanquished the ' _great_ ' Harry Potter!" the man almost spat in his fervour.

"D-d-didn't you l-l-listen?" Toby asked, seeing something move behind the man, "His n-n-name is Isaac, Isaac R-Rogers.

And if-f you think that-t-t I'm going t-t-to let-t you harm even another h-hair on his head, then you're going to be b-b-begging for death," Toby growled at him before he let out a mirthlessly dry chuckle, "But it seems that I'll have to wait, S-S-Smile wants a go f-first," he pointed behind the man.

The man scoffed.

"As if I'm going to fall for that old..." he broke off when a snarl hissed from somewhere behind him.

Spinning around, he just managed to catch sight of the large black and red dog that was running towards him, it's mouth wide open in a smile of human teeth that seemed to be growing longer and sharper.

Before the man could raise the wand to defend himself, Smile latched onto the man's throat and bowled him over.

The man screamed as Smile planted his feet firmly on the ground and tore the man's neck into shreds before grabbing the arm and whipping it back and forth.

Toby would have let Smile indulge himself for as long as he wanted, the only regret being how quickly the bastard had died, but a group of people were hurrying towards the hospital wing.

"S-Smile, glamour up-p-p," Toby said urgently.

Thankfully, Smile listened and stopped playing with the corpse.

The fur of his front was still drenched in blood, as was his muzzle, as he leapt over to where Toby was stood and took up a defensive stance beside him.

Just as he did so, the doors were shoved open and the group entered.

A portly man wearing a horrible lime-green bowler let out a rather feminine gasp before clutching a hand to his mouth to try and prevent the vomit from flowing.

A lady that could have been as tall as Slenderman's Thalmann glamour and another tall, but far shorter, woman with her hair done in a bun raised their hands to their mouths in shock at what they saw.

Dumbledore surveyed the room with a critical eye.

"D'you mind t-telling me why one of your-r t-teachers just tried to K-KILL ME?" Toby roared at the man as Smile's heckles were raised even further.

Dumbledore didn't say anything, he merely descended upon the body as...

Toby watched as the skin of the recently deceased man bubbled like hot wax and shifted into that of another, though the gashes and wounds remained.

At that point, a weak groan from Isaac had Toby shouting at the group.

"CAN SOMEBODY HELP HIM?" he roared.

A dark-haired man he vaguely recognised broke off from the group and approached them, tearing his eyes away from the body.

Smile growled warningly at him and the man raised his hands.

"I will not hurt him, as Madam Pomfrey is indisposed, it seems that I am your best chance at helping him," the man said.

"He said-d he was p-p-poisoned," Toby said, taking ahold of Smile's collar and nodding towards Isaac to tell the man to get a move on.

The man took out his wand, a wary eye on Smile, and repeated the circular motion that Madam Pomfrey had done.

The man muttered a spell under his breath and Toby watched as a few vials flew out of the room Madam Pomfrey had been running to.

"Tilt his head back," the man said as he sorted through the vials.

"Guard up," Toby said to Smile, letting go of the collar and gently easing Isaac's head back as another coughing fit wracked his body.

The man undid the cork of a creamy-scarlet looking potion and tilted it carefully into Isaac's mouth.

The coughing got weaker until Isaac's breathing returned to normal.

"That is all I can do in regards to the poison for now," the man said, moving around to the other side, "I can't give him an antidote until I know exactly what it is that I am curing.

I have something that cures most poisons and toxins that I will get after healing his arm..." the spell Madam Pomfrey had cast on it to stem the bleeding had cancelled once she had been stunned.

The man carefully brought the tip of his wand over the gash and began muttering spells under his breath.

Toby watched as the skin seemed to knit itself back together, leaving a jagged white streak of a scar in the place of the wound.

"Nothing I can do about the scarring," the man said, turning his wand to the doors and summoning something else.

"That the 'cure-all'?" Toby asked.

"Indeed," the man said, taking what looked like a large, shrivelled, grey bean from the jar and putting it in Isaac's mouth.

"What if it doesn't work?" Toby asked, hoping that it did.

"Thankfully, the list of toxins that bezoars do not have any effect on is rather small.

At the very least, it would slow the effect down and give me time to go through the symptoms and identify what the poison was," the man said, straightening up and going over to where Dumbledore had revived Madam Pomfrey.

"Can someone explain to me what in the name of Merlin is going on?" the man with the bowler demanded, his face an awkward mix of puce and pale white.

"That fucker st-stunned the nurse, went off about being one of Voldemort's lack-keys, and t-tried t-to k-kill my brother," Toby growled at the man.

The man with the bowler hat made an odd wheezing noise at the name while the man who had helped Isaac moved the body of the man that Smile had killed over to another bed, cordoning it off and cleaning away the blood stains.

'I really need to learn names,' Toby thought, he was referring to too many people by 'The man'.

"I... I highly doubt that he was following the orders of 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'," he scoffed.

"Well you'd-d better believe it," Toby snapped at him, "He was going off-f about how the entire t-thing was for that fucker's revival,"

The man went paler still.

"I have no idea who you think you are talking to, but that man cannot have possibly been taking orders from Voldemort," the man spoke with an arrogant confidence that made Toby wished he had his axes with him.

"W-well believe what you want," Toby scoffed at the man, "Cause as soon as Isaac's awake I'm taking him home, and you can take his name off the register for this shit-hole,"

The man scoffed once more and Toby could just barely resist the urge to throttle him.

"Harry Potter _not_ attend Hogwarts, don't be absurd. Only his _legal_ guardian can make that decision, and once we summon Mr T-Thalmann we can get this whole mess sorted out,"

 **"And your ignorance is duly noted,"** a booming voice said, causing everyone in the room to turn to the doors.

Thalmann was walking towards them, an icy glare in his eyes, and accompanied by Tim and Brian.

"Mr Thalmann..."

 **"Did I say you could speak to me?"** Thalmann silenced Fudge with a mere glance, **"And I wonder why you would have to summon me to get his guardian's permission,"**

While Fudge spluttered indignantly Dumbledore stood and spoke.

"Are you not Mr Roger's guardian?" he asked, fixing his half-crescent glasses firmly on his nose.

 **"If I was, then wouldn't his name be Isaac Thalmann, not Isaac Rogers?"** Thalmann asked dryly.

"Then... then who is?" Fudge asked, earning cold glares from every newcomer in the room.

"Me," Toby said, glaring at the man, "And I say you can kiss the chance of _my little brother_ ever coming here again goodbye,"

Fudge went pale and turned to Dumbledore for help.

"If he is Mr Roger's guardian, then he does get the say in what happens to him," Dumbledore said solemnly, "But I would hope he would take Mr Roger's opinion into account as well,"

Toby levelled a glare at Dumbledore as Madam Pomfrey hurried back over to the bed, pausing when Smile growled at her.

"Will somebody muzzle that dog!" Fudge shouted, subtly trying to move behind the other two near him.

"Can you get lost?" Tim snapped at the man.

"Do you know who I am?" Fudge puffed up indignantly, "I am the Minister for Magic, and I will..."

"And I'm not listening!" both Toby and Tim roared at the man.

Fudge took a step back at the ferociousness of the two men.

"Leave," Brian said, casting a glare that could have rivalled Thalmann's at the man.

Once the man had left Brain turned to the two women who had been stood next to him and nodded at the door.

They too left, Dumbledore not too far behind them.

He had to act fast...

Thalmann turned to the only two remaining staff members of Hogwarts who were left.

 **"Could you please give us the room for a moment?"** he asked, **"We will call you if anything in his condition changes,"**

On that promise Snape and Pomfrey gave them the space they needed, going into the office.

"He is not coming back here," Toby said as soon as the door had closed.

"Seconded," Tim said, a grunt from Brian confirming his position on the matter.

 **"And I can't think of a more pointless vote,"** Slenderman said, **"As much as it may displease you, but it would be better if Isaac were to remain here until he regains consciousness, and maybe a day longer... so that we can be sure there has been no lasting damage and that he will not have a relapse,"** he added on before Toby could interrupt him.

"Fine," Toby said, none too happy, "But I ain't leaving him here alone,"

 **"I don't think that anyone here would dare to try and argue against that... except maybe that over-bloated oaf,"**

"Well, they'd better get three beds ready for us," Tim said, looking at the large scar on Isaac's arm.

"Yeah... wait..." Toby froze and stood a little straighter, "Does someone want to go get Jack?"

As soon as he spoke there came a knocking on the door.

Slenderman put the glamour on and strode over to open the door.

"Please tell me that the kid's alright?" Jack asked, his arm firmly around Hermione's who's face was a portrait of worry and anxiety.

Evidently, she had led him up to the castle.

 **"He is resting, when he will wake, we have no idea,"** Thalmann said, taking hold of Jack's shoulder so that Hermione was relieved.

Tim came over to take Jack over to a chair while Thalmann turned to face Hermione.

 **"I'm sorry to ask, but do you mind if we were to hold off visitors until tomorrow, let him be with his family for now,"** Thalmann asked politely... there was something about this girl that seemed... familiar...

"O-of course," Hermione said, ducking away.

"Please tell me that I can get out of this place?" Jack growled once he had been caught up, "Look... no offence to the kid, but I am sick to the fucking bone of bloody magic people,"

 **"As Masky, Hoodie, and Toby are staying, I will bring you and Smile back with me when I leave,"** Slenderman told him and Jack visibly relaxed, looking at Isaac with a restrained look on his face.

Toby ran a thumb over the back of Isaac's hand, moving his hair out of his face.

"That unholy abomination of a pig/human/penguin hybrid is too important to kill, isn't he?" Toby asked.

 **"Unfortunately, being the Minister for Magic, arguably the man with the most power in the magical community, would get too much attention,"** Slenderman said.

"What if I make it look like an accident?" Toby asked, "Or a stroke?"

 **"No, Toby, no,"** Slenderman said softly.

Isaac didn't wake that night, nor the next.

Wizards from the Ministry came the first night in the hospital wing to collect the body of the man they later found out to be named 'Bartemius Crouch, Jr', while the real Alastair Moody was found unconscious in a trunk up inside the .A office.

Toby had to deal with the pompous bastard of a Minister one last time when the man unceremoniously shoved a bag of gold coins into his hands, saying it was Isaac' prize for winning the Tournament.

After resisting the urge to beat the man's head in with the bag, Toby slammed the door in his face, dumping the bag on the table next to Isaac's bed.

As per Madam Pomfrey's instruction, he took one of the vials that basically kept Isaac nourished while he was out and gently eased the contents into his mouth before helping him swallow it down with a glass of water from the pitcher that a house elf refreshed every hour since Toby had little to nothing else to do except drink water between watching over Isaac and plotting how each and every person who had their fingers in Voldemort's pie was going to die.

Of course, this was the closest he came to laughing, because of how stupid the name sounded, but his face was stony and emotionless.

It was a stark difference from the free-wheeling pyromaniac that Masky and Hoodie knew.

Hermione, Blaise, and Draco had visited earlier during the day.

Each of them had come to see how Isaac was doing, and each of them had been forced to leave their wand on the bed on the other side of the room.

Draco told them of his father's involvement with the Death Eaters and promised to tell them everything that he ever heard about the group.

Toby had looked him in the eye and told him that if he ever got involved with the group then he'd hold him as accountable as Voldemort was for Isaac's condition.

Draco had nodded, accepting the warning.

"I... I have to ask, though," Draco said nervously, "My... in a letter, he said that the Dark Lord quoted something Isaac had said to him before... he said, 'never attack someone who lives with deranged killers',"

Blaise and Hermione looked from Draco to Toby and the sleeping forms of Tim and Brian a couple of beds over.

Toby cast a glance back at them himself before leaning forward, beckoning for them to do the same.

"You know those stories? The ones that we share the names with the characters of?" when seeing them nod he continued, "Let's just say that there are parts that get really close to burning the line between fiction and non-fiction away and leave it at that,"

Hermione, Draco, and Blaise had left the hospital wing rightfully fearful that day after swearing not to tell anyone what they had discussed.

The days where Isaac slept and didn't wake went by until the days until the school year would end could be counted down on one hand... and then, three days before the end of the year, Isaac woke.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Endnotes.

Ok... so if you read EXTRAS, there is an unplanned thing going up soon, like tomorrow.

It's the place holder I had for this weeks chapter because I put a bunch of prompts down in the space where the story goes so I know where to put the reviews.

This time, it was... adorably stupid the stuff that I put down this time.

So, hope you enjoy me with no filter, because that's a little insight into how I write the chapters there.

And since Google translate isn't exact with its translations, I'm putting here what I put for the spells.

"Despedidaro" = "Despedida" = "Farewell" – Yes, I'm that cheesy.

"Atravesarii" = "Atravesar" = "To tear through"

"Grafuegos" = "Gran Fuego" = "Big fire" – Yeah, more cheesiness...

"Girarus" = "Girar" = "Spin" – I think every spell was just me being cheesy...

I think I'll try Norweigan when basing the spells next time...

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Sorry for keeping you awake.

Toby was a given, E.J hasn't had the joy of any magical area yet so he got to go.

There wasn't much there anyway, hope you enjoyed this!

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

Having it done with E.J would definitely be interesting... might have done a little thing for that after reading this...

Hagrid's reaction to Eris would probably be adorable... if Eris didn't kill him, that is.

Well, he probably could level the place... just a portrait fire though, nothing too bad.

I do have a plan for Ben to go to Hogwarts, don't you worry.

I too fear for people who piss off E.J.

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

You got the reference!

Have a biscuit!

No prob, MyraZinshu will probably have more than enough review to go around.

(Called it!)

Big freezer sounds nice, maybe a chilled venom to go with?

Hope the review for this one is worth the cold.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Dimenticato principessa;

WELCOME!

Thank you!

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Yep, I was right...

Nice to know you're comfortable talking to me.

Yeah, don't have that problem yet... or hopefully never will... do you have a secret hip flask hidden in it?

I thought it would be pretty funny.

I might have Colin be something like Jay in an EXTRAS chapter, it would be kinda interesting.

Yep, stub your toe? Blame Jeff. Not enough petrol to go to a music concert? Blame Jeff.

The list goes on.

Gonna be honest, all those things sound like something I want to eat.

Don't worry, there was a prod dadTM moment.

I'm gonna make a crossbow for it, don't you worry.

I NEED SEVERAL BUZZARDS FOR LAUGHING JACK IMMEDIATELY!

There wasn't much she did since she calmed down and treated him with the indifference that she did in the original story, but I could write an EXTRAS chapter where Hermione wants Isaac's help getting back at people and becomes a temporary prankster.

Tell your cousin I say thanks.

That insult is hilariously adorable and I need to use it more often.

Cute moments, fluffy moments, if I ever reach 400 followers I'll probably write a fruity moment, and there will be an angry angsty moment sometime soon-ish.

BRVR is pretty much a cat, yes.

Should have made it more obvious, sorry.

Jay sounds adorable still.

I will look into those meds.

Toby was a given, yes. E.J hadn't been to anywhere magical yet, so I felt like he should pop over for a bit.

Ever watch the 'Animaniacs?'

It's Yakko Warner's song of the countries to the world.

E.J can't see so he might as well speak everything, that's the logic behind him knowing pretty much all the common EU languages.

I think we can all recognise Hermione based off of her hair.

Of course, Toby's going to lord over the fact that his little brother is a pranking master.

Dumbles is gonna be a big bitch when you find out what he did.

I can't take the credit for the eye-candy.

A friend of my uncles is missing an eye and does that every chance he gets.

So thank him for that.

Yeah, Isaac ain't gonna waste good marshmallows.

The green hat boy has burnt away, bye-bye spy-bitch.

Of course, something would be set ablaze.

Hagrid may or may not, haven't decided yet.

I'd kinda forgotten about them for a while, didn't I?

How cool would it be to have an actual basilisk tooth necklace, like a shark tooth one, but better!

It's Isaac's subtle brag that he's taken down something bigger than Toby, or any of them, have.

I'm glad that you liked it, it's definitely not one of my faves because of the block I had when writing it.

I hope I can.

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Eww... I feel sorry for you...

Well, I hope you get better soon.

 **(X) Review (X)**

DarkBlur2005;

Welcome!

Yeah... or I could keep everyone annoyed and only have Fred be a Proxy...

 **(X) Review (X)**

Honebar;

Nice to see you're back.

I'm glad that you liked all the things I did.

Isaac was really looking forward to killing Rita, so I'm going to have to do something to make up for it.

That would be a good torture, maybe I'll have an EXTRAS chapter dedicated to an alternate punishment for her.

Someone else did post that idea for George... you can see the response I gave above this one.

That does seem like a good idea, I might do that for an EXTRAS at some point.

The term you're looking for is 'S.C.P'.

I want to try that chilli now, spiciness be damned.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

I'm glad that I get to be the fun thing that starts the weekend for you.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic writer;

JESUS!

And here I was thinking that only MyraZinshu wrote that long a review.

I'm gonna skip over bits since my fingers are starting to hurt.

I like the end segments as well.

Blackmail is fun to have, I just prefer a hanging blade threat instead.

It means I have them know I could drop the knife at any moment and only my mercy is saving them.

Well, I live in the UK and I don't sound like I have an accent at all, TEACH ME!

I still get these moments when I listen to my "monsters" a little more than I probably should.

Beating things with a broom is a perfectly valid response.

I will name two knives those names.

I'm glad you liked the chapter, hope you like this one!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Sabriel Orion;

I hope it was as ass-kicking as you thought it would be.

What? Spiders are high in fibre.

I know... still eat ass loads of chocolate though... and a pizza every so often when my BF isn't coming over or I'm going out.

See you next level!

 **(X) Review (X)**

joshua. obryan. 549;

Really?

Oooh... I can have some fun with that in an EXTRAS chapter...

 **(X) Review (X)**

Zebralord23;

Sounds interesting, I'll be sure to check it out sometime.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

Yeah, can't argue there.

Yes, a cliff hanger!

Because torturing you all is amusement for me, remember, I control everything in this story and I could kill off anyone if people get too needy...

Well, I wouldn't, that would be too mean... please don't hate me...

Priyaten den.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

Wow... you're early...

This is... this is weird.

I wouldn't mind if you did other reviews like that, it's like the First Viewing on Nostalgia Critic.

I really like the image of someone in that advert getting bowled over by Smile because he's holding food.

Indubitably.

Dumbledore's still living for a while, don't worry, I have a plan for him.

Isaac... well, you'll see what I have planned...

Smile has a really high metabolism, which he would be very thankful for if he understood what it was.

I've been waiting to make that eye-candy joke for a long time.

That tail had a fatal case of 'the deaths'.

Yeah, since hardly anybody seems to read EXTRAS, I had to put that in so people would know where she came from.

Probably very weird...

I really want to get back into drawing so I can try and draw an art-deco gothic laboratory to join the stuff on my wall.

I hope that it was what you wanted, I got no suggestions from anyone about what to change aside from you.

I don't want to know what is in the cans either...

I remembered the fire powers, I even upgraded them a little.

Yes, I included the graveyard scene.

Pretty much everything you said there is correct.

Oh... I really want to have Slendy go to town on them...

Maybe in an EXTRAS chapter...

 **(X) Review (X)**

Fire Elemental Frank;

Is there a 'Water Elemental Walter'?

What about an 'Earth Elemental Erin'?

'Air Elemental Alex'?

I hope you didn't actually die, but enjoy it anyway.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Ok, that was it.

No more reviews for this weeks chapter.

So, I hope that you all enjoyed and I hope that you enjoy any chapters in the future.

Can't wait to hear the responses to this chapter, what about you, DP?

 _YOU_

response to that

But, this is the end of the chapter, and I'll see you all in the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	70. Chapter 70, DigitalMagic

Chapter 70, DigitalMagic.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

JUST KIDDING!

Bet I had a lot of you upset about that.

Just flame me in the reviews, or pm, either way, Papa needs his salt.

So here it is!

Time for Ben and Isaac to finally open up to each other... ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

It's been a long time running, and I think that this is going to be very, very, easy to write.

Mostly because I've already done this.

But, would you like me to update the EXTRAS chapter that this is based on, (The So Late 10K View Special), or keep it as is as a reminder of when I first planned those two?

Anyway, I've got a chapter to... update... this is weird...

Thank you past me for making this slightly easier.

You're welcome future me, I wonder how present me is doing?

So do I, if only we had a way to contact him...

Y'wanna go watch Kryoz?

Hell yeah!

Alright, we're going to go watch Kryoz, you lot enjoy the chapter,

Have fun,

SteamGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

A stray bird or two flew past the Hospital wing windows, whistling to each other as they passed.

That was what woke Toby up, the sounds of birds skimming past the window.

He didn't know what time he had gotten to sleep, the bags under his eyes bringing out his grey complexion even more than usual.

Toby let out a long yawn as he stretched his arms out and looked at Isaac before nearly falling off his chair.

Isaac was no longer lying down, his eyes closed as if in a sleep so deep that you doubted he'd ever wake, he was now sitting up with blank eyes that didn't look away from the wall on the other side of the room.

A brief huff of relief escaped Toby before he realised that Isaac hadn't even flinched when he had moved, not even a muscle.

"Isaac?" Toby asked, reaching out to hold him by the shoulder.

Isaac's eyes briefly flicked over to look at him before they slid back to the wall.

"Hey..." Toby shook him gently by the shoulder, "We're going home soon, either today or tomorrow,"

Isaac didn't respond, just blinking every so often.

"He awake?" Tim grunted, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Awake, yes. Responding, no," Toby said, getting up to go get the nurse.

Madam Pomfrey's results yielded nothing.

Magically, there was nothing wrong, nor did there appear to be anything wrong with him physically other than what he was already being treated for.

She admitted to being clueless as to what could be wrong with him, leaving him with his family so they could alert her if anything changed in his condition.

"Right, let's get him out of here," Tim said as soon as she had closed the door to her office.

A few minutes later, while they were discussing the best way to get him out of the castle, the tall elderly witch that was Isaac's head of house walked into the hospital wing.

"Perfect timing," Tim turned and spoke to Brian as Toby tried to get Isaac to drink something.

After confirming that yes, Isaac was awake, but telling her that he wasn't speaking they convinced her to show Brian the way up to the Gryffindor tower so that he could collect all of Isaac's things.

The Gryffindor common room was filled with everyone by the time the two of them got there, and everything went silent when the door opened to reveal Professor McGonagall as if every single person was caught doing something they shouldn't be doing by their mother.

A few whispers of conversation started up again when Brian stepped into the room, walking up the staircase pointed out to him by Professor McGonagall.

Finding Isaac's bed was easy, it was the only one that looked as if it hadn't been slept in for a week or so, and he started emptying all of the drawers back into the trunk.

Brian paused for a moment when he reached the pictures that Isaac had set on the top of his dresser.

A small, but heartfelt, smile crept onto his face when he picked up the picture of him, Isaac, Tim, and Toby walking through the forest.

It had been taken by The Puppeteer shortly after the three of them had taken Isaac along on one of their jobs. Toby had waited outside with Isaac as 'lookout' while he and Tim had taken care of the targets inside.

If his memory was correct, and it usually was, then this was the first time that Isaac, still going by Harry back then, had been taken with them so he could watch what goes on in a job instead of hearing about it afterwards.

Setting the pictures down carefully, before wrapping them in a jumper so that they wouldn't get damaged, he moved onto the poster on the wall before checking that that truly was everything.

Pausing a moment, Brian re-opened the trunk and looked out the Gameboy.

Chances were that Isaac was going to fall asleep again, maybe Ben could get inside Isaac's head and talk with the kid.

As he made his way back down, lifting the trunk with one hand with ease and Hedwig's cage with the other, he was stopped when he reached the landing of the common room.

"Is it true what he's saying?" a sandy-haired boy in front of him said, "That Isaac's going off about how You-Know-Who's back?"

Brian didn't say anything as he put the trunk back down and gently pushed the boy to the side until he fell backwards onto one of the cushy chairs around the fireplace.

Then, still silent, he picked the trunk back up and walked out of the room.

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Dumbledore watched as the man wearing the mustard-yellow hoody walked through the entrance hall from his seat at the head table.

Those Americans had caused nothing but trouble for him.

Their continued presence in the pawn's life had given him free will that he himself could no longer shape to be whatever it was that he needed.

As he returned to his morning oatmeal, a thought occurred to him.

Perhaps telling the student body about how Voldemort was behind the death of Cedric Diggory a little earlier than planned was a misstep...

Dumbledore waved the notion aside with a small shake of his head.

He didn't make mistakes, it was just that other, irritating, fools got in the way and continued to disrupt his plans.

Yes, that was all...

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Isaac still hadn't said anything by the time that Brian had returned.

Whilst he was gone, though, Madam Pomfrey had refused to let Isaac out of the hospital wing until such a time as the school year had ended, stating that as long as the school year was ongoing he was still under her medical care.

Tim knew that Toby had the same retort on his tongue that he himself had and gently stamped on his foot to keep him quiet.

The glare was worth angering the woman as she returned to her office to look out his next set of potions.

"We can handle one more night," Tim said quietly to Toby as she walked away.

Toby nodded stiffly before looking out the ajar doors to the hospital wing.

"Should've asked Slendy to send me a duffel bag," he muttered.

Tim, knowing that Toby's duffel bags either contained enough snack food to feed a small school or enough explosives to send sniffer dogs into a frenzy, asked what he would've been asking for.

Toby's answer of, "The fun ones," did nothing to further Tim's quest for an answer as fun, for Toby, could be levelling a building with Semtex or gorging himself on junk food until he threw up... and went back to gorging on junk food...

Throughout the last full day of Hogwarts Isaac didn't speak.

Not when Hermione, Blaise, and Draco came.

Not when Madam Pomfrey asked him about any pain.

Not when Toby made joke, after joke, desperate to get him to at least say something.

But the most confusing thing came on the morning of the day that they were to leave on.

"What do you mean, 'it's like looking at a wall'?" Tim asked Ben.

"I mean, quite literally, I am staring at a brick wall," Ben said, looking up from the Gameboy screen, "I feel like Magnus trying to get through the Webway, there's just a massive wall not letting me in,"

With the news that Ben was unable to get through to him, Toby was ready to set out and flay Voldemort with a blade taken from a shaving razor.

Later than any of them would have liked, the time to move Isaac came and, to their great surprise, it seemed as if Isaac himself knew that since he got up, drew the curtains around himself so he had privacy to change, and sat back down on the bed to wait for the others.

The way he moved was so practised and precise like he was on autopilot whenever he moved.

A knocking at the door heralded the return of Professor McGonagall.

"I've called for a coach ahead of the others," she said, looking at the statuesque Isaac sitting on the bed.

"Thank you," Tim said, picking up the trunk and Hedwig's cage.

"Come on," Toby said, putting a hand on Isaac's shoulder to get him up.

Isaac got to his feet and began walking just ahead of Toby.

A few Ravenclaws were descending the stairs when they reached the entrance hall, and hands immediately went to try and hide whatever it was they were saying about the small group making their way out the castle.

"Alright," Masky said once the door to the carriage had shut and they were being carried down the path to the train station, "Liu and Jeff are meeting us at the station, once we get out of there, we get back to The Ark, have Teer, E.J, and Locklear check him over, and then we go about planning on how to turn this place into a big enough desolate wasteland to make the Fallout developers say, 'Damn!',"

Brian nodded, resting a hand inside his hoody pocket where his fingers sat ready to flip the safety and open fire on anyone that so much as pointed their wand their way.

Throughout the train ride, Isaac still didn't say a thing.

Many people passed by their compartment on the trip, but none of them were dumb enough to stick their noses in, even the trolley lady gave them their privacy.

Though... that might have been due to the three murderous looking Americans that were sat in the compartment...

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... movement... noise... people... hand... moving... people... loud... spinning... trees... touching...

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Ben watched through the surveillance cameras that Kings Cross had for the sign of Isaac's return.

Jeff and Liu had disappeared through the pillar that led to the magical train station a few minutes earlier and there didn't seem any cameras that he could find that showed the magical side of the station.

He was forced to wait there, watching through every camera for half an hour until Tim re-appeared.

A sigh of relief escaped his lips when he saw Isaac emerge through the wall, Toby shortly behind, but something... else started to creep through him as he watched Isaac walk.

There was something... off about it.

Isaac didn't seem... he was...

The only word that Ben seemed able to come up with to describe it was 'robotic'.

Each step was even, he didn't seem to be talking, his head didn't turn to look at anything around him, and Toby seemed to steer him every so often.

Just as they left the station Ben practically growled when a stream of code heralded the arrival of a message sent to him.

After reading the message Ben was ready to snap most of, if not all, of Helen's paint brushes.

It seemed that he and Teer had gotten caught on a few security cameras so they needed him to crash the servers and delete the footage of them.

Ben thought of many ways he could get back at Helen for taking him away from The Mansion at that moment as he zoomed off through the various connections that the digital world gave him access to.

Deleting the footage took longer than he would have liked.

The facility that had caught sight of them automatically backed the data up to a number of servers and he had to go through each of them and crash them so that it seemed like a piece of malware had snuck through and been sent with the last data package.

By the time he had gotten back everyone was in the sitting room save for Toby and Isaac himself.

Hoodie had Isaac's trunk open, sorting through it and taking out a few things every so often.

Looking around, he found that Isaac wasn't among them so he headed up to...

Ben frowned as he searched for the data stream that should be coming from Isaac's T.V.

Even if it was just on standby, there would still be a passage for him to follow... but there was nothing.

The stream to his own T.V was still there, though, so he settled on using that to go check on Isaac.

After climbing out the screen, nearly falling over in his haste, Ben reached Isaac's door and reached a hand to knock on the door, or try to push it open, but somebody else's stopped him.

"I'd give him some time," Toby said, a small tray in his other hand that he quickly grabbed with both hands again before a tick caused him to drop something.

"What did..."

"I'll explain later," Toby promised Ben, cutting him off as he knocked on the door, "Hey, Isaac, I've got the food that E.J told me to get you, you wanna open the door?"

The silence in the hallway seemed deafening to Ben.

"I'll just leave it here, you can get it when you want to," Toby said, putting the tray down just as a tick caused him to hit the wall.

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... speaking... noises... moving... still... dark... dark... light... light... speaking... food...

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The more that Toby spoke, the more that Ben wanted to charge into Isaac's room and check on him before hugging him and never letting go.

From what he had been told, by Isaac and now by Toby, this year had been a shitstorm and that was putting it very nicely.

First Isaac had been dragged into a tournament against his will.

Ron had turned into an ass for a good portion of the year before this one and Isaac had confirmed that his foul mood was still there throughout all of this one.

He had fought a Dragon in the first task, nearly died saving his friend Hermione during the second task, and at the end of the tournament, and to top it off, he had had to navigate a very literal murder-maze.

Then he had seen a fellow student murdered in cold blood purely because he was there by the man who had sold his parents out to their murderer, and Isaac's would have been killer.

To make things worse the man had then taken Isaac's blood to use in a ritual to bring the man who had killed Isaac's parent, Lord Voldemort, back.

From what he had heard, Isaac had been left with a scar on his arm from where they had taken the blood from that he had temporarily stemmed with a burning hand, which had left a shiny burn in its place.

Isaac had nearly bled out that night and he had somehow managed to hold off a wizard more than thrice his age long enough in a duel to get himself back to Hogwarts.

From what Toby had told him the Ministry of Magic in Britain was denying the return of Voldemort and Slendy had later informed them that there seemed to be a minor smear campaign forming in the Daily Prophet against Dumbledore and Isaac.

Ben couldn't care less about what the world thought of the bearded oaf that ran the school, but his blood seemed to boil a little when he heard about how they were dragging Isaac's name into everything just so they could insult him.

The second that Isaac had set foot inside the door E.J had dragged him into the infirmary and after that Isaac had simply said a single word.

"Tired,"

E.J had sent him up to his room before telling Toby to go get him something to eat and drink, which is when he found Ben about to knock on the door.

Locklear had told them all to give him time, he had treated trauma patients before and knew that it would definitely be a while before Isaac was back to his normal self.

Toby had asked the question that they had been fearing, but Slenderman said that he hadn't been lost and Ben felt the weight in his chest lift a little.

He didn't know just how worried he was for the young Proxy sitting alone in his room.

Later on in the evening, Toby had taken Isaac's trunk up to the door after Hoodie had removed everything sharp, pointy, anything that Isaac could have used for... not so pleasant activities, and found that the bowl of warm tomato soup had been... Ben still wondered whether or not you ate or drank soup sometimes... had been consumed and the glass of water drunk.

Teer had tried to sneak in once or twice but something was keeping him out.

Ben couldn't help but smile at the memory of helping Isaac set up a sigil that he had learned in school that he had modified to keep Teer and L.J out.

Slendy confirmed that in the event that something serious happened to Isaac he could easily bypass the sigil gave them all a little more peace of mind.

Everyone seemed to mill around by themselves for the rest of the day, nobody really that motivated to do anything, even Jane was feeling a little down from the dour mood.

As everyone turned in for an early night, Ben waited for a few minutes until the hallway was cleared before sneaking out and looking at the near featureless expanse of Isaac's room

"Hey, Isaac..." Ben started slowly, "Hope you're feeling better... I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to go burn down the forest, or something..."

Ben felt a little silly talking to a locked door, even if there was... might have been somebody listening on the other side...

"I've... did you know Helen and Teer pretty much made every rookie mistake in the book today?

Teer got caught on camera stringing a guy over a stairwell and Helen let a janitor catch him while he was moving a body.

That took me _forever_ to fix, getting rid of the footage, I mean..."

Ben stood there awkwardly in the hall.

"So... it's nice to have you back... Specs..."

He raised a hand to the door, patting it softly before making his way back into his room and crawling under the covers, the comforter that Isaac had given him pulled tightly around his sleeping form.

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... light... light... dark... window... light... trees... moon... speaking... Ben...

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The next morning, Toby took Isaac up a plate of toast and a glass of orange juice on the floor in front of the door before waiting to see if Isaac would open it to take it.

After long enough for the toast to have gone cold, Toby set the tray down and left, returning half an hour later to find the plate and glass empty.

Not even Teer seemed able to hide himself from Isaac when he waited for the kid to open the door.

Like he had done the night before, Ben waited until everyone had gone to bed before climbing out the screen.

As he carefully crept out the screen the sound of a toilet flushing stalled him for a few seconds.

Ben carefully pushed his door open and looked out, catching the briefest glimpse of black hair before Isaac's door closed and locked.

Ben felt a wave of guilt pass over himself for just missing Isaac before making his way across the hall and gently knocking on the door.

"Hey, Isaac... so, you're not gonna guess what happened today..."

And soon, Ben found himself with a new habit over the next few days.

Waiting until everyone was asleep, knocking on Isaac's door, sitting down and telling him about any jobs that the others had gone on that day.

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... light's off... wind outside... someone speaking... Ben... Ben... Ben...

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"... you would not believe how much confetti Jane had in her hair after her and Jeff's sparring session today.

L.J let Jeff and Jane use part of his carnival so that we could get a break from the two of them trying to come up with the better insult and Jeff managed to knock Jane into a barrel of confetti that Jack 'forgot was there',"

Ben let out a small chuckle, but couldn't help but feel like it was a little hollow and forced.

"Erm... E.J's head's healed up now. Remember how I told you that Toby knocked him flat on his ass when they were sparring yesterday?" he said with another small chuckle that quickly turned into a sigh.

"... please say something," he asked quietly.

The door stood fast before him and the hallway was silent once more as he awaited an answer.

"Y... you haven't said anything since you got back and I…" Ben's voice was barely above a whisper as he leaned forward until his head was resting against the wood of the door.

The door stood fast and the hallway was silent.

"I miss you, Specs," he whispered, closing his eyes.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

... the moon is bright tonight... someone's speaking outside...

"... Ben..."

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

A latch clicked.

Ben sat up, stumbling to his feet as the door opened slowly.

Isaac was standing by the window, looking out over the moonlight trees.

The only indication that he was something other than a mannequin was that he swayed gently from side to side as he breathed.

Ben didn't say anything as he slowly moved closer to Isaac.

It was the first time he had seen Isaac in the flesh that year, the first time he had been given to notice just how much had changed.

Isaac had grown over the school year again, and now he was over a head taller than he was. His hair was still long, falling around his face in a lanky mess that needed a wash.

He stood next to Isaac as the two of them looked out of the window.

"They refuse to accept that he's back now, don't they?" Isaac asked softly, his voice cracking a little from lack of use.

Ben relaxed as Isaac spoke. Not because of the words, but because hearing his voice lifted a small weight from his chest.

"Yeah... Slendy's going to get in touch with that guy from M.A.C.U.S.A if they get a little too lippy..." Ben said, shoving his hands in his pockets to resist the urge to hug his friend.

Isaac nodded slowly, his eyes a little unfocused from what they were looking at, "I want to kill him... after everything he's done… I want to be the one to do it,"

Ben nodded, unsure of what to say.

"Well, if there's anyone who could do it," he said, worried that he might send Isaac back into whatever he had been in the prior days.

"Yeah," Isaac said with a soft smile, nudging Ben in the arm with his elbow.

Ben jumped a little bit, the patch of skin on his arm where Isaac had bumped him tingled and he blamed it on how cold Isaac was right now.

"You know how you're gonna kill him?" Ben asked, genuinely curious about how Isaac would do it.

He had watched sometimes as Isaac sparred with the others and so far he, and everyone else, knew that Isaac was a sort of 'Jack of all Trades' when it came to fighting and L.J totally didn't have another bet going on about how Isaac would prefer to kill people.

"Guess you'll have to find out later," Isaac said with a soft smile at Ben.

"No fair," Ben huffed, fighting the small blush on his cheeks, and Isaac laughed a little harder this time.

Ben felt something press into his chest as Isaac laughed.

It was an elevating feeling and he felt like nothing could go wrong now.

"C'mon, it might be late but I'm pretty sure that there's some grub in the fridge if you're

hungry," Ben said, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb.

"Yeah... food sounds good..." Isaac said, looking away from the window and smiling at Ben.

The elevating feeling returned.

"C'mon," Ben said, leading Isaac out of the room and down the stairs to the living room.

A search through the cupboards and fridge revealed a few bags of popcorn so they shoved one into the microwave and waited.

Once the popcorn was ready Isaac shook a fair amount of salt into the bag and spun it around a bit to mix it in.

After that, the two of them claimed a seat on the couch and Ben took command of the TV.

Settling on a movie for the two of them to watch Isaac dragged down a blanket and threw it over the two of them.

He tossed the remote onto the table so that he could eat the popcorn and laid back on the couch.

"That medicine cabinet is _so_ intimating," Isaac snorted at the lingering shot while someone downed some pill, returning with a new bowl of popcorn as they had run out shortly before.

"Yeah, they really know how to build suspense in new and intriguing ways," Ben said sarcastically.

The medicine cabinet closed to reveal Freddy, causing both Ben and Isaac cried, "Oh, what a shock,"

The two of them laughed as they fell into each other and Ben felt his cheeks begin to burn, the elevating feeling soaring again, as he fought back yet another blush.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Isaac doing the same.

"I'm sorry," Isaac said abruptly, sobering up.

"What?" Ben asked, pausing the movie while Isaac spoke.

"I've been a little out of it lately," Isaac said, "I could hear you outside the door, but... I couldn't bring myself to open it,"

The blush returned as Ben thought about some of the one-sided conversations he had had with the door, imagining Isaac sitting there with his back to the door and eyes closed as he listened.

"You... you needed some time alone," Ben said softly, "It doesn't matter,"

"It does," Isaac said, locking eyes with Ben, "I should have been open and told you guys about what happened earlier and…"

"What happened to your arm?" Ben cut him off.

Isaac had wave his hand in the air as he spoke and something on it had caught Ben's attention.

The rest of Isaac's face paled while the blush in his cheeks grew as Ben snatched his hand and examined it.

"Isaac, what happened?" Ben said in horror as he looked at the now permanent, faded, red scar that stood out horribly against his pale skin.

"Didn't Toby tell you guys what happened?" Isaac said quietly, shivering slightly as Ben's fingers ghosted over his hand and around the scarlet mark on his skin.

Ben started shaking.

"He did, but... but I thought it was just a prick, a small cut," he said angrily, "Not them trying to cut your arm in two!"

Isaac took a shuddering breath and told Ben what happened in the graveyard.

As Ben looked over the long scar that ran the length of Isaac's forearm an odd thing started to happen.

Every so often part of Ben seemed to... blink away for a moment, like a graphics glitch on an avatar.

Then, without warning, Ben launched himself forward to pull Isaac into a tight hug.

"It... it wasn't your fault," he said, his voice breaking a little as he felt his shoulder dampen with Isaac's silent tears.

"Everyone says that..." Isaac said shakily, "And... I know it wasn't, but... I can't... can't shake the feeling that I should have done something more..."

Ben, reluctantly, pushed himself away from Isaac and held him at by the shoulders at arm's length.

"Everyone feels that way at some point," he said, "Everyone here has gone through the 'what if?' stage and... I know it's hard," Ben said, meeting Isaac's eyes, "But eventually you'll come to terms with it. And you know that I... _we're_ here for you," Ben said.

Isaac smiled sadly but nodded none the less.

"Sorry about your shirt," he mumbled, pointing to the dark patch to the right of Ben's head.

"Eh, if you feel that bad then you can buy me another," Ben said, flicking a piece of popcorn at Isaac.

Isaac snorted and threw it back.

Ben started throwing more at a time and soon there was a mini-war going off with popcorn being flung everywhere.

There were a few more pieces of popcorn left in the bowl and they both reached for them, pushing each other away as they tried to get the last pieces.

They fell off the couch, the blanket wrapping around them both as they laughed. The bowl fell with them and danced away from them, rolling around on its rim.

"You did that on purpose!" Ben accused as the blanket pressed him closer to Isaac.

"Did not!" Isaac said, laughing slightly.

"Did too, you little..." he broke off in grumbles.

Isaac snorted in laughter and knocked Ben's arm away with his shoulder so that he fell forward onto his chest.

"OI!" Ben laughed before hitting Isaac lightly in the shoulder as payback.

He couldn't move his arm because it was still stuck under Isaac's back. Isaac's were wrapped loosely around his waist and he tugged Ben a little closer.

"C'mon then, how are you gonna do it?" Ben asked eagerly as he leaned in.

"Do what?" Isaac asked.

"Kill the bald fucker," Ben said, holding the hand that wasn't trapped beneath Isaac's back up, "What else would I be talking about?"

"Urgh," Isaac groaned, bumping his head against Ben's chest, "I do not want to be thinking about him right now. It's kinda off-putting,"

"Why? C'mon man, spill the de..."

Ben was cut off by what Isaac did next.

He hadn't spoken... not a single word... but he had closed the gap between them and captured Ben's lips with his own.

Ben's eyes went wide for a moment before closing them and leaning forward into it, dropping his hand to Isaac's shoulder to hold him steady.

Everything else in the world seemed to melt away at that moment, the tv seemed to get quieter, the creaks and other sounds of the Mansion faded away as if nothing mattered except the two on the floor.

Eventually, Isaac broke the kiss, settling his head in the crook of Ben's neck and shoulder.

"I've missed you," he murmured into the fabric.

"Missed you too, Specs," Ben said, drawing him closer.

The two of them lay there for a bit, enjoying the warmth of each other.

"Ben," Isaac said after a few moments.

"Mhm," Ben mumbled into his hair.

"The floor's cold isn't it?"

"Yeah,"

The two of them laughed and tried to get up from their tangled state on the ground, falling over each other twice, before wrapping themselves back up on the couch and curling into each other's sides and simply enjoying each other's company.

Ben did have to get up and replace the bowl of popcorn.

They left the old bowl on the floor since Eris had gotten curious about the noise and had come to investigate.

Her deductions?

That whatever had been in the bowl that was now on the floor was delicious and that she wanted more.

"Ben?" Isaac asked softly after a few moments of them getting comfortable together on the couch once again, Eris going around eating the pieces of scattered popcorn around them.

"Yeah?" Ben said as he put the recently replaced bowl of popcorn between them.

"Can... can I see you?" Isaac asked hesitantly.

"You can, just turn your head to the side,"

Isaac huffed in laughter.

"No, not like that," he said, taking Ben's hand and giving it a squeeze.

"Can I see _you_?" Isaac asked again, "I mean... no glamours... not hiding anything, just... just you?"

Ben looked at Isaac, dropping his eyes to their clasped hands and closing them slowly as he let out a slow breath.

Isaac was about to start apologising for upsetting him when Ben changed.

He grew a little shorter, a fair few more freckles appeared, and he still looked around fourteen but could have been a year or two below.

His hair got a little brighter and his clothing changed to look more like the tunic and sash that Link wore in the Zelda franchise, it was cut and torn in a few places.

Red streaks, blood, ran down his cheeks from his eyes and disappeared under his chin.

Old fashioned metallic cuffs materialised around his wrists and broken chains lay in a few links before finishing in snapped endings as if they had been torn free from whatever they were fashioned too.

The pale skin of his wrists was slightly bruised from where the manacles would have pressed into him.

Ben let out a small sigh and opened his eyes.

Where there should have been white was instead black and his irises were a deep, vibrant, red.

Isaac couldn't help the slight hitching of his breath as he looked into the red eyes.

But whereas Voldemort's eyes held only malice, cruelty, and depravity; Ben's were warmer.

Isaac felt like he was looking at small rubies on a midnight canvas... they made him feel safe... they made him feel... like he was home.

Ben dropped his gaze back to their hands and Isaac tilted his head up and placed another chaste kiss on his lips.

"You're gorgeous," he murmured against them as Ben smiled and deepened the kiss.

After breaking the kiss Isaac pulled Ben closer to him and the two of them settled down on the couch to watch the rest of the movie, Eris jumping up and walking softly over to sleep on their legs.

The next morning Toby walked down, stifling a silent yawn with his hand as he walked past the two on the couch to go to the kitchen.

"Morning Ben, morning Isaac," he said to the two.

"Morning," Isaac said back, Ben mumbling the same.

Toby yawned and shuffled past the two and out the room.

Isaac sighed and held up three fingers.

He dropped one.

He dropped the second.

He dropped the third and Toby skidded back into the room and threw himself at Isaac.

Unfortunately however his foot caught the forgotten bowl from last night and he disappeared behind the couch.

"You okay?" Isaac asked as Ben was too busy falling onto Isaac in laughter.

"Are you?" Toby asked, his head popping up like a mildly-dazed 'whack-a-mole' and pulling his younger brother into a hug.

"Yeah, better anyway," Isaac said, giving Ben's hand a squeeze under the blanket.

Toby pulled himself up and shook Isaac by the shoulder.

"I'll go sort breakfast," Toby said, smiling at his little brother and leaving. He slid on the bowl again but didn't fall over this time.

"I'll go give him a hand, pancakes sound good?" said Isaac as he stood up.

"Yeah, have we even got any mix?" Ben asked, wrapping himself in more of the blankets.

"Eh, it's early, if we don't I'll make a quick trip to town," he said, kissing Ben's cheek before he left the room.

Ben smiled at Isaac before turning back to the tv to channel surf.

"Took you two long enough,"

Liu was walking down the stairs, tying the cord of his dressing gown as he descended the stairs.

"Oh shut up!" Ben said as Liu sat down, "With how you and Toby danced around each other for a year, you have no place to talk,"

"Shut up," Liu grumbled after a moment and settled in to watch what Ben had put on.

"Getting pancake mix!" Isaac said as he walked past to go get a jacket.

"Ok," Ben said, patting the sofa down to try and find his phone so he could get Teer to follow Isaac in case something happened.

"Hey Liu," Isaac said as he went back upstairs.

"Hey Isaac," Liu called after him, "Feeling better?"

"Way better," Isaac called back as he climbed up the stairs, passing E.J as he went.

"Oh, hey," E.J said with a smirk, drawing the word out as he walked past them to the kitchen.

"What's up with..." Ben asked and Liu answered before he could finish.

"Well... last night he headed down for a drink," Liu said and Ben started blushing furiously, "He didn't say what he saw, but I can make a fairly good idea on what it was," he finished with a sing-song tone and a smirk of his own.

"... and bananas, and chocolate chips, and strawberries..." Sally listed off excitedly, swinging off one of Isaac's arms.

"Yes," he said as he laughed, "Yes to all,"

At that point Toby came back through with a mug of coffee and a can of juice, tossing Isaac his jacket as he passed, with L.J and Masky.

Sally started dragging Isaac to hurry up, nearly pulling him over as a result, as Eris spun on the floor, her leash in Sally's hand.

"Careful, Sally," Liu called after them, "You don't want to break Ben's new boyfriend just as we got him back!"

"Oh, Ben's got a boyfriend?" Toby said, sounding a little disappointed, sitting down next to Liu and giving him the coffee, "Who? Have we met him?"

"It's me!" Isaac called quickly before shutting the door.

As the two of them hurried down the path they could see Sally dancing around happily, the prospect of Isaac being back and pancakes positively overwhelming her while Eris tugged on her leash to get them to hurry up.

"Oh," Toby said, taking a drink of the can.

Liu held up three fingers.

He dropped one.

He dropped another.

Just as he dropped the third Toby spat his drink out over the table.

"WHAT!"

Toby looked at Ben, then to Liu.

"I WIN!" he shouted before laughing maniacally and clapping frantically.

Ben looked around the room, confusion over-riding his facial expressions as he watched the scene unfold... then, as if someone slammed on a lightbulb, it hit him.

"Wait... did you guys make a bet on me and Isaac?" he asked, mildly annoyed.

"Yeah," L.J said, flicking through the notebook.

"How did..."

"As obvious as Toby's obsession with waffles," Masky muttered, groaning with envy as he watched Liu take a sip of his coffee.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Endnotes.

Well, did you like the updated bits?

There was definitely a few things that changed over the time that I wrote the EXTRAS that this is based off and I definitely needed to add a bit more to it.

So, I can't wait to see the responses to this one.

Also, I think I know why the chapters might seem a little shorter now.

Since the responses are at the bottom, you can see how far the slider is from the top of the screen and judge on how much story there was.

Before, when I had the responses at the top, the slider would have been a lot closer to the bottom and you wouldn't be able to see how big the chapter was.

So it's all about perspective, you see?

Hehehe, puns...

But, I've also to get the responses for chapter 69 out the way first.

 **(X) Review (X)**

wow-im-satan;

Well, I want that on a shirt.

"I will NOT be mature, I am Satan and I can do what I want,"

Thank you for that image... also burn in... well, you're back garden I suppose...

Thank god... hehehe...

I'M GLAD THAT YOU LIKED IT!

I'm glad that you liked what I did with everyone.

 **(X) Review (X)**

mewmaster89;

Thank you.

Isaac's alright, Voldy can go suck a fermented egg.

I think that you'll find that you can.

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

Sounds charming.

If I could put a gif of me rolling my eyes here, I would.

Ooh... that's unfortunate...

You've gotten DigitalMagic, now let loose the jokes.

Well, what did you think of my little trick before uploading?

I do know how he's going to get to Hogwarts, I've got that planned out.

Well, not for a bit... I can't wait to do what I've got planned.

Possibly...

See you next week,

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

Do you worship the ancient ones?

HERETIC!

Burn her in the name of Holy Terra!

I know what I'm doing, have faith... heretic!

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

I'm gonna need to bathe my hands after typing all this...

I think an EXTRAS with Colin as a Jay type person would be fairly interesting.

I'll get my buggy fix later then.

L.J will definitely have fun with that.

That is... surprisingly logical... ok then.

Aww... now I'm upset...

I do approve of the Hunter's funeral, that's how I'm going.

Big ass pyre with my body wrapped head to toe in sheets.

The lactose intolerance thing has surprisingly mellowed out, not had any problems lately.

You do need to watch the Animaniacs, holy hell it was amazing.

I think I could dedicate an EXTRAS chapter to Hagrid meeting all the CP animals.

Yeah, I don't think that those teeth were connected to the venom sacs, so it should be fine.

I really enjoyed changing up the third task a bit, definitely made it a little more fun for me.

I kept that the same since it was one of the things that I approved of in the actual task.

The part with Devil's Snare was fun to write, and of course, I had to have Isaac nearly burn the place down at some point.

It wasn't a gut feeling that prevented him from taking the cup, it was the fact that he didn't need to win to prove he was the best.

Cedric would have died anyway, his death is something that I had been planning to use for a thing for a while, you'll see later.

I'm going to pretend that I didn't foreshadow Wormtail's fate harder than the shadow cast by the Death Star there...

I will never stop the snark.

Of course, Isaac wouldn't find Voldy scary.

I love that typo, I'll probably fix it at some point in the future, though, since a friend had a very good idea that I really want to do. Basically, it sends a completely finished version of the story off to get turned into an actual book. I won't be publishing it or selling it, but it'd be nice to have an actual copy that I can read without needing a computer.

Yes, explosions are a must.

I'm glad that I don't have to spell each thing that's happening in the story out, and yes, he was.

Smile get's all the sosigs.

The magical idiots are definitely up shit's creek now.

They don't know the entire truth just yet, all they know is that there are parts of the stories that are a little closer to reality than fiction, from their point of view.

Luna has only met L.J, yes, but she's aware of a couple others.

I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter, hope that you like this one too.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Honebar;

I'm glad that you like it.

I will never leave this world, not really.

EXTRAS will be kept going since I don't think I'll ever run out of little story ideas for that.

Smile is such a good boy, yes.

I'm glad that you liked my version of the graveyard battle.

Fireballs for days.

Have fun with your sleep... 'evil cackle'

I'm glad to hear it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

I hope that this was to your satisfaction.

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Glad to hear it.

Oh... that's not too pleasant.

I'm glad that you liked the chapter.

I'll read it if you ever send it out.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

Yes, I do.

Not exactly...

Erm... that sounds... yeah, I could probably make an EXTRAS like that.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

It's no prob, I enjoy long reviews.

Those all sound like very interesting choices of weapons, I still prefer high explosives and sniper rifles, though.

Toby definitely had that moment.

Yep, he's dead.

Fudge does not live to his name since fudge is delicious and that man is irritating.

Dumbles is getting frantic, you'll see what I've done soon enough.

Smile has had worse, don't you worry about the big floofer.

Isaac's going to have had his card punched, don't worry about that either.

I think that Isaac's one kidnapping away from free pizza.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

I'm glad that you liked the chapter, Isaac will be fine.

I shall keep calm and carry on.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

STOP IT!

Upload at your scheduled interval!

Ooh... that's unfortunate...

Keep doing the live review;

Heheheh, I liked the boggart, I got to do the Team Rocket thing.

Yeah, I go 'uh' as well so I got stumped until Rowling blessed us with the answer.

God damn it... hold on, I need to google what the hell the Spiders of Mirkwood are...

Fucking, I knew I should have watched the Hobbit movies.

No, it was just an Acromantacula that was dumped into the maze... I DID IT AGAIN, GOD DAMN IT!

I think that that's an EXTRAS chapter waiting to happen, they just keep passing it since they think it's a trap.

I was actually listening to that while writing that part... STOP WATCHING ME!

He would never hear the end of it if he did tell them what the spell was.

I think that is perfect foreshadowing on how Pettigrew will die.

Nope, he couldn't even do that. All that preparation to fight Isaac and Voldemort still fucked it up.

Hehehe... that's funny...

Oh, what do you call them?

I loved having Toby and Smile knock him over, the image of him falling just amuses me so much.

Smile is such a good boy, isn't he?

Thalmann is goals, I think we can all agree on that.

I loved just having him verbally bitch slap people every time he walks into a room with magical, it's my favourite recurring thing in the story.

I think he'd let him live in torment for a few weeks before finally being merciful and letting him go... over a cliff...

I'll read that one-shot if you ever get round to making it.

This is too weird... go back to making me write another bit onto the chapter before uploading.

I too pity the people who don't read EXTRAS, they're missing out on a lot.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Some random trap (Guest);

Review on chapter 14.

Ooh, I love traps!

Yeah, I'm a big Supernatural fan. Got a poster from Displate for Supernatural recently, can't wait until it arrives.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Iheartlife888 (Guest);

I understand that people might think that I'm ignoring the CP side in favour of the HP side more often than not, and I do agree sometimes.

However, this is a story seeing how different Harry would have turned out if been raised by Creepypastas.

I do have a few things planned, even a few chapters for EXTRAS where the canon gets ignored big time, but as long as Isaac is going to Hogwarts, then things are going to be similar to the canon stories.

I'm not having a go at you, and I'm sorry if it seems like that.

I do want to do more CP heavy stuff, but with how the story is going for now... well, just wait until 5th year, I'm throwing HP canon into a fucking blender when that comes along.

I love salt, especially when my boyfriend [REDACTED FOR SEXUAL CONTENT] and when he [REDACTED FOR SEXUAL CONTENT] with my [REDACTED FOR SEXUAL CONTENT] and when he takes my cane and [REDACTED FOR SEXUAL CONTENT].

Aah... I like that...

 **(X) Review (X)**

DramioneFantasist;

Thank you, I do plan to.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Savanna-chan;

I've tried finding the Creepypasta tag before, and the closest I could find was 'Games Slender' so now I've got Slenderman and Jeff up in the character box.

If you know where it is then PM me.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

I'm glad you liked it.

Ooh... gossip, let me get some tea and popcorn.

Ok, from a third-person view, both of you are at fault a little.

I understand both points, and that's all I'm going to say on the matter.

 **(X) Review (X)**

SilKitty (Guest);

Thank you, I'm glad that you like the story so far.

Hm?

What did I miss?

Erm... I don't think I've made any errors when writing dialogue so far...

People do finish each other's sentences in real life, and they can answer questions, or cut people off. Another thing it might be is if I'm repeating for either emphasis or effect... ok, if I'm repeating myself at times where it seems pointless then that might be when I've come back from having a break, probably to sleep or eat, and forgotten where I was and re-wrote it, or having an alternate view from a different character. I don't quite know what you're referencing as you didn't give an example.

Yes, Isaac cauterized his arm, and I did mention that it had re-opened upon Isaac catching the cup and being portkeyed back to Hogwarts.

I'll have a closer look when going over chapters in the future, maybe I can limit whatever it is you're talking about.

 **(X) Review (X)**

joshua. obryan. 549;

Hmm... I'll explain this in an actual chapter later, but Voldemort was the one to give the spy the poison and he was taking the antidote before the resurrection so that he could be resurrected with Isaac's blood.

If Voldemort didn't take the poison into consideration the poison then that would most definitely be causing him problems.

The poison was designed to weaken the immune system and cause breathing problems, it's essentially a blocker for the bodies ability to create antibodies.

... now that's an EXTRAS chapter for the future... Toby and Jeff are designing his training scheme if it happens, and there will be blood.

PFFT!

I'm laughing like The Emperor right now!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Ok, that was the last review of last weeks chapter.

I hope you've all enjoyed, and I'll see you next week,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit so if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	71. Chapter 71, Why not lemons?

Chapter 71, Why not lemons?

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Now... I'm assuming that all of you know what a lemon is when in the context of fan fiction...

Yeah, you know what's coming, enjoy.

SteamGeek01.

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Ben watched as Toby danced a little in his chair.

To be honest, if anyone had the right to be happy right now then it was Toby.

His focus was drawn away from the crude attempt at dancing that Toby was doing when his phone buzzed; Teer's reply.

#Why's Isaac fighting Sally?#

Ben frowned and started writing out a reply, but just before he hit send he got another message.

#OH! Actually going to a town, not fighting, gotcah#

#They're going to town to do a bit of shopping for breakfast,#

Ben rolled his eyes as Teer flashed downstairs.

"Ignore the first," he said as he made his way out the doors, passing Clockwork as he went.

"Hey... did L.J finally make an itching powder that works on Toby?" Clockwork asked, paused in the doorway. Her voice slightly slurred from a lack of sleep.

"Nah, Isaac's back up and about," Masky said, moving past her because he had resisted getting coffee for as long as he could.

"Yeah, saw him 'nd said hi as I came back," Clockwork stifled a long yawn against the back of her hand, "I'm going to bed, let me know if anything happens..." she trailed off, making her way upstairs.

Toby finally stopped trying to dance and turned to Ben.

"So, what we all doing now?" he asked.

"Well..." Liu took another sip of coffee, "I say that when the kid gets back we have breakfast then go out and have some fun,"

"Morning, Sully," Masky sighed, knowing that if the three of them were going out then a coroner somewhere was going to be having a very busy day soon.

Things at The Mansion had calmed down for a few minutes as everyone either went to sleep from working at night or woke up and milled around to find something to eat.

Then Ben's phone buzzed.

#I can't find them#

#What do you mean you can't find them?# Ben replied.

#I mean, that one cannot confirm the visual location of the two targets in question#

Ben sighed, telling everyone to give him a moment, and crawled into the t.v.

"It's a small town, how can you not find them?" he asked Teer, reappearing in his phone a few moments later.

"I mean, they're not here," Teer said, raising his phone a little higher so nobody could see Ben floating on the screen, "I flashed over here, waiting for them to catch up, but they never got here,"

Ben sighed and started looking for Isaac's phone.

"He's four states over!" Ben cried out in disbelief, "How can he... oh..."

The sound of a palm meeting a forehead left the speakers of Teer's phone.

"Isaac and Sally bumped into Clockwork as she came back," he explained, "They probably ended up going through the Slender-port that she came through,"

Teer stopped walking along the street.

"Then we might have a problem..."

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Isaac waved back as Clockwork went back to The Mansion.

"So, what do you want to get for your pancakes?" he asked Sally, looking around at the comforting trees that encompassed his home.

"I want blueberries, and chocolate, and strawberries, and honey, and bacon... do pancakes taste nice with lemons?" Sally broke off, handing Isaac the leash as she skipped over the roots.

"I don't know... why don't we get some and find out?" Isaac said, untangling himself from when Eris had run around his legs.

"Yes, why not lemons?" Sally said in an authoritative voice.

"Indeed, why not lemons?" Isaac agreed as he looked around, "I'd have thought we'd be at the road by now... and is something burning?"

He and Sally paused for a moment to look around, trying to find where they had gotten turned around.

"OI!" the two of them spun to look at a small group of people that had come up behind them, each of them holding a gun and pointing it at them.

Isaac pulled Sally behind him, tugging on Eris' leash to bring her closer.

"What you two doin' here?" the one in front said, the other two moving around him, their guns still trained on them.

"Just walking our dog," Isaac said, planting his feet firmly on the ground when he heard Sally whimper behind him.

"Long way from the city to be walking a dog," the one on the left said.

"Oh, how time flies," Isaac said, putting a comforting hand on Sally's shoulder.

"You wouldn't have happened to see some freaky chick with a fucked up eye pass through here, wouldn't you?" the one on the third slurred slightly and Isaac could smell the whisky from where he was.

"What's it to you?" Isaac asked.

"Does he mean Clocky?" Sally asked, tugging on the back of Isaac's jacket.

Unfortunately, the man in front heard her.

"I think you'd better come with us," he said, waving the gun towards a soft amber glow in the distance.

Isaac kept Sally close to him as she picked up Eris and hugged her close to her chest.

The men led them to a barn next to a blazing barn house.

"Get in," the man pushed Isaac forward and Isaac just barely managed to avoid bumping into Sally and Eris.

"Do you want to play with them?" Isaac asked Sally, hoping that she was in the mood.

Sally shook her head violently, "No, they're mean," she said, her eyes watery and wide with fear.

Isaac cursed inside his head.

Sally's mood to kill people flipped on a dime at times and many at The Mansion thought that if she was a little older then she could have been classified as bi-polar.

And right now she wasn't in the mood, so she wasn't going to do it, so Isaac was basically on his own with a demon dog in training and a scared eight-year-old.

"Now, you're gonna tell us where we can find this, 'Clocky'," the apparent leader said as two others joined them.

"So what'd you do to get on her bad side?" Isaac asked, stalling for time and looking around.

His eyes fell on a few red canisters not too far away.

"That freaky bitch was sticking her nose in places where it don't belong," the leader said, pulling the slider back and pointing it at Isaac's foot, "Now, why don't you give her a little ring for us,"

"Don't have my phone," Isaac said as his phone started ringing.

The leader raised an eyebrow as Isaac kept a poker face that Hoodie would have claimed credit for teaching him.

Isaac slowly put his hand into his pocket and answered the call.

"Hello?" Isaac asked calmly.

#"Hey, Specs, you alright?"# Ben's concerned voice came through the speaker, #"Also you need to clean your ears, I think I can see a potato growing in there,"#

"I'm fine, just met a few friends of Clockwork's," Isaac said, looking at the canisters, "I'm gonna count this as number five, by the way, and I'm gonna give you to Sally now,"

#"Isaac, help is on it's..."# Isaac didn't hear the rest as he gave Sally his phone.

"Make sure that Ben can see this," he whispered to Sally before turning back to face the men.

"So, I'd like to thank you for the lovely tour of your trash heap of a home, but I promised someone special to me that I'd make him pancakes so we'll be leaving now," Isaac said as he cocked back his arm.

The man before him laughed so much he let the gun fall away so it was pointing down at the floor.

"You... you... you really think you can take on the lot of us?" he said, pausing for breaths between laughter.

Isaac looked the man in the eyes, smirked, then snapped his fingers.

Blue flames circled around his hand before engulfing it.

The men were taken aback, who wouldn't be, and some of them were transfixed by the boy with the flaming hands so much that they forgot about the guns in their hands.

"Yes, I do,"

Isaac gritted his teeth and threw a ball of blue flames towards the canisters.

As it flew towards its target, the leader snapped out of his stupor and raised the gun back to Isaac.

Two large bangs were heard.

One from the fireball hitting the canisters and creating a much, _much_ , larger fireball that engulfed a few of the members in its wake, the other's getting blown away; and one from the gun in the leader's hands.

Isaac cried out and fell to the ground, Sally screaming and dropping down as well as Eris whimpered.

Letting go of his bleeding arm for a moment, Isaac pulled Sally and Eris out of the now

flaming barn before dropping down next to an old, rusty, car that looked as if it had been there for over a decade.

"Please tell me that I got them all," Isaac groaned, pressing hard against the latest gash in his arm.

Sally only whimpered as she clutched Eris close to her.

A skidding noise got their attention as Toby slid past them, falling flat against the ground before kicking up dirt and stones in his hurry to get to them.

"Hi..." Isaac tried to be cheerful, but the sudden surge of pain from his arm had him hiss and stop moving.

"What did they..." Toby broke off as he looked over Isaac's arm.

A short distance away from them, Sully was giving one of the men that had staggered out of the flames a free cavity check with a crowbar.

"Looks like you were graved, what hit you?" Toby asked.

"Bullet," Isaac said as a soft buzzing from his phone, still clutched tightly in Sally's hand, heralded Ben pulling himself free.

"Dude!" Ben seemed like he was barely able to restrain himself, "You... he... that..."

He broke off in a series of mad cackles.

"I know," Isaac nodded at him, "I..."

Isaac took in a sharp hiss of breath as Toby's hands got a little too close to the burning skin that he was fighting every urge to seal up with another flaming hand, but E.J had told him to avoid self-cauterizing as much as he could when he had looked him over in the infirmary.

Sully came over and picked up Sally.

"Let's get him back to E.J," Sully growled, adjusting Sally as she wriggled into a comfier position.

E.J, as it turned out, was ready to slap someone.

Toby offered to stand there as his hitting post as he couldn't feel anything and that was the story of how Toby ended up with a very red handprint on his shoulder blade.

Isaac winced as he looked at the fresh bandages that were covering the bullet wound.

"Well... Masky wins a couple of twenties off me," Toby said, tossing Isaac his shirt.

"You made a bet on when I'd get shot?" Isaac asked, quite affronted by the fact.

When Toby and E.J started laughing that only served to cause Isaac confusion.

"You and Ben were made for each other," E.J said as he tossed the leftover bandages into the drawers.

Under supervision from Toby, Tim, Brian, and Sully, Isaac was able to go shopping while Clockwork stayed behind with Sally.

She was also staying behind to make sure that Jeff and Jane didn't level The Mansion _too_ hard.

Ben was practically glued to Isaac's side throughout the trip, rattling of nonstop about the fact that Isaac had finally _thrown a fireball_!

Unfortunately for Ben, E.J had put Isaac's little fire tricks on the 'no list' until his arm had fully healed up.

By the time that they had bought enough supplies to make enough pancakes for a small family of twenty-four, it was closer to lunch than breakfast.

That didn't stop them from baking next to half or more of them and making every possible combination that they could with the toppings they had bought... though... the possibly strangest thing came as soon as they walked into the living room.

Jeff and Jane were being... civil... to each other...

Clockwork looked up at them, bemused, from her seat on the floor with Sally.

"Well, they had one of their weekly sparring sessions..." Clockwork said later when they were getting the first batch of pancakes ready, "... and I was playing with Sally in the living room, tea party, y'know, and they came through at the same time.

Sally invited them to join in, both of them denied it, and I may have... well, I said; 'Oh, they're far too childish to get along and join us for tea'... and now they're in a contest to one-up the other in who can be politer whilst in Sally's company,"

Isaac, Ben, and Toby leant back to look at Sally, Jane, and Jeff sitting not too far away.

Sally was slicing bananas and the two of them were helping her with how to properly cut them.

Jeff peeled the next banana as Jane passed the bowl to Masky to put on the pancakes.

For a brief moment, when Sally bowed her head to correct her grip, Jeff and Jane exchanged a brief look of intense hatred before going back to helping Sally.

"This is weird..." Ben whispered to Isaac, taking the chance to nick a strawberry from his plate.

"Yeah..." Isaac whispered back, planting a quick kiss on his cheek before stealing half a pancake in retaliation for his strawberry.

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Locklear and Isaac were walking through the entrance of a hospital a couple of states over, Locklear wearing some stolen scrubs and a coat, while Isaac was wearing a brace that spanned from wrist to the upper of his arm.

The good doctor had made a passing comment the other day about how he was surprised that Isaac hadn't broken a bone in all his times at The Mansion.

Isaac had told him about the bludger in his second year and when Locklear had asked about anything after that he had decided that Isaac needed a check-up.

"Old wounds..." Locklear muttered as he looked over the X-rays, "All healed up, nothing seems broken, not fractured, splintered, dislocated..."

He started muttering to himself as he continued going over the images.

After a few minutes of evaluation, Locklear declared himself satisfied with Isaac's scans and they prepared to leave.

As they made their way out, something got Locklear's attention.

Somebody had collapsed on the ground not too far from them, but while people gathered to help him two other people jumped the counter of the in-store pharmacy and began emptying everything they could into bags before someone spotted them.

The two of them ran out of the store, the third on the ground running after them while they all laughed.

Locklear adjusted the tie under the vest he wore and turned to face Isaac.

"I believe that I am in need of assistance in this surgery," he said, "Care to be my assistant?"

"What's the op?" Isaac asked, grinning as he knew that if Locklear thought he was fit to fight, then he would be let back out into the field.

They had Ben find out where the three of them went, looking through every database that he had access to, which pretty much was every database there was, for a match from the surveillance footage from the hospital.

He found out who they were, where they lived, and where they had gone in less than ten minutes.

Each of them had split, taking a car in a different direction away from the hospital.

Locklear sent Isaac after the first one, as he seemed to be leaving the state, while he went for one that was hiding not too far from the third.

Around twelve miles from the state border, the first robber had stopped to refuel his car.

After filling the tank with however much twenty dollars could get him, he made his way to the back of the fuel stop to relieve himself.

While he was pre-occupied Isaac made his way over to the car, opened the fuel cap, and dropped something he had made with Toby into the tank.

The robber came back around from his quick trip to water the wildflowers around the back and got into the car, casting a glance at the teenager that had randomly appeared that was leaning against the station's wall.

For a moment, it seemed as if the teen was watching him.

He shook his head as he climbed inside the car, speeding off as he wanted to get out of the state as fast as he could.

Isaac watched as the car got smaller... and smaller... and smaller... until a large fireball erupted in the distance.

Humming quite happily to himself, he walked back to the trees, heading off to where Locklear was waiting after he had finished with the second robber, sending a text off to the Doc as he did so.

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Locklear looked up from the twitching body before him to see what message he had received.

A brief smirk flitted across his face as he read that Isaac had dispatched the first robber before a groan and a whimper from the second robber reclaimed his attention.

"Now, my poor, unfortunate, junkie prey," Locklear said, dusting down his coat, "You may be thinking that this is the end...

It probably is," Locklear admitted with a shrug, "But, I will admit, there is definitely a way for you to live long enough to call for an ambulance,"

Locklear dropped a phone onto the ground next to him.

"There are four lacerations that are letting a considerable amount of blood leave your veins at the moment," Locklear said, gesturing at the places that he had sliced open, "Three of them are merely deep cuts that will require a few stitches, or super glue, if they're under-stocked because of wastrels like yourself who think that they are entitled to the five-finger-discount... where was I?" he broke off, trying to think about what he had been explaining while the man on the floor groaned and whimpered.

"Oh, right, your rapidly approaching demise," Locklear said, quite a bit too cheerily for the topic at hand, "Three of the aforementioned lacerations are basically scratches, however, one of them, I assure you, is quite fatal.

If you can stem the flow from the fatal incision, then will most likely last until the ambulance arrives... that is, if you can even reach the phone to call it,"

With that, he left the bleeding man on the ground to his fate.

For you see what the good doctor had failed to mention to the dying junkie, was that the cut was fatal was because it was causing a large amount of internal bleeding.

Even if he managed to hold the cut closed on the outside, he would still bleed out long before the ambulance arrived.

A brisk five-minute walk later, Locklear was approaching a figure sitting on a low stone wall.

"Heyo," Isaac said, "Yours give you any trouble?"

"Hardly, probably never thought to fight back," Locklear said, sounding rather bored by the experience.

"Don't think mine even realised he was being killed... until he exploded," Isaac shrugged.

"You and your brother are addicted to explosives," Locklear tutted, "You're going to end up blowing your own hand off one of these days,"

"Least I know a good surgeon," Isaac smiled cheekily.

"Good?" Locklear scoffed, "I could outperform any doctor at that hospital if I were to be bothered to prove it. I would have to take a seven-year-long break to become rusty enough to qualify as 'good',"

Isaac rolled his eyes and turned around to look at the hovel of an apartment block behind them.

"So, shall we give the patient a home visit?" Locklear asked.

"Third floor, room fifteen," Isaac supplied as he jumped off of the wall, "And I've received a warning from dispatch, apparently he may be passed out from overdosing,"

"Well, we'd better assess his situation," Locklear said as they made their way into the building.

True to what Ben had told him, the third robber was lying in bed, muttering to themselves, and clearly high.

"It seems almost too cruel to kill him while he is like this," Locklear said, taking a scalpel out from a portable kit that he had been gifted from the pyromaniac currently exploring the apartment.

The man was too drugged up to realise that there were two intruders in his apartment, one of which was raiding his fridge for a snack and the other carving a few things out of his stomach.

After fifteen minutes of impromptu organ donation, Locklear sanitised the tools he had used and found Isaac going through the drawers in the man's room.

"Do you think that Masky would let me and Toby make a foundry?" he asked Locklear, picking up the few things that might have been of value to sell.

"If you got him a nice enough bottle of whisky," Locklear shrugged, stowing the scalpel kit back in his coat pocket, "But, for now, I think we had better mask our presence here,"

Isaac pocketed the valuables in his hoody pocket as he made his way back to the kitchen.

He pulled the stove out from the wall far enough for him to reach down and kick at the pipe that connected it to the gas mains.

After a solid minute of being bashed, the pipe broke off and gas started to hiss into the room.

Isaac hopped off of the stove and pushed it back.

"You know..." Locklear sighed, "You could have just turned the knobs and left them un-lit,"

"But this makes a bigger boom," Isaac said innocently.

Locklear sighed again.

"Alright, you finish up your little bonfire, I'll wait outside," he said, leaving the door closed to keep more of the gas in.

Isaac hurried over to the bedroom and grabbed a shirt from the over-stuffed drawers.

With a quick snap of his fingers, a small blue flame appeared around the tip of his index finger.

The shirt caught in a few seconds and Isaac tossed it onto the bed; where the flames gradually spread to the other fabrics in the room as he ran out.

Closing the door behind him, Isaac made it to the road where Locklear was stood.

"Right, shall we..."

Isaac was cut off by a large explosion that blew out the windows of a room on the third story of the apartment block behind them.

"Let's just leave," Locklear said as shouts of fear started up, people screaming as the smell, and sight, of flames filled the air.

Isaac sighed, stretching out his arms as they walked back through the woods that surrounded The Mansion.

A sharp hoot came from above and it was the only warning Isaac got before something white with wings clipped him around the head.

Locklear snorted in amusement as Hedwig flew around the trees for a few more moments before coming to a stop on Isaac's outstretched arm.

"Hey, girl," Isaac said, stroking her chest feathers, "How you been? Sorry I've not been paying attention to you lately. You're water bowl alright? How about your food bowl?"

All he got in return was another hoot, a much happier sounding one this time as, you know, owl's don't speak English.

What did surprise Isaac, though, was when something around the size of a large pebble crawled down Hedwig's back and nestled itself in Isaac's hair.

"Oh, hi Fizz," Isaac reached a hand up to rub Fizz's back, "You doing alright, all wound up nice on the inside?"

Fizz let out a series of happy little squeaks as he scratched his back so Isaac took that as a sign that he was.

When Isaac finally reached The Mansion he found that not much was going on.

Masky, Toby, Liu, and Hoodie were lounging in the living room; the sounds of Smile and Eris playing with Sally in the back garden faintly making their way through the walls; the sound of heavy rock music from the garage told him where Jeff was.

After catching up with Toby and the others, Masky agreeing that if Locklear thought him fit to go out then he could join in with jobs again, Isaac made his way up to his room.

"We'll get your hair back under control tomorrow," Toby shouted after him.

Isaac paused at the top of the stairs to pull a few strands of hair down over his face.

It was definitely a lot longer than it had been the past few years, he could pull it to just under his jaw now.

As he walked back into his room Hedwig took off from her perch on his shoulder to return to her perch; Fizz scurrying down his back to join her, claiming a smaller perch below Hedwig.

Isaac looked at his watch.

"Hmm, I need to get a new battery for it," he muttered to himself, finding the hands frozen for an unknown amount of time.

He had just settled on his bed, to take a seat and think of what he needed to do, when someone knocked on the door.

Getting up, Isaac was surprised to find Ben standing outside.

"Hey," Isaac said, standing aside to let Ben in.

"Hi," Ben said, a faint blush on his cheeks, as he stood in the room.

An awkward moment of silence passed as Isaac closed the door.

"So..." Ben started slowly, "How was your day?"

"Pretty good," Isaac smiled, leading Ben to sit down on the bed with him, "Locklear's cleared me to go back out on jobs, blew up a couple of guys, and have nothing to do for the rest of the day,"

Ben smiled and leant into Isaac's side as an arm was stretched around his shoulders.

"Glad you had fun," Ben said, a smile growing on his face as he enjoyed the warmth.

For a reason that Ben probably knew well, he always felt the cold more than most.

It was one of the reasons that he had always enjoyed Isaac's company.

In some of the earlier years at The Mansion, it was a bit obvious that Isaac was, for lack of a better word, touch starved.

For around eight years, Isaac had never felt any physical comfort.

Whenever someone had hugged him, picked him up, or even put a comforting hand on his shoulder, he would practically melt into their touch.

Ben had noticed this and made it a point to give Isaac some form of comfort whenever he seemed particularly down.

During that time, he had noticed something about the boy.

He was practically a human radiator.

Whenever you were in contact with Isaac for more than a few seconds you could feel a definite rise in temperature.

Looking back on it... it did make a bit more sense now that they knew Isaac seemed able to conjure flames at will...

It even fit in with what they had been told about back in his first year at... _the school_... the name left a bad taste in Ben' mouth, and about how when Professor...Quarrel... Quail... Quirrell had touched him his skin had burnt and blistered.

"So..." Isaac speaking derailed Ben's current train of thought, "You wanna play some games?"

Ben looked over at the t.v and the consoles attached.

"You have _so_ many updates to go through," he said and Isaac groaned.

There was nothing that Ben could do against updates... or, to better phrase it, there was nothing that Ben _would_ do against updates.

After plugging everything back into the mains, and letting everything start going through their updates, he and Ben settled down on the floor.

They had moved the duvet onto the ground, so as to make it comfier, and now they were watching loading bar... after loading bar... after loading bar...

Isaac groaned and let his head fall back against the bed with a thud that caused the spring of the mattress to shake.

"Why did I leave it unplugged for so long?" Isaac asked himself.

Ben rolled his eyes at Isaac's antics and merely curled up against his side.

Later on in the evening, Toby knocked on the door.

"Yo, dinner's ready," he said, "I made sure that there's a BBQ base on one of them, don't quite know which one is which... but that's part of the fun,"

When he didn't hear a reply he slowly opened the door to check on Isaac, wondering if he was having an early night.

What he found was that the t.v had gone to standby from a lack of use.

But what drew his attention the most was the sight of Ben and Isaac curled up against each other on the floor, the duvet wrapped around them turning them into a two-person sushi roll.

Toby felt a soft smile crawl on his lips as he closed the door to Isaac's room...

Before returning a few moments later with a lit cherry bomb that he threw into the room.

He cackled at the sight of Ben and Isaac falling over each other, getting further tangled in the duvet, and the squeal that Ben had made when it had gone off.

"Dinner's here," Toby said, putting as much whimsical happiness into his voice as he could, "And for the sake of Ben's health, you two better be dressed under there,"

As he left the room, Toby caught sight of their furiously red faces and burst out cackling once again.

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"What?" Isaac snapped up at the person stood above him.

"I need your help breaking him in," Laughing Jack said, the end of his nose an inch away from his face.

"What time is it?" Isaac growled.

"Half eleven in the morning," Jack supplied.

"Too goddamn early," Isaac huffed, turning over and pulling the duvet back around himself.

Another growl escaped him when Jack pulled the covers away.

"Come on, Ginger's feeling antsy and I thought you could calm him down a bit," Jack said as he gently waved a mug of freshly made hot chocolate over him, wafting the smell over him.

Isaac rose from the bed like a zombie, taking the mug carefully and taking a sip... and nearly dropped the mug.

"How hot did you make this?" Isaac asked, sucking in cold air over his scalded tongue, "Did you go to Yellowstone to get the water?"

Jack looked off for a moment.

"Remind me to try that later," he said after a moment, "Come on,"

Isaac sighed, putting the mug down and getting out of bed.

A brief swirl of smoke later and Isaac was in the carnival once more.

And he wasn't the only visitor that day.

Fred was sat at a desk, twelve or so zombie children around him, and it looked like he was fearful to even move a millimetre in case that set them off.

The zombie children were watching him with wide eyes, like he was some sort of attraction at an amusement park... which, in all fairness, he pretty much was at that point.

"Hey," Isaac said, wishing he had grabbed that mug of hot chocolate.

Fred jumped a little, the zombie children mimicking the action, as he looked up at Isaac.

"Jack," Isaac turned to face the clown, "Could you go grab my glasses while I ' _save_ ' Fred?"

Jack disappeared in a puff of smoke once more.

Isaac cracked his knuckles and looked at the zombie kids.

"Go get the marshmallows," he said.

The small crowd dispersed in mere seconds, leaving a pale Fred sitting on the tall, rickety, wooden stool.

"So, how ya been?" Isaac asked.

"Fine," Fred squeaked and Isaac rolled his eyes.

"Right, did Jack say what you were doing?" he asked him, pulling another stool alongside him.

"Prep work," Fred said, looking around in case the zombie children weren't actually gone.

"Aah," Isaac said, flinching as he tried not to sneeze, "Jack needs to dust this place more often...

Ok, prep work, he explain what it was?"

Fred looked around, still a fair amount of fear in his eyes, "He was talking, but I... I couldn't..."

"Couldn't hear him over the crippling fear that comes with being surrounded by zombie kids?" Isaac offered and Fred nodded rapidly.

"How can you..."

"Be around them?" Isaac cut him off while he tried to find the right words, "I... the only movie I had ever seen before coming to The Mansion was a zombie movie.

Certain decomposing corpses from my past wanted to try and use them to scare me into subservience, but it turns out that I really don't mind zombie movies," Isaac smirked.

"Plus, I can always bribe my way into their good books," Isaac said, nodding his head at the doorway.

Before Fred could ask what he meant, the twelve zombie children that had been there before had somehow turned into sixteen and each of them were holding a stick upon which was an impaled marshmallow.

Fred was back to acting like a statue as they crowded around them.

"Alright, line up," Isaac said, trying to crack his knuckles again.

The zombie children obediently lined up in front of Isaac, who had his hands outstretched, and an eager look settled in their eyes as they watched Isaac slowly lift his fingers... push them together...

Isaac smirked as they started to lean forward.

... then he clicked his fingers.

Blue flames circled his hands before settling and the zombie children applauded wildly.

Fred, meanwhile, had nearly fallen off his seat as he watched Isaac willingly set fire to his hands.

The zombie children all took it in turns roasting their marshmallows over the rippling blue flames, some of them even passing the marshmallows around for those who were having to wait.

A soft tugging at his trouser leg had Fred jump.

There was one of the smallest children in the group standing there, looking up at him.

She held up a stick with a crispy brown marshmallow, still smoking slightly, for him to take.

Reaching out with a shaky hand, Fred slowly took the stick from her.

Beaming up at Fred for a moment, she skipped back to the group with a new stick and marshmallow to be roasted.

"You know... this is definitely one of my weirder dreams..." Fred said, letting out a brief huff of laughter before taking a bite of the marshmallow.

"Sorry to break it to you, Freddie, but this is as real as the Whomping Willow's anger issues," Isaac snorted.

And, to his surprise, Fred snorted in laughter with him.

"See, that's how I know this is a dream.

A, Laughing Jack ain't real; and B, you can tell me and Fred apart,"

Isaac rolled his eyes for a moment, before turning to look at him.

"George?"

"Hey! There you go," George laughed, taking another bite out of the marshmallow.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Endnotes.

Alright, I'm... really tired, actually, been out two nights in a row when I started writing this.

I've got a plan in my head for the next few chapters, if you don't want a little context of what's happening over the next few weeks then just skip to the review section.

Ok, so this week was just another little fluff and action piece, Ben and Isaac + getting Isaac that one bit closer to his pizza... wait, I need to do a little counting...

He is one kidnapping away from getting pizza.

He needs 6.

Liu after 1st year, Jane after 2nd year, Locklear after 3rd year, Voldemort during 4th year, and this one now makes 5.

One more kidnapping and they get to go for pizza!

That's fun, so, back to the schedule.

Next weeks will either be something like this one, fluff and action and that one will either be Isaac talking to Toby about Hogwarts, or it'll be the one after that one.

Then, there will be the Dementors and I've got to decide who they affect, alongside Isaac.

After that, it's back to Hogwarts for... maybe 2 chapters before I throw canon out the window and start having a whale of a time.

But, that's all to come, and I've got reviews to get to.

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

Yeah, I would since it's an edited version of what I put up in EXTRAS last year.

THEY KISSED!

I'm not going to get a bunch of messages asking me when they get together anymore.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

THEY'RE TOGETHER!

The Mansion takes the stage for the next few chapters, that's for sure.

Don't apologise for being excited.

Isaac... well, I'm not going to spoil how I'm going to kill Voldemort just yet...

I have a plan for the Horcruxes, don't you worry.

Isaac will be going to Hogwarts, but I think everyone will like what happens...

THEY'RE TOGETHER!

 **(X) Review (X)**

SomeRandomDutchFangirl;

Welcome!

I hope you're feeling better.

I'm glad that you liked it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

I can make my readers cry?

Holy hell, I'm a much better writer than I thought I was.

I brought the DigitalMagic!

Well, you didn't get it this chapter anyway and I like being an evil cow, MWA-HA-HA.

Semi-lethal fluff? I don't know the meaning of 'Semi'...

Isn't that when a man isn't fully erect?

It's fine, oooh... can I try one of those?

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

I'll keep that in mind.

Ew... paying for stuff...

That sounds nice, I'd probably do the same.

It is possible that there would be a small amount of venom on the tooth...

I enjoyed my version of the third task.

Ben's going to be ecstatic while Toby's planning to look into getting him gloves that won't burn to ashes when he wears them.

Oooh... alcohol always makes things better, but I've got something a little more... fun planned.

Voldemort isn't scary when you learn he wears garter belts.

Fred's going to be coming back soon enough, he's got to go through Proxy stuff eventually... maybe this chapter or the next... hehehehe... I'm finally caving into the demands... or am I...

I bet you did.

I was going out later last week, so I uploaded a little earlier.

Well, I did go a little further into that this week, I had a bit of fun at Locklear's expense, didn't I?

They weren't meant to be cute, just wait until I reveal everything...

Dumbles is going to be a pile of blood and guts by the time this is over.

I really like writing Hoodie's scenes, I can do so much with him and not do any work half the time.

Well... you wouldn't blame him if he let Toby go ham on the place...

Yep, around a week to a week and a half, that sounds about right.

I liked having Ben help Isaac back to reality, and I've got even more planned for explaining it.

If Ben was still in The Mansion when Isaac got back I think he would have broken down for a while.

The reveal to the task is something I've been planning for a while.

Toby is a pretty good source of slapstick due to how everyone sees him in the fandom, he can have his serious moments, but people love to make him a goofball, so...

Masky is a master of morning sass, yes.

Yeah, I'm glad that you liked the chapter.

 **(X) Review (X)**

wow-im-satan;

F

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Sure, send it to me if you want.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Honebar;

Salt for popcorn, yes, salt is important.

I'm still going to be explaining about what happened to him in future chapters, don't you worry.

I think that Ben is one of the guys at The Mansion that went a little out of their way to make sure to make him feel as welcomed as possible when he arrived.

I don't think I could write a better way for them to get together, especially with what I had planned.

I like snuggling, especially with popcorn... or any food, really.

The scene where Isaac sees the real Ben was being built up for a while.

To a young kid, Ben's true self would probably be a little scary, so I had him glamour up and Isaac's only gotten quick glimpses every now and then.

I want pancakes now... curse you!

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

'SQUEE!'

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

I know, just having fun with words.

Smile is a good boy, yes.

BBQ base, chicken, pineapple, extra mozzarella.

I think that writing characters is definitely one of my strengths.

I did no such thing...

I really want to do that now, and don't limit alcohol, unless you're limiting my boyfriends because LIGHTWEIGHT!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

It is a little similar to the 10K special, yeah, because when I wrote it I started planning for how the story could go there, liked what I came up with, and adapted it a little for the main story.

 **(X) Review (X)**

etbagel2122;

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...

I'm glad you're happy!

Tell your friend to get dancing as well.

Glad your computer is alright.

I think I've handled the whole thing fairly realistically... or, as realistic as I can get for this world...

I'm just waiting until I get to write the over-protective older brother Toby moments.

 **(X) Review (X)**

nobody51;

e

 **(X) Review (X)**

AnnaThePineapple;

Welcome!

I'm glad that you liked it!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Iheartlife888;

It's fine, can't get better if I don't know what needs to be improved.

Ben and Isaac are together, and I think I did a good mix of fluff, action, drama, and insanity in this chapter.

... I'm not going to say anything to how Voldemort dies in this story.

Dumbledore's plans will be a little... well, no spoilers either.

The Creeps are pretty much freelance murderers, and do you really think that any of them, except maybe Hoodie, would have the tact needed to be a spy?

Heads will be rolling.

I'm glad that you like it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

k1ttycast1300;

Welcome!

I love this story too, main reason I keep it going.

I'm glad you think it's well written since I wrote a good few chapters while delirious from a fever, so if I can be lucid and write well then I don't really have an excuse for bad writing in future.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

That's better!

On the day of upload, as to be expected.

Yep, Kryoz is always my go-to when struggling to write.

Well... I'm not going to say anything about Dumbledore's plans just yet... I've already gotten a few good ideas about what he's going to do.

Everyone makes mistakes sometimes leave them alone.

DigitalMagic finally happened, and now I can torture everyone with fluff and angst!

'evil cackle'

'lightning flash'

I know the books are pretty, and I've seen a little of them, but not in years.

I've got a plan with my friends to watch all the movies over a weekend at some point, extended editions.

Ah, I was going to call them gas cans, but jerry can is a bit more fun to say.

Hmm...

Ben can choose whether or not he's affecting the game mechanics, and Smii7y's ability to pull off amazing shots...

I think it would be a tie, if Ben wasn't affecting the source code.

But, even then, Smii7y could still pull off some amazing tricks.

Ok, I'm going to pretend that that sentence isn't stalkerish as well...

Umbridge... I'm going to enjoy my plans with her.

Hope your chapter goes well.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Ok, that was the last review for this week.

I hope you all enjoyed this weeks chapter.

Something that I noticed was that I seem to have been forgetting a few characters here and there.

So, which characters who live in The Mansion do you think should get a little more time next week?

I'm not going to do much with Kagekao, Jason The Toymaker, Candy Cane and Candy Pop in the future since they aren't exactly residents, but I don't mind doing a quick scene here and there or having one of them pop into The Mansion for some reason or other if you give me one that's good enough.

And that's pretty much all I have to say.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy the next,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	72. Chapter 72, Fear and Delight

Chapter 72, Fear and Delight.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Who loves cliffhangers?

I do!

Who hates cliffhangers?

You do!

Who loves cliffhangers?

I do!

I swear that I've heard a song like that before... ANYWAY...

Welcome back to another chapter of this story, and I think I am definitely having fun with teasing you all with cliffhangers...

Gotta make it a point to do it more often...

Enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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Laughing Jack's carnival.

Isaac sat there as he watched George take a bite out of the marshmallow.

"So, what happens next?" George asked, still under the impression that this was all just a very immersive dream.

He turned to look at Isaac with a mildly curious look on his face.

"George... this isn't a dream," Isaac said, wondering when Laughing Jack would get back.

George rolled his eyes and scoffed.

Sighing to himself, Isaac got up and clicked his fingers once again.

He let the flames sit there for a few moments before shaking them out and slapping George in the face.

The ginger went down in seconds, turning on the floor to look up at Isaac with watery eyes and a hand raised to his stinging cheek.

"Now that you're paying attention," Isaac continued, "You get to see what Laughing Jack looks like when someone calls him out on his lies,"

George started looking around the inside of the tent, eyes widening in comprehension.

"This... it's... we're... real..." he stammered, incomplete sentences rushing through his mind.

"Yep," Isaac said, sighing and pulling him back to his feet, "And you won't believe the shit that Jack's going to be in,"

As if on cue, a swirl of black smoke heralded the arrival of the aforementioned clown.

"Got them," he said, tossing Isaac his glasses.

"Thanks," Isaac said, "So... what was all that about being able to tell twins apart?"

Laughing Jack turned to face him before back to the sight of who he thought was Fred falling backwards over a knocked over stool in his haste to get away.

Jack's expression of confusion changed to dawning realisation as fast as a blown lightbulb.

"Oh..." was all he had to say.

"Think 'Oh' doesn't quite cover it," Isaac muttered to him as George started hyperventilating.

Isaac sighed and went over to him, but George only scrambled further away.

"Ok," Jack sighed and began walking over to the fallen ginger.

The zombie children had retreated to a corner of the tent to watch what was going on.

George had crawled away until his back had hit something, a desk of drawers, and the crushing realisation that he was trapped in the room with zombies, a killer clown, and someone he had thought was his friend but now thought them nothing more than a stranger.

"Ok, George," Jack began as he crouched down before him, "This might be a little..."

He was cut off as George whipped out his wand and pointed it in his face.

"Don't you come any closer!" George shouted, every inch of him shaking as he desperately tried to keep his wand steady.

Jack tilted his head, trying to keep his mouth from curling from amusement... he was failing.

With a quick swipe, he had taken the wand from George and tossed it over his shoulder to Isaac.

George's head slammed back into the cabinet as he recoiled.

"Look," Jack clapped his hands together and pointed them at him, "I didn't mean to grab you, but, while you're here, you can help with something,"

Isaac sighed as he set George's wand down on the table.

"Look," Jack continued, "Technically, I'm supposed to kill you..."

George's eyes went wide with fear.

"... but, since Isaac's put in a fair few words over the years, and I don't want to go through the hassle of getting new beta-testers for my products, so...

I'm gonna give you a choice...

One, you go back home with your memory wiped, or two..."

"Send me home!" George cut across him, his voice thick with unshed tears of fear, "Send me home! Please, send me home..."

"... or... you could become a Proxy?" Jack finished his offer.

George shook his head.

"Please... send me home..." George asked again, his voice breaking slightly.

Jack sighed as he stood back up.

"Alright, Isaac, keep an eye on him," Jack said, turning and disappearing with another swirl of smoke.

George looked at the lingering whisps before his eyes fell back on Isaac.

"What... what _are_ you..." he asked, it sounded like he was just barely keeping himself together.

Isaac took in a deep breath.

"Well... in a nutshell...

I'm a mass murdering Proxy of The Slenderman who's been raised amongst some of the most notorious horror characters of the modern age, the little brother of 'Ticci Toby', the apprentice of Laughing Jack, and, quite recently, I'll add, the boyfriend of 'Ben Drowned'," he finished with a smile.

George's eyes were, somehow, getting wider with every word and his jaw was dropping slightly.

Everything he knew about his witty lower classman had been shattered, images of Isaac laughing maniacally as body after body fell around him.

Before he had the chance to say anything Laughing Jack returned with someone who was pulling on a black duster coat over a pair of grey shorts and vest.

"Right, where's the guy?" The Puppeteer asked, his eyes shining dimly from just being woken up.

"Ginger over there," Jack supplied, sitting down on a stool while Teer rolled his shoulders and turned to face George.

"Hello, I'll be your memory wiper for the evening," Teer introduced himself, "If you should feel a slight tingling sensation when you have your memories removed if this encounter then you know it is working, please try not to scream as I have a headache,"

George's face and body went numb as the string weaved around him.

Soon enough, George slumped over in a deep slumber.

"Right..." Teer yawned, "If you don't mind, I'm going to go back to sleeping off last night's... I don't know what, it was alcoholic and didn't taste like garbage that had been left out for..."

With another flash, Teer vanished from sight, still mumbling away to himself.

Jack and Isaac looked down at the unconscious form of George.

"So... can always tell the difference between twins, can you?" Isaac asked.

"Oh, shut up,"

Half an hour later, George had been returned to the burrow and Fred was sitting in the stool where his twin had been sat.

"So what am I doing here?" he asked, looking around at the zombie children eating the last of the marshmallows.

"Ok, so I've got a bunch of new playmates at the moment, which would normally be fine, except that when Jeff and Jane were going at each other they made a mess of my storehouse and now I can't find anything,"

Isaac groaned and let his head fall forward onto the table with a dull thud, which startled Fred because he hadn't noticed Isaac before that point.

"You woke me up at this ungodly time... _to clean_?" Isaac couldn't stress how grumpy he was feeling at that moment.

"Eh... yeah, pretty much, yeah," Jack shrugged.

There was a brief moment as Isaac lifted his head off the table, only to let it fall back down with a dull thud.

"I get an extra pizza when the sixth happens," he grumbled, getting up and walking off to the storehouse, calling back for Fred to follow him.

It ended up taking them near enough to two hours to clear everything back onto the shelves or boxes.

Laughing Jack would pop in every so often, grabbing something from the ground or the shelves they had prior sorted.

"Right... lunch?" Isaac asked Fred once the last of the stuffed animals and toys had been put away.

"Seriously?" Fred laughed a bit, "It's closer to supper for me, by now... wait, how am I going to explain where I've been this whole time, mom's been having us get ready to go for this thing that she and dad are doing,"

"You got everything packed?" Isaac asked, "Because you could say that you were busy sorting out what was too small, what needed cleaning, what was too tattered to wear, or, you could tell the truth, that you were doing something for L.J,"

Isaac rolled his eyes at the shocked expression on Fred's face.

"I don't mean the truth, just... follow," he told Fred.

As they passed through the carnival, kicking back a ball or two for the zombie children to chase after, Isaac led him to a workshop.

"L.J had Ben make these up for you, in case something like this ever happened," Isaac said, handing him a few sheets of paper.

Fred flicked through the paper, seeing the first three was just a basic copy of their contract, two being some of the toy surveys, and a couple more on the development of new items.

"Paperwork always glazes people's eyes over," Isaac said, "Say that you were going over your contract, checking next thing you're sending the review of for any mistakes, and they should buy it,"

"Thanks," Fred said, frowning as Isaac's stomach growled loudly.

"Come on, I know where the door back home is, we'll grab some grub before sending you home," Isaac said, hitting him on the chest and leading him out of Laughing Jack's Carnival.

Isaac pretended not to notice the way that Fred moved a little closer to him as they stepped through the doorway to The Mansion.

Fred's eyes seemed to jump from shadow to shadow, as if waiting for something to leap out at him.

He was... almost right...

They had just reached the hallway to the kitchen when Isaac quickly pulled Fred towards him and to the ground.

His other hand had stretched out through the place where the ginger's head had been a mere second before to catch the hilt of a knife.

"What the hell, Jane?" Isaac barked, pulling Fred behind him so he was between him and the glowering killer.

"Better question, what's _he_ doing here?" Jane hissed, pointing a second knife at Fred.

"It's almost as if he... oh, what's the word... a Proxy?" Isaac explained slowly, laying on as much sarcasm as he could manage, "He's got as much of a right to be here as I do,"

Jane's glower could have had any lesser man quail under her gaze.

"Just keep the clown's _pet_ from pissing everywhere," Jane sneered, turning and stalking off.

Isaac pressed his thumb against the hilt of the knife as he turned to face a pale Fred.

Sighing, Isaac threw the knife through a door into one of the storage spaces.

"Come on," Isaac said, tugging on Fred's sleeve to get him to move into the kitchen.

"T-that was Jane?" he asked as Isaac got a couple of glasses out the cupboard.

"Yep, don't take it personally, she overdoses on bitch-pills every morning," Isaac muttered as he looked out some juice for them.

"You don't say," Fred said through a brief huff of a laugh.

Someone clearing their throat got both of their attention.

"You bad mouthing Jane?" Jeff asked, fixing his gaze on Fred as he slowly walked forwards towards him.

Fred's mouth was a thin, pale, line as he leant back as Jeff got closer.

"Good on you," Jeff said cheerily, clapping Fred on the shoulder, "Granted, it's kinda low-brow to insult someone with so many glaring faults, but she's an utter bitch and a complete waste of space, so..." he broke off with a shrug, nicking the bottle of juice off of Isaac before he had a chance to use it.

"So, he's L.J's Proxy, is he?" Jeff asked, turning and looking at Fred with a critical eye as he took a swig straight from the bottle.

"Yes," Isaac said, snatching the bottle back, "He is.

Jack had him and me sort out the mess that you and Jane made,"

Jeff surveyed Fred for a few more moments before shrugging.

"Suppose he can do worse," he muttered, "So, take it Jane tried to off him?"

"Yep," Isaac said, "Don't know where she's gone off too... you ok?"

Fred looked as if he had been spaced out ever since Jeff had entered the room, his mouth hanging open slightly as his head slowly tilted to the side.

"Yeah... just... still can't believe that this is happening..." Fred said slowly.

Jeff chuckled and grabbed an apple out the fruit bowl, which actually had fruit in it for once, and wasn't filled with whatever they couldn't be bothered putting away that wouldn't spoil.

"Well, you know what they say, life's a roller coaster," he said, patting Fred on the shoulder and leaving the room.

Fred frowned as Isaac sighed and rolled his eyes.

"When L.J hears that someone attacked his Proxy, he is not gonna be pleased," Isaac explained, "Jeff knows this, and if L.J hears that Jeff was somewhat pleasant to you, then he's safe from whatever hell storm L.J's going to cook up,"

Fred gave another nervous glance to the doorway, wondering just how much trouble he was causing just by being there.

"Relax," Isaac said, kicking Fred gently, "You're allowed to be here, Proxies, Creeps, and Orbitors, not just Creeps,"

"Orbitors?" Fred asked.

After briefly explaining what an Orbitor was, using Troy and Sirius as examples, Fred was starting to get more used to being there.

"Come on, want you to meet someone," Isaac said with a warm smile.

Isaac led Fred through to the living room.

He told Fred to sit down as he went up to the t.v and knocked on the screen.

A few seconds later, BRVR skidded into sight.

"Hey, buddy," Isaac patted the screen where BRVR butted his head so he could try and receive head-scratches, "Ben there?"

"Pika-pi!" BRVR said happily, zooming off once more.

"His... his name's BRVR, right?" Fred asked.

"Close, it's pronounced, 'BRVR'," Isaac said and Fred gave a little hum of understanding.

The screen flickered as if someone was messing around with the input cables and Ben appeared on the screen.

"Hey, Specs," Ben smiled, seeing him standing before the t.v, "Oh, why's ginger here?"

Fred gave a meek wave as Isaac explained what he and Fred had done for L.J.

"Aah, so... what you up to?" Ben asked.

"Well, I was going to see Fred back to the Burrow, was wondering if you wanted to tag along and we could go see some of the sights on the way back?"

Isaac held a hand out for Ben to grab as he pulled himself free of the t.v.

"Sounds good, when are we leaving?" Ben asked.

"BEN!" came a shout from upstairs.

Silence settled in the living room for a few moments.

"What did you do?" Isaac whispered to him.

"I have no idea..." Ben admitted as he ushered Isaac and Fred towards the door.

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Ben's room was on fire.

It was nothing to do with anything the data-ghost had done, nor was it the fault of Toby.

What was the reason the room was on fire?

Well... someone had left the latch of the dragon cage not locked properly which allowed Spiky and Whisky out.

The two of them had decided that Ben's hamper of dirty laundry was a perfectly acceptable place to make a new nest and had started heating it up so it was a bit cosier for them to stay.

Which was why Masky had burst into the room, with a fire extinguisher in hand.

Spiky and Whisky had flown out of the hamper when Masky had burst in and were now standing on the top of the cage, snarling at him.

"BEN!" Masky shouted, hoping that he was nearby.

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"See ya," Isaac said as he watched Fred sneak back into the Burrow.

Ben gave a brief, mock, salute before turning to Isaac.

"So... what now?" he asked.

"Well, I was thinking that there's probably a good few diners open over here," Isaac said as they walked down the dirt road back towards the Slenderport, "Why don't we go try one or two?"

Ben smiled as he turned to face Isaac.

"I'd like that," he said, letting Isaac tug on his arm until their fingers were joined loosely at the tips.

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The Mansion.

Toby groaned as he sat back down on his bed.

He... was... bored...

A low, suffering, sigh escaped him as he fell backwards and spread out across his bed.

"Yeah?" he called out when someone knocked on his door.

Liu, or potentially Sully, walked in.

The soft smile on their face suggested that it was more likely to be Liu.

"Hey," Toby said, rolling over slightly and sitting up to make space for him.

"Hey," Liu said softly, rubbing his arm as he sat down, "How bored are you?"

"Oak, Redwood, Birch, all the boards," Toby said with a grin, quite pleased with his pun.

"Ok, we're at level bitch, oops," Liu gasped dramatically, "I meant bitch, I mean..."

He was cut off with a pillow hitting his face repeatedly.

Soon enough, Liu had grabbed another and was returning fire for every hit that Toby got in.

"Please tell me you two lame asses aren't seriously having a pillow fight?" Jeff groaned, walking into the room without bothering to knock.

He was knocked into the door as both Toby and Liu threw their pillows at him.

"Cut it off!" he snapped at them, throwing the pillows to the ground.

"Did you mean, 'knock it off', or 'cut it out'?" Toby asked, hanging upside down off the bed.

"I mean that you can go..." Jeff snapped but was cut off with a whistle.

"Alright," Sully said, pushing a few stray strands of hair out of his face, "Let's all get back on track here.

We're bored, Toby's bored, and Jeff's bored.

So, what say the three... well, three and a sorta, of us head out for a little..." Liu paused to suck in a low breath through his teeth, "Family bonding?"

Toby and Jeff exchanged a quick glance.

"If you mean, the three of us go out and act like a happy little suburban family, then I'd say you're out of your..."

"Manners, Jeff," Sully cut him off, "And I wasn't meaning the three of us skive off to Disney World for a couple of days..." there was a barely audible moan of mild let-down from Toby, "... I was meaning the three, and a sorta, of us go out and... _tear_ up the town,"

Sully finished and leaned back until he was using Toby to support most of, if not all of, his weight.

"Where you thinking?" Jeff asked.

"Well... I was thinking we could go check up on a few guys I've heard about down in Idaho," Sully said.

"Who?" Toby asked, weighing two duffel bags with a hand each.

"Well, I'm gonna go check up on Rupert... who wants to go to Heyburn, and who wants to go take Paul?"

Toby and Jeff shared another quick glance.

"Right," Sully said, clapping Toby on the thigh, "I'm gonna go get my stuff, we'll meet back up at Schow in this nice little diner when we're done,"

Sully left the room, telling them that he'd text them the address of the diner when he'd finished.

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Rupert, Idaho.

Sully took in a deep breath of air as he looked down the road, whistling to himself as he casually made his way along.

A crash from up ahead got his attention and he looked across the road at three men who had just staggered out of a rather appealingly rustic looking bar.

He did frown, however, when he checked his watch only to find that it was barely past noon.

'Looks like fun,' a voice in his head or, rather, the joint-owner of their body crowed to him.

"Yep," Sully smirked inwardly, and outwardly, as he quickly crossed the road, paying no attention to the moron who couldn't check his mirrors before reversing other than to glare him down.

As he approached the men, the smell of ale and beer got a little thicker.

When he was just about to pass one of them Sully 'stumbled' and knocked one of them into the others.

"Watch it!" Sully snapped at the man, dusting off his shoulder.

"You watch it, half-pint!" the man who was barely three inches taller than him barked, spittle dripping down his chin.

"You got a problem, beer-gut?" Sully asked taking a step closer to the man and feigning a momentary expression of fear.

"So what if I does?" the man slurred.

"Then we'd better settle this," Sully nodded to an alley not too far away.

As the men followed him into the alley, Sully could have sworn that he could hear Liu laughing.

"We gon' do this?" the man Sully had bumped into said, more spittle dripping down his chin.

Sully slowly walked around so he was blocking them in and rolled his neck.

"Yeah..." he said as the glamour dropped, "Let's go,"

The men had recoiled when large slices had appeared across the random kid's face.

Sully reached behind him and grabbed a crowbar out of the holster underneath his jacket, twirling it around as his eyes flicked between the three men.

"Who's first?"

When the three men turned to leave, he swung the crowbar into the neck of the man he had taunted into this 'fight'.

A large spray of blood hit the wall as the crowbar took a large chunk away from the man, who shakily reached behind him to feel the gash as he fell down, landing in a stale puddle.

Sully leapt over the fallen body as he swung again.

His swing just caught the back of the man's head, the shock causing him to stumble and fall against a dumpster.

As he tried to get back up Sully grabbed his head and slammed it down against the edge of the container, pulling the head back and hitting him again... and again... and again... and again...

Eventually, when the man's face closely resembled a pot of mashed potatoes that someone had mixed with far too much salsa, he let the now dead man drop.

Sully crouched down and picked up the crowbar, feeling the now warm metal as he slowly approached the last man.

The alley had led into a dead end, unless you could easily climb the fence that had been erected halfway down, and the final man, the one Sully had taunted, was cowering on the ground before it.

Slowly, the sound of whistling reached his ears.

His breathing shallowed as he heard the... the freak stop whistling and start singing his own version of the song.

"The killer's in the house, the killer's in the house, oh no, my life's no mo', the killer's in the house," the eerie tune that he sang it in caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end.

"He knows where you are hiding, he knows where you are hiding, oh no, he knows, he knows, he knows where you are hiding,"

Sully came to a stop in front of the cowering man.

"You know, kinda ruins the song when you're not hiding," he reprimanded.

For a moment, it seemed like the man was going to faint out of fear, but Sully saw how the man's muscles were tensing.

He was going to charge him.

Just as the man threw himself at him, Sully slid neatly out the way, leaving the claw of the crowbar where the man's neck would be.

The claw sunk into the man's jaw and Sully wrenched it upwards, pulling the bottom of the jaw away with another spurt of blood.

Sully barely flinched when a large bit hit him in the face, just missing his eyes, as the man's body fell to the ground.

After taking a moment to wipe the blood away from his face, and his crowbar, he casually walked out of the street, quite content to let Liu take back over now that he had gotten that particular itch out of his system.

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Heyburn, Idaho.

Jeff walked slowly down the street.

Nothing here seemed... fun.

Or, rather, nobody here seemed fun.

That was... until he saw this lone man walking through a park.

The man didn't seem pleasant, or even unpleasant, he was simply there.

Walking through the fields, looking at the trees, kicking a dog that tried to say hello, buying an ice cream...

Jeff did a double take as he watched the man sneer down at the little dog that ran off.

Well... that settled that then.

It took a little longer than Jeff thought it would for him to follow the man back to his house.

When he did, he thanked the man for not locking his doors and silently slid upstairs.

The man, blissfully unaware of the killer in his house, settled down to watch t.v for the rest of the day.

While the man rested, Jeff carefully came back down, he had wrongly assumed that the man would go upstairs once finished and crept into the living room via the kitchen.

He grabbed a few of the knives in the room when he passed the counter before he started creeping towards the man sitting unaware in the chair.

Jeff was able to sneak around the back of the chair, running his finger on the handles as he planned what he was going to do.

Faster than the man realised what was going on, Jeff had driven the two knives through his arms, pinning him to the chair, and quickly held the man's mouth closed.

"Be quiet!" Jeff growled at the man as he took a third knife, his knife, out from his pocket and let the man see just what he was about to be feeling pierce into his ribcage.

"Now... let me think about what I want to do..." Jeff hummed for a second before plunging the knife into the man's chest and twisting it until the man nearly tore his arms free from their make-shift restraints in an attempt to somewhat alleviate the ongoing onslaught of pain.

Jeff left the knife in the man's chest for a few seconds when he saw something across the room that gave him an idea.

"Wait here," Jeff told the man as he hit the knives in a little deeper and gave the one on the man's chest a little wriggle.

He enjoyed hearing the man whimper as the knife cut through more flesh, muscle, and fat as he picked up a lamp that was standing in the corner of the room.

Twirling the lamp on its base, Jeff tore the lampshade away, he pointed the lit bulb into the man's face.

"Look at me," Jeff demanded, forcing the lamp a little closer to his chest.

The man's eyes squinted through the light and stared at Jeff.

"W... what are you..." he rasped, eyes widening as he took in the sight of Jeff's scarred and bleached face.

"What am I?" Jeff's growl of a laugh sent shivers down the man.

"I'm one messed up mother-fucker," Jeff said.

Jeff smashed the lightbulb on the ground, causing a few sparks as the glass shattered, before he thrust the now broken bulb into the man's neck.

The man spasmed as Jeff forced the lamp further in, gritting his teeth as the broken ends of the bulb encountered the bones of the man's neck.

With another hard shove, ignoring the scent of burning flesh that now lingered in the air, the lamp snapped through the bones, out the back of the man's neck, and through into the chair.

Jeff took a step back to admire his work.

A steady stream of smoke started to rise from behind the man and Jeff took that as his cue to leave.

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Paul, Idaho.

Toby stretched his arms as he prepared to jump over the fence of his targets.

He had spotted the three of them when they had run out of a shop with what looked like two bags full of stolen fireworks in hand.

Following them to their house had been easy, thank god for cardio training, and now he was sneaking into the house via a side door.

There was a tense moment as he and one of the people he had been following stared at each other.

"Wait... this isn't the church," Toby said.

Just as the man realised that there was someone breaking into his house Toby leapt across the room and slammed him into the door.

They struggled for a few moments and Toby grabbed the first thing he could find and rammed it down his throat.

Toby looked at the firework that he had stuck in the guy's throat and a thought came to him.

He smiled as he took out a lighter from within his pocket.

"Smile," Toby told him as he lit the firework and slammed the guy's head against the wall to disorientate him.

After closing the door on the soon to be exploded robber, a faint voice carried over through the house.

"Babe, my bottle's empty," a whiny voice from outside moaned.

The sounds of someone approaching got louder...

Toby pressed his back against the wall as the apparent boyfriend walked past.

Reaching behind him to grab a hatchet from his back, Toby crept after the man and swung it hard into the side of his head.

He stumbled for a few moments before falling to the ground.

With a deft hand, Toby caught the empty bottle and looked at the body that was staining the carpet.

An idea came to him.

The blonde that was the recently deceased boyfriend's girlfriend was stretching out on a chair, awaiting the bottle of beer.

Toby hummed as he handed her the bottle, a smirk on his face as she didn't check the bottle.

She leant forward and spat out something red over her legs.

"What the fuck, Terry?" she screeched, "What is this?"

"Who's Terry?" Toby asked as he twirled the axe.

The girlfriend got up, enraged, and turned to face Toby.

" _Do you know who I am_?" she nearly shouted at Toby, tearing off her large sunglasses.

"Nope," Toby said.

The girl opened her mouth to scream at him some more, but with a swift punch from Toby, she was knocked out cold.

Toby looked at her fallen body and wondered what he could do now...

A bang from somewhere inside got his attention and he turned to look at the house, the fuse finally going on the firework he had shoved down the first guy's throat.

His eyes fell on a large box of stolen fireworks.

A smile stretched across his face as he went back inside to find some duct tape.

The blonde girl woke with something being wrapped around her face.

Something was pressing hard against her head.

"Hi, could you hold this for me?" Toby asked, noticing that she was awake.

Too dazed to think anything, she took what it was that Toby handed her.

"Ok, I'm done," Toby said, taking the fuse back from the girl he had just duct taped a large box of fireworks to the face of.

"See you," Toby said, lighting the fuse and leaving her there.

As the smell of something burning got stronger, the girl started panicking.

She tried to get free from her entrapment, but...

Toby turned as he made his way down the street, any screams blocked out by the streams of sparks flying into the air, burning blasts of blue, red, and green streaking up into the sky.

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Schow, Idaho.

Liu tapped his foot against the table leg as he waited for Toby to return with the food.

He had gotten there a few minutes before Toby had finished and was now wondering what was taking Jeff so long.

"Here," Toby said, putting a tray of food down in front of him, "You want the Coke or the Fanta?"

Liu picked up the yellow bottle, sliding the one with the silver label to Toby's plate.

"You heard from Jeff yet?" Toby asked, putting Liu's side down and picking up his burger.

"No, take it you haven't?" Liu asked after taking a bite out of his panini.

Toby shook his head, his mouth was too full of burger to speak.

The door to the diner opened and Liu waved to the mess of mousy brown hair sticking out from under a pristine white hoody.

"Took you so long?" Toby asked, swallowing the bite of burger.

"I wanted him to suffer," Jeff said, snatching a menu off the table.

"They're out of fish," Toby said, remembering what the server had said when he'd gone up.

Jeff sighed, flipping the menu over to see what else there was.

"So, what'd your guy do to piss you off so much?" Sully asked Jeff while they were making their way back.

"Just felt like making him suffer," Jeff grunted.

Toby and Liu shared a glance.

"So, how cute was the dog he kicked?" Liu asked, smirking when he heard the frustrated growl that Jeff made.

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Endnotes.

Ok, I don't actually know what I've put in this weeks chapter.

I... don't really have anything to put here...

Bees?

 **(X) Review (X)**

ShulksXMelia23;

Ok, I am open to criticism, I've said this before.

Right, I do remember that review, which is why I've been trying to put less filler in the chapters and more of the character/relationship building and story progressing scenes in.

I do have a kill quota to meet, so I can't do away with kills entirely.

I know the chapters might be slowing down a bit, but that's just because if I write action scene after action scene then it'll get repetitive and boring, there are only so many ways I can kill people.

Another thing that I need to stress, is that this story is a way that Harry's life could have turned out if he was raised by Creepypastas. If you want to skip the 'life' part then you can go read EXTRAS.

I've got a chapter in the works for that and I should have it up within a week or two.

Trust me, I've heard far, _far_ , worse from others than anything you've said.

I know it can sometimes seem a little slow, and I do think I need to put more into it, but over the time I've been writing it, I've been getting tired.

Not of writing the story, but as it gets further along, there seems less I can do with it.

I know how Isaac is going to snap.

I know what he's going to get up to.

I know what sends him over the edge.

And I'm getting closer, and closer, with every chapter until it happens.

There's also the issue of what do I do after he does snap.

I could probably just keep it going like some sort of sitcom for as long as I could, but there's the issue of eventually running out of things to write.

I am in no way saying that I'm stopping writing, just that I've got less to work with and that I liked it better when I had no idea where the story was going because it was a journey for me as well.

As to why Voldemort's resurrection wasn't the snapping point, there was no real trauma for him.

He's seen people die before, and he barely knew Cedric.

I know that I haven't exactly shown this yet, but Isaac is over Voldemort.

He was pretty much ready to shed away the wizarding world and forget all about it.

I'm going to have a scene in a future chapter that pretty much shows this outright, just in case you were wondering if it'd happened in the story yet.

Maybe take a few weeks off reading this, let it build a bit since each chapter is more relaxed and having a bunch to read will probably be better.

Thank you.

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

1, yeah, you did. The card has been stamped, as it happened this chapter.

2, I think I should dedicate an entire chapter to getting back at Toby, maybe have Toby and Liu face off against Isaac and Ben in a prank war.

3, hehehe, it was bound to happen eventually. Everyone confuses twins at some point.

4, JESUS CHRIST! Glad to hear you're alright, but holy crap. Please tell me that the prick is getting jail time.

I want to send you flowers now...

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Same here.

I'm glad that you liked my version of the third task better than the book version.

Hmm... now, it's kind of hard to explain, but the way I see the flames is that it's like Isaac has dipped his hand in ethanol and lit it. The flames are coming out of his hands, not just sitting above them in a ball. I probably could have him use a pair of gloves, but I'd have to think of a way that they'd be re-useable and not burn away after every use... I do have a couple of friends that have taken a course that teaches them how to properly use all those fancy power tools, like the high-end metal lathes and welding gear, so they'd probably give me a bit of help to work out how such a pair of gloves would work...

I do like snakes, but if they look like they could kill me in one bite then I won't bat an eye if they were set on fire.

Dumbledore... I've worked out quite a few things for how he's going to be killed off, and I can't wait until I get to it.

Oh, I'm not spoiling that.

Ben would mail the Gameboy to a bunch of wizards and witches and kill them, that's what he'd do.

Yeah, no idea if I had it this chapter or not, so I hope you enjoy it whenever it comes out.

I feel Masky on an emotional level when I have a cold or allergies.

I've been meaning to bring more of the characters into the fold again.

Yeah, new record.

Ben did get to see a fireball be thrown, he saw it through the phone so he's yet to see it in person, though.

Hedwig and Fizz definitely needed a bit more screen time.

Sully needed some 'out time' as well, can't be good to keep him cooped up.

Ooh, snow is pretty, glad you got to experience it.

Oh, that's not too good, warm water bath, that always helps.

Thank you, will do.

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

Yep, George got nabbed instead of Fred.

Jack made the mistake of grabbing the wrong twin, that's how.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

No, can't kill George, so he's back at The Burrow, safe and sound with his memory wiped.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Honebar;

Happy dances all around.

I'm glad that you liked the chapter.

More Locklear, yeah, decided he needed a bit more chapter time.

I can't wait to do more Isaac and Ben-centric chapters.

Yeah, that's George.

People are probably going to hate me for not turning him into a Proxy, but I'm sticking with my plan and you'll have to bear with me while it develops.

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

I await your message.

Explosions are always fun, yes.

Yes, he did.

 **(X) Review (X)**

joshua. obryan. 549;

Yeah, George got mistaken for Fred.

No, George did not become a Proxy.

I will do another EXTRAS chapter sometime in the future where they both are Proxies, but I'm sticking with just having Fred by L.J's Proxy.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Everyone loves Little Pyro, it's a lovely animation that won awards, and...

You were talking about Isaac... oops...

George isn't staying as a Proxy.

 **(X) Review (X)**

SomeRandomDutchFangirl;

You're most welcome.

I'm glad that you liked the chapter, have you checked out EXTRAS?

Glad to hear that you're feeling better.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Iheartlife888 (Gest);

I've got it planned in my head, don't worry.

Umbridge is an idiot, we all know that.

It'll probably cause quite a few raised tensions within the I.C.W after M.A.C.U.S.A raises the question about why Dementors were on their land.

I'll get back into it a little more in the future, but in my story, the British Wizarding Ministry are the only ones that use Dementors.

Umbridge will always stick to the idea that she is right in everything she does, and I can't wait until it backfires on her.

Yeah, I think that the big kidnapping with Voldemort's resurrection was enough to make this one a little smaller, plus, Isaac wasn't exactly in the most lenient moods since they were taking up his time.

Hedwig needed a bit more to do... hehehehe...

Thank you! 0w0

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Thank you, I'm glad that you liked it.

Trust me, Hogwarts probably won't last until the Yule this time.

 **(X) Review (X)**

k1ttycast1300;

Welcome!

I'm glad that you liked it.

I hope the wait was worth it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

Hmm... a Bi-polar Isaac would definitely make an interesting chapter...

I'll probably toy around with the idea in a future EXTRAS chapter, will need to do some research so I don't screw it up too much.

George... well, you saw...

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

Everyone has their pizza preferences.

Depressing, insanity, and smut... well, there's an interesting story just waiting to happen.

Ah... that's... well, that put a damper on the mood...

I plead the fifth about your laptop.

Yes, I'm sure he's a lightweight.

I have gone out drinking a fair few times with him and he's even passed out on me once.

If he is, then I'm going to be having words because that is masterful manipulation and I want to learn how to do it properly.

I too like blackmail.

YAY, I'm gonna make lemon pancakes on pancake day now.

In fact, I'm going to make all the types of pancakes that I can!

I'm gonna make chocolate orange pancakes, chocolate chip, lemon, bacon, you name it!

I'm glad that you liked the kills, having Jane and Jeff forcing themselves to be nice was funny to me, and everyone else, by the looks of it.

I made the chapter title that on purpose.

Why?

Because I'm an utter bastard, that's why!

Jack fucked up, that's how.

I'm glad that you liked it.

I've been meaning to get into MHA, but I've never seemed to find the time.

I have a Pinterest page with a board dedicated to writing tips, it's called, "Writing help McGuffins" if you're interested, maybe it'll help.

I'm glad that you liked it, and I hope you like this one.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Myra the Dovahkiin;

For chapter 58.

Welcome!

Why, yes, he would.

Also, is there any connection to MyraZinshu? I feel like I'm missing something with how people make their names.

For chapter 71.

Thank you.

Laughing Jack did grab the wrong twin.

No, George didn't become a Proxy.

I was going to end it with George being sent home, but I thought that it was too good a point to stop and leave everyone on a cliff hanger.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

Good for you, preparation pays off after all.

I think the Creeps would have a personal coroner if the world knew about them.

Nope, that's number 5.

Jeff and Jane could end up being the ultimate team-up if they actually got along, thankfully, for the world, they don't.

I don't know why, but when I read Locklear's lines out loud to see how well they come across, I always end up speaking in some sort of German / Russian hybrid.

Haven't seen Taken 3, so I'll take your word on it.

Look at it this way, any idea that L.J or Isaac has are my ideas, so even if Isaac didn't say anything it would end up happening anyway.

Yeah... how angry do you think people would be?

Yeah, number 5.

Kryoz is my go to because of just how random things can be, either him or anyone else in that sorta-group, fav is definitely Terroriser, though.

I like the HybridPanda DBD stuff, if I ever get into animation I'm gonna make something for him.

Smii7y would definitely drive Ben mad with some of the trick shots he can pull off.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Ok, that was the last review.

There's probably a large number of people here who are angry about George going home with his mind wiped, BUT that was how it was always going to end up.

I cut it there because it made a really good cliff hanger, and I love ending on cliffhangers.

George will know by the end of the story, I can promise you all that much, but he's not going to know for now.

I hope that you all enjoyed this weeks chapter, and I hope that you enjoy the next.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	73. Chapter 73, DigitalMagic's day out

Chapter 73, DigitalMagic's day out.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Ok, I think I got a good few ideas on what I want to do this week.

Actually, that's a lie and I'm a little too tired to come up with anything at the moment.

I know it's going to be based around Isaac and Ben, but what else could I do...

Let's find out, shall we?

SteamGeek01.

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The Mansion.

Sunlight shone dimly through the window of Ben's room in The Mansion, casting light on the two inhabitants.

Isaac and Ben were sat on the bed, watching as Whisky, Blue, Spiky, and Emmy ran around them.

"Still can't believe you took on a giant one," Ben said, helping Spiky back onto his feet after he had rolled over.

"Yeah... much prefer this size," Isaac said, raising a hand to stroke Emmy's back as she curled up on his shoulder.

Whisky and Blue started a tug of war between one of the longer pieces of ham.

A tugging on Isaac's sleeve revealed Spiky trying to get his attention.

Spiky jutted his head and snapped at Isaac's hand before spitting out a small puff of flame.

Ben had managed to train them to not set the bed on fire, he was quite glad about that, but they still liked to tease him.

Isaac rolled his eyes and let the blue flames settle on his index finger.

Spiky jumped up onto his wrist, scrambling to keep up, and settled on the palm of his hand, curled up under the blue flames.

Emmy gave a soft bark and began waddling down Isaac's arm to get to the fire as well, Whisky and Blue were still too busy trying to win the ham to notice.

"You know what this reminds me of?" Ben said, taking his eyes off of the two ham obsessed dragons, "Kittens snuggling up against their mother when they sleep, they must think you're the brood mother,"

"That makes you 'Daddy'," Isaac rolled his eyes.

"Wow," Ben said, leaning back, "Phrasing, and I did not know you were into that,"

Ben broke off in a silent fit of laughter when he saw how red Isaac's face was going.

"You ever tried to find a pair of gloves that let you 'fire-up' when wearing them?" he asked, giving Isaac a distraction from his latest bout of teasing.

"Tried a few," Isaac said quickly, practically leaping at the chance to change topics, "Cotton, or whatever they make the knitted gloves out of, are out since those will burn faster than dry paper in a bonfire... leather gloves without the fingers _might_ work if I only set the ends of my fingers on fire,"

"What about welding gloves?" Ben proposed after a moment of thought.

"Maybe..." Isaac muttered, scratching his chin with the hand that wasn't occupied with two tiny dragons trying to get comfortable underneath a burning finger, "Be a bit too big and clunky, wouldn't be able to hold things as well either,"

Ben hummed as he thought for a moment.

"How about a chainmail gauntlet?" he suggested and Isaac snorted in response.

"Where would I get one that fit me?" Isaac asked, "And no, those things make more noise than Jeff does when he's playing,"

As if to demonstrate his point, the sound of music being played on a guitar passed through the walls.

"What about your... rune things?" he asked, "Are there any for fire protection that you could put on a normal pair of gloves?"

Isaac mused that over for a moment.

"Maybe... probably... wanna go check?" Isaac asked.

"Yeah, sure, let's just get this lot back in their enclosure," Ben said, tearing the ham that Whisky and Blue were still fighting over.

Once all the dragons were safely away, and the latch secure, he and Isaac made their way across the hall to Isaac's room and started flicking through his Ancient Runes books.

"I got ones for 're-lighting flames'," Ben said, "I'll put a bookmark there in case you want to mess around with some candles at some point,"

"Thanks," Isaac said as he thumbed through the pages of another book, "That would go well with the one for colour changing I passed a moment ago,"

For a few moments, the two of them were engrossed with the books, until...

"Got one!" they both said at the same time.

"You go first," Isaac offered.

"There's one here for passing flame through a medium," Ben said, "The description says it was used for show back in ye olde kingdoms, making it seem like you can make flame from nothing when you've really got a candle hidden underneath,"

"Might work," Isaac agreed, "Mine's kinda similar, it's for reducing the damage fire can do to a thing,"

"So... something with the both of them?" Ben asked, handing the book to Isaac so he could have a look.

"Maybe... would have to spend some time trying to find a way to get them to work together," Isaac muttered, looking over the two sketches in the books.

Ben let Isaac look them over for a few moments, tracing over parts with the blunt end of a pencil.

"So, has the jury reached a verdict?" he asked.

"Erm..." Isaac hummed, "Might work together...

The affect ring for rune one, the one you found, is a different base than the affect ring for rune two, the one I found.

The bases aren't a problem, I can make them the same, so that's in favour, as are the channelling patterns..."

"Can... can I get a quick lesson in what you're talking about?" Ben asked, a confused expression on his face.

"Erm... come here," Isaac said, grabbing a stray piece of paper, "Runes are made of four things, a base, some sort of old greek-latin cross that pretty much says what the rune does, then you got the conduits, and, finally, the affect ring.

The base is like the foundation, the stronger the base, the more powerful the rune.

Then there's the actual 'rune', it's like... you remember that episode of Warehouse Thirteen where they're going after Edgar Allen Poe's notebook and pen?"

When Ben nodded, Isaac continued.

"Well, you remember how the kid would write on the notebook and what he wrote would happen? Cause that's pretty much the rune, just a really minimalistic declaration that decides what the rune does.

Conduits basically connect the base and rune to the affect ring..."

"And the affect ring is what makes the rune work on the object it's drawn on?" Ben guessed.

"Yep," Isaac nodded with a smile, "The affect ring effects the item,"

"What's the difference between 'affect' and 'effect' anyway?" Ben asked.

"You're connected to the internet pretty much eighteen hours a day, you never thought to look it up?" Isaac asked.

Ben made a vague hum and shrugged his shoulders.

Isaac rolled his eyes.

"You need an action to have an end result, affect causes an effect," Isaac said.

Ben made a soft, "Aah," of understanding.

After looking through the runes for a few more minutes Isaac made a soft noise of triumph.

"I might have got it," Isaac said, "Base is sorted, I've managed to get the runes to work together, need to brush up on the translating side of things, conduits _should_ work, and I've found an affect ring that works with the two of them,"

Ben sighed as he stretched, "That didn't take too long, thought that it would've taken longer,"

"Well, these ones are fairly simple, took me just shy of two months to get the one under the carpet designed without it burning," Isaac gave a brief huff of laughter, remembering all the parchment sacrificed to find the working rune.

"Burning?" Ben frowned.

"If the base isn't strong enough, or the conduits aren't able to handle the activation, or if you've misspelt the runes then there's a chance it can, well... fizzle," Isaac explained.

"How big a fizzle?" Ben asked, looking warily down at the carpet.

"Well..." Isaac made a circle with his index finger and thumb, "This can set a bit of parchment on fire..." he made a circle with the middle fingers and thumbs of both his hands, "... this can take down a tree..."

"You know that for sure?" Ben asked.

"Eh, I got bored," Isaac shrugged, "So the one under my bed...

Let's just be happy that I did it right," he finished.

"Right, well... on that happy note," Ben muttered, "We got the rune now, don't we?

Now we need the gloves,"

"Yep, now we need the gloves..." Isaac trailed off as Ben grabbed the upper of his arm and nearly dragged him from the room.

"Let's go shopping," Ben said as he pulled Isaac from the room.

Isaac rolled his eyes as Ben closed the door after them carefully as if expecting the room to explode at any moment.

Ben took him a few states over to a large shopping district and promptly got distracted as soon as they passed the first game store.

He let Ben browse the shelves for a while, checking out what offers were on at the time, before pointing out that they had things to do.

Then they got distracted at an electronics store.

"Hey, Specs?" Ben asked, getting Isaac's attention away from the 'make-your-own' kits, "Do you reckon that I could rig up one of those handheld t.v.'s to work as signal jammers so I don't have to worry about camera footage as much?"

"Hmm... maybe, how do they work?"

Isaac almost regretted asking that question as he started getting a long talk on how signal jammers worked, but he didn't mind as much as he enjoyed listening to Ben as he went on, sometimes losing himself in his analogies.

By the time that they reached a store where they could get a few pairs of gloves to try Isaac's new rune combo out on, they had already been away for the better part of two hours.

"Well, might as well make it a day," Ben shrugged as Isaac tossed the bag they had been given into a bin and stuffed the many gloves into his hoody pockets, "Where do you wanna go?"

Isaac paused for a moment, thinking the request over.

After another minute of thinking while they walked down the road, he turned to Ben and said, "I want to be surprised, and I want to see something amazing,"

Now it was Ben's turn to pause and think things over.

'Surprising and amazing... well... he likes...' thoughts whizzed through his head as he tried to think of something that he would find amazing.

A few seconds later, Ben snapped his fingers before turning to Isaac, grabbing his hand, and leading him back to the Slenderport.

"I think I know just the thing," Ben said confidently.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Hawai'i.

Isaac let out a brief huff of amazement as he watched glob after glob of molten rock spew out of the geyser, leaning against the barrier as Ben did the same next to him with a rather satisfied smirk on his face.

A tour guide behind them was rattling off fact, after fact, but they couldn't have cared less about what they were saying as they took in the sight of a volcanic eruption in all its glory.

Ben frowned when something pressed against his side, but let his head bow a little to hide his blush as Isaac snaked an arm through the space his own arm created so he could link their arms.

He leaned over until his head was resting on Isaac's shoulder and the two of them spent a good while watching the fiery eruption until the tour started to move on.

"You know..." Ben muttered to Isaac as they walked down, "You could pass for a twenty-one-year-old, if we get I.D, and I can put the glamour up a bit... you want to try going to one of those tropical bars where all the drinks have those tiny, little, umbrellas and are served in coconuts?"

Isaac hummed for a moment before shrugging.

"I really don't think that it'll work... but sure, why not?" Isaac shrugged.

Fifteen minutes later, Ben and Isaac returned to Hawai'i.

"You couldn't have chosen a better picture?" Isaac asked, looking down at the piece of plastic card with his face on it.

"Nobody looks good on their license," Ben said, "Trust me, I saw the pictures on the waiting list, and you were by far the hottest,"

Isaac went as red as the back of the sunburnt tourist they had just passed as they walked down the road.

"You sure you can pass me off as just turned twenty-one?" Isaac asked.

"Erm... fairly sure," Ben said, frowning a little as he looked down at Isaac and sounding like he was trying to convince himself more than Isaac.

It felt weird to go from being shorter than his raven-haired boyfriend to a good couple of inches taller than him after the years of physically looking up.

"Right well... where do you want to go?" Isaac asked, looking around at the bustling street.

"Good question..." Ben agreed, looking around for a place, "Wanna try over there?"

Isaac looked over at the small bar that didn't seem too crowded with tourists.

"Sure, why not?" Isaac shrugged.

"Right then," Ben clapped his hands together, "We go the I.D's, we can get a menu inside, what can go..."

Before he could say 'wrong, they paused to let a couple of patrons out of the bar.

There was an awkward moment where Ben, Isaac, Helen, and The Puppeteer, all glamoured up, exchanged glances.

Helen was the first not to look surprised, or guilty, in Isaac and Ben's case, as he raised the coconut he was drinking from, moved the little umbrella out of the way, and hid his smirk behind the rim as he took another drink.

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Slenderman's Forest.

Isaac and Ben walked through the chaotically planted rows of twisted and gnarled trees as they made their way back to The Mansion.

Helen had declared their attempt at underage drinking a 'valiant attempt' before he had sent them on their way back home while he had to deal with a rosy-cheeked Teer who was supposed to be causing a 'rather unfortunate accident' to some 'completely random and undeserving tourist'.

"Well... that could have gone better," Isaac said as he and Ben jumped over a small ditch that had to have been purposely designed to trip anybody running through without experience.

"Yeah," Ben said through a grin.

Helen had taken the fake I.D's and while Ben could go and make more of them, they felt like it would have been a bit of a waste of time for something that they would probably end up regretting.

"So, back to making your fire-gloves?" Ben asked, bumping into Isaac slightly as he walked around a tree.

"Yeah... hey, Ben..." Isaac paused.

There had been something bugging at him for a while... something that he hadn't been telling Ben for a while.

"Yeah?" Ben turned to face him, resting his back against a tree.

"Well... you know how last year I went through all those tasks in the tournament?" Isaac asked him, trying to find the best way to explain it.

"Is this the part where you tell me what really happened during the second task?" Ben asked, cutting him off.

Isaac's eyes went wide for a brief moment before they fell to look at a revealed root of a nearby tree.

"You do know that I was diving into people's heads for a lot longer than you've been staying with us," Ben said, a look on his face like he had caught Isaac mid-prank, "I can tell when someone's trying not to think about something,"

"I didn't..." Isaac said slowly, "I mean, you... it's hard to explain..."

Ben let out a slow breath as he thought.

"If it's something you wanted to keep from me, then it's something that you think I might have a problem with, right?" Ben asked.

Isaac didn't say anything and nodded.

"So it's to do with... there's a lake next to the castle, right?" Ben let out a sigh as he could probably guess what was coming next.

"The task wasn't to get a hostage out of the forest," Isaac said quietly, "It was to get them out of the bottom of the lake,"

Ben closed his eyes as a shiver echoed up his spine.

"How deep?" he asked, half of him not wanting to know the answer.

"Don't know," Isaac admitted, "Deep enough that it took about half an hour of swimming to reach the bottom of... there was... I..."

Isaac stopped speaking when Ben closed the distance and hugged him, pressing the side of his head against the crook of Isaac's neck.

"You don't have to tell me right now," Ben said, "If you want, we can wait until tonight and I can go through the memory?"

"No!" Isaac said, tightening his grip on Ben, "No, I mean... it's..."

"Did something happen?" Ben asked softly, lifting his head away so Isaac could look at him.

Isaac gave a small nod.

"Yeah," he said a moment later, "You know those... 'Grundylowe' things? Just... a small horde of those..."

Ben chewed the inner of his bottom lip as Isaac spoke.

"Alright," Ben said, "I might take a look tonight, if you're ok with that?"

Isaac didn't respond right away, but his grip did get a little tighter.

Toby, as it turned out, had gotten a call from Helen not long after he had sent them back to The Mansion.

"Go tell me next time you're gonna do that, want to see what happens when we give you some whisky," Toby said with a grin, far more laid-back about the thing than most.

"Not mad?" Isaac asked, a little confused.

"Eh," Toby shrugged, and that was apparently all that he had to say on the matter.

Isaac and Ben shared a quick glance before heading upstairs to Isaac's bedroom.

Getting out the many pairs of gloves that 'they' had bought, Isaac looked out the piece of paper that he had sketched the rune that _should_ allow him to use the gloves without them bursting into flames.

After getting the embossing tool that L.J had loaned him, Isaac traced the rune into the first glove.

Ben left, mid embossing, to see what the fuss was at the post office that they got all their mail re-directed too.

Apparently, he filled Isaac in when he came back, somebody had sent something flammable to them and it had ignited in the depository.

"Wonder what moron did that?" Isaac muttered, checking the rune against the paper, "Think it's done... hold on, missed a conduit..."

A few seconds later, Isaac held out the completed glove.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Ben asked, nudging him in the shoulder, "Let's make it toasty in here,"

Isaac rolled his eyes at Ben as he slid the glove on, done up the strap, and tried to click his fingers through the leather, but only succeeded in making some sort of 'whump' noise with every try.

He let out a mildly disappointed noise, as he liked to click his fingers as if doing that caused the flames to appear, before letting them spread across the glove.

For a moment, it looked like it wasn't working.

Then the flames burst out from the glove and Isaac joined Ben with a celebratory whoop... then the leather started to darken and shrink...

"Oh," Isaac said as the seams caught fire and soon the glove began falling apart.

"What went wrong?" Ben asked as Isaac shook the flames out.

"I don't exactly know... maybe I did the wrong conduits, or missed a piece out of the rune... oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me," Isaac growled as he compared the mark on the glove to the piece of paper.

"What?" Ben asked, looking over his shoulder and using Isaac's back as a resting post.

"See that tiny, little, asshole of a dot there?" Isaac pointed out to Ben, "That little fucking dot is what changes the stressing of that rune letter,"

"Oh... so what is it when it's not got the dot?" Ben asked.

"If it doesn't have the dot, it changes 'fire' to 'fore'," Isaac muttered, "The dot is what tells you what vowel it is,"

"So... is that 'fore' as in the thing golfers shout before they whack their balls, or is it 'four' the number?" Ben asked him, throwing the scraps of the failed glove in the bin.

"Fore, golfers shout thing," Isaac muttered as he grabbed another glove and started looking for where he had left the embossing tool.

"Aah, so you made a 'protection against golfers' rune," Ben said as he looked over the paper, "So what does the dot mean when it's on the rune?"

"If it's on top of the rune, it's 'A', if it's underneath the rune, then it's 'E', if it's to the left of the rune, then it's 'I', if it's to the right of the rune, then it's 'U', and no dot means it's 'O'," Isaac listed off as he grabbed another glove.

"So... shouldn't it be..." Ben started.

"Yes, it would have made more sense if the no dot on the rune made it 'A' or 'U', but the old wizards who came up with this moronic excuse of writing were apparently drunk off their tits all the time, or decided how to write this by rolling a dice on the back of a whale because that does some magical McGuffins," Isaac grumbled as he grabbed the embossing tool and started the etching process all over again.

"Does doing stuff on the back of whales boost magic stuff?" Ben asked.

"I dunno, they're a dumb enough society that they probably thought so," Isaac mumbled.

Now that the little dot that Isaac had lovingly named 'Bastard' in his mind was on the glove it worked like a charm.

Toby had a rather maniacal glint in his eyes as Isaac showed him the glove.

"You do know what this means, right?" Toby asked as he at the smore Isaac had made to prove that the glove worked.

Isaac, whose mouth was too full with smore to answer him, cocked his head to the side and looked at him questioningly.

"Means we gotta go give them a proper field test," Toby said.

Isaac let out a groan and let his head hit the table.

"He hasn't put the rune on the other glove yet," Ben told a confused looking Toby.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Endnotes.

Ok, I think I've got things set up pretty well.

Yes, I know it's another shorter than usual chapter, but my imagination has been a little low lately and I've got prelims soon so I've been studying more often.

You'll be getting another Toby and Isaac team-up chapter next week, so I'm gonna have fun writing another thrilling kill chapter for you all.

Plus, CHASE IS BACK!

For those who don't remember, Chase is my dad's old boss's dog and we're watching him while he's out of the country.

BEST ROOMMATE EVAH!

Next week... well, we'll see what happens.

But, that was this weeks chapter.

I hope that you all enjoyed it and I need to go shopping for a third USB to hold the story on so I can work on it whenever... this story is trying to kill itself, I swear...

BUT, I've got reviews to answer.

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

More kills, yep.

I wonder just how many people I've killed in this story...

Someone wanna go count them up for me?

George is back with his family, yes.

Something will be happening soon, yes.

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

1, How is George a hypocrite? Fred killing a bunch of his family would be an interesting development, yes, but I think I'll save it for an EXTRAS if I ever do it.

2, Yes, it is.

3, Your wish has been granted, at the cost of your soul. I'll see you in 10 years, you know the deal.

4, Shame, hope that they catch the bastard.

Drugs are fun, yes.

^ that out of context is hilarious.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

I'm glad that you like my version better.

Runes seem to be the way to go.

Well... I'm going to need some chainmail leggings...

I'm going to enjoy myself when it comes to Dumbledore's demise.

Yeah, it would be.

I feel you, I hate it whenever hayfever season passes. Gonna get a gasmask eventually.

The way I've made Liu and Sully is that Sully is just a more forward version of Liu at times.

You'll see some of the differences eventually.

That sounds painful.

Everything gets past glasses.

Why is he a bitch?

He was abducted by a serial murderer clown and surrounded by hordes of zombie children, I'd like to see how you'd react, I'd fucking wet myself.

Fred, if he's feeling confident enough, would act insulted about how L.J mistook him for his brother.

L.J knows how to be efficient, and he wanted to keep an eye on Isaac after his little reclusive attitude shift.

I now really want a pizza with salted caramel drizzled on top, with fudge, and nougat.

Paperwork is very useful.

Jeff knows L.J's habits, and he knows what it's like to be on the receiving end of L.J's wrath.

Fred is getting better, soon enough he'll be making snarky comments and acting like the sarcastic cutie he is.

I did, and I was giggling about that when I wrote it.

Yeah... but they're so cute, I really need to do some stuff with them.

Yeah, I enjoy writing those three.

Erm... what am I allowed to say about Valentines...

I took him to the beach we first met and had what was probably the world's worst picnic and fed crows.

Didn't raid the chocolate sales, kinda starting to run tight on cash again, need a new job.

Erm... that sounds like sensory overload and is a form of anxiety or, quite possibly considering what you wrote, a mild epileptic fit.

Glad you enjoyed it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Thank you, our pyros are doing good.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Thank you.

George will not become a Proxy!

I'm not going to make him one, there is no psychic twin link in the story.

George will know a bit more by the end, but he will not become a Proxy.

Fred and L.J will probably have a chapter or two based on them.

I had a lovely weekend, thank you.

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Yeah, take your time.

It's fine, I want to know how much I've changed over time, for better or worse.

 **(X) Review (X)**

joshua. obryan. 549;

Oh... now there's a thought...

I'm still deciding if Fred will snap or not, but I'll keep it in mind.

That sounds like a very good EXTRAS chapter waiting to be made.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Honebar;

Yeah, memory wiping ftw.

Thank you, it is nice to see that SOMEONE likes the way I decide what to do with the characters in MY story.

I enjoyed that killing spree.

The slow chapters are still going to be here for a bit, at least until I get 5th year sorted out.

Yeah... will have more time to sleep when this is done, though, so there's that.

EXTRAS will be updated even after the story is over, yeah.

It's fine, you can be the stalker of my fanbase.

And, yes, I refer to all of you as my fanbase, 400+ strong.

 **(X) Review (X)**

wow-im-satan;

... not saying anything...

Oh, how's Satan doing?

Murder is fun, I enjoy murdering.

^ Also hilarious out of context.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic writer;

Yeah, take care of yourself.

Know what that feels like...

Me and my boyfriend are the same, it's his first time dating a guy and he turns into such a bundle of nerves sometimes that it's borderline adorable.

I will never stop the cliffhangers.

Cliffhangers for days.

Yeah, I'm gonna get me one of those spy-cameras, record some embarrassing shit, then send it to them as a wedding gift.

I apparently get either a lot more giggly or really, _really_ , sleepy.

So that's easy to fake, I'm tired 24/7.

I watch the show to decide if I should get the manga, or, that's what I did for Hellsing.

Aw... if your OC's need a weird uncle who will probably kill themselves because something they were making blew up in their face, then can I volunteer?

I always like writing them.

Toby is just a treat.

Liu/Sully is always interesting since it's writing 2 people for the price of 1.

Jeff... I can do so much crazy shit with him because it is canon that he's a show-boating little shit!

I'm glad you liked the George bit.

Jane always is, don't think that's going to change.

Those dragons are too cute to forget about for long periods of time...

I need an EXTRAS chapter dedicated to them...

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

It sounds like one of the shows Gabriel would shove the Winchesters into back in T.V. land.

Erm... maybe for the flashbacks...

 **(X) Review (X)**

Myra the Dovahkiin;

Thank you!

Even Jeff must succumb to the cuteness of puppies.

 **(X) Review (X)**

gategirl15747;

WELCOME!

I am sorry for some of the earlier chapters, they were a little childish.

I'm glad that you decided that my story was worth the time to read.

I hope you enjoy the chapters in the future.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt the Hedgehog Android;

No, it isn't.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Embersprite;

Unfortunately, they make up part of my audience so I do need to meet _some_ of their demands, even if I do agree with what you say.

I do enjoy writing the in-between scenes as much as the kill scenes.

The reviews at the bottom are a bit easier since I can get everything at the end sorted since there are 1 or 2 times where I forgot the end disclaimer.

Yeah, I agree with you wholeheartedly and thank you for your loyalty, you shall be rewarded well when we reach Valhalla!

Yeah, I can't wait for the verbal dressing down they're gonna give the MOM.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

Yeah, I know...

My story though, I get to decide what happens to the characters, not anyone else.

Thank you, I've already said that I planned it this way in another review.

I've put little hints towards this in the past, but Teer does feel some form of fatigue when he uses his powers either non-stop for a good few hours, or when he does a really big burst in a short amount of time.

See when Dobby broke into The Mansion in chapter 13.

It seemed like a good way to not make him so over-powered, because if he didn't have a few limits then he could pretty much deal with any problem by swiping his hand and slicing them up finer than the laser grid in the first Resident Evil movie.

I might have Fred actually get involved with one of L.J's jobs in the sort-of near future.

Jeff has no one but himself to blame for that, let's just be thankful he never heard about the time turners.

Ben has taken precautions to make things less... flammable, just you can't really protect a hamper of laundry from flying dragons as easily as you can remove flammable things from the reach of their enclosure.

Yeah, been wanting to do something with those three for a while.

No problem, hope whatever you're working on... well, works...

 **(X) Review (X)**

Anonymous Fan (Guest);

Thank you.

I'm reading those stories as well, just waiting on the next update for them.

Erm... 'Freaks Should Stick Together', it's pretty good, I like it.

No problem, glad you like it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Ok, that was the last review.

I'm glad that you all enjoy the story, and I hope you liked this chapter.

See you next week.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	74. Chapter 74 Fire and Water

Chapter 74, Fire and Water.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Unlike last week, I know exactly what I want to do this week.

So, I'm going to write a bunch of prompts for this weeks chapter and then go back to sleep.

I... I was out all last weekend, my sleep pattern is shot to hell... papa needs his naps...

Another thing that happened, got added to the 6th community! Woohoo!

So thanks to everyone helping spread the story, saves me having to rent a blimp and fly it around because even _I_ _'d_ be scared of me flying a blimp.

Also, the favourites have overtaken the follows in terms of numbers and I don't really... oh...

Yeah, you can follow again, I've passed 400 followers, I have to write that goddamn lemon fic at some point, it doesn't matter anymore.

ANY HINTS? ANY? I have no idea what to write, how to write it, or even _who_ to have in it.

But, I hope that you enjoy this weeks chapter, and I hope you all like all the others to come.

See you next level,

SteamGeek01.

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The Mansion.

Isaac paused in his task of embossing the other glove, taking a moment to compare the rune on the glove to the one he had sketched earlier.

Everything matched, save for the final line that he quickly imprinted onto the leather.

Sliding the newly completed glove on, Isaac gave a quick twist of his wrist and the blue flames span around his hand until it was fully engulfed.

Smirking at his success, Isaac extinguished the flames by giving his hand another quick, sharp, twist before checking the time.

The clock on the wall told him that it was a later than he thought it was, nearer to eleven than the nine of when he had started.

Sighing to himself, Isaac tugged off the glove and dropped it onto the bed, sitting down next to it as he gave into the thoughts swirling around his head.

A small, uneasy, smile started pulling at his lips as he thought about what was going to happen tonight.

As if sensing his discomfort, the t.v. began flickering to herald Ben's arrival.

After giving his boyfriend, the thought still gave him a sense of happy chills, a hand out of the screen there was a moment of silence between them that settled like undisturbed fog as the two didn't say anything other than the muttered thanks from Ben for the help out of the screen.

"Was wondering why you weren't asleep," Ben said, breaking the almost tense silence between them.

"Oh, I was... finishing the glove..." Isaac mumbled, picking the glove up from the bed and twisting it as he glanced around the room.

"Take it you're nervous about tonight?" Ben asked softly.

"I don't want to... I mean..." Isaac let out a midly frustrated sigh, "I really don't..."

"Just say it," Ben huffed, "I seriously doubt that you can say anything worse than what's been shouted in this place when someone's stubbed their toe,"

"Water freaks you out," Isaac said quickly, "Rain pretty much puts you on the verge of a panic attack, and I nearly drowned in a lake surrounded by a bunch of water goblins whos sole job is to drown people,"

Isaac didn't meet Ben's eyes after his outburst.

"Nearly ten years, and you still amaze me sometimes," Ben's soft voice was a lot closer as Isaac hadn't realised that he had sat down on the bed next to him.

"What do you mean?" Isaac asked, turning so that he could see the pale green of his shirt.

"For _so_ long, nobody here was ever like that," Ben said, "Main reason I got along so well with Toby was because he wears his heart on his sleeve, you always know how he's feeling.

Everyone else? They can hide it better than Carmen, bloody, Sandiego..." Isaac let out a brief snort of laughter, "... and you're the same, heart on your sleeve and I wouldn't have you any other way,"

Isaac watched as Ben's hand settled down on top of his own after a moment's hesitation.

"I know that I don't do well with water," Ben said, "I know that it freaks me out..." his hand tightened a little so Isaac covered it with his other, "... but this is... I change things to make it better for me when in the dreamscape.

It's not gonna be cold, or actually feel like water.

I make it so that it's like... like walking into a room with the heating cranked up because it's more the cold than the actual water... granted the water does give me the heebie-jeebies, but if it's hot then it doesn't bother me... as much..."

Isaac chewed the inner of his lip for a moment before speaking.

"I don't want to freak you out," he said after thinking his words over.

"I've seen Jeff and Masky in the morning after being woken before ten, I doubt there's anything that's more terrifying than that,"

Isaac let out another snort of laughter and nudged ben in the shoulder.

"Alright," he nodded, "If you want to see the memory, I'll show you... what?"

Ben had looked as if he had been about to say something, but changed his mind halfway through.

"Well... it's just that I could see the memory even without your permission," Ben admitted, "I could leave you dreaming and delve into your memories without you knowing...

I never would!" Ben added on quickly, "Not to you, that's..."

"I get it," Isaac said, raising a hand to tell Ben he could stop, "I get it, you wanted my permission before doing it, even though you technically didn't need it,"

With the decision reached, Isaac gave Ben a quick hug before watching him crawl back into the screen as he himself crawled into bed... only to get out a few seconds later to change into his pyjamas.

Sleep seemed to take a while to come to him, as if sensing his nerves about what was going to happen, and when it did it took a moment for his mind to catch up to the fact that he wasn't standing in the field of tall grass that he knew well, but was standing on the shore of the Black Lake at Hogwarts.

"Wow, that looks cold," Ben muttered, the two of them standing a few metres away from the champions and Isaac's past self... his memory...

He and Ben still debated on what to call the person in the memory sometimes.

But something that Isaac found welcomingly different than what had actually happened in the past, it was far warmer than any of the summer days he had spent at the castle.

"Oh, I see that it fits you pretty well," Ben said smugly as he watched Isaac shed his cloak and reveal the harness filled with knives.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, thanks for that," Isaac said, watching as his past self tossed his trousers onto the pile of his clothes, "Oh, nock it off," he added on when Ben wolf-whistled at his past self undressing.

A few moments later, his past self and the other champions were wading into the lake.

"You ready to follow?" Ben asked him, reaching down to hold his hand.

"Are you?" Isaac turned to face Ben.

"I know I'm ready, that's why I was asking you," Ben rolled his eyes as he waved his hand.

Everything seemed to vibrate for a second before Isaac suddenly felt... very... odd...

He looked around at the lake scene where he had been swimming over the kelp forest, but he couldn't feel the water around him.

It was more... a steam room, but not as humid.

"Yeah, weird, isn't it?" Ben asked him.

He was used to the different feeling of water, but this would have been the first time he would be changing Isaac's expression.

"A little..." Isaac admitted.

A lone Grindylow shot out the kelp forest and snatched at his past self's foot, a couple of others darting out now that a new prey was nearby.

"You can move pretty fast underwater," Ben looked impressed at the speed at which Isaac was able to cut through the Grindylow and kicked it with a webbed foot towards its companions.

"Yeah, annoying little water goblins," Isaac grumbled as he watched the others all get sliced up for their attempt to attack him.

Ben waved his hand again and the memory sped up once again.

"Ok... what are you doing?" Ben asked, laughing a little at the way Isaac was twisted in the water.

"It looked a little more graceful from the first perspective... but I was trying to... well... see how..."

"How it felt for me when I..." Ben cut him off and trailed away, leaving the sentence hanging.

"Yeah," Isaac nodded, "Was... was that what it looked like?" Isaac asked after a moment of hesitation.

"Yeah..." Ben said quietly, his grip on Isaac's hand tightening, "It was,"

There was a moment where they let the memory play out, watching Isaac's past self swim after the song from the merfolk.

"Erm... I think this might cheer you up in a moment," Isaac said as they appeared at the pedestal where the hostages had been placed.

"Ok... that is the dumbest thing I've ever seen," Ben agreed as the two of them watched Cedric swim around with what looked like an over-inflated tentacle-less jellyfish around his head.

"I know," Isaac bowed his head as a little half-smile crossed his face, "Would you believe me that it gets better?"

"Oh please tell me that something even dumber..." Ben broke off when the half-transformed Krum zoomed into the picture.

As Ben made to wave his hand once more, Isaac caught him.

"The next bit... it's when I... when I almost... drown..." he warned Ben.

Ben's mouth went dry, amusing the living glitch for half a moment considering where they were currently stood, before nodding.

He let out a slow breath, waved his hand, and the memory moved along.

When he opened his eyes he was just able to catch sight of a Grindylow shoot out of the kelp forest towards Isaac's past self and his hostage.

Three more burst from the kelp, and a moment later a large horde surged from the strands directly at Isaac.

Ben's grip on Isaac's wrist tightened as they watched Isaac's past self push Hermione towards the surface before grabbing the hunting knife and turning to face the horde.

He winced as bursts of boiling water were sent out at random, hitting large amounts of Grindylow, but doing nothing to deter the masses.

His breath hitched as he watched the webbing of Isaac's flipper like feet slowly begin to deteriorate, his feet shifting back into their original form.

The barest hint of a growl escaped Ben as he watched a small group try and wrap strands of kelp around his wrists and legs to pull him down into the kelp deaths with ease... and it looked as if it was working.

Had Isaac not been stood next to him, holding his hand, then Ben would have started screaming for the Isaac currently drowning to keep fighting and live.

Suddenly, a large shockwave rippled out from around Isaac, pushing the Grindylow away and causing them to flee.

There was a moment where Isaac's past self had a look of victory upon his face before it went numb and he looked as if he was just about to fall asleep.

Isaac could feel Ben shaking as he watched his past self sink down before his foot met the top of the kelp forest, jolting his system awake in his moment of need so he could cast a spell to bring him to the surface.

As he watched his past self rise towards the surface Ben swiped his hand and the memory changed back to the field with the tree, the sun and sky much, much, brighter than it normally was.

A silence settled between them, the only noise from BRVR as he darted through the grass towards them.

Neither of them said anything as BRVR followed them on the way to the tree.

"Pika?" BRVR chirrped sadly, worried about why his two favourite non-Player Users.

"So..." Isaac said, not sure what to talk about now.

"Yeah..." Ben said, also not sure what to talk about.

BRVR looked between the two sitting against the tree, his ears flat to the sides of his head as he tried to understand what was going on,

His nuzzling into the side of Izak only got him a few idle pats on the head.

"You're going back, aren't you?" Isaac closed his eyes at the low, near emotionless, tone that Ben spoke in.

"Yes," Isaac said a moment later.

"Why?"

Isaac took in a slow breath, trying to keep his composure.

"I... in the graveyard, I got taken down.

I was beaten, by a wizard, not some lucky punk in the streets.

Here, I can learn to fight as well as a soldier. I can learn how to break into places as easily as someone who can walk through walls... but I can't learn how to fight with magic aside from what I can get from a book...

The fifth year is the... O.W.L.'s year, dumb name, I know, but they're the minimum of what you can attain at a school and drop out without having a bunch of asshats trying to get you back into school,"

"And they won't ever find you here," Ben almost pleaded.

"But I won't be here all the time," Isaac pointed out, "I promise you, the first sign that things are going down the shitter, then I'm outta there," Isaac said as he held the sides of Ben's head, forcing him to look at him, "I'll have the Gameboy on every night and if I don't check in then you get Slendy, Teer, or L.J to come and get me,"

Ben closed his eyes and rested his head on Isaac's shoulder.

"I wish you didn't have to go," Ben admitted quietly.

"Me too," Isaac told him, "But I _need_ to know how to defend against magic, I can't count on Slendy to bail me out of everything, I need to know how to defend myself and everyone else,"

Ben let out a brief huff of laughter.

"Sometimes I wish you were a bit more selfish," he said, finally giving into BRVR's head butting against his arm for attention.

Isaac let a small smile crawl onto his face as he gently stroked Ben's arm.

"Have you told Toby, yet?" Ben asked after a few moments of peace between them.

"No," Isaac sighed, "I'll tell him tomorrow, after we've gone out on the job,"

Ben nodded before letting the two of them rest for a few moments while BRVR went off to see what else there was to do since he wasn't getting any attention.

"You know he's not gonna like it," Ben pointed out.

"I know..." Isaac said, "That's why I'm waiting until after the job's done so he'll be a little happier and I'll have an easier time convincing him,"

The two of them rested against each other for a moment longer, until Ben disappeared from the dream.

Isaac didn't consider himself a heavy sleeper, nor was he a light one either, but he did know that he would wake if he felt someone crawling into bed beside him.

"Budge over," Ben muttered, tugging the duvet back over him as he slid next to Isaac.

"Now I'm in the cold," Isaac mumbled, sliding away from the spot he had warmt as he had lain there.

"I know, thanks for saving my space," Ben sighed, resting his head against the pillows, "Geez, you're a bloody space heater,"

Isaac scoffed and rolled around so he could pull Ben a little closer, the two of them slowly drifting off to the gentle breathing of the other.

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When Isaac awoke that morning, he couldn't help the grin as he watched the peaceful expression upon Ben's face lit by the morning sun.

He would have been very content to lay back down there, but it seemed like fate had other ideas.

A loud hammering on the door caused Ben to jolt awake, just in time to see Isaac tumble over the edge of the bed in his shock.

"W're you watching me sleep?" a drowsy Ben mumbled, rubbing his bleary eyes.

"So what if I was?" Isaac grumbled, picking himself up off the floor and jerking the door open.

"Morning!" Toby chirped happily, "Got some waffles going downstairs, and have you seen Ben, Masky accidentally ran a couple a dozen red lights and..."

He broke off when he saw Ben yawning as he climbed out of the bed.

"Answers that," he shrugged, "You hear that?"

"Yeah," Ben yawned again, trying to push the tangle of bed-head that was his hair at the moment into a more manageable style.

Toby and Isaac watched as Ben climbed into the screen.

"So..." Toby asked, following Isaac as they walked down the stairs to go get breakfast, "Do I need to go over that little talk about what happens when a boy and a data-ghost love each other very much... get back here!" Toby called as Isaac leapt the remainder of the stairs to get away from the conversation, "Don't you dare touch my waffles!"

After ensuring that his precious waffles were safe from Isaac, Toby started going over what the job was.

Apparently, L.J had been spotted by some neighbour walking through the woods near L.J's latest playmate right before the kill.

"You got the gloves ready?" Toby asked as Isaac sat down at the table with a plate of waffles of his own.

"Yep," Isaac said as he clapped his hands in gleeful anticipation for the plate of waffles, syrup, chocolate chips, and cream that sat before him, "All runed up and ready to go,"

After going through the rest of where the guy was staying, Isaac went back upstairs to grab the gloves and the rest of his stuff.

Pulling on the gloves, Isaac tugged the hood of his hoody into a comfier place, grabbed a pair of boots out his wardrobe, grabbed the harness, still outfitted with every knife he had as well as the hatchet now, and went back down to meet Toby at the door.

"Ready?" Toby asked him as he tugged his boots on.

"Yeah," Isaac agreed, strapping his facemask around his neck.

"You look ready," Toby agreed, holding the door for him.

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"So, not to complain about getting out and about, but why are we tidying up after L.J?" Isaac asked as they neared the motel where the neighbour was currently staying.

"L.J's busy doing something else, I don't know what, and Slendy agreed with me when I asked to bring you along that you needed a bit more time out of The Mansion.

Seriously, you were starting to turn into the vase that keeps getting moved around because you can't decide where to put it,"

Isaac rolled his eyes, but chuckled none the less, as Toby messed up his hair.

"We gotta get your hair cut again," Toby muttered as his fingers found a fair few knots, "And get you some conditioner, my god,"

"Says mister, 'I like licking powerlines, can you tell by my hair?'," Isaac said, grabbing Toby's hood and pulling to down over his face.

The neighbout had moved out of town when nobody took him seriously, knowing that what he had seen was true and that the murderous clown might have glimpsed him that day.

Knowing his life was in danger, he left and had been jumping from motel, to motel, ever since.

Ben had tracked him down the other day, and he had another night at his current place of residing.

"There's his car," Isaac pointed out after quickly checking out the license plates of a few others before finding the right one.

"There it is," Toby agreed, "Tyres or tank?"

"Erm... I'll take the tyres," Isaac decided.

"Suit yourself," Toby said, popping open the gas cap and dropping something into the gas tank while Isaac dropped to the ground and stuck something between the brake plates.

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Inside the motel room, the curtains were pushed aside slightly by the sole inhabitant.

His eyes went wide as he watched two people sabotage his car.

After trying to find the clown online, finding the tale of 'The Laughing Jack in the box', he had started looking through the online urban myths that the clown had been associated with.

The older looking teenager closely resembled the story of 'Ticci Toby'... but he hadn't found any that looked like the younger one.

There were a few similarities between the two of them, hoody, facemask, goggles, it even looked like there was a hatchet strapped to his back, in fact...

Realisation dawned on the man as he stood there that they were probably for him.

Quickly slamming the deadbolt across the lock, he hurried through to the bathroom, locking that door as well, before clambering out the window and across towards the very thin forest and running to the road he knew lay just past the trees.

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Isaac and Toby watched the man as he fell out of the window.

"I... I don't know what to say..." Toby shook his head, "Did he know that the locks were broken?"

"I don't think so..." Isaac said, watching as the man stumbled over a bunch of leaves in his attempt to run away, "Pity kill?"

"Yeah, might as well," Toby nodded in confirmation.

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The man's breathing was heavy as he ran past the trees in a blind panic.

He knew there was a road through here, it went over the bridge since there was a river passing through.

A whistling got his attention as he leant on a tree for a rest, wishing that he had done more in the gym when he had gone to school.

But the thing was... this whistling, it wasn't the whistling made by a person, it almost sounded like...

He cried out in pain as something fast, sleek, and sharp stabbed through his hand, pining it to the tree.

"Hello there," a cheery voice said, "Thanks for staying still,"

The man turned, gasping in pain to turn and find that the younger one was standing there, another knife spinning around his finger.

He grabbed the knife and wrenched it from his hand, biting back another pained yelp, before running again.

Laughter chased him away, his bleeding hand clutched close to his chest, as he frantically ran past the trees.

A glint of silver hidden behind a tree gleamed in the sparse sunlight caught his eye.

Realising that the other one had run ahead, he ducked down the other way and started sprinting away, hearing the faint cry of, "Damn it!"

Turning to look over his shoulder while he ran, he saw Ticci Toby chasing after him.

The sound of a car rushing over a bridge forced him to look back to where he was running just in time to dodge a tree he nearly ran into.

Another car went over the bridge, the embankment not too far away from him now.

Hope flooded through his system as he neared the stony edge of the river.

He skidded to a halt when he saw someone sitting on a large rock, waiting for him.

"You run fast," the younger one said and he could practically hear the sneer beneath the mask.

Even though he couldn't see his eyes, he felt like they were drilling a hole through his chest.

He clanced at the river.

It wasn't too deep, barely up to his knees, if he could make a break across the water, he _might_ have a chance to get up the other side.

The teen would have to follow him across the water, he couldn't risk getting seen by anyone going over the bridge and...

As he had been thinking, the teen had stood up, braced himself to leap forward, and clenched his fists.

Blue flames flared out around the gloves, settling around his hands until the area was lit by the steady burning.

Unprepared for that to happen, the man became fixated on the burning teenager before him and didn't realise that they had leapt through the air towards him.

Just as he realised what was going on, the teen had landed a heavy blow to his face, breaking his nose, and sending him staggering backwards.

He landed heavily on the ground, his head splashing on the very edge of the water.

As he tried to get up the teen landed another blow in the form of a kick to the side of his head.

Disorientated, the man was just able to see, through blood-stained eyes, Ticci Toby join the teen, handing him back the knife that had been left behind.

"So, how do you want to end him?" Toby asked Isaac, looking around to see if there was anything fun to do.

"Erm... I dunno, just get it over and done with?" Isaac asked, pulling the hatchet out of its sling.

"Yeah, might as well... my god he's persistant," Toby said, watching as the man waded across the river.

"Gotta give him credit for that," Isaac shrugged, "Give me a moment,"

Toby watched as Isaac quickly scaled the embankment and starter jumping from support to support to cross the river before the man did.

While waiting for Isaac to get to the other side ahead of the man, Toby crouched down to pick up a few stones to pelt at the man.

Angry welts were forming on his body, he could feel them with every strike from a stone.

Just as he reached the other side of the river, something dropped down and a different kind of searing sensation accompanied the latest bout of pain.

He stumbled backwards and something caught the back of his leg, cutting through bone and muscle, as it pulled him off his feet.

This time, when the man crashed into the river, it was deep enough so that his head fell beneath the water.

Something weighed down on his chest and gloved hands grasped the sides of his face, holding his head under the water.

The man thrashed around, trying to push the teen off him as everything... slowly... faded... to... black...

"Well... that was violent," Toby said, jumping down from the bridge, "Gah!"

Toby yelped as his foot caught a patch of mud and sunk into the ground.

"You're kidding me, I just cleaned these," Toby, at that moment, most certainly did not 'whine'.

"Give it a quick wash in the river," Isaac suggested as he pushed the man's corpse further out into the water, watching as the current carried it away from them.

"You know, I think you should see someone about your violent tendencies," Toby said sincerely, "It's not healthy for someone your age to bottle up all this rage...

Tell you what, I'll have a chat with a guy I know..." Isaac looked at Toby with a mildly amused expression, wondering where this was going, "... he's my boss, and I'll see if he's got anything that you can do, give you a reason to get out of the house some more,"

Isaac nearly dropped his hatchet in surprise, he had been cleaning the blade in the river while Toby had been speaking.

"Y-you mean... you mean going out on a job... by myself?" Isaac asked.

"Why not?" Toby shrugged, "You can handle yourself well enough, you know when to draw something out or when to end it quickly, you're old enough to think about sneaking into bars when you're underage, I don't see why you shouldn't take on a few jobs of your own,"

Isaac could feel his facemask tighten trying to contain the smile on his face.

"Come on," Toby said, "Let's grab some burgers on the way back,"

As the two of them reached the nearest Slenderport, Isaac turned to face Toby.

"Hey, there's something I've been meaning to talk to you about..."

Knowing that there was hardly any point in delaying the inevitable, Isaac began to explain to Toby about his return to Hogwarts for his fifth, and final, year.

Toby makes his way across, shoe catches in water edge

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Authornotes.

Ok, I've _really_ got things set up in my head.

So, next week, Isaac kicks dementor ass and Slendy getting angry... or do I?

Instead, what if next week I uploaded a chapter dedicated to Fred being a Proxy, hanging out at the carnival, and his first time going with L.J to see him in action?

Hmm... well, I know what I'm doing, and you don't.

But, before I can end this weeks chapter, I've got a bunch of reviews to answer.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

I didn't choose a specific runic alphabet, but I've always wanted to try and design my own.

If I ever do, then I'll upload a design of it to my Pinterest page.

Huh, I've always wanted to get into metal work, mainly smelteries and forges, pouring into moulds and the like, tell your cousin that I think they're cool.

Ok, I ain't going south, that's decided.

Still going to get a gasmask.

Huh, that's always handy, sure you're not just a weather sprite?

Ah, understandable.

Well... yeah, you read my Authornotes... yeah...

I will have that teeth-rotting delight!

Yeah, I hate repetitive forms where I just keep writing the same shit over and over.

Violence is fun, and I still want to know how many people I've killed over the course of the story and who has the biggest kill count... probably Jeff after that group in the forest when L.J drugged him up.

I have to go on a diet because I want to get back into exercising, so I need to cut back on chocolate and other sugary stuff... I say as I've got 2 loaf cakes, a bag of cookies, a 2-litre bottle of Irn Bru, mars bar Easter egg, caramel bites, pancakes, and discount pringles sitting in a bag hidden in my wardrobe as of last Sunday morning... thank you Asda...

And the pancakes went off, god damn it...

I am having a bit of luck at the moment, thank you.

I agree, have you tried herbal tea? Always relaxes me, especially when I mix in honey.

It was a good idea, why wouldn't I?

I'll make it, give me time, I've already gone over a big part of identifying vowels.

I enjoy writing those two _so_ much.

I'll have Isaac purposely design runes to blow up and then have him go around causing carnage, don't you worry.

I've probably changed the chapter bit, just know that I'm feeling a little smug about being able to go to bars when I'm under 20.

Those bars in Texas sound alright, if I end up in U.S.A before 21 then I'll probably head over to them.

I just really like the idea that Helen's the guy who just appears when you're planning something causing you to scramble to hide the thing.

He also knew that Isaac could no way in Hell pass for 21, better save them the hassle the now.

Ben had known something was off for a bit, and he knows Isaac.

If he wasn't telling him then it was something he was worried about, like how he himself would react. Ergo, he knew that Isaac was keeping something private that he thought would set himself off.

Hope the bit at the start explained it a bit better.

Huh, your dad had a pretty good plan.

If, or when, my kid(s) want to know more about drinking, I'd probably wait until they were 15/16 since the age is 18 over here, and start them on the alco-pops or cider... my plan will probably change over the years, mainly because I don't have any children, nor does it look like I'll ever have kids of my own at the moment.

I've started reading it, and I really like it, thank you for sharing it with me!

I've started reading VIVA LA TOBY and I like it too!

Glad you liked it, hope you like this one too.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Myra the Dovahkiin;

Thank you.

Plan too.

Will do.

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

1, At the time, Fred didn't have a choice. Teer was indisposed so he couldn't wipe his mind, and L.J had no other way of making sure Fred didn't tell anyone. George was the only one with an actual choice. Slenderman had a chat with L.J about the proper way someone accepts a Proxy, while the way L.J did it is still alright because he had been planning on approaching them at some point about it, he was forced to give George the choice the next time L.J went about making a Proxy. I'll be writing an EXTRAS chapter to clear up any other misconceptions about this.

2, Because _I'm bloody Crowley_! And your contract just got shortened because of your attitude.

3, Oww... hope you're feeling better.

Actual review this time, alright.

1, Yeah, I know, son of a witch, thank you very much.

2, Well... thank you for that prompt.

3, Erm... I'll check, but Masky probably confiscated those.

4, Runes, yes, just wait until I get to my second fic plan to see just how far I can take the rune plot device.

See you next week.

Aww, I love cats, my BF has one called Pepper... tried to eat one of my toes, little... 'breaks off in grumbles'

 **(X) Review (X)**

Honebar;

GO TO SLEEP!

'Jeff, shouting through Creepgate' – THAT'S _MY_ LINE!

Well, there are worse things to be addicted too, cocaine, heroin, Fortnite, the list goes on and yes, that was in the order of bad to worse.

Those two are cute, yes.

Those dragons... just you wait...

I think I know the endgame for Isaac's gloves now...

Yeah, the start of this chapter brought that little bit to a close, what did you think?

And I'm honoured to be the... stalked... ok then.

Yeah, that's about as well as I expected that to go... I LOVED IT! Onto the cake!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

Yeah, not yet, anyway.

Not _first_ night out...

 **(X) Review (X)**

JaguarVakarian;

WELCOME!

Yes, I have been informed and have fixed it.

Thank you, glad that you liked it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Thank you.

Erm... probably a lot of mess, chaos, and destruction.

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

Really? I'd hate to know how long it took you to read Werewolf on EXTRAS now...

I ship them too, just wait until I've finished what I'm drawing.

Yeah, I'm gonna write an EXTRAS at somepoint with a bunch of reveals.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Yeah, well... hehehehe...

Hope it was worth it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

No prob, hope you get better soon.

I'm glad you liked it.

I'm going to assume it was the medicin, I'm not funny.

I can't wait, get better soon.

 **(X) Review (X)**

joshua. obryan. 549;

Yeah, I love those little cuties.

I made that dot with the sole purpose of messing up runes and I love it too.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

Yeah, I've used them before, not for welding, and I remember not being able to hold things very well... so they were out...

Haven't seen that movie yet, been meaning too.

Trust me, I'll be using the runes in a much more fun way by the end of the story.

Yeah, I've fixed the thing.

Alcohol and pyros is an awesome combination, what do you mean?

I feel like there's a chalkboard somewhere with 'days without stupidity occuring' written on it... Toby has never reached a week...

Sounds like a good idea, probably gonna have him do that.

 **(X) Review (X)**

DHLcosplay (Guest);

Oh, how bad is the earlier stuff, I cringe a little when reading it back.

I'm glad that you've seen some stuff you either missed or forgot.

Thank you, I hope you do too.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Ok, that was the last review for the chapter.

Next week... either Dementors... or Proxy bonding...

Hehehehehe... secrets...

But, anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this weeks chapter, and I'll see you in the next one.

Till the next time,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	75. Chapter 75, Another day at The Carnival

Chapter 75, Another day at The Carnival.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

So... I know the title gives it away a bit... but can you guess what's happening this week?

That's right!

Time for Fred to get a little more acquainted with the world of murder and... well... more murder...

Now I just need to decide what to have him do... or how to make this into a decently sized chapter...

Eh, I'm sure that I'll think of something, I always do.

So, hope you enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

The Burrow.

It was a normal day that began as the dawning sun pierced through the misty morning on the street of Ottery in Catchpole.

The towering home of the Weasleys was soon abuzz with activity shortly after Mr Weasley had gone to work.

Inside, the matriarch, Mrs Weasley, was preparing breakfast for her three children and one daughter, who were having a slow start that morning.

One of said children had decided to help his twin wake up with a painfully accurate gobstone.

Fred yelped as something hard and fast pelted his backside.

After nearly throwing his pillow at George, he got dressed and made his way down to check the chalkboard that their mother had hanging on the wall next to the stairs.

Seeing that it was their turn to de-gnome the garden, they bid their mother a good morning before tugging on their boots and walking out onto the dew-coated grass in the garden.

Finding the small misshapen creatures was easy work after the first minute or two and soon the air was filled with small beings being thrown in a contest to see how far they could get them.

With the two of them working together, it took fifteen minutes to get rid of them all, maybe twenty at most.

Picking a couple of ripe strawberries from one of the bushes outside, they made their way back in time to see an owl fly off from one of the windows at the top of the house.

"All done?" Mrs Weasley asked the twins when they came back inside, flipping over the frying bacon in a pan with a wave of her wand.

"Yes, mum," they intoned together.

"Thank you," she said, flicking her wand over at a couple of baskets, "Since there's some time left before all this is done, would you mind picking some of the berries outside, seen as you're going to pinch a couple anyway,"

Fred and George shared a quick smirk as they took the baskets and headed back outside.

Once the baskets were filled with any ripe berries that they could find, the two headed back inside.

"Thank you, boys, pop them over there, buy the sink, and..." Mrs Weasley paused turning around and sniffing.

"Something wrong?" George asked her, grabbing a few plates for the table.

"No... just thought I smelt... oh, doesn't matter, must have been the syrup, or the pancakes, don't think there's anything here that sweet," Mrs Weasley dismissed, moving over to the stairs to shout up for Ron to hurry up.

While she had done that, however, Fred had stiffened mid-reach for the plate of crispy bacon.

L.J's smoke always smelled sweet and sugary, he had become fairly familiar with the scent from the infrequent 'check-ups' that the clown did.

Fred kept glancing around at anything that moved while he ate his breakfast.

After most of everything had been eaten, Mrs Weasley kept George back from going upstairs so that he could help her fold the laundry.

"While we're doing that, Ron, can you go and fix that fence, dear?"Mrs Weasley said, passing George one of the two baskets of laundry.

"Why do I have to do it?" Ron moaned, dropping his bowl into the sink with a loud thud.

"Because it's your turn," Mrs Weasley said sternly, "Ginny's still over at the Lovegoods, Fred and George de-gnomed the garden _and_ picked the berry bushes, Percy's...

Just you go do as your told," she finished snappishly.

Ron grumbled as he kicked on a tattered pair of boots before making his way out to the shed to grab the wheelbarrow they filled with the replacement boards, nails, and hammer.

Fred kept glancing around as he reached the small landing outside of his and George's room.

After creeping inside, careful to quietly shut the door, he ducked down to check under their beds.

"Morning!"

Fred nearly hit his head on the bedside cabinet he had in his hurry to get back up.

Laughing Jack was sitting cross-legged on his bed, looking at him with feigned curiosity.

"My, aren't you a jumpy one today," he grinned, unfolding his long legs and standing up to stretch.

"I'm better when there's not a random murder clown sitting on my bed," Fred grumbled, dusting himself down.

"Yeah, well life is hardly ever ideal," Jack shrugged before taking a hold of Fred and whisking them away to the carnival with a whirl of smoke.

Downstairs, if anyone had cared to notice for a brief moment, they would have noticed Fred's hand on the family clock move from ~HOME~ to ~TRAVELLING~ and to ~MORTAL PERIL~ for a brief second before settling on ~WORK~.

"So, what's going on today?" Fred asked, sighing as he accepted that he wasn't going to be able to have another short nap.

"Well, I need to go do some stuff, which means I need you to get a bit more involved in things," Jack said, looking around the carnival.

Fred could almost feel the blood slowly drain from his face.

"Not on the kid killing front," Jack added on as if it was something insignificant, "I just need you to do a few things around here for me,"

A sigh of relief escaped from Fred's lips as he visibly relaxed.

"I've got some stuff to do with... my latest playmate, and I need you to do a few things around here," Jack said, gesturing idly with a free hand, "Some of the kids went off to play in the woods and haven't come back,"

"That happen often?" Fred asked, turning to look out the entrance and out into the expanse of dark, looming, trees.

"On occasion," Jack shrugged, "Go out to play hide and seek in the trees, get lost, wander around for a while, before shouting bloody murder for me to come and get them,"

After rummaging in his seemingly endless pockets for a moment, Jack pulled out a long silver flashlight, gave it a few test clicks, and tossed it to Fred.

"So I've to go find them?" Fred asked, wishing he had worn his boots that morning.

"Yep," Jack nodded, popping the 'p', "If you find bits of paper with scribbles on the trees, then you've gone too far...

Slendy helped me set this place up," he started explaining, "... so this place is _technically_ an expansion of his forest, but sort of not..."

"So... it's like a country border?" Fred tried to find a good comparison, "You go far enough, you end up in another country, but they're still a part of the same continent?"

"Eh, close enough," Jack shrugged, "Now, you go find the waywards, I've got a job to do,"

Disappearing in another swirl of smoke, only to re-appear a few moments later.

"Oh, they always take a bunch of candy with them, keep an eye out for wrappers," Jack quickly imparted before departing once again.

Fred turned the silver flashlight over in his hand, wondering how his life had ended up this way, as he made his way out into the forest.

For a moment, he wondered why Jack had given him the flashlight.

It was... bright, by very cloudy standards, and he could see well.

Then he entered the forest.

The canopy of leaves overhead, accompanied by the thick and twisted branches, made a very good block for the light.

Switching the flashlight on, he found the shiny wrapper of a piece of candy and started making his way towards it.

After picking it up for a moment, Fred shone the torch over the ground ahead of him and found another glint.

Figuring that he was on the right track, Fred started moving a little faster through the forest.

He would openly admit that it was a little creepy in here, which was fitting, all things considered.

The sound of something shuffling behind him made him freeze.

Shining the light around him, trying to find the source of the shuffling, he eventually managed to make a full circle to find a small zombie child less than a foot away from him with a lollypop.

After nearly jumping out of his skin, Fred closed his eyes, let out a heavy sigh through his nose, before muttering, "I don't really know what I expected," to himself.

The zombie child tilted his head, still sucking on the lollypop, still looking up at him.

"Hey, you ready to go back to the carnival?" Fred asked, crouching down so that he was eye-level to the kid.

An eager nod from the kid nearly sent the lollypop flying out a hole in the side of his cheek.

"Well, we'll just get your friends and then head back," Fred said, offering his hand after the barest moment of hesitation.

After the zombie child took his hand, and a quick shared smile, they turned around to find the other three standing behind them.

"You all set your legs to silent, didn't you?" Fred accused, pointing at them with the torch and a comedically serious face.

The four of them giggled, another reaching for Fred's other hand.

"Ok, ok," Fred said, quickly breaking up the squabble for who got to hold his other hand, "How about..."

He didn't get to finish his suggestion as one of them raced behind him and quickly leapt up onto his back before settling on his shoulders.

Another took his other hand and Fred turned to face the final one.

"How about you lead us out of here?" he asked her, holding out the flashlight after letting go of the first child's hand for a brief moment.

She smiled brightly, taking the flashlight from him and marching on ahead of them shining it around the place ahead of Fred, holding onto two zombie children while a fourth sat on his shoulders, resting his head on top of Fred's.

As they made their way back, Fred couldn't help but feel like somebody else was watching them, but a look around revealed nothing more than trees... yet... the feeling persisted... at least until they reached the edge of the forest, where...

Fred's jaw dropped open slightly as he caught sight of the bright, colourful, and... extremely joyous looking carnival sat in the middle of a very sunny day.

"What the..." Fred muttered before he was pulled along a bit by...

His confusion, if it hadn't already, had peaked when he caught sight of the three perfectly normal looking children taking him back to the carnival, even the legs of the fourth were no longer a motley grey of decay and were, instead, a healthy shade of pink.

Walking past the gates, not even a chill on the air, the same sounds of joyous laughter filled the air but the chittering that they normally were able to talk in had vanished.

Then, as if the day couldn't have gotten anymore surreal, Fred caught sight of Laughing Jack in all his multi-coloured glory.

The normally two-tone clown was decorated in every possible colour and performing what seemed to be a magic show to a decently sized crowd of children.

As they got closer, one in the crowd turned around to look at the approaching group when two of them got up and started running towards him.

Fred smiled at the two, crouching down to let the child off his shoulders, and quickly found himself being used as a human shield by Sammy and Jenny, the twins that had ambushed him at one of his prior visits to the carnival.

"Hey, you two," Fred said, reaching behind him to put a hand on their shoulders, "What's wrong?"

"Why is he here?" a cold, young, voice said and Fred could _hear_ the sneer on her face.

"That's Fred," Jack said, looking at him with a look that clearly said he had expected that to take a bit longer, "One half of a twin set, he helps me here, even finding a few friends who went off exploring without telling anyone,"

The zombie children who had gone out into the woods looked confused for a moment and Fred wondered if him going to look for them had been a distraction.

His wondering was cut short, however, with a frown as when Jack had talked about Fred having a twin the girl's sneer had gotten wider, colder before it changed to a dark glower when all the kids around her waved hello to Fred at Jack's prompting.

"Mommy says twins are unnatural freaks who shouldn't be allowed in places where normal folks are," the girl said, her mouth still twisted in the sneer.

Before Jack could speak again, she spoke again.

"I'm bored now, what else is there?" she asked, turning to face the clown.

Jack led the girl, and the ' _adoring_ ' party around her deeper into the carnival to show her what else there was to do.

Sammy and Jenny had stayed behind with Fred, the others he had found in the forest going off after the group.

"You two ok?" Fred asked, taking a knee and looking at the two of them.

After sharing a quick glance, Sammy and Jenny nodded but went back to holding onto his hands when he stood back up.

A swirl of sweet-smelling black smoke appeared before them, Jack not looking too happy about being back in all the colours of the rainbow.

"Found them fairly quick," he grumbled, "Think you can do some other stuff around here for me?"

"Yeah, but who..."

"Later, take him around the place, show him where he needs to go," Jack said, cutting him off and handing a list to Sammy before disappearing once again before the girl could notice his disappearance.

Fred sighed as he looked at the list Sammy held up to him.

"Ok, first thing is... water cannons... so, where are they?" Fred let out a brief yelp as Sammy and Jenny took off running to where the problem was, still holding tightly to him so he nearly face-planted into the dirt.

Sammy and Jenny kept running until they had led Fred to what looked like a section of the carnival with every possible fairground stall imaginable.

They came to a stop in front of a stall built up to look like the side of a ship and pointed at the water guns strapped to the boards for them to use.

And that was the pattern for a while.

Fred would fix one of the broken games then Sammy and Jenny would drag him onto the next one.

After what felt like hours of work, Jack came back to see how he was doing.

He was no longer looking like a walking paint palette and the carnival had returned to it's usually bleak, yet still somewhat energetic, tones.

"Not too bad," he said, nodding at the refurbished stalls.

"Yeah," Fred said, wiping his hands on a rag that Jenny handed him, "Needed something to take my mind off of...

She's... she was your latest playmate, wasn't she?" Fred asked after a moment.

"Yeah," Jack said, giving the fixed ring-toss sign an experimental poke to see if it would fall back down, "She is,"

Fred didn't say anything for a moment as he gave Jenny back the rag.

"Is she going to live?" Fred asked a moment later, his breaths slow and steady.

Jack didn't say anything, he just gave a small, but definite, shake of his head.

Fred bowed his head, burying it in his hands, and leaning against the stall.

"Nothing you can do, or could have done, will change it," Jack said softly, leaning next to him.

"What did... what was she going to do?" Fred amended, speaking after a moment of silence.

"Doesn't matter... won't matter," Jack said, knowing that Fred wasn't ready for this stage of being a Proxy yet.

"Tell me," Fred said, his voice more confident than Jack had ever heard it sound.

Jack didn't say anything as he turned to face Fred, a hard look on his face that met Fred's determined gaze.

"I'm... I'm sorry..." Fred said, breaking after a few seconds of intense staring from the seven-foot clown with razor-sharp fingers and a predilection for murder.

Then Jack broke and started laughing.

"I was wondering when you'd start to show a bit of spine," he said between dark, gravelly, chuckles, "Thought you were a jellyfish piloting a body for a while..."

Before Fred could speak again, Jack continued.

"I don't know what she would have gone on to do," Jack said, "I didn't know for any of them.

All I know is that if I don't, then they'd take out a few ten thousand by the time that normal people would have managed to take them down, whether they'd be nabbed by a demon or not,"

Fred sighed and rubbed his face, stifling a yawn.

He was having trouble trying to picture that little girl, as unpleasant as she had been, as something catastrophically dangerous.

"I've kept you here long enough," Jack admitted, "Well... think you can explain being gone for... just under an hour?"

Shocked that it had not even been an hour yet, Fred shrugged as he spoke.

"I don't know, say that I went for a quick walk to try and wake up some more,"

Jack nodded, it was a good enough answer, before clicking his fingers.

"Wait here," he said, disappearing for a few moments.

He was barely gone twenty seconds before returning, two boxes in his hands.

"This is from me," he said, giving Fred a white box with black ribbon, "And this is from Specs McGee," giving him a similar box, but with red ribbon.

"You know..." Jack said, looking around as Fred balanced the boxes on top of one another, "You did such a good job here... maybe I should take you along on the next part of my particular brand of work,"

Fred went pale for a moment, save for the mild blush upon his cheeks from the compliment, and the clashing colours caused Jack to burst out laughing again.

Rolling his eyes, Fred gave an exasperated look at Jack as he took a hold of his shoulder.

Once the smoke cleared Fred found himself just down the road from The Burrow.

"Maybe try saying that you stopped by the post office when you went on your walk," Jack suggested, "See ya, Ginger,"

"Bye," Fred said awkwardly, still trying to compose himself from helper of a mass murdering clown to normal wizarding teenager.

Fred sighed as he came into sight of his towering home.

"Oh, hadn't noticed that you were out," Mrs Weasley said, looking up from her knitting, "Where'd you go... what are those?" she asked suspiciously.

"I went for a walk to try and wake up a bit more when you were arguing with Ron about the... the... the fence.

Ended up at the post office in town, decided to check if there were any packages, and got these; ones from Isaac, and the others from L.J,"

"Oh," Mrs Weasley said, "Well, you can take them up with you, but don't cause too much trouble with whatever it is," she wagged her finger in his direction, "And Fred... George will tell you what to do,"

"Yes, _dad_ , I mean, _Ginny_ , I mean," Fred ducked as a ball of yarn was sent his way, via a flick of his mother's wand, to hit him around the head until he reached the first landing of the stairs.

As soon as he got into his and George's room he found George crouched down over his trunk.

"Mum says we're going somewhere, got to pack up our stuff," George said, tossing him a couple of shirts from his side of the room.

"How long did she say we were going for?" Fred asked George, just barely catching the shirts before dumping them and the boxes on the bed to grab his trunk out from underneath.

"She said to pack for the rest of summer," George said, peeking up from his trunk, "What's in the boxes?"

Fred looked down at the boxes on his bed.

"Don't know, L.J... sent it, and the one with the red's from Isaac," he said, hesitantly reaching to undo the ribbon on the box.

"You know what's inside it?" George asked, giving the box an experimental sniff, "Smells sweet,"

He didn't know whether the smell was from something within the box, or if it was leftover smells from L.J's smoke.

Making a decision, he reached for the thin ribbon of the black box and carefully pulled it away.

A small black balloon rose up from the box, pushing the lid off, and bounced on the ceiling.

There was a scrawl in white felt pen on the balloon, messily saying, ~HAPPY BIRTHDAY~

Inside the box, was a small, flat, cake. Red and gold icing made the shape of a party popper on the top with sprinkles as the confetti.

Fred and George looked down at the box.

"Did we ever mention when our birthdays were to him?" George asked, receiving a shake of Fred's head as his answer.

Although their birthday had been a fair few weeks ago, back in April, they still cut a slice, or three, with their wands and took a break from packing for wherever it was they were going.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Endnotes.

Ok, I know it's another short chapter, but I really am struggling here.

Not just with the story, but I've got prelims bearing down on me for a class that gave me a breakdown in the actual exams.

I really want to pass it this time around so I'm putting more time into revising for a while.

I still want to stick to the schedule of a story a week because this is really the only thing that I feel I have any control over and I need this to ground me.

So, again, I'm sorry that this is a little shorter, I might come back and add bits to it in the future, but this is all I can manage at the moment.

I promise that I'll try to do more for next weeks chapter.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Thank you.

I don't mind if you repeat a few things.

I'm glad that you liked it.

Do you ever listen to 'Nathan Sharp'? I really like him and his music.

See you next week.

Yeah... that's a lot of words...

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

Yeah, mostly fluff.

No dementors, not yet, anyway...

Them keeping a dementor would be kinda interesting... a bit problematic, though...

There will always be bloodshed... do dementors even have blood?

E.J would probably try a bit... gonna keep that reaction secret though.

I plan to.

The fic is going to wait until I've finished this one, it's another crossover, and it's from another franchise that I love.

Oh, I wish I had cats and a dog, Toby is great, but he tends to scratch when he moves a little.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Joshua. Obryan. 549;

I think that I need to go and rewatch the series, it's been a while.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Thank you.

I LOVE WINTER!

I'm definitely trying some of the BBQ.

I need to send them to Texas to see that machine... Toby would freak out.

Yes, it is.

I definitely need to either count them up myself or see if someone else will do it for me.

I'm glad it's better.

Yeah, I was the same, definitely feels weird when they decide to go with your idea.

I am, definitely a big fan of the heterochromia.

He's had 2 years of practice, and he's got a steady hand from all the stuff he's been taught.

Can you name anyone in The Mansion who wouldn't swear when they've stubbed their toe?

Yeah, and if anyone thinks that it's a little OOC for this version of Isaac to be a little too emotional, I've got it covered. I've been planning two things for a while now and I can't wait until I reveal the two of them.

I know, why do you think I made Masky like that?

Those two are going to be the death of me, so much fluff opportunity...

The plan right now is to sit the OWLs and then gtfo.

I love being able to pour so much sass into Isaac, Harry was already rather sassy in canon, I just get to remove some barriers to do more.

Yeah, I just needed a body to drop and that was the first idea that popped into my mind.

I can't wait to design Isaac's first solo-mission.

Thank you, will do, see you.

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

Urgh... waking up... it's so... urgh...

I'm glad you like it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

I'm glad that it was.

FFS! I need to get DP back on these, I'm making rookie errors here.

 **(X) Review (X)**

nobody51;

Umbridge torture in the future, yes.

Can't write a crossover fic of this proportion and not cause the toad some form of unrelenting agony.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Myra the Dovahkin;

Thank you.

Check out EXTRAS, I've got a chapter dedicated to The Slendy Bros.

Might write an addon to it where Ben and Isaac have been going out for a bit and Offendy tries that, Ben's gonna fry his ass.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

Thanks, C.I.A! Why don't you censor [ **REDACTED]**

Erm... you do know that Thalmann is Slendy... right?

I... I had him verbally bitch-slap Fudge a few times in chapter 69... that was... 5 chapters ago... 6 including this one, or do you always over-estimate things by 5?

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

Hehehe, haven't seen the movie in ages and still love that scene... plus, "Dishonor!"

Being sick does suck.

Well... that was... morbid...

I had to take a break to shout 'FUCK OFF!' at a cricket that won't shut the hell up, Toby is being lazy and not eating as much, if he doesn't start eating soon then I'm gonna go have him checked over.

I'll need to check, but I might have made reference to Laughing Jill before and it's exactly that... oh, for... can someone who's re-reading the story keep an eye-out for Laughing Jill references for me and tell me in this weeks review? There are 75 chapters now and I've got enough on my plate at the moment.

But, yes, I have heard of Laughing Jill, love how she always gets the short end of the stick in 'Tale of the Clown's Mage'.

That is the best description of Jeff I have ever heard and I'm stealing it.

Those two are my lifeblood right now.

Toby is enjoying teasing the hell out of Isaac, yes.

The kill was fun to write as well.

I plan to.

 **(X) Review (X)**

K1ttycast1300;

Welcome!

Don't recognise the username... but is your profile pic a member of 'BTS' or am I being accidentally racist? Sorry if I am.

Glad you like it, hope you enjoy what comes next.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Anonymous Fan (Guest);

Chapter 46;

Yeah, Masky is a caffeine addict...

Well, not an addict, he just needs it...

'insert Kryoz 'Juice' monologue from Rainbow Six Seige here'

'sigh'

I'll go back and change it later, got enough to do at the moment.

When the story is done, I'm going to go back over it all and tidy up bits here and there, I'll probably get it then.

 **(X) Review (X)**

TheDarkLadyEris;

WELCOME!

Did you know that your parents were telepathic and named you after the Eris in my story?

I had to shout "FUCK OFF!" at a cricket again in the middle of this, I really need to get silent ones next time.

Anyway, I'm happy to have you.

I'm glad that you like this.

Black Wolf, looked him up... erm... maybe in an EXTRAS?

 **(X) Review (X)**

ChaosDragon25;

I am a glorious bastard, yes.

Hehehehehe... could you do me a favour and go back over it and count up how many deaths each character has?

Will write more, don't you worry your pretty little nose.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Anonymous Fan (Guest);

Chapter 63.

I had forgotten what the ghosts were called, thanks for reminding me.

Tiny dragons are awesome, yes.

Chapter 66.

I need to rewatch that show, and I spent 5 minutes laughing my ass off when I looked up that magnificent engineer.

Chapter 72.

I always answer the reviews.

I hope the author does it as well.

Erm... read the ones in the disclaimer at the bottom, those are my favourites or interesting enough to put into the story.

I'm going to have Isaac go into it in a future chapter, but the Wizards have become lazy because they just wave a wand and whatever they want happens.

The ones that Isaac likes are the ones that put in actual effort into doing things.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

Yeah, don't have to have them two dancing around the task anymore.

Isaac going solo is going to be... _spectacular_!

Nobody can help me with the lemon.

I enjoy watching Burton movies just for the production design.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Ok, that was the last of the reviews.

Sorry again for it being short, but this was all I was able to do.

But, I hope you enjoyed it regardless, and I hope you enjoy the next one.

See you next level.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao – GingaAkam.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit, if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	76. Chapter 76, Isaac's First Job

Chapter 76, Isaac's first job.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

And a moment we've all been waiting for, Isaac getting to go off on his own to do whatever it takes to fulfil the demands of The Slenderman.

So... what the hell am I going to have him do...

I'm drawing blanks... wait... _drawing_...

Nope, still no idea.

Maybe answering the reviews will give me an idea.

I'm gonna go answer them, and you can go read the chapter.

 **(X) time skip (X)**

Ok, answering the reviews did help a bit, but a PM from a reader did wonders.

So thank you to them, you'll see who to thank in the review answers, for reminding me to read a story about one of my new favourite Creepypastas.

Enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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The Mansion.

Toby wasn't happy.

But he wasn't upset, either.

And all of that meant that Masky worried something was going to be set on fire very shortly.

After going off to kill the neighbour that had seen L.J, Isaac had told Toby about his intention to return to Hogwarts for his final year and somehow gotten Toby to, reluctantly, agree.

The kid seemed to be doing alright, though watching him grow up had given the mask-wearing killer a keen insight to when he was pretending not to show that something was bothering him.

He was getting up alright, going about whatever was his job at The Ark alright, joining in with jokes or whatever game was on alright...

Masky was waiting for the penny or, something more suited for this place, the axe, to drop.

It seemed that all his Doomsday worries were for nothing, however, until...

After finishing telling Slenderman about the latest news of what was going on in The Ark, he liked to be kept up to date in case anything potentially problematic (see the reason Jane was shoved up a Redwood) was going to break out.

 **"Would you tell Isaac to cancel any plans that he may have tomorrow, I have a job for him,"** The Slenderman asked, his blank head tilted upwards as if looking at the moon.

"Sure, where am I taking him?" Masky asked, hitting a few bits of dried mud off his boots.

 **"You aren't taking him anywhere,"** Slenderman said, causing Masky to pause mid kick, **"Just tell him that I have a job for him and to meet me in The Grove,"**

With that, he disappeared.

Leaving a statuesque Masky alone in the middle of a small clearing near The Ark.

Returning to The Ark, he hoped to put off the inevitable for a little while by going to bed and telling Isaac until later in the afternoon but the sounds of the T.V next door, and subsequent laughter threw those ideas out the window faster than he could have muttered, "Damn it!"

"Hey," Masky said, greeting the kid with a quick hit round the head with one of the newspapers that had left lying around, "Slender says keep your schedule open for tomorrow,"

"He say why?" Isaac asked, rubbing at the part of his head Masky had clipped with the daily sports results.

"You need a reason to listen to him?" Masky asked, turning a fraction to give the kid a wary eye before continuing up the stairs to get more sleep... it was far... _far_ too early for him.

Isaac watched him go up, sharing a confused glance with Toby as the two of them (one of them) wondered why he was being called up by Slenderman.

When he was sure that it wasn't too suspicious for him to leave, Toby got up before he started giggling.

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Ben didn't know, Jeff didn't know, E.J didn't know, Hoodie shrugged with indifference, L.J didn't know...

Isaac had settled on one of three things.

Either Slendy wanted him to not leave The Mansion all day; was going to teach him something that took all day, or he had done something wrong and this was his punishment.

He thought back to telling Toby about his plans to return for one final year at Hogwarts, and wondered for a moment if he had made the right choice... but every time he tried to think of reasons not to go back his head hurt a little.

After everything that had happened at that castle, Isaac would have happily seen it burn to the ground, or blown up, depended on his mood at the time when you asked him, he knew that he should just wipe his hands free of the Wizarding Wasteland and be done with it... but something was still calling to him there... like he had unfinished business to complete...

Plus, he didn't... _feel_ right leaving Hermione behind to deal with everything by herself as well...

Shaking his head, Isaac settled under the covers of Ben's bed after sending off a message to him to say that he was heading to sleep and asking when he'd be joining.

Toby had gone a little overboard in his 'protective big brother' spree in Isaac's mind and put in place a rule that Ben could sleep with Isaac in his bed twice a week max...

He didn't say anything about Ben's bed, though.

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The dawn broke over cloudy skies and Isaac let a small smile grace his face when he felt the bed still dipping down from where Ben was lying in front of him.

He sighed, quite content to just lay there for another hour... or three, as he shuffled a little closer to Ben...

Then Jeff did something very kind and very Jeff-like to help him get up.

Said kind act was positioning the two loudspeakers in his room that he was allowed to use on occasion on either side of his head and begin playing a certain song.

Once Isaac and Ben had both stopped freaking out, and Jeff had run out before he got a face full of either flaming or electrically charged fists, he got changed, melted part of the loudspeakers input plugs, and headed to the kitchen to get whatever grub he could get before heading out into The Forest to meet with Slenderman in his clearing.

Slenderman's clearing was a rather... intriguing area of The Forest.

If you could ever make your way through the ever intimidating forest filled with twisted trees, with leaves of a _very_ dark green, that had been coated in... not even God would know how much blood over the... since it's ancient existence, then you would come to what could be described as a grove with ever-blooming berry bushes, a healthy green canopy, and soft grass underfoot.

Getting there was... tricky, even for the inhabitants of The Mansion and the theories about the small grove Isaac had heard over the years were numerous.

They stretched from The Grove being the area on Earth where The Slenderman first came into being, to it being the _only_ spot in the universe where The Slenderman could be mortally harmed, to Slendy needing a place where he can go to get away from all the hassle and chaos of The Mansion.

Isaac preferred the theory that The Slenderman was secretly in charge of all the major jam production factories through numerous shell companies and The Grove was where he personally kept the purest of each berry bush.

He didn't have time to ponder the reason of The Grove's existence, however, as he reached it in a much shorter time than it normally took him.

Stepping into the lush Grove, Isaac was still a little weirded out by this place existing, he found The Slenderman standing in the middle.

His normal posture of arms hanging loosely by the side had changed to being folded behind his incredibly long back and he seemed to almost look like he was simply soaking in the sunlight from the decently sized gap in the trees, again, a thing that only happened in The Grove since everywhere else in The Forest seemed determined to block out as much light as possible.

 **"Good morning,"** Slenderman greeted him, not moving or turning, still basking in the sunlight, **"I trust that you didn't have any trouble waking?"**

"No, Jeff was... Jeff," Isaac glowered back at the direction he had come.

 **"I don't doubt that you're wondering why I asked you here?"** Slenderman asked, turning ever so slightly so that, if he had a face, Isaac would have been able to see the indents of where his eyes should be.

"Yeah," Isaac said, trying not to sound too meek.

 **"I have a job for you,"** Slenderman said, turning full around so that he was facing Isaac.

"Oh," Isaac said, letting his arms drop to his side, "So, what's going on?"

 **"I was alerted to the fact that a long time friend of Kagekao has encountered some trouble.**

 **His area of residency was demolished a little over two weeks ago and he has gone missing since then,"** Slenderman began to explain, **"Kagekao made a visit to the area to find it destroyed and no trace of his friend.**

 **From what he has told me, his friend is not the most adept at surviving on his own without some sense of security in where they can rest peacefully,"**

Isaac nodded as Slenderman spoke.

"So I've got to go find his friend..."

 **"And his cat,"**

"And his... cat," Isaac added on, "... and then what? Bring them back to The Mansion?"

 **"For a while,"** Slenderman nodded, **"From what Kagekao has told me of him, while he is most definitely a part of our world, he is not... like us,"**

"What does that mean?" Isaac asked, his face twisting slightly from confusion.

 **"While his friend is a part of our world, he is not a killer... well, he does not mean to kill,"** Slenderman added on, **"To my understanding, his friend rather hates death, or seeing it, at least, and feels quite saddened for a brief stretch of time whenever a 'new friend' dies because of his actions,"**

Isaac blinked up at the towering figure.

"So... I'm going to go out and find a friendly, accidental, mass murderer?" he asked.

 **"And his cat,"**

"And his cat," Isaac added on, "Alright... not the... what's the catch?"

 **"Number one, you cannot engage him in any means of fighting beyond self-defence. Attacking him will result in more trouble than you, or anyone else at The Ark can handle.**

 **Number two, you are not to laugh at, or mock, his name,"**

Isaac squinted up at Slenderman.

"What's his name?" he asked, slightly wary.

 **"Zippers,"**

A slow and steady hiss of breath came out from Isaac.

"This is gonna be fun,"

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Reno, Nevada.

Isaac stood outside the front of the work zone as he watched the last bits of rubble being taken away to make space for workmen to start replacing foundations and sighed again.

His initial idea was to see if there was anything left that he could have indicated where Kagekao's friend had gone.

It had been a stretch, but it had been Isaac's best idea since he had no idea where on earth his friend could have gotten.

He knew that Zippers was still out there, somewhere, because Ben had checked arrest reports for somebody who seemed to be wearing a leather suit covered in zippers.

Though if there was one thing that Isaac would treasure forever it was Ben's expression when he asked him to check the arrest records for someone matching that description.

But, that lead had sunk like a cruise ship with a crush on an iceberg and now Isaac was back to square one.

Sighing to himself, Isaac took out the notepad that he had wrote down everything that Slendy had told him about Zippers and went through the list.

'Hotel Noir, gone,' Isaac thought, scribbling out the hotel's name from the list, 'Has a cat...'

"Better than nothing," he shrugged and, after a minute of looking online, he started heading off towards the nearest pet shop...

Then he headed off to the nearest after that one... and then the nearest after that one... then the next... then the next...

Isaac resisted the urge to hit his head against the wall after store twelve hadn't had any instances of someone stealing cat food, and if there was, then it wasn't anyone matching the description of Zippers.

He kicked a can into an alley as he made his way to store number thirteen and snorted in laughter.

Maybe thirteen would be the _lucky_ number for a change?

The thought definitely amused him as he caught a bus that would take him closer to the other stores, giving him a break from all the walking he had been doing.

Cool air greeted him over the warm sun outside and Isaac stood there, basking in the flow from the a.c unit for a moment before heading over to the cash registers.

"Hi, I'm doing a report for a school project about petty theft in nearby stores," Isaac said to the person attending the register, "And... sorry," Isaac stepped out of the way of someone wearing a balaclava and sunglasses under a deep hooded coat, "And, I was wondering if you had time to help me with a quick survey?"

The person attending the register sighed and agreed to quickly answer Isaac's questions.

"Alright and..." Isaac was cut off before he could ask about food being stolen by someone shouting from elsewhere in the store.

He turned just in time to see the person with the deep hood, sunglasses, and balaclava chased down an aisle by another store employee; a big bag of cat food clutched to their chest with what looked like a couple of tins sticking out their pockets.

Before Isaac could do anything, the hooded person ducked down another aisle, away from him, and legged it out the store.

"Hey!" the staff members called after Isaac as he took off after the runner but he was long gone, chasing after the person with the cat food.

The chase lasted a good several blocks and Isaac was starting to feel his feet protesting from all the running he had been doing on top of the seemingly endless walking between stores.

Whoever they were, Isaac was going to be having words with them.

If they were Zippers, then it would be to get him to stop running, tell him that he was a friend of Kagekao's, and take him to The Mansion.

If it _wasn't_ Zippers, then Isaac was going to have words about them stealing from shops and making him run several blocks before smashing their head open with the cans of cat food they had taken.

Whoever they were, they lost a bit of their head start when they stopped to grab a can that had fallen.

This gave Isaac enough time to close a fair part of the distance between him and them.

They glanced back after picking up the can to see Isaac running towards them and squeaked.

Isaac nearly stopped and tumbled to the ground at hearing the squeak, but was able to keep running when they ducked down an alley.

Groaning to himself that he didn't seem to be getting a break, Isaac kept going and soon found the person stood in front of a brick wall.

They were leaning against it, their chest heaving, but started shaking slightly when Isaac rounded the corner and slowly walked forward.

"Hi there," Isaac called over to them, "That was a pretty speedy getaway,"

The person didn't say anything, their knees rattling.

"You feeling okay?" Isaac asked, "You look like you're about to drop dead,"

They still didn't speak, letting the bag of cat food drop away.

Isaac couldn't see which way they were looking, the sunglasses hiding their eyes.

"So..." Isaac said calmly, "How about we have a little chat?"

There was nowhere for them to go... unless they could climb like Kagekao could, so Isaac had them cornered.

The person didn't say anything, pressing their back hard against the wall as if hoping that it would open up to a secret passage to take them away.

Then things got a little interesting.

Isaac moved over to an overturned crate to take a seat to talk to them one second, and then there was a shaky pair of scissors being pointed in his face the next.

He glanced down at the shiny blades vibrating a few inches away from his face then up to the faceless figure.

They were close enough to him that he could see his reflection in the dark lenses of their sunglasses.

"Ok... can you speak?" Isaac asked, trying not to sound condescending to the person pointing the sharp things in his face.

"L-leave!" they managed to say, their voice shaky.

"Are you Zippers?" Isaac asked, finding it quite easier now to not laugh at the name.

"... no..." the person said after a few moments, quite unconvincingly.

"Yeah, I think you are," Isaac nodded.

"No, I'm not," Zippers said, moving the shaking scissors a little closer to Isaac.

Zippers squeaked again when Isaac easily took the scissors from him, twirling them around like you would a butterfly knife.

"Relax," Isaac said when Zippers fell backwards trying to move back away from him, "Kage told my... boss that you recently lost your home, and..."

"You know Kage?" Zippers asked, freezing on the ground.

"Yeah," Isaac said, still playing with the scissors, "My name's Isaac, and he..."

"You're Isaac!" Zippers got up and threw himself at Isaac.

It took a fair bit of self-restraint for Isaac to not raise the scissors to stab him out of reflex and soon he found himself being tightly hugged by a suddenly energetic and happy Zippers.

"Kage's told me about you!" Zippers squealed, "Can you really set your hands on fire? Are you really a wizard? Did you really... kill a really, really, big snake?"

"Yes... yes to all..." Isaac breathed, it was all he could do because of the suddenly affectionate store robber.

Zippers squealed again and started to shake Isaac side to side to show just how excited he was.

"Can you show me?" Zippers let go of him, practically bouncing on the ground where he stood.

"Sure, just..." Isaac and Zippers turned to look at at the newcomers that had cleared their throats.

Two people were standing at the corner, a chain idly swinging from the hand of one and a broken piece of a wooden pallet in the others.

"You mind tellin' us what you're doin' here?" the one on the left asked while the one holding the broken piece of wood puffed their chest out, trying to look intimidating.

"Well, we _were_ having a private conversation," Isaac said, standing in front of Zippers.

"Well, you can clear off, then," the second one grunted before sniffing with a twitch.

"Naw," the first said, "Maybe you pipsqueaks can tell us what happened to our stash?"

"Ok... first off, you're like four inches taller than me," Isaac said, levelling a glare at him, "Second, your accent is really thick, did you say 'stache like a moustache or stash like loot?"

"You think you're being funny?" the second asked.

"Yes," Isaac said before turning to look at Zippers, who had been tugging on his sleeve for a few moments.

"Do they mean the bad sugar?" Zippers whispered.

"Bad sugar?" Isaac asked, not quite getting what he was meaning.

"Sir Pebbles found a baggy of sugar, but it was bad, so I emptied it down the drain," Zippers said, his balaclava slipping slightly as he spoke.

"He just say he dumped our shit?" the first one thundered, taking a few steps towards them.

Zippers let out another squeak and tried to hide behind Isaac.

"You don't like fighting, do you?" Isaac asked Zippers, gently taking the hands off his shoulders.

Isaac could hear Zippers shaking his head from side to side.

"Alright, you want to look away for a few moments, then?" Isaac told him.

Zippers ducked down behind the crate and the two junkies started laughing.

"He thinks that we can't see 'im?" the second laughed wheezingly.

"Nah, he's just keeping out my way," Isaac said, unzipping his hoody and tossing it on the crate, "Plus, I've been feeling a little cooped up lately, need to... let loose,"

He had been wearing his harness underneath the hoody, each slot with a knife except the two at the back because those would have been a little harder to hide underneath.

The two junkies recoiled slightly at the sight of a teenager armed with more knives than they could count.

Isaac gave them exactly one second to get over their shock before unsheathing two of the knives, twirling them around before throwing them into the knees of the one holding the chains.

He cried out in pain, the sudden movement causing the one holding the piece of wood to jump into action and swing at the spot where Isaac had been standing.

The wooden plank missed and Isaac gave the man three fire charged punches to the face in quick succession before pushing him backwards into a dented and graffitied dumpster.

During that time, the first one had managed to get a knife out of his legs and threw it at Isaac.

Catching it with a deft hand, it wasn't easy since the knife wasn't thrown, more feebly flung in his general direction, Isaac twirled it around and started walking towards him.

The first one had gotten back up and tried to rush him.

Isaac spun around and slashed a deep gash across his chest, from hip to shoulder, before re-igniting his fist with a click of his fingers and punching with all his might at the bleeding cut.

"Eurgh," Isaac grimaced as his fist actually _sunk_ into the man's chest and hit the bones of his ribcage.

The junkie latched onto his arm as he pulled it out with a loud squelch, dropping to his knees before keeling over and bleeding out on the ground.

Isaac rolled his neck, letting a cruel smirk spread across his face as it popped and cracked.

"Now... what to do... with... you..." he asked, crouching down to look at the whimpering junkie.

"P-p-plea... please..." he begged, trying to crawl away from him, "Please, just let me..."

"Let me... die painfully?" Isaac guessed, "Why, what a splendid idea,"

He grabbed the junkie's head and dragged him up until they were leaning painfully against the wall.

"No, someone, HELP..." the cry was cut off by Isaac tugging the other knife from his knee and jamming it up through his jaw.

"Ooh..." Isaac fake hissed, "Now, that looks painful..."

The junkie coughed up blood, Isaac quickly moving out the way, partly because he had been an idiot and worn a white shirt to go do this, and because there were quite a fair few chippings of yellowed teeth mixed in with the blood.

"Careful," Isaac said, hitting his head against the brick wall, "Do you know how hard it is to get blood out of something white and it still be comfy to wear?"

Isaac scoffed.

"Completely inconsiderate,"

He took the knife out of his jaw, only to ram it into his collar and watch as the blood spurt out in steady streams, before repeatedly hitting him in the spot over, and over, until the body went limp.

Taking a cloth out his back pocket, Isaac wiped down his knives before replacing them back in the sheath.

"Ok, I'm done," Isaac called over to Zippers.

A head of skin as black as leather popped up and Isaac could see why he was called Zippers.

Directly across his face, and his body, he assumed, were a series of silver zipper teeth making a vertical cross on his face, holding what looked to be thick leather skin closed, that wrapped around the sides and top of his head before disappearing down below his collar.

"Are they... dead?" Zippers asked, looking at the bodies on the ground.

"Yeah... you want me to get rid of them?" Isaac offered.

"No, I'm fine, it's just the... killing," Zippers said, standing up and playing with the hem of his jacket.

"Alright," Isaac said, walking back over to him, "You ready to go?"

Zippers nodded, moving around the crate to hand him back his hoody.

"Thanks," Isaac said, tugging it back on to hide the harness filled with knives, "So, do you need to get anything from where you were staying?"

"Just Sir Pebbles," Zippers said.

"Ok... who's Sir Pebbles?" Isaac asked, following Zippers around to where he had dropped the bag of cat food.

"Here," Zippers said, lifting a fabric curtain that seemed to be held in with sewing pins to the crate Isaac had gone to sit down on.

Inside was a tattered green cushion, upon which a large grey cat was dozing peacefully.

"Time to get up, Sir Pebbles the Third," Zippers said cheerily, picking up the cat and cushion.

Sir Pebbles opened his eyes, tongue rolling over his protruding fang, and started purring as Zippers hugged him close to his chest.

"So... what happened to Sir Pebbles the First and Second?" Isaac asked as he picked up the bag of cat food.

"No second or first," Zippers said, rocking the purring mass of fur, "There were three rocks on the ground, and the third was actually Sir Pebbles here,"

"Alright... so, we're going to go back to..." Isaac trailed off slightly when he saw a few sets of zippers on Sir Pebbles, "... to my place... and I'm going to introduce you to my boss, he's the one that sent me to come and get you,"

"Oh, ok... why didn't Kage come?" Zippers asked, pulling up his balaclava and hood once more to blend into the crowds before trying to put the sunglasses on without disturbing Sir Pebbles too much.

"Slendy said that he..." Zippers froze, "You alright?"

"Slenderman?" he asked, looking down at Sir Pebbles.

"Yeah... I'm a Proxy of his..." Isaac said, "He's not going to hurt you, he wanted to know if you were ok,"

Zippers started to slow down his steps.

"You stay at his big house, don't you..." Zippers asked.

"Yeah, The Mansion," Isaac said as he watched Zippers kick a loose stone.

"They didn't like me there, the last time," Zippers mumbled.

Isaac sighed, a small smile settling on his face.

"Well, if they don't like you, then they aren't worth talking to, aren't they?" Isaac said, nodding for Zippers to follow him, shifting the cat food into a comfier position.

Even though he was wearing a balaclava, Isaac got the impression that Zippers was smiling.

He led them out onto the street and over to a bus stop.

Zippers' odd assortment of clothes got a few glances as they rode closer to the Slenderport, but it was explained away with him having really bad pollen allergies and a killer migraine.

"Ok, have you ever gone through a Slenderport before?" Isaac asked, receiving a nod from Zippers in response.

"Why did Kage not come and get me?" Zippers asked, sounding fairly upset over his friend not being there.

"He wanted to," Isaac told him, "Slendy said that he looked for you all day when he found out that Hotel Noir had been destroyed, but he couldn't find you and had something else to do.

So, he went to Slendy for help to make sure you were alright and to ask him to let you stay for a bit until he's finished with whatever it was he was dealing with,"

Zippers got a little happier when he heard that Kagekao had looked for him as he followed Isaac through the Slenderport and into The Forest.

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Endnotes.

Ok, I hope that this chapter was good enough to post.

At the moment, I'm feeling done with everything and I don't really know what to do with myself anymore.

Also, not trying to sound ungrateful or anything, but is there a reason that the favourites have overtaken the followers in numbers?

I know I asked people to hold off following a bit back, but that was only if the story was under 400 since I was going to have to write a lemon.

It's over 400 now so if you were refraining from following, you can follow now.

But, my dour mood aside, I've got reviews to answer.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Raptorshinobi213;

WELCOME!

Ticci Toby, by a long shot.

 **(X) Review (X)**

wow-im-satan;

The fluff chapters are your favourite ones, at least I know one person likes them.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

If I can afford to go from state to state, then I'll be sure to try it.

I'm too lazy to do it as well.

I did mean to put heterochromia, did it get autocorrected to something else?

I want to de-gnome a garden just so I can shout YEET with every gnome thrown.

I am looking forward to writing scenes with Umbridge, I can't wait to have fun.

She should be, that term is golden.

I like strawberries, especially when they're smashed up into jam and put on the top of cheesecake.

Well... he's surrounded by hordes of zombie children in a kingdom run by a mass murdering clown... I think mortal peril would qualify to describe that.

Writing the zombie kids is always funny to me because I can have them act like sugar-hyped maniacs one second, a horde of ravenous murdering zombies the next, and then innocent widdle babies by the third.

Because it's Fred Weasley babysitting a horde of zombie children.

I imagine that the buffering symbol was going off in Fred's head when he saw the transformed carnival.

Sammy and Jenny are my favourites in The Carnival.

I'm sorry to hear that.

No, same time.

It took Fred fifteen minutes to find and return the kids, another forty fixing things up around The Carnival.

I really want to draw a picture of Fred doing tricks for the zombie kids now, Isaac hitting L.J with a chair in the background with a speech bubble saying, "STOP CALLING ME SPECS!"

She'll be more deformed than the usual zombie kid, I promise.

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Huh, I'll have it in one of the chapters soon-ish then.

I'll wait until the story is done, no point spoiling it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

It is, thank you.

What do you mean 'Full swing'?

As in a picture of what I think it looks like, a chapter dedicated to The Carnival, or something else?

I think that if there was anyone that could find a way to set blood on fire, then it would be Isaac.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Oh, good, I was worrying that my cover as a human was failing, I mean... erm...

MCDONALDS, PIZZA, FANDOMS, TUMBLR, PASTEL AU, FLOWER SHOP/TATTOO SHOP AU... erm... Bees?

I've blown my cover, haven't I?

Like I said in Myra's review, I really want to draw a picture of Fred and a few zombie kids now.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

Haven't heard or seen much in the way of the remake, please tell me that they're not being idiotic white-washing bastard flavoured cunt muffins?

Yeah, nature sounds nice, but it's full of fuckboys.

I think this is the most I've sworn in a review before, sorry.

Toby's better, I don't think he was drinking the past couple of baths so I made sure that he drank a fair bit this time.

Damn, I want to read it now.

That premise alone makes me want to read it.

I hope the week treats me well as well... that was fun to write...

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

I love to sleep, slept in until half 1 pm Saturday after uploading as well... then my mom got annoyed when she couldn't wake me and we spent a minute looking at each other when I took my earplugs out because the crickets are still noisy.

I will keep up my work, yes.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

THANK YOU! MERCI BEAUCOUP!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Joshua. Obryan. 549;

L.J gets these vibes for who would cause extreme damage to the world, tries to correct it early on in life and kills if he can't.

Sometimes he's able to save them, but most of the time he can't.

The Carnival is like a time capsule of when they were all happy before doing whatever it is that they would have done.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Fire Elemental Frank;

The only thing I'm forcing myself to do is get these chapters out on time.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

Thalmann, you were an 'N' off and no 'O's.

Glad to clear that up.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Anonymous Fan (Guest);

Took me this long to realise just how literal your username is.

School's fine at the moment, just focusing on hammering out the kinks while getting to enjoy my other kinks in my spare time ;)

Anyone who's not can go suck on an out of date lemon.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Kira Akuma;

Welcome!

Yikes, I'm so sorry for the cringiness of... well, me...

Thank you, it's always nice to see that people somehow managed to stick through this all the way through... well, so far...

Fred is getting better at handling things, the lies definitely bug him, but I don't think I'm going to have George become a Proxy.

I do have a plan for prologue add-ons for what George does when he finds out, but I don't know if I'll even have George find out.

Ben and Isaac are very fun to write when they're together, and I'm gonna be having a bit of cliche'd fun next week.

Umbitch... no spoilers because I only have half a plan at the moment.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

I hate it when I have to re-read over things because I missed something.

I almost made Slender pop in for a random moment, stare down at Fred, and then just leave, but I lost the note that reminded me to do that and I uploaded before I could find it... might go back in and add it, but I think it would **[REDACTED TO AVOID SPOILERS]**.

Yeah, Dudley's still out there somewhere.

I love how out of context some of the things I say can be taken, it's so much fun.

Yeah... and then there's Miniladd going out and spending $200 on an eight-foot cardboard print-out of his son... money well spent!

I've definitely got to write an EXTRAS chapter with Offenderman trying to flirt with Isaac and Ben getting really defensive... or just a compilation of those two being adorable dorks and ticking every box in the couples storybook.

Laughing Jill... I still haven't decided yet...

I don't think that I've made reference to her, but I do think it would just be L.J in drag for some reason.

Oh my god, I want to know what their reaction was to seeing that!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

Yeah, I'm still here, had a Prelim today so it took me a bit longer since I was revising more.

It does say on my page that this either gets uploaded Friday evenings or Saturday mornings.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Ok, that was all the reviews.

Endnotes MK2

This one was a little late because I had a Prelim today (Preliminary Examination) and was cramming for revision for a while.

So, I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this one.

What was your impression on how I've written Zippers?

Created by Gingka Akam, the same brilliant mind behind Kagekao, though she now goes by Jinbeizamezama, and one of my new favourites.

I'm gonna have Zippers stay at The Mansion for a bit, give me a chance to have some fun with a new type of character.

And I hope you all enjoy the next one.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao & Room 42 (Zippers & Sir Pebbles The Third) – Jinbeizamezama.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a writers credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	77. Chapter 77, The secret of Laughing Jack

Chapter 77, The secret of Laughing Jack.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

And I'm back!

Ok, where did I leave off...

Zippers has been found, along with the best cat ever, and are now heading to the land of merry murderers.

So... what am I gonna do now...

No idea, I'm tired, been doing a fair bit of driving today... I'm gonna answer some reviews then go to bed.

So, I've got a couple of ideas on what I could do, so I'm gonna go to sleep and hopefully dream of more.

See you later.

SteamGeek01.

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The Forest of The Slenderman.

Zippers stumbled slightly as the world spun around them, but regained his footing and continued to follow Isaac into a forest full of twisted trees and dark green leaves.

Isaac could hear the slight hum of worry from Zippers, hugging Sir Pebbles close enough that his chin had disappeared from view, as they reached The Grove.

"Ok, Slender said to bring you, and Sir Pebbles the Third, here after I found you, so I guess..."

Isaac was interrupted by a mild hiss of a buzz as The Slenderman appeared before them in the centre of The Grove.

Zippers let out another startled squeak, hugging Sir Pebbles closer once again, as he saw the tall and faceless being.

 **"That took you less time than I thought it would,"** Slenderman said, tilting his head to look down at the three of them.

"I went store to store of the town asking if any of them had had any cat food stolen," Isaac explained, "Thirteenth tries the charm, after all,"

 **"It would appear so,"** Slenderman said, taking two long steps to move closer to Zippers, **"Welcome back,"**

Zippers looked at the offered hand and hugged Sir Pebbles up a little higher still.

 **"The wards around The Ark have changed since you were here last, if you are not keyed into them, then you will become lost in my realm,"** Slenderman said, keeping his hand outstretched.

Looking at Isaac for what he assumed was a wary glance, Zippers slowly took Slenderman's hand.

 **"Now that..."**

Slenderman paused when Zippers put Sir Pebbles paw on Slenderman's hand as well.

 **"... now that he has been re-keyed to the wards, you can take him back to The Mansion, and go over the rules with him,"** Slenderman said before disappearing once more.

Isaac grunted as he shifted the bag of cat food in his arms.

"Come on, The Mansion's this way," Isaac said, leading Zippers out of The Grove.

Zippers seemed to relax more as they walked along a barely visible path and out onto the stone and gravel pathway that led to the door.

"Just kick your shoes to the side," Isaac said, pushing off his own boots with his heels.

By the sounds of things, there weren't that many in the living room when they got there, Toby, Liu, and Ben turning to see who the newcomer was.

There was definitely a medley of odd expressions from them when they saw someone who looked like they were wearing a full leather body suit hugging a large and fluffy grey cat.

Toby and Ben's mouth were hung open slightly and Liu was paused with a crisp halfway to his mouth.

"Zippers, this is Masky, Toby, Liu, Ben..." Isaac started introducing, nodding to them all in turn since his arms were still preoccupied with the bag of cat food.

"So _this_ is who Kage said you were..." Zippers gave a soft squeal and shut up.

"What did Kage say about us?" Ben asked, an eyebrow raised high enough that he slightly resembled the Jaffa on the T.V behind him.

"So the weather was nice on the walk here," Zippers said, turning to look out the window.

"What did he say?" Ben asked again.

"Do you think the sunshine will hold? Sir Pebbles doesn't..." Zippers continued as if Ben hadn't spoken.

"Zippers, what did Kagekao say?" Isaac asked, his voice a fair bit politer than he would have normally asked.

"He said that you two were dancing around each other more than a pair of waltzing dunces," Zippers admits, shrinking into his shoulders.

Toby caught a snort of laughter with the back of his hand while Masky did nothing to hide his chuckles.

Liu, meanwhile, had a large grin, was shaking, and trying not to fall over onto Toby.

"Well, he wasn't exactly wrong, was he?" Isaac shrugged, picking the bag of cat food back up, "Come on, I'll show you to your room, shouldn't..."

He and Zippers turned to look at the sources of the oncoming pattering of paws on hardwood floors.

Smile and Eris turned the corner, yawning, as they made towards the beds in the corner of the room; but they stopped when they took notice of the two newcomers in the room.

Zippers brought Sir Pebbles a little higher up in his hold as Smile and Eris turned to face him with interest written in their faces.

"Maybe should have made sure they were away before bringing Sir Pebbles in," Isaac admitted as the two hounds slowly made their way towards Zippers.

Smile circled around Zippers' legs, sniffing the air around him, while Eris sat there and looked up at the mass of grey fluff held in his hands.

"I got him," Masky said as he picked up Smile, who looked mildly traumatised about the ground suddenly disappearing, as if he was the same size as Eris and carrying him over to the couch.

Eris, thinking that this was some game, yipped and went off after the two to await her turn.

"Better get him settled upstairs while they're distracted," Isaac said, leading a hurrying Zippers up the stairs.

"You're not too far along, just over..." Isaac broke off and quickly side-stepped around Clockwork when she exited the bathroom, her hair bound up tight in a towel and slight wet patches on her clothes from where she had missed drying herself.

"Sup, kiddo, how'd it..." Clockwork broke off when she saw Zippers and Sir Pebbles.

"Aww, " she said, moving closer to scratch Sir Pebbles behind his ears, "Who's a pretty kitty?"

"Clockwork, Zippers," Isaac introduced them, "Zippers, Clockwork,"

"Nice to meet cha," Clockwork said pausing in her petting of Sir Pebbles to shake his hand, "So, what's this cutie's name, then?"

"Sir Pebbles," Zippers said, moving his arms so he was sat a little comfier.

Sir Pebbles purred at the attention he was receiving, closing his eyes as Clockwork rubbed her fingers over his head.

"Take it that this is the dude Slends sent you to get?" Clockwork asked, adjusting the tower of a towel on her head.

"Yeah," Isaac said, "Just getting him settled before going for lunch,"

"Sounds good," Clockwork said, going off to finish drying her hair.

"She's nice," Zippers said as he followed Isaac down a few doors.

"Yeah, a lot better than Jane," Isaac muttered, "Anyway, here we are,"

Isaac pushed open a door to a fairly barren room with hardly any extra furnishings, save for the large cushion on the floor that had been fashioned into a cat bed for Sir Pebbles.

"If you want, Ben can order some stuff for you, get it looking a bit nicer in here," Isaac offered, putting the bag of cat food down on the nightstand.

"Maybe... so who's all here?" Zippers asked, putting Sir Pebbles down on the bed; where he promptly claimed one of the cushions and started sleeping.

"Erm... you've seen Toby, Liu, Masky, Ben, Clockwork..." Isaac started listing everyone off, "... and two Jacks, Eyeless Jack, and..."

"Laughing Jack?" Zippers asked, "He was here the last time I was,"

"Yeah. L.J's still around," Isaac said, "So, anyone else you know?"

"No, everyone else is new," Zippers said, "It was a long time since I was here last.

There was another Jack that I knew, but he's not with us anymore,"

"Oh," Isaac said, scratching the back of his head, "I'm... sorry?"

"He was an asshole," Zippers said, "Didn't like the fact that I wasn't too keen on killing people, I just wanted them to be beautiful, like me,"

"Oh... they've never mentioned another Jack living here," Isaac muttered, wondering who else there was he didn't know about.

For the longest time, he had thought that it was only those living in The Mansion.

Then he met Kagekao, Liu, Jason, Clockwork, Jane, Candy Pop and Cane...

After that, he wasn't surprised that there were a lot out there that he hadn't met yet... but if they used to be here, at The Mansion...

"Who else was there? The last time you were here?" Isaac asked him, holding the door open for him.

"Slenderman... J.R, he was one of the Jacks of my time, L.J, Cath, Rose... I can't remember them much, only sort of... faces," Zippers shrugged, "Sorry,"

"Nah, it's alright," Isaac waved with a hand, "Just my own interest.

So, do you like burgers?"

"Yes!" Zippers said enthusiastically, "Where are we going?"

"There's a place in the town nearby that we go to, they do really good BBQ burgers, but... erm..." Isaac started scratching the back of his head again, "Well... can you put on a glamour?"

"Yeah, why?" Zippers asked, his head listing to the side.

"Well, it's just that you covered yourself up with the balaclava, hood, and sunglasses, before, y'know, on the bus to the Slenderport, and it would have been easier, plus a lot more discrete, if you'd put on a glamour," Isaac explained.

"But then I don't look as beautiful," Zippers said, as if he couldn't see how Isaac was confused about why he hadn't used a glamour before.

"Right..." Isaac said slowly, "Well, you realise that if you don't use the glamour, then you'll have to wait for me to bring back the food since we wouldn't be able to eat in public, and..."

"Alright, I'll wait here with Sir Pebbles," Zippers said, heading back into his room, "Anything without pickles and extra jalapenos, thanks,"

The door closed and a mildly bemused, partially insulted, Isaac standing there.

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Life with Zippers at The Mansion was... odd...

At times, he was rather pleasant to be around.

He could hold a conversation with any of them, talking about anything as long as it didn't get too graphic with the gory details, and even Smile and Eris could be seen napping with Sir Pebbles.

That brought out a sigh of relief from Isaac.

He had been worried that he'd have to make a new rune to keep ghosts from passing through walls to keep him safe, but the two of them didn't go after Sir Pebbles, nor him after them.

It was actually something that he had forgotten when making the rune under his carpet, actually.

Smile, Eris, Sally, and any other actual ghosts could pass through the walls with the same ease as any other wall.

But, he had already drawn the rune on the ground and he couldn't be bothered refining it further to prevent it since it would take a lot of work that he didn't want to do.

And then there were times that... that Zippers turned into a bit of an arrogant child.

None of them thought that he meant it, but the way he spoke sometimes made them think of a young child that had been raised in isolation by a crazed mother who doted on them all of their life and couldn't see past their deluded lifestyle.

He was still somewhat enjoyable to be around when he was like that, but he had the annoying habit of offering to 'beautify' everyone else like he had himself and Sir Pebbles.

Sally and Toby had to be watched whenever they were left with the cat in case they started playing with the zippers sewn into his skin and fur.

Laughing Jack had taken Zippers' return to The Mansion in his stride and the two were barely apart from one another.

Though... that might have been due to the fact that Zippers knew something about Laughing Jack that none of the others did and everyone wanted to know what it was.

Unfortunately, if Laughing Jack was in the room whenever they tried asking him about it they would either find themselves somewhere else in The Mansion, a random state elsewhere in the country, or in The Carnival strapped into the roller coaster that sped along the perimeter wall.

No one knew why Laughing Jack practically dive bombed across the table, frantically asking Zippers if he'd been to The Carnival lately, before the two of them disappeared in a swirl of smoke when Zippers had started asking if any of them knew about someone that they didn't hear the name of because of L.J's timely question.

They didn't come back until late in the evening and Isaac nearly strangled L.J out of panic-driven anger.

Isaac was going to have to ask L.J for a way to get to The Carnival if he ever needed to on his own without relying on the monochromic clown for help because Slenderman had pretty much all but said that Zippers and Sir Pebbles were his responsibility for the duration of their stay at The Mansion.

Plus, he normally went to L.J whenever he needed something random that would have taken more than a day for Ben to get express delivery on, so a shortcut to the storage tents in The Carnival wouldn't have gone amiss with the young Proxy.

Kagekao had gotten in touch with Slenderman to say that he'd be arriving at the end of the week to collect Zippers and Sir Pebbles to take them to their new home.

He had found an old hotel that had been built on top of a ley line junction that he could use to set up a new ignored room for Zippers as he had done back in The Hotel Noir.

How he could do that, however, none of them knew and he wasn't likely to tell them any time soon either.

And thus, the race to find out what the secret Zippers knew about L.J was on.

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"Ok, we've got three days to find out who 'Ji' is," Toby said.

He, Liu, Ben, Isaac, Jeff, Sally, Clockwork, Hoodie, and The Puppeteer were crowded into Isaac's bedroom.

It was the safest place for them to talk and plan since Laughing Jack couldn't get in metaphysically.

"Alright... three days, three plans, what do we got?" Jeff asked.

"I still think that..."

"No chainsaw cannons," Hoodie said immediately and Ben crossed his arms in mildly frustrated disappointment, fuming silently.

Clockwork clicked her fingers and everyone turned to face her.

"I got it! How about..."

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"Sup, clown boy," Clockwork called over, "Hey Zippy,"

"Hi," Zippers said, looking up from his grooming session to get rid of all of Sir Pebbles old hairs.

"What do you want?" Laughing Jack asked, looking at her suspiciously.

"I wanted to ask you something," Clockwork said, sliding over the couch and sitting down, "Your carnival..."

"What about it?" Jack asked, drumming his long fingers on his lap.

"Maybe if you'd let me finish you'd find out," Clockwork gave him a half-hearted glare, "Anyway...

Your carnival, it's connected to Slender's Forest, right?"

"Yeah," Jack asked, still drumming his fingers.

"And Slender's Forest is connected to pretty much any forest through the Slenderports, so what's to stop someone trying to..."

"Hi, Sally," Jack said, turning away from Clockwork to look at the little girl that had just sat down next to Zippers as silent as a fly landing, "What you been up to?"

Clockwork sighed as Sally started going on about the fun man that Slendy had let her play with and how he had turned a funny colour while running.

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"Oh yeah, that went great," Liu said when they reconvened later that night.

"Well, it's not like anyone else was offering up any options," Clockwork snapped at him.

"Yeah, because you were so sure your idea would work," Ben muttered.

"Yes!" Isaac suddenly exclaimed and everyone turned to look at him.

"You found it?" Ben asked him.

"Halfway done," Isaac said, bringing a few pieces of parchment over to them.

"What is it?" Jeff asked, taking one of the pieces.

"Something..." Isaac snatched the piece back, "... for runes that I was working on at school last year when I got bored..."

Everyone subtly leant away from the pieces of parchment.

"What did you do?" Ben asked, wary of the response.

"There are spells for rendering someone silent, but the ones I've learnt so far are about rendering them speechless, so they can't talk," Isaac explained, searching through his drawers for the embossing tool, "So, I got bored and made a rune that makes it so whatever it's drawn onto is silent,"

A lightbulb clicked on in Ben's head.

"Wait, why don't we do that with Clockwork's idea," he suggested, "I distract him, you go and ask Zippers what, or who, 'Ji,' is,"

"No," Jeff said, shaking his head, "You wouldn't be able to distract him well enough, he knew Sally was there so it's not sound that was the trigger,"

"He knows who's around him, within two, or three, metres at any point," Teer piped up, idly picking at a bit of dirt under his nails.

"What?" he asked, looking up after the following silence to looking at everyone staring at him.

"And you couldn't have told us this before?" Clockwork asked, a sigh barely contained.

"I thought you knew," Teer said, coughing a moment later to deepen his voice.

"Moving on," Jeff said, "So, Mr Magical McGee over there's..."

"OI!"

"... gonna be waiting in the next room, three metres away from Chucklesworth, and since Mr Glitch-a-lot..."

"OI!"

"... couldn't distract a goat with ADD, I'm gonna do it,"

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Laughing Jack knew something was up.

What was up, he didn't quite know... but he knew it was definitely up!

"... so that's the plan?"

Jack's ears perked up when he heard Ben talking to Jeff.

"Yeah," Jack almost smirked at the attempt for them to try distracting him.

"I'm gonna go get the buckets ready, you just keep Mr Punch busy long enough for me to put them there," Jeff whispered.

Now Jack was intrigued.

What adorable stupid plan had they come up with now?

"Ok," Be sighed, "So, why are you doing this again?"

"That fucking clown thinks it's funny to mess with my speakers, let's see how he likes trying to clean his little project room of glitter and honey," Jeff growled and Jack frowned.

He hadn't broken Jeff's speakers, that had been Isaac when Jeff had woken him and Ben up.

"You do know that... that I'd be happy to order you replacement parts," Ben quickly changed.

"I know you will," Jeff said and Ben didn't know whether that was a threat or not.

Jack waited for a few moments, watching as Jeff moved up the stairs away from him.

He'd stay there for a few moments, he could tell that Ben was back in the Digi-space around The Mansion and that there was nobody else nearby so...

The warding he had placed around his door went off and told him someone had entered.

"JEFF!" he shouted, leaping over the couch, startling Zippers, and taking the stairs four at a time.

Seeing L.J run up the stairs, Isaac quickly started running down the corridor to the living room.

His footsteps were silent, not a single noise made as the runes worked their magic.

"Hey, Zippers," he greeted, "Question for you,"

"Yeah?" Zippers asked, marking his place in his book with a nearby coaster.

"You know how L.J stopped you talking about something at dinner a couple of days ago?" Isaac asked, his eyes darting to the stairs in case Jeff couldn't keep him as distracted as he said he could.

"Yeah, he took me to The Carnival for a bit, nice place," Zippers mused.

"Yeah, it is," Isaac agreed, hurrying to the point, "What was it you were going to say?"

"Oh, well, it was about how Jack had to get a little creative with one of his kills back when I last stayed here," Zippers said as he re-read the description on the back of his book.

"Really?" Isaac hoped that his eagerness to learn what it was wasn't showing to much, "What do you mean by, 'get a little creative'?"

"Oh, he was trying to befriend this rather nasty little girl, but she wouldn't talk to him and shouted for her servants, so he returned as..."

"AAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Isaac yelped as he was deposited into a cart on the roller coaster that travelled the perimeter of The Carnival just before it went down the tallest drop.

"DAMN IT!" Jeff shouted next to him as they approached the first loop.

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"Ok, so it was something to do with a kill he had a long time ago," Teer said.

"Yeah," Isaac said, running his fingers through his hair trying to get it back to how it normally looked.

L.J had kept the cart that he and Jeff were on going for an extra six times around before stopping it to let them off and take them back home to The Mansion.

"You missed a spot," Clockwork snickered, pointing at a rather stubborn lock of hair that refused to budge.

"And you'd know all about missing spots now, wouldn't you?" Isaac sneered out of irk.

"I think you left part of your brain, if you had one, back on that roller coaster," Clockwork snapped back.

"Well at least..."

"Ladies, you're both pretty," Jeff said before growling a moment later when both Isaac and Clockwork hit both of his arms.

Saying that whilst sitting between them probably wasn't the best idea...

"If I get a dead arm then the two of you better run," he warned them.

"Ok," Teer said, "My turn,"

"What are you gonna do?" Ben asked, looking through the junk drawer of Isaac's cabinet for a brush.

"What we should have done from the start," Teer muttered.

His eyes glowed for a moment... and he slammed into the wall behind him.

"God damn... Isaac... I both hate and admire this rune... but god damn is it annoying!"

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The next day, Jack watched as Zippers played on the floor with Sir Pebbles, Eris, and Fizz.

Isaac had been letting him run around The Mansion since he returned and most of the time he had been running around with BRVR's little robo-suit...

But, unfortunately, BRVR had accidentally overloaded a servo and it was undergoing repairs and Ben was waiting on a new delivery of diodes to protect parts before fixing it.

BRVR, meanwhile, was sulking somewhere in The Digi-Space.

He sighed as he returned to the shopping catalogue he was perusing for inspiration on what to 'make fun' next.

Then Teer flashed into the room, grabbed Zippers, and flashed out again.

"Three... two... one..." Jack counted down.

Zippers re-appeared back on the floor.

"What happened?" Zippers asked him.

"Oh, Teer tried something stupid," Jack said, idly flicking through the pages of the catalogue once more, "Remember that thing I told you to put in your pocket?"

Zippers fished out the aforementioned item and held it up.

"Yeah, that," Jack confirmed, "Kinda stole the idea off of Isaac.

He's got a rune like that under the carpet in his room, stops any of us from... I don't know... teleporting in, never really settled on a standard term for it..."

"You were still coming up with one when I was here last," Zippers pointed out.

"I know... anyway, that thing sort of does the same, except it sends anyone wearing, or holding, it back to where they came from," Jack told him, "Took me a fair few tries to get right, and several trips to Majorca,"

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The next day, Kagekao arrived not too long into the afternoon to collect Zippers.

When Zippers caught sight of his longtime friend, he leapt at him to capture the wine aficionado in a hug.

"KAGE!" he squealed as Kagekao caught him with ease.

For a moment, Kagekao was easily supporting Zippers' full weight as he carried him like a mother with their baby on their hip.

"はい、お会いできて嬉しいです," Kagekao said, a laugh at the back of his throat. (Yes, it is nice to see you as well,)

"I take it he was not much trouble?" Kagekao asked Isaac, whom he had been told by Slender had been the one to find and bring him to The Mansion.

"No, it was fun," Isaac said, crossing his arms to guard against the chill breeze.

"Ripper's no longer here," Zippers said with a fair amount of happiness in his voice.

"ヤギの不機嫌そうなろくでなし," Kagekao said, not seeing the way Isaac tensed a little, "Good, no one else gave you much trouble either, did they?" (Grumpy bastard of a goat,)

"C'mon, you always call him that, and you never tell me what you say," Zippers almost whined as he dropped back to the ground to pick up his bag of things and Sir Pebbles' travelling carrier.

Said cat was currently sleeping off a rather chicken heavy breakfast, courtesy of Smile showing him how to knock the fridge door open.

"I know, fun, is it not?" Kagekao teased the huffing Zippers, "Ready to go?"

"Yeah," Zippers said, "Oh, just need to do one last thing,"

He walked over to Isaac and hugged him, whispering something in his ear as he did so.

"Thanks for letting me stay," Zippers said, patting him on the shoulder.

Isaac watched as Zippers and Kagekao made their way to the tree line, a mildly stunned expression on his face.

He managed to snap out of his trance to wave them off before heading back inside.

"He off with Kagekao?" Toby asked, re-shuffling the deck of cards on the table for another game of Go-Fish with L.J, Sally, Masky, Clockwork, and Ben.

"Yeah... hey, L.J," Isaac called over to the clown, who stiffened slightly, "Who's 'Laughing Jill'?"

Everyone frowned at Isaac before turning to face a still as a statue Laughing Jack.

"I'm going to track him down and kill him," Laughing Jack muttered, resting his forehead against his knuckles.

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Endnotes.

Ok, I've no idea what I put, I'm a little too sleep deprived to write at the moment.

I'm gonna save answering the reviews until Sunday morning.

See you then.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Thank Dog!

Crazy? I was crazy once. They put me in a room. A rubber room. A rubber room with rats, and rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They put me in a room. A rubber room, a rubber room with rats, and rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once...

I'll draw it once I finish the one I'm doing the now.

I also want to draw one of Zippers and Sir Pebbles, there is a serious lack of fanart for those two.

Zippers is awesome, yes.

 **(X) Review (X)**

ChaosDragon25;

Yeah... I'm gonna have a fun time trying to count them all up... thanks for trying, though.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Thanks for the travel advice.

The zombie twins have been around since I started writing Werewolf over in EXTRAS.

I'll upload it to my Pinterest board, will probably make a separate bit for my own drawings... if I ever make enough to fill the board.

Masky grumbles, but he likes them all anyway.

He's like Artie from Warehouse 13, except not so chubby... or played by Saul Rubinek... but they have the storage space of dangerous stuff in common.

Death Wish Coffee is on my Christmas list for this year.

Isaac first time out was fun, yeah, decided to give him something easy to begin with, might have him going out to either take down a couple of demon boi's next time, ore getting a MacGuffin of destruction.

Wait until a certain chapter for year 5 to find out just what I'm doing.

Loopholes for days.

Slendy didn't ask Jeff to wake him up, that was just Jeff being Jeff.

I wish my garden had a spot like that, but the grass has gotten all mossy again since it's on a slope and Scotland loves its rain.

Ben didn't weird out at the name, he weirded out at Isaac asking him to search police arrest records for people wearing full body leather suits because I'd like to know anyone's reaction to your bf, or gf, asking you to find people with full body leather suits.

Yeah, he's got to look out for Sir Pebbles after all.

Kagekao really likes to gossip, I think we all knew that.

Maybe, will probably have Zippers be in the next chapter for a bit and Kagekao comes to collect him.

Yikes, sounds like an utter bastard.

Thank you, will do, plan to.

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

I think I can manage an EXTRAS where L.J opens The Mansion up to them for a date, and then everyone else tagging along because they overheard but missed the part about it being for Ben and Isaac's date.

Jeff and Jane would break every record in the arcade trying to one-up the other.

Yeah, let him have an easy one for his first time off alone.

Killing them was fun.

Yes, he is.

Hope you can get some sleep soon.

A dog is never a problem.

Now, repeat the above line until you give your dog a hug.

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Yeah, thank you for telling me about Room 42.

Awesome, look forward to reading it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

shoguncaw;

Erm... ok?

Is... do you mean that the story is an SCP that hasn't been contained?

Or that the story doesn't contain SCP?

 **(X) Review (X)**

Honebar;

Hope things get better soon.

I'm glad that you like it.

Tea is always welcomed.

 **(X) Review (X)**

wow-im-stan;

What happened?

I'm glad that you liked the chapter, though.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Myra the Dovahkin;

Thank you, plan to, will do.

I think that you'll find you can.

Yes, it is.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Thanks.

Zippers is another Creepypasta story (Story called Room 42) and his creator is named down the bottom, it's the same writer who wrote Kagekao's story.

Night!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Yuki Miyashi;

WELCOME!

Will do.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

Yeah, he's only a little bloated the now, needs to do a poo.

That sounds awesome.

Glad you had fun at the carnival.

Kagekao might pop up next chapter.

Yeah, you were right.

Thank you, hope you enjoy the next one.

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

Sleep's the light of my existence, huh.

I'm glad that you like them all, even if I think a few could do with a major re-write because of cringe.

I'm gonna have a grand old time with the reveals when they come around.

I can't wait to see what I come up with as well.

 **(X) Review (X)**

PenguinBandit523;

Haven't read or listened to it, will look into it at some point.

Spoilers!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

You... you do know that Liu has a split personality, right?

 **(X) Review (X)**

etbagel2122;

Zippers is going to be alright, don't you worry.

Do you want DigitalMagic fluff?

I will drown you in fluff!

There aren't enough puppies in the world to even compete with the amount of fluff I will give you!

And now I actually have to live up to that... so... I'm going to let you pick.

Lots of little things over the rest of the chapters, or a big fluff centric chapter for EXTRAS.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Mugendainayume;

Chapter 7.

WELCOME!

No, Ben has not met Walden MacNair and, as you've probably read once you've gotten to this, Ben won't have the chance to.

Chapter 38.

Oh look, you got there.

So, what was it that got a fight between MacNair and Ben in your head in the first place?

 **(X) Review (X)**

ButterBoi (Guest);

Welcome!

Erm... Ok?

 **(X) Review (X)**

Zero zanity;

Yeah, I always like it when things get timed like that.

Right, I do know of Pinkamena Diana Pie.

I was a Brony at one point, I do know the story, but I don't think that I'd be able to work in a reasonable scenario for how she would come through to 'The Real World', but thank you for the suggestion.

I do think she would get along well with the other Pastas in the store, especially Eyeless Jack.

I'm glad that you like the story so far.

Fred will be getting more involved in the future, and I do have an EXTRAS chapter or 2 that I can make him the focus of.

Nearly 2 years, yeah, I'm having fun with this.

No, I will never give up, it would take my death to stop the uploads... or shitty internet connection... either or.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

I should mention, I have a space made for you before you leave your comment because you're normally the last to review.

Yeah, Jeff is probably very annoyed about his speakers and plotting revenge as I type.

Oh... I think that would drive him berserk... I've gotta do it!

Yeah, but Isaac doesn't really take things seriously, does he?

Wow, I don't think you've gone a paragraph without dissing Jeff this week so far, what's he done to you?

I'm glad to have introduced you to a bunch of new Creepypastas.

Yeah, The Mansion is pretty diverse with animals at the moment.

Hehehehe, I need to rewatch that movie again.

Glad you had fun, I had a pretty dull day.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Ok, that was the last of the chapters this... chapters? Reviews, that was the last of the reviews this week.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I will leave you all with an option.

Would you like an entire chapter dedicated to L.J's adventure with crossdressing next week, or should I give a brief summary of what he did?

Up to you lot.

So, what's new in my life for the few of you that seem to enjoy hearing about it for some reason...

OH! I started my new job today (the Friday that I released this on (I don't count it a new day unless the sun dawns or I sleep through the night to the morning or afternoon)).

It's nothing glamorous, just a store assistant, but it's close by and a steady paycheck for good work that I sort of enjoy since a large part of it is mostly organising and I'm a perfectionist.

I got a really comfy jacket from them and it's very soft and fluffy!

Toby's back to his bright and chipper self, scratching his glass for attention.

No, before anyone gets worried, he gets regular baths, live crickets and fresh greens daily, as well as a good run around the top of my bed so it's not him trying to get help, he just wants to run around my room a lot.

But, that is it for this week.

Hope to see you all in the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao & Room 42 (Zippers & Sir Pebbles The Third) – Jinbeizamezama.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	78. Chapter 78, Stories and Storeys

Chapter 78, Stories and Storeys.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Hello, hello, how are you?

Hope you had a good week, hope mine went well too.

So, I've not got much to say at the start so I'm gonna go answer the reviews and see you all at the endnotes.

Oh, I know what to mention.

I stabbed myself again.

I was taking a part a couple of recently made Warhammer models so I can magnetize them to have interchangeable weapons... and the knife slipped and stabbed me in the finger... and now there's a small smear of blood on a couple of keys on my laptop.

Well... enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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The Mansion.

Laughing Jack sighed as he rubbed his knuckles into the side of his head.

"Who's 'Laughing Jill'?" Isaac's question still hung in his ears.

"Me," he said a few moments later, "A while back... a while back, back when Zippers was staying here for the first time, a kid caught my attention and I had to go do what I do..."

"So how does..."

"I'm getting there," L.J cut Jeff off, "... the kid was a girl and, because it was ye olden times, she kept screaming for servants whenever I showed up because I was a dude...

So I decided to glamour up and The Laughing Jack in The Box became The Laughing Jill in The Box,"

"You became a girl?" Clockwork asked, her expression unfocused as if trying to imagine it.

"Yes, and if you really want to know, there's a photo in an album kicking around somewhere," Jack huffed, crossing his long arms.

"Or you could just pop the glamour on," Ben pointed out.

"I'd sooner pop some anthrax into your computers fan," Jack half glared at him, "The glamour only changes my physical features, the dress..."

"Can we play dress up?" Sally asked, looking up from her colouring papers on the floor to give him the full-blown puppy dog eye treatment.

Jack's mouth was a skewed line as he refused to look or answer her.

"So was there any attitude changed between you and Jill?" Isaac asked, "Any personality traits that you..."

"Can we please drop this?" L.J asked, his voice thick with agitation.

"Why?" Jeff's jaw was slid so his teeth didn't sit quite right against each other, it happened when he was trying not to laugh, "After all the jokes you've made to us, can't take a little in..."

"Because Laughing Jill was one of the only two times that I let a kid go, when I _really_ shouldn't have," Jack snapped at him, effectively silencing not just him, but everyone else as well.

"The kid was also my first magical kid," L.J sighed, "One of those stately home, silver spoon since birth, brats... thought that she'd be alright if I left her alone...

Obviously, I was wrong," L.J shrugged, "Mass murderer that nearly took out a whole states worth of Magicals before she got killed by... I can't remember what they're called... 'Auras'?"

"Aurors," Isaac said when L.J turned to him for clarification.

"Eh, close enough," L.J shrugged.

There was a brief moment during which nobody spoke, the only sounds coming from Sally's crayons scraping against the paper as she drew.

"Did Zippers know about her?" Liu asked him, breaking the silence since it didn't look like anyone else was going to.

"No, he wasn't too big on hearing about any jobs after we were done, even back then," L.J said, scratching his head as he remembered about the original Mansion, "Hell, haven't thought about back then in ages... man, I'm old as fu..."

He was halted by a pillow that was thrown at him, ninja star style, by Hoodie.

"... right... where was I?" he asked, removing the pillow from his nose and plucking a small bit of stuffing that had gotten stuck out.

"No wonder you don't like talking about Jill," Clockwork muttered.

"I don't really mind if you know or not, just that I hate having to talk about C.C," Jack told her.

"What was The Mansion like back then?" Isaac asked him, his curiosity still piqued.

"Kinda like it is the now, except a lot more old fashioned.

No electricity, no T.V, no central heating, that last one is definitely a welcome change...

Outside looked a lot more regal, not as decayed like this one, but a bit more run down looking,"

"Who was the 'Jeff' of your time?" Toby asked, getting a pillow thrown at him by the scarred killer.

"Definitely Ripper," L.J nodded, a brief shadow of an exasperated expression flitted across his face, "Caved his kills up a lot more than Jeff did though, he liked to cause pain, drew the kill out for as long as he could before slitting their throat hard enough to nick the spinal column..."

"Wait... Zippers said that there was a 'J.R' at The Mansion... was that..." Isaac started, but L.J answered him before he could finish.

"Jack the Ripper himself," the look of exasperation flitted across his face again, "Show-off to rival me on my most annoying days and biggest asshole I have ever met,"

"Who else was there?" Ben asked him.

"Well... me and Zippers, for starters, R.J, Nightshade was one that you might not have minded, her name was Amelia and she had a rather impressive knack for gardening, The Raven, can't remember his actual name but he was pretty good with any bird you could find... been a long time since I thought about them..."

"What happened to them?" Jeff asked, surprisingly interested in what L.J was talking about.

"Well... has... has anyone gone over..." L.J sat up and Isaac became a little worried.

He had been gesturing at him while speaking and, going by how the gambit of emotions that his face had run at that moment, it was not something pleasant they were about to be discussing.

"If you're talking about what I'm thinking of, then no," Masky said, he too was looking tense.

"Gone over what?" Isaac asked cautiously.

"Fading," Toby half-whispered.

"Erm... can I get clued in here as well?" Clockwork asked, sharing a quick glance with Isaac.

"Fading... it's how... _we_ die," L.J began, "None of us can properly die by normal means, we'll normally pop up in Slender's Forest with what can be described as the hangover to end all hangovers, aneurysms, even beats out getting beat over the head with a pipe, it's that bad...

But, we can die if we Fade.

It's... it's a little hard to explain so, in Layman's terms, we can only live if there are enough people out there who know of us.

The fewer people who know of us, then the weaker we become.

Slender managed to last this long because he can pop up anywhere, terrorise whoever, and leave them with nightmares, and you never forget a nightmare. There was a bit where he became the go-to idea of what the bogeyman was.

Me?

Well... I kinda cheated a little," an impish grin settled.

"What did you do?" Isaac asked him.

"I popped up in a few fairs every so often, did a little wandering performer shows, the usual fake magic guffins you see with the rope and the hoops... and I basically hung around a lot more kids, even if I didn't feel the call of them becoming a danger, and wiped their minds.

Kept a chain going for a while of entertaining a bunch, going onto a new batch, wiping the minds of the last group, and repeating for a few decades,"

"Sounds tiring," Clockwork said, a shaky laugh escaping her.

"Yeah, it was... thank god for the internet, though," he chuckled, "Don't think any of us will have to worry about Fading, Creepypasta will never die out, too many shippers,"

A few of them made faces at the reminder of _that_ aspect of having parts of their lives on the internet for all to see.

"What about J.R?" Ben asked.

"Oh, Slender killed him," L.J said, rather nonchalantly.

L.J sighed as everyone turned to look at him.

"He got way, _way_ , too public about things, running his mouth way too much to far too many people, and nearly exposed all of us," L.J expanded on his simple comment, "Slender's one of the only ones powerful enough to do so,"

Another silence settled over them, save once again for the scratching of Sally's crayons, as they mulled that over.

No other conversations, save for Masky offering to 'pay' for the first round of drinks at a bar somewhere if Hoodie and Clockwork were joining him,

Liu nudged Toby in the shoulder to get him to join him in the kitchen.

Across the room, Isaac was doing the same, except he was leading Ben back upstairs.

Probably to get a bit more sleep, Liu thought, as he tossed Toby a waffle from the bread bin.

"So... how bored are you?" he asked as Toby silently munched on the waffle.

"On a scale of one to ten... where would you rank, 'Oh my fucking god, I'm so bored you could use me to surf'?" Toby asked after a moment of debate within his own head as he swallowed the bite of waffle.

"I'd say an eight," Liu decided, swirling the dregs of juice in his glass, "You know... L.J had a point about those shippers... want to go prove a couple of them right?"

Toby paused mid-chew of another bite.

"What you thinking?" he asked, "Cash in our 'free days' that we've got saved up and go on a countrywide spree?"

"Maybe, was thinking I'd go to Slendy and see who needed killing, might as well keep saving those days until a bad one comes along,"

"Fair enough," Toby shrugged as he tore into his waffle once again.

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Ben followed Isaac up the stairs and for a moment it looked like Liu's prediction was going to be true as he led the way into Ben's bedroom.

"You alright?" he asked him as they sat down on the bed.

"Yeah... just didn't expect all that," Isaac said, "I...

I never really thought about any of them dying, if you can believe that.

Just... them dying never seemed... like it could happen,"

Ben's hand found Isaac's, rubbing soothing circles into it's back with his thumb.

"I didn't think they could either... I mean, there was a time I thought I was going to die.

The power cut out when I was in a T.V and for a moment it felt like I had been frozen in place," Ben told him, "... and then I got shoved out the screen like a drunken slug,"

Isaac snorted in laughter, raising a hand to cover his mouth.

"How graceful," he managed to mutter after a moment, going quiet again not long later.

"Ok... now, is this 'there's something on my mind' silence, or is it 'I'm contemplating going back to sleep' quiet?" Ben asked.

"You can tell what I'm thinking by how quiet I am?" Isaac bowed his head, trying not to start laughing again.

"If it's debating sleep, you softly hum while you think; if you're thinking about something someone's said or not really related to what anyone's saying, then your cheeks hollow slightly; and if it's something on your mind that you don't think is something we normally..."

"You are sounding creepier by the second," Isaac spoke over him.

"Well... all I need now is the pasta then," Ben said.

There was a dull thud that came from Isaac swinging one of Ben's pillows into his face and knocking him backwards onto the bed.

"Oh, come on, you've made worse puns than that," Ben protested, trying to grab another of the pillows.

"Yes, I have, then that was for not making a better one," Isaac said, quickly grabbing the other ones, throwing them on the ground, and then began hitting him with the first one again.

"And what would you have said then?" Ben asked him, blocking another blow from the pillow.

"Something better than that," Isaac said, letting the pillow drop to the floor.

"Like what?" Ben asked, shuffling until he was leaning against the backboard.

"I don't know, but it would have been better than that," Isaac said, tossing the pillow onto the pile on the floor.

" _Sure_ ," Ben rolled his eyes, "So, what was it you were thinking about?"

"Oh," the merry smile Isaac wore slowly slid away, "Well... you know how you... died..."

"Yeah?" Ben frowned, wondering why he was bringing this up.

"Well... I was wondering... forget it, doesn't matter," Isaac tried to brush it off.

"No, it's alright," Ben said, pulling himself a little closer and draping an arm over his shoulders, "I don't have anything to hide, well... have to keep some stuff hidden in case Toby plans to follow through with his threats,"

Isaac let out the briefest puff of breath and bowed his head, a small smirk tugging on the edges of his lips.

"What do you wanna know?" Ben asked him.

"When did you die?" Isaac asked, looking up at him.

"Oh... erm..." Ben sucked in a hiss of breath through clenched teeth, "Erm...

I can't remember the year... but I kind of know the day..."

"What do you mean?" Isaac frowned.

"Well... it was late, _really_ late, and my watch had broken sometime after eleven at night, so...

It was either the first of August... or the thirty-first of July..." Ben finished slowly.

Isaac sighed, rubbing his eyes with his wrists.

"You're kidding me?" he asked rhetorically, "Man... fate does not like me,"

"No, it does not," Ben agreed as Isaac leant against him, using him as a pillow against the backboard.

"You want to get some more sleep?" Ben asked, knowing Isaac normally enjoyed a nice long lie in and he had been getting up earlier to keep an eye on Zippers the past week.

"Nah, I'm good," Isaac nearly convinced himself, if it hadn't been for the yawn that broke through his attempts at stifling it, "Maybe another five minutes..."

"Alright, let me get the pillows," Ben said, moving to get up.

"No, too comfy," Isaac muttered.

"Well, I'm not, solid wooden boards aren't as comfortable as fluffy feather filled pillows, funnily enough," Ben grumbled, shoving Isaac off and grabbing the pile of pillows.

Eventually, the two of them were settled on top of the covers, neither of them could be bothered to change back into their pyjamas, and just as they were on the verge of sleep a loud whoop came from downstairs.

"Whazzat?" Isaac mumbled.

"Probably Toby finding more waffles," a bleary-eyed Ben muttered before shuffling closer to Isaac and reclaiming his favourite pillow.

Isaac rolled his eyes and let his eyelids close again, resting his head on the top of Ben's as he climbed onto him.

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Toby let out a cheer as he found another box of waffles tucked deep within the cabinet.

"Damn it," Liu grumbled, he had been hoping to make that box last until the next week.

"Oh, you're back," Toby said, fiddling with the seal on the box, "What'd Slenderman say?"

"Well, on account of Sully feeling a little pent up, he's giving us two days to go out and cause a bit of mischief," Liu said, snatching a waffle from the box while Toby was preoccupied with the toaster.

"Alright," Toby half-cheered as he picked up the waffle box, "Hey, did you take a waffle?"

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Nashville, Tennessee.

Toby hummed as he followed just behind Sully, munching on a caramel waffle he had bought to replace the waffle that Liu had most grievously stolen from him.

"So, who do you think looks like fun?" Toby asked, throwing the napkin in a bin.

"So... much... nothing," Sully sighed, "I can't see a single fun thing to kill,"

"Something will pop up," Toby assured him.

As if right on cue, a loud shouting came from across the street from a shop owner running out the door, watching as three people ran down the road clutching their stolen prizes tightly.

"Like I said, something will pop up," Toby said, smiling as if he had planned things to happen this way.

"Yeah, might as well go thank them for doing our shopping for us," Sully said, cracking his neck.

"What do you think we should get them, I'm thinking the beginner's course in bifurcation?" Toby asked as they made their way down the streets after them at a casual pace.

"I was thinking more like a guide to evisceration," Sully grinned, running a hand through his hair to pull it back out of his eyes.

Following them was easy, Ben found them on the cameras in the store and tracked them from their cell phones to an apartment block that had been undergoing construction before the workers went on strike per orders from their union rep.

The funding for the site had dried up mid-strike and the place had been left half constructed, leaving a hollow shell of a building with only the barest of construction done.

It made for the perfect place to start feasting on their bounty of booze, packs of cigarettes, and whatever candy had been easy to grab on the way out before beginning to debate whether to try this or that game in the bundle of stacks they had nabbed.

All of their bickerings, steadily getting more slurred the more bottles they emptied, made it easy for Toby and Sully to sneak inside.

As there were only three of them, they had originally planned to walk into the bare bones room that they were sat in, introduce themselves as their deaths, and enjoy cutting them down like rows of corn ready to be harvested.

Then more joined them.

Three, that was easy pickings... but seven?

Seven, however... seven was a party.

"So, how you wanna deal with this?" Toby asked as Sully crouched down next to him beside the empty doorframe.

"I want to see just how pretty the walls are when painted with their blood," Sully said with an excited purr on his lips, "But, seven at once, even with you... we might need a way to split them up,"

Toby frowned, screwing his mouth up for a moment as he thought.

"I have an idea," he said a few seconds later, resisting the urge to snap his fingers in triumph.

Upon having his idea whispered to him, Sully turned to Toby and pressed a chaste kiss to the side of his head.

"I knew that telling Liu to man up and make a move was a good idea," he chuckled darkly, "Now, let's go introduce them to the crab bucket,"

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Toby hummed to himself, pulling out the wires from his bag as he slowly backed up the stairs.

The charges were set and ready to blow.

"All set," Toby said, trying his best to keep the multiple wires from tangling as the order was going to be important when it came to detonating.

"Right... which one was the smoke again?" Sully asked, sifting through the bag.

"The blue ones," Toby chirped helpfully.

"Which blue?" Sully asked, holding up three cylinders with different shades of blue string.

"The light one," Toby said, picking another out the bag, "Dark is for flash-bang and generic blue is for glittery fireball,"

'So that's where all that glitter went,' Liu sounded amused in their head, remembering how four bags of glitter had disappeared from Toby's workbench that morning.

"At least he knows how to properly seal them," Sully grumbled under his breath in response.

"What?" Toby asked, three wires held in his teeth.

"Never mind," Sully groaned as he stood back up, "Right, let's get this party started,"

Sully juggled the two smoke grenades he had before pulling the makeshift pins and tossing them into two corners of the room.

Smoke steadily started filling the apartment and soon came the panicked cries of the several squatters.

The sounds of frantic scrambling proceeded the sounds of bodies slamming into each other trying to get out of the room before the 'flames' engulfed them.

By the time the first person had reached the stairs, Toby and Sully were already three floors down, well out of the way.

"I'd give it another five... four... three..."

"Patience is for the dead," Toby cut him off and slammed his hands down on the detonator.

A series of explosives went off, collapsing the stairs beneath the escaping party members and sending them tumbling down to the level below them.

"Oh... that didn't do as much as I thought it would," Sully looked over the edge.

"Did I make them too weak?" Toby asked, joining him in looking over the now debris coated stairwell.

"No, they were great," Sully patted him on the back, quickly catching him before he accidentally pushed him over, "Just the shit heads didn't end up as pancaked as I thought they would,"

"Oh," Toby said, watching as the group got to their feet.

Groans of pain drifted up to them, meaning that they were pretty banged up from the fall.

"They look far too healthy," Toby commented, looking at how the most damage seemed to be fairly decent sized grazes and one or two mild gashes from the hard landing.

"Yes, they do..." Sully purred, making Toby stand a little taller, "Shall we go fix that?"

"Gladly,"

With that, the two of them dropped down, far more skillfully than the fumbling party had fallen, and landed before them on a, somehow, clear part of the landing.

Toby reached over his head, pulling out a hatchet and twirling it with ease while Liu took out two large, curved, knives.

" _Thre_ _e_ , _two_ , _one_ , GO!" Sully quickly shouted, darting forward and sinking the knives into the closest person.

Toby followed suit a second later, after shouting, "That's cheating!" at Sully.

The remaining group panicked further, pressing hard against the wall and scrambling over one another in an attempt to get away from the two killers, but only ended up doing more damage to themselves as they ended up trampling one another into the destroyed concrete and rebar.

Once the last person had fallen, a combined attack from Toby's axe getting lodged into their neck while Sully practically sliced their stomach so much that Toby wondered why the person's guts hadn't fallen out.

Panting, the two of them leaned against a wall.

"I think that was a pretty good way to kill an afternoon," Sully sighed, rolling his neck and causing it to crack again.

"Oh yeah," Toby agreed.

The two could have probably stayed slouched against each other for another few minutes, simply enjoying the break, if it hadn't been for the wall giving way and sending the two of them tumbling into the room behind them.

Toby let out a winded grunt as Sully landed on top of him, the blood that had coated their clothes sticking them together.

As he made to get up, Toby found himself pinned to the ground.

"You know, I think I can see why E.J likes eating people so much," Sully said, barely above a whisper as he leaned closer to Toby's neck, "Especially when you're presenting it in such a _delicious_ way,"

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The Mansion.

Masky set the cup of coffee, extra blood as creamer, down in front of E.J as the two of them sat down to see what they could find on the T.V that day.

E.J let out a soft sigh as he brought the cup to his mouth, taking a decently sized gip, before pausing and sniffing the air.

"Oh for... my breaks over," he muttered as the door opened and the smell of fresh blood slowly crept through the room, "What'd you break this time?"

"Another apartment block," Toby said, "None of it's mine this time,"

E.J let out a soft grunt as he sat back down, picking up the mug.

"What's got your funny bone rattling?" he asked, side-eying Masky a few moments later when the sounds of stifled snickering finally broke through.

"Oh, nothing... just don't think they realised that they've ended up wearing the other's shirt," Masky told him.

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Endnotes.

Ok, what's happened since last week... absolutely nothing.

I built the derpiest Anubis statue ever for a Minecraft server I'm the architect on and that's about it.

I'm probably going to get a few comments about Ben's death date, but I've gone over the story a few times and can't find a specific date when he died, so I've chosen that one.

And I've got reviews to answer, so let's go see what I've been sent this week.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Signeus (Guest);

Welcome!

Ah, well then I'm gonna suggest a bookmark.

I'm glad that your entire reason for using this website is my dumbass.

I'm glad to be your favourite writer at the moment.

I'm keeping on with this fic for as long as I can.

I hope that I can write keeps you entertained.

In this case, they kind of do have a right to demand since I've made the commitment to update this story once a week, but yeah, I need my breaks every now and then.

If I ever write anything other than this, then I hope you find and like it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

It was a Saturday I uploaded, but I technically counted the morning as still being Friday since I hadn't slept and the sun wasn't up.

I'd like to hear what you dream up, saves me making plot points for EXTRAS.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Zero Zanity;

Sort of, you read what I did.

I said in last weeks reviews answering session that I wouldn't be including Pinkamena because there wouldn't be a feasible way to bring her into the story due to how I've set up the world's rules.

Thank you, but no.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

I actually struggled to find things to put in this answer, most was finished with your response.

Hmm... Ben would probably have hot flushes, cheeks looking like ripe tomatoes and heart in his neck.

Yeah, I've been a little busy lately, new job and studying for exams, so I've had a bit less time to do them and end up finishing them less than an hour before uploading.

It's... I'm going to be horribly honest, the way I've written Zippers would be the way that I would write a child with mental health problems.

I know it's not the best thing, but reading the story that Jinbeizeamezama wrote about him... it's the way that I've come to understand him and it fits a little too well in my head.

I'm not trying to make a joke at anyone's expense, it was just the way I read him.

Yeah, I really like the idea of that grove. When I get my own house I'm going to do my best to recreate it.

I have the mental image of Masky getting bored with the weights in the gym, calling over Smile, and then bench-pressing him one day and I can't stop laughing.

Clockwork is a favourite of mine and I need to bring her more into the story.

Well... it was only part of the secret.

No, he wouldn't want to give Jeff that sort of ammo to go after him with, but I feel like he wouldn't care that much about it unless there was something bigger to connect it with.

I wouldn't mind cross-dressing myself, actually, but I'd need a good enough reason beyond 'I'm bored' to do it though.

L.J has literal centuries of experience, it'd be very hard to pull one over him.

I LOVE DOCTOR BRIGHT!

I'm gonna cosplay as him one day, carrying around a printed version of the list and a disclaimer notice on the front stating that I have to obey it.

Gonna try and get my BF into reading SCP lore things to try and have him cosplay as another doctor from the sight.

I love that rune, it's so fun to smash them into walls.

Jack the Ripper, definitely one of my interests in terms of story elements, they never found out who he was, really interests me.

But, yeah, he's dead.

The new job is good, not too far away, very good pay, easy enough that I don't struggle.

Ooh, now I want BBQ.

I'm glad that you liked it, see you next week!

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

I can probably add him to 'The Brothers' in EXTRAS after I read him, shouldn't be too tricky.

 **(X) Review (X)**

DarkBlur2005;

Welcome!

Yeah, everyone who knows Creepypasta could probably guess what it was.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

No problem.

Give it a read, it is a really good story.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Insanity is fun, until you have to actually focus on something and your mind goes, "APPLEAPPLEAPPLEORANGEPENISTURKEYKARMACARTABLEWOODPECKERANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISMFRANCE,"

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

Yeah, It'll be a while before a new EXTRAS chapter, unfortunately, haven't been keeping up with my deadlines as well as I'd like to double update at the moment.

Hehehe, he'd make a joke about the colour matching her cheeks (red with fury).

Yeah... might have already, how much does 2 Bull Mastiff adults weigh? Plus two English-Cross Terriers jumping around you, trying to eat your wrists, at the same time?

More fluff inbound! Take cover!

Hope your insomnia clears up soon, at least you have my story to tide you over until slumber reckons.

I sleep in until 11 am as well... but I'm just a lazy bastard.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Koolkat1573;

Welcome!

Yes.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Myra the Dovahkin;

Thank you. Will do. Should do. Yes, you can. Yes, it is.

Yeah, I have a feeling that mothers would use Jack the Ripper as a threat to make their children behave.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

Yes, he does... he's had it for a while now.

I doubt they were answered by God.

Yeah, think this is the best way to do her without adding yet another character for me to forget to include every so often.

 **(X) Review (X)**

etbagel2122;

I won't be expanding on it in EXTRAS, but it will be expanded on and you'll have to pay attention in the future for it.

Eris, Toby/Liu fluff, and DigitalMagic fluff, your wish is my... well... my hobby, I guess.

You're taking time out of your day to read my story, give me your thoughts, and help me improve as a writer, it's the least I can do.

 **(X) Review (X)**

ChaosDragon25;

Yeah, that cat is way too tame to be murder kitty.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Opal Cipher;

Welcome!

I'm glad that you think this is the best HP/CP crossover, but might I suggest both 'Tale of The Clown's Mage' and 'Harry by Proxy'?

Both are very good stories, if not updated as often as this one.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Anonymous Fan (Guest);

I'm glad that you liked it.

L.J is a master prankster, it would take a very clever group to outsmart him.

I've gone over who Ripper was in the first part of the chapter.

They'll probably make an appearance here and there, if not in the main story then definitely in EXTRAS.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

Wow, a day early... I'm suddenly on edge...

Well, it was his first proper job.

I'll probably check it out when I'm bored.

Yeah, certainly fits Dumbles a bit better.

I think that that's the best way to try and comprehend L.J.

He still gets annoyed, he's just not allowed to kill you... yet...

 **(X) Review (X)**

Ok, that was the final review.

And I'm out of things to ramble on about this time.

I hope you've enjoyed this weeks chapter.

See you next week.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao & Room 42 (Zippers & Sir Pebbles The Third) – Jinbeizamezama.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a writers credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	79. Chapter 79, Return to The Wizard World

Chapter 78, The Return to The Wizarding World.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

So... I had an interesting week...

Long story short, there was an incident next door to the shop I work in and I had to buzz a few police officers into the office so they could have a look at our CCTV with our manager to see if they could find anything.

Don't know the outcome, mainly because I work in a shop and not for the police, but... well, it's the most exciting thing to happen to me this week.

Oh, I'm going to be at a comic con dressed up as Eyeless Jack on Sunday.

Anyone wanting to see how my costume turned out can probably check my Pinterest, I'll add a link to it in my bio if anyone's interested.

And that's pretty much all that's happened to me, time to get back to the story.

My feet are killing me, 8-hour shifts from 2 pm to 10 pm... I need a foot massager and a bath I can actually sink into without my knees popping up like weird islands in a bubbly ocean.

Anyway, see you at the endnotes,

SteamGeek01.

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Dumbledore's Office.

A weary man sat behind his desk, wondering just how far down the rabbit hole of his life he had fallen.

If you had told him decades ago that this is the man whom he would have become, then he would have sent you away with a disgusted look and a curse to boot!

But... having experienced all that led to this moment... he knew that there would have been no other way for this to have gone down, he would have discovered it, after all.

The yearly letters were being written before him, the oncoming fifth years, to be precise.

As he sat there, watching as the aged quill scribbled address, after address, down on piece of parchment, after piece of parchment, he finally darted forward and snatched the recently completed letter to confirm his suspicions.

A victorious smile creased the edges of his mouth, tainted with yet more frustrated confusion, as he read the now mocking address of;

~Mr I Rogers

Room 6

The Ark

The Forest

America~

So, it seemed as if his plan to ensure the boy's return had worked after all.

That was for the better, he knew that tracking the boy down and forcing him to return under compulsion charms or the Imperius... the reports that the imposter, Crouch Jr, had given said that the Potter boy was rather resistant to the Imperius, for some reason...

Just how resistant Potter was only caused his irk to grow.

This war required him to be a much needed a pawn, a compliant, mouldable, unquestioning, pawn and those _Americans_ had let him grow up into a strong-willed individual.

And this year, he was going to take back his pawn.

He had to... or else...

Dumbledore gave a quick glance behind him at a book on the shelves, far older than the other tomes it sat amongst.

His gaze didn't linger for longer than a brief second, for he knew the power it held could give him the ability to end the war in a single day... but the price for doing so...

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The Mansion.

Isaac sighed as he looked down at the letter Masky had given him.

They had come earlier that year, about a week early in fact. He hadn't even had his birthday yet.

"Last chance if you want to ditch them the now," Toby said, "You sure you want to go back for one more year?"

The letter suddenly felt a lot heavier, as if it held more than the few pieces of parchment that he would find inside.

"One year to raid them of everything they've got, curses, spells, defences," Isaac said, more to himself than anyone else, like he was still trying to reason with himself.

"If you're sure," Masky said, "But if we don't get a letter a week then we're pulling you out of there faster than you can say, 'what',"

Isaac nodded and unfolded the letter, looking through the list of books he would be studying from that year.

"We'll go tomorrow," Masky said, checking the clock and quickly doing some maths, "Go get your stuff ready,"

Masky watched as Isaac went up the stairs before going to the kitchen to grab a beer from the fridge.

As he sat back down in the living room, he thought about what he would need to do to prepare.

Taking a long sip, something started to bug him.

From everything that Ben had passed along, he thought that it was odd how the kid was going back to Hogwarts after Ben had told them how tired of the place he was.

Letting the bitter taste flood his senses for a moment longer, he made a point to ask Isaac again the next day.

He could see where he was coming from, learning as much about them in the event that they had to go up against them was most certainly not the worst idea he had ever heard.

Swallowing the sip, he got up and made his way to the armoury to see what they already had already.

Halfway to his destination, a thought occurred to him.

After debating the idea for a few moments, he started heading upstairs to his room.

If he wanted to cover all possible angles for this trip, then he had a fairly good idea who to contact for a backup plan.

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Ben watched as BRVR leapt around on top of the data streams, prancing around to pass the time until his third favourite resident of The Mansion fell asleep.

He wasn't surprised to find that Sally was top of the list, whenever BRVR went into her dreams she cooed over him and always tried to sleep in late so they could play more.

Which left Ben settled in the place of silver, though he was quite content in his placing.

Eventually, Isaac fell asleep and they were able to join him in his dreams.

BRVR immediately ran up to him, deftly climbing up his side, to sit on his shoulder like an oversized yellow parrot with bloodstains, claws, and teeth that could punch a hole through naqahdah, to nuzzle up to him.

"Hey," Isaac said, quickly adjusting his balance so that he wasn't toppled by the over-eager data-ghost.

"Took you long enough," Ben grumbled light-heartedly as the two fell into step alongside each other, their fingers locked around the others.

"Had a lot on my mind," Isaac said, turning to face him.

Ben could see Isaac visibly relax as he smiled down at him.

"Well, I've got ears, let's hear what's rattling around in that big ol' head of yours," Ben said, a cheesy grin slowly distorting his mouth, "You know, aside from hot air,"

Isaac rolled his eyes and bumped into him, angling his shoulder so that BRVR's tail hit the back of his head as well.

"Ok, serious mode," Ben said, making his eyes glitch out for a moment as if downloading an update.

When he looked back at Isaac, he found that he had bowed his head in an attempt to prevent himself from laughing.

"Alright, what's going on?" Ben asked, knowing when to stop and take things seriously.

"It's..." Isaac started with a sigh, "It's going back to Hogwarts, I feel...

It's hard to explain, but I feel as if the choice was made for me... like I didn't have a say in the matter,"

Ben frowned and tightened his grip around Isaac's hand.

"Well, whoever thinks they can string you along like a puppet will have another thing coming after I'm done with them, well, me and Toby," he assured him, "... and Masky, Hoodie, Jeff if he's feeling a little emotional..."

Isaac snorted and bumped into Ben again.

"Come on, I've not got all night," he said, "What do you want to do?" he asked BRVR.

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London, United Kingdom.

Isaac breathed in the British air, taking the chance to before his sense of smell was drowned out by the smoke from Masky's cigarette a few seconds later.

"Alright, once more unto the breach," Masky grumbled, taking a big swig from a large travellers mug of coffee, "Let's get your stuff, get out, and then I'm going to go get drunk,"

"Amen," Brian grumbled, having tugged off his balaclava as Masky stuffed his mask into his trouser pocket.

As usual, it was only Brian, Tim, Toby, and Isaac making their way through to the secret alley hidden in London.

Masky had had them use a Slenderport a fair distance away from the pub that acted as the doorway to the alley, causing them tog et on a bus that took them close enough to walk the rest of the way.

For some reason, he also lead them down a random street, but he did seem to become more relaxed after passing through it.

They would have brought Teer, but he had been kept in under the orders of both E.J and Helen after going overboard with his abilities on a cultist raid and nearly passing out as a result.

Thus, it was only the four of them that passed through the crowded tavern, barely a head turning to face them and it did nothing to cause ease within Tim when the three or so that looked up at them started muttering to each other.

Chancing a glance back just before entering the alley, he found that nearly four times the original lookers now following them out with their eyes.

The alley itself was fairly deserted, only a smattering of witches or wizards every so often milling between shops.

It seemed that not everyone was doing their school shopping so early and Tim began to wonder if theirs had been sent early on purpose

"Ok, let's make this as quick as we can," he said, glancing around to see if anyone had followed them, "What's the first stop?"

"Book store," Isaac said, consulting his list, "I need to get..."

"Yeah, I read it, let's just get them and go," Tim cut him off, wanting to get back to The Ark as quickly as possible.

Tim's mood started to level out when they were able to get the books fairly quickly, the group splitting into two to grab them all faster, but it turned sour once again, not helped by a lack of coffee in his system, when they went to the apothecary to grab the ingredients for his Potions class.

It turned out that they were in the middle of restocking some of the items that Isaac needed and they were forced to wait until they were out.

Brian wisely led them to a drinks stall nearby and Toby ordered three more coffee's for Tim, after finding the Wizarding World's equivalent to black roast Death Wish coffee.

The coffee was a blessing to Tim, who seemed to gain a better control over his temper and Isaac made a mental note, the same note he made at least twice a month when living at The Mansion, to not bother Masky early in the morning unless it's an apocalypse level event.

Once the apothecary had finished restocking their items, they were able to buy the potion ingredients and make their way through the other stores without further incident.

"Wait, I want to go to Gringotts," Isaac said, stopping them and turning to face the bank.

"Why?" Tim asked him, there was only one more store that they needed to visit, the robe store was the last on their planned trip since the kid didn't seem to be nearing the end of his growth spurts any time soon.

"I want to make sure that I can still access my account even if I don't return here," Isaac said, "There's also an option to link your vault to a debit card that you can use in any store, it'd be a good idea to have it in case Ben isn't available to re-route the bank cards we lift to..."

"Yeah, yeah, I get your point," Tim waved his explanation aside, "Let's just make it quick,"

The goblin guards bowed to the group as they passed, their noses stopping less than an inch from the floor.

"Hi, I'd like to speak to my account manager," Isaac told the teller goblin that was free.

"Name?" the goblin asked, lifting a heavy looking book bound in the darkest leather Isaac had ever seen onto the desk.

"Isaac Rogers," Isaac paused a moment before continuing, "But the name might originally be under..."

"Our account register is charmed to keep up with changes in our customer's name," the teller goblin cut him off, "If you would mind waiting for but a moment, I shall summon Griphook,"

The teller goblin bowed to them after jumping down from his tall seat and Isaac felt a brief wave of the same uneasiness that Tim seemed to be feeling.

"I don't remember them being this respectful before," Tim muttered softly to them.

"They were a lot nicer a couple of years back as well," Toby whispered back.

Barely a few minutes later, the teller goblin returned with the same goblin that had taken Isaac on his first trip to his bank vault.

"Mr Rogers, and guests," Griphook bowed to them, "If you would follow me, to our meeting room," he added on when he saw the apprehensive look on Tim's face.

Following him into the back of the bank, Griphook lead them to a room adorned with golden decorations akin to that of roots taking hold of the doors with two goblin guards standing there in what Isaac assumed was their battle armour.

"Now, Mr Rogers," Griphook began, taking out a folder from within an ornate cabinet once they were seated within, "How can I be of assistance?"

"I wanted to check a few things and get a linked Gringotts card," Isaac told him, trying his best not to fidget.

"I see," Griphook said, taking out a form from his desk and handing it to Isaac with a quill and pot of ink, "This is the standard form, if you would like to see if it is to your liking.

And what are your queries?" he asked, steepling his long fingers.

"For the linked card, is it possible wherever, and whenever, even outside of the UK?" Isaac began.

"Of course, the transaction receipts will be handled by one of our American branches before being transferred here for storage," Griphook answered.

"Right, and only you or your superiors can see the receipts?" Isaac checked.

"Of course, we take client confidentiality _very_ seriously," Griphook assured him.

"Right, and if the card is used, but temporarily links to another account, would the bank know?" Isaac checked.

"As I said, we take client confidentiality very seriously, and if you re-direct your card to pay with a different account that is not within Gringotts, then the reasons are not our concern.

We would contact you, however, if a different card was used to access your account," Griphook bowed his head slightly.

"Ok... and do I ever need to show back up in the bank to continue using the card?" Isaac asked.

"No, you do not, unless it is a matter that requires identification," Griphook said, "In which you may visit the nearest American branch.

Any other queries?"

"No, I think I'm good," Isaac said, handing back the completed form.

"Very well," Griphook said, "I shall process this and send the card to the address listed within the following week,"

"Thank you," Isaac said, getting up and giving a small, nervous, bow.

"It is my honour," Griphook bowed in return, an amused smirk on his face, "And should you ever find yourselves in need again, Gringotts doors shall always open for you all,"

Re-entering the alley, Tim turned back to look at the large doors of the bank.

"That was... odd," he remarked.

"Yeah, it's like they went out of their way to not be rude to us," Toby added on, remembering the stories from the Quidditch cup about how the goblins tended to be smug in their belief that they were superior.

"Ok, that aside, we've got to get your robes next," Tim said, wanting to get them back on track.

The fitting was definitely the longest wait they had to go through, Tim not letting Toby going off to see what else there was in the shop.

Didn't stop Brian slipping away to look at enchanted gloves for winter use, though.

"Alright, come on," Tim said, once they had the robes packed away, leading them down an alley in the opposite direction of the Leaky Cauldron.

"But isn't..."

"There's another exit down here," Tim cut off Toby, "Closer to a bus stop for us to get on,"

Isaac looked around, noticing that there seemed to be more of the smaller, family run, fresh produce stores down the alley.

"Alright, through," Tim ordered when they reached the wall, opening it with a quick tap on the bricks.

Brian led the way through, coming out a few streets away from where they had originally entered and closer to that street that he had led them down.

"Right," Tim said, following Toby through, "Back to..."

He paused to pull up his jacket a little tighter around him as a chill wind blew through the back alley they had entered.

All of them, save for Toby, copied his actions and just before turning to leave, Isaac froze.

"... _let's see those lovely muscles of yours..._ "

The echo of what Doctor Locklear said in the early moments of them knowing the other drifted up from his memory, the scars on his hands and arms tingling like they were still healing.

"N-No," Toby muttered, his eyes wide and hands at the side of his head.

Across the alley from him, Tim had a look on his face that seemed to be a cross between sorrow and fury, Brian the same.

"What's going on?"Tim barked, pulling out the gun he had brought and slid the safety off.

"... _you really think you won't lose yourself?_ "

Isaac shook his head violently to the side, trying to get the words out of his mind.

It was as he did that that he saw it.

Something dark, cloaked, and towering was gliding towards them, it's head hidden under the cloak but obviously bowed towards them as if preparing to bite them.

Bile rose in Isaac's stomach as he took in the sight of the dementor before his hand flew to the harness at his side where his wand was kept.

Tim quickly aimed the gun at the thing, firing off six shots that did nothing to slow it down and the air got colder.

" _Expecto Patronum_!" Isaac shouted, but mere whisps floated out from his wand.

The dementor started gliding faster, knowing that one of them could defend them now.

"Come on," Isaac growled, trying again before closing his eyes and hitting his head, trying to think of a happy memory.

"... _missed you too, Specs_ ,"

Isaac's eyes flew open.

He raised his wand, aiming it directly at the dementor.

" _Expecto Patronum_!" he bellowed, the memory of him and Ben wrapped up on the floor vivid in his head.

A large, silver, hellhound burst out of his wand.

Though it was silent, its lips were parted in an obviously feral snarl as it clawed down the dementor.

The dementor let out an unearthly squeal as the hellhound pinned it to the ground, black wisps of smoke tearing away from its body as the ghostly silver claws tore into its body.

Isaac watched as the dementor dispersed into streams of black smoke, evaporating under the attack.

" _TOBY!_ " Tim shouted as Toby fell to his knees.

Spinning on his heel, Isaac watched as another dementor had its hands around Toby's neck, it's hood fallen down as it leaned closer.

"GET IT!" Isaac snarled.

His patronus let out another silent roar as it charged the dementor, it's claws passing harmlessly through Toby as it tore into the second dementor.

It let out another unearthly shriek as it flew off, spinning around in a twirl of black rags as it sped away through the air.

Silence settled over them for a few moments.

"What... the... hell?" Brian growled, his teeth clenched hard enough that Isaac thought he might break a tooth.

"D-dementors," Isaac said, taking a deep breath, "Guards of Azkaban, feed on emotion,"

"They gone?" Tim asked, his voice strained and thick with anger.

"Yeah, I think..." Isaac said.

"Alright," Tim practically shouted, "I'm done, we're out of here, fuck this world,"

He grabbed Isaac by the shoulder, practically forcing him down the alley.

Brian helping Toby along shortly behind them.

They almost reached the exit when two loud pops sounded and two robed wizards appeared before them.

"Halt," they said, raising a hand while their wands were drawn in the other.

"What?" Tim spat at them.

"Harry Potter has breached The Statue of Secrecy while performing underage magic in public," the first said.

"We are here to confiscate his wand and take him to his sentencing by the order of..."

That was as far as the second got.

While he had been talking Brian had handed Toby off to Isaac before moving to stand beside Tim.

Then the two of them, with fluid like ease and matched motions, quickly grabbed the wands off of the two, snapped them with one hand, pinned them against the wall with the other, and smashed their fists into their faces.

The two Aurors slid to the floor in two unconscious heaps.

Tim spat down at them before taking leading Isaac out and down the street, Brian doing the same with Toby.

He led them, as fast as they could go through the busy streets, to the street that he had led them down before visiting the alley.

"In here," he said, stopping them halfway down and nearly dragging Isaac up the steps of a building.

Isaac frowned as he was pulled into the building, but the sight of the American flag and symbol of M.A.C.U.S.A suddenly put everything in context.

The receptionist looked up before pressing their hand down on a buzzer.

"We have a problem," Tim said, letting go of Isaac and hurrying to the desk, "We had just finished shopping when two... what are they?" he called back to Isaac.

"Dementors," Isaac provided.

"... those things attacked us," Tim finished

The receptionist looked at Tim, to Isaac, to Brian holding Toby, their eyes going wide.

"Follow me," he said, hurrying around the desk and leading them through a set of double doors across the room.

He started barking out instructions to other workers in the room.

Immediately, two wizards in white robes with a red cross on them hurried over and guided them over onto seats before examining Toby and Isaac first since they seemed to be the worst off.

After getting Toby to have some of the chocolate, not that difficult a feat, they let them go to talk to someone else about getting through an international Floo back to the states.

"We got a problem," one of them said, handing a letter to Tim.

Tim practically shook the letter to pieces as he read it.

"Well, scratch that one off the list," he growled, handing it to Isaac, "They've put out a warrant for your arrest,"

"And the rest of you," the worker said, pointing out the identical letters he had, "Something about, 'assault of Auror forces'?"

"Self defence from an unprovoked attack," Brian said, ending his silence that had lasted since the alley.

"As long as you gave them a good one," the worker sneered, "Hate it when I get assigned here, most of the British Ministry have their heads shoved so far up their asses that you couldn't tell that anything was wrong with them, inter-ministerial paperwork takes forever to get back...

... but policies and regulation mean that we can't open the Floo for you," the worker said to them, wiping a hand down his neatly trimmed beard as he thought.

"I might have an idea," he said a moment later, "If I can get a hold of Gringotts, they _might_ be willing to help us, Gringotts counts as Goblin land, in any continent.

They put in loopholes in their contract with the British Ministry so that even if you were to go to a different countries branch from within any other branch, it would still count as you being in Goblin territory and not having moved country.

If they help us, then we can get you home," he finished.

"Mention us by name," Isaac told the worker before he left, "They might be a bit more inclined to help if you do that,"

The worker nodded before going off to contact whoever he could at the bank.

While he was gone, an alarm started going off and three more workers moved to defensive positions around the door.

"Ok," the worker said, returning from deeper within the American M.A.C.U.S.A embassy, "Turns out that the British are _really_ determined to keep you here, they sent a group of Aurors to force you to their Ministry.

Our guards have already sent them packing, as well as the branch head sending threats of enough red tape to wrap up the borders of Africa twice to their Department of International Cooperation.

In other news, the Floo is dialled into Gringotts and they are ready to send you back to the States, this way, if you would," he gestured to the door he had just come through.

Isaac put his glasses back on after spinning through the Floo, he hated travelling that way, and found himself back in Gringotts.

"Welcome back, Mr Rogers," Griphook bowed as he greeted him, "The international Floo is already set and waiting for you,"

After Brian came through, dusting the ash off his hoody as he walked calmly out, Griphook led them out into a torch-lit corridor.

"Thank you for this," Tim said, his hand dropped to his side to thumb his gun out of nerves.

"It is no problem," Griphook stated, "The British Ministry need to learn their place, after all.

And helping associates of The Ancient One never goes amiss in our society,"

Tim nearly drew the gun and pointed it at the small creature guiding them through the halls as he finished speaking.

"While the rest of the world may have let his story fade into folklore, we have never let the tales of the Shadow-Kin fade into obscurity," Griphook continued.

"Besides, when it became known that I was the account manager for _a Proxy_ of The Ancient One, I got a little bit of a pay rise, so I do indeed owe you a favour,"

Tim kept his eye on the goblin until they were sent through a fire pit burning with the same green flames like the one they had come through.

Isaac definitely hated travelling by Floo, nearly throwing up after exiting as he stepped out of the way to make room for Toby and Brian.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Endnotes.

Alright, that was another chapter.

Back to The Wizarding World, and the Dementors have definitely met their match.

Now... what to do next, what to do next...

Well, you don't know, but I do...

You'll find out next week, but if you feel up to giving me suggestions then fire them over.

But, what is up to me, is to answer the reviews.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Yuxia Featherlight;

Welcome!

Thank you!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Zero Zanity;

Hehehehe... timing...

It feels shorter because it was.

I'd been a bit busier with revision and working lately and that was all I could come up within the shortened time frame.

I'd imagine it tastes like metallic coffee... no, I'm not a vampire, I won't try it...

Somebody come monitor me the next time I go to donate blood...

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

Yeah... except he'd insult her instead of 'sugar lips'.

WHAT'S THIS! I'm behind someone else?

GET ME MY CANNONS!

...

what do you mean 'they've been thrown out'?

...

I do use them... I just haven't had the weather or time, and...

...

NO, I DO NOT WANT A COOKIE!

...

Fine...

Where was I?

Well... you enjoy being a macabre human pretzel... ok...

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Glad you took me up on my suggestion.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Well, you can't win them all.

Yes, they are.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Yes, you were.

There's a camping grounds near me I've been to a bunch of times with my Scout group and I sometimes walk there when I need to clear my head, very nice place.

Your godmother sounds badass and awesome.

The list got updated, over 300 items now on it!

Huh, I didn't know about that part, lucky coincidences, huh?

Isaac had pretty much grown up with paranoi as a best friend, it would be tricky to get him to fall for something until he relaxed more.

Listened to the new songs, love them, love her, want to send her flowers.

You haven't seen why I made her magical yet, and when people realise the hints I've been dropping lately, they're going to slap themselves.

Sally is just a lil' curious bean that wants someone to play dress-up with.

Hehehe... maybe I should have him kill someone with a pillow just to complete the image.

They were made up by yours truly, not real characters as far as I'm aware.

I did borrow the 'fading' concept from another story, 'Tale of The Clown's Mage' if my memory is correct.

Liu is fun to write because I see him as the middle ground.

Someone who could go out and never enter the life again unless it suited his time and interest, but always down to go kill anyway. Plus Sully, and you get who, to me, is a very interesting character to write.

It's Toby, did you expect him to miss a waffle?

It was mid-morning when Zippers left, afternoon when Toby and Liu went out. Time moved forward naturally in the story.

I'm gonna make a proper glitter bomb one day... and probably end up on a watch list somewhere...

Toby and a pending explosion equals a very impatient Toby.

The bombs were designed to get them into the 'crab bucket', not injure them.

Puns for days.

Yes, it's almost like it's the same writer.

Sully is a lot more blunt and straight forward than Liu, he's a split personality, he doesn't have time for beating around the bush.

I think that the differences in smell between blood would be so minimal that you couldn't tell the difference, but you can definitely smell blood in the air when you're drenched in it.

Awww, that kitty sounds adorable!

I tried adding eyes to it but it ended up looking as if its eyes were higher up on its head than Sid the Sloth from Ice Age.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Guest (Guest);

I got a lot of Guest reviews, so I'm gonna treat them all as one review.

Thank you.

Jack the Ripper definitely seemed like a fit for the crowd.

Yeah, they do.

Erm... you do know that I can't DM a guest, right?

I'm glad that you like the story.

I can wait for the end, don't want to end it prematurely.

Thank you!

Ok, I think I found it, good to know!

 **(X) Review (X)**

mewmaster89;

I've not read much Pokemon Creepypastas, I've heard about them but I've never found the time to check them out.

With how many characters I've got in the story now I think I might not add them to the main story, but they'll definitely get a mention in EXTRAS at some point.

Yes, you can.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Phoenix373;

I'm fine, done a lot worse to myself than a small prick like that.

Thank you, hope you like this one!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

... spoilers...

 **(X) Review (X)**

jen71Lumos;

Welcome!

Yeah, it's a shame since there is definitely a lot of ways you can take such a story.

Like the way everyone seems to have done Harry being raised by CP's, but you could have it as Harry hunting them down with the Aurors, or have him be an already existing CP like Jeff the Killer. Lots of opportunities, now it only needs the writers.

Huh, nice to see Creepypastas bringing a family together for a change.

Does your daughter read the story as well?

Well, like a very wise man once said, "There's no point being grown up if you can't act childish sometime," - Tom Baker.

You're very welcome!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Thank you.

 **(X) Review (X)**

She Who Cannot Be Turned;

WELCOME!

(ch24)

Yeah, Jason the ToyMaker is one of my faves as well.

Well, I'm glad you found it.

(ch41)

Hehehehehe...

I think he'd probably stab whoever brought it up.

No problem, sleep is for the people who like sleep, and I love it so I get to sleep for 2 days at a time.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Dusk the Cybertronian Fox;

WELCOME!

Erm... I am taking in suggestions for Pastas, yeah, but I think the only place they'll get seen is in EXTRAS since the story is reaching the third act and it'll be a lot harder to work them into the story without making it too distracting.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

Yes, you are.

Good for you for figuring out who R.J is.

Huh, sounds pretty cool, how'd your case study turn out?

Yeah, I don't think too many people were expecting something calm and were expecting L.J to be very upbeat about it.

All in good time.

LUAU!

Yeah, I think he and Slendy deserve their, 'crap, I'm old', moments.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

YOU LIVE!

Yikes, sorry to hear about your laptop.

Wow, must have come across as really eager.

That is definitely a lot of updates to sort through.

I have Hobo Heart in book form, it was one of Mr Creepypasta's released books, have to check if volume 3 is out yet.

Huh, Poe as a Pasta might be interesting, but in context of the world I've made I think he'd be an older version of, 'The Playwright', or whatever I called him.

Yes, those two are adorable.

Ok, here's what went through my mind, in order.

"Eww... ok... would that work... no, I'm not a cannibal'

Masky is fun to write whenever he's being a teasing older brother to Toby.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Ok, that was the last review.

Sorry, it's another short one, but I've had more shifts during the week instead of the weekend at work this past week and I was out the night of upload at a roast battle for my local rugby group.

Pretty fun, won a bottle of wine and a bathing set out of the raffle.

Well, until the next one,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao & Room 42 (Zippers & Sir Pebbles The Third) – Jinbeizamezama.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	80. Chapter 80, BPTFEO

Chapter 80, Brian Plans To Freak Everyone Out.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Alright.

And that was as far as I got into writing this before I had to go and deal with a sudden allergy attack.

I'm fine, or hope I will be, because I'd hate to be taken down by something that I have absolutely no idea what caused it.

The con went well, but I did have to switch to my Ticci Toby cosplay because the sclera lenses I have for Jack weren't cooperating.

Was still pretty fun, bumped into a couple of GB! Masky and Hoodie cosplayers and they asked for a few pics, found a few Castiels, and my bf went as Dean and go a pic with a GB!Castiel.

So, what precious loot did I get this time?

A signed copy of the pilot episode of Supernatural, a few books, won a book, Equilibrium starring Christian Bale, and two Tribbles in a raffle.

Nothing to add to the growing wall of fandom art yet.

Ok, I'm out of things to say, I'm gonna go answer the reviews and get back to you.

Enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

The Mansion.

The door was practically thrown off its hinges as Masky slammed it open, Toby, Isaac, and Hoodie following shortly after him with Hoodie silently closing the door.

Silence followed them all through into the living room, where an odd welcoming party was waiting for them.

Laughing Jack, Eyeless Jack, Sirius, and Hedwig all faced them as they walked in.

"Isaac's got some mail," E.J said, holding up a small stack of letters.

Masky took them all, with a steady hand, before sifting through them with a scrutinizing glare.

"... British fuckers... the ginger dude's dad... American Ministry... British again... her name's Hermione, right?" he paused, looking up at Isaac.

"Yeah," Isaac said, taking the letters off him and began reading through them as Masky asked Sirius what he knew was going on.

The first British Ministry was about how he would have his wand snapped and informing him that he was expelled from Hogwarts.

The one from Mr Weasley was filled with assuring words that Dumbledore was already working to smooth things over with the British Ministry.

The second letter from the British Ministry was redacting his expulsion from Hogwarts pending a formal hearing at The Ministry.

Hermione's letter was similar to the one from Mr Weasley, but she had included a bunch of quick references about how it was illegal for the British Ministry to expel him without a hearing or prior warning.

"... you listening?"

Isaac's head snapped up from the letter to Sirius' prompting.

"No..." he said slowly.

"Basically the bearded oldie is trying to get them to redact their decision to expel you, citing... what was it, 'Reasonable Exceptions for Underage Magic'... or whatever it was, since it was a dangerous situation that caused you to whip your wand out," E.J said, taking a sip of coffee with a suspiciously red creamer.

It was at that point that Sirius' name was called from somewhere in the room.

"Oh, excuse me, gotta answer that," Sirius said before pulling a mirror out from his coat pocket.

Everyone paused to watch him proceed to talk into the mirror.

"Wait..." Isaac said, recognising the voice, "Is that Fred?"

"Yes," Sirius said, turning the mirror around to show them the ginger teen in the reflection.

"Oh, hey," Fred said, raising the hand not currently occupied with holding the mirror in an awkward wave, "Sirius?"

"Yeah?" Sirius answered, flipping the mirror back around to look at him.

"They're starting to ask where you've gone," Fred said, "I said that you'd probably gone to the loo so they sent me to look for you,"

"Alright, I'll be back soon," Sirius said, wiping the mirror with Isaac suspected was akin to hanging up a call, "I'll leave you the mirror, in case you need to get in touch with me,"

Sirius placed the mirror down on the coffee table and turned to face L.J.

"Think you could give me a lift?" he asked.

"I think you could also go with a tuck, but sure," L.J shrugged, taking ahold of Sirius by the arm and disappearing in a whirl of smoke.

For the rest of the day, not much seemed to happen.

Slenderman summoned them to find out what happened, warning them off of leaving The Ark for the foreseeable future unless necessary.

A possible ray of light came in the form of a letter from the M.A.C.U.S.A Silent that Toby, Masky, and Jeff had met three years ago.

Ethan Jackson had been assigned to their case, on grounds of having met them before, and had managed to get the British Ministry to drop the arrest warrants out for Tim, Brian, and Toby.

Toby's had been the easiest, as Jackson had pointed out that in both of the Auror's reports he was being held up by Isaac and hadn't assaulted the Aurors.

For Tim and Brian, he had gotten the warrants dropped on account that the Auror's hadn't produced any form of identification to prove they were who they said they were, and that Tim and Brian had acted in self-defence from possible kidnappers.

Also, he had levied the fact that he could turn the trespassing in the American Embassy into an international affair, and have every officer involved tried for an attack on The Magical Congress of The U.S.A if they didn't drop all charges.

Unfortunately, the British Ministry were persisting in their attempt to bring Isaac to trial for the display of underage magic.

They had successfully argued, in front of an impartial third party, that since Isaac was on British soil, and taught at a British magical institute, that any uses of magic, while he is underage in Britain, falls under the British Ministries jurisdiction.

And so, Isaac had been given a hearing date to attend.

Jackson had written to them personally, beyond the standardised notices, to assure them that they would win the hearing.

Isaac had been warned off using any more magic, until after the hearing, as it would show he is taking the issue seriously.

From then on, the tension in the air grew.

Ben accidentally broke the T.V in the living room in his hurry to check on Isaac after he first heard about what had happened.

Toby had suggested getting Teer to wipe the memories from everyone involved, and even he had to admit that it was a desperate idea as Masky accurately pointed out that they had no idea to tell who knows, or just how many people knew about it.

Sirius called them with the mirror a couple of days later, and after getting the mirror away from Sally, who was immediately obsessed with the magical mirror, he told them that he was offering them a place to stay... if they didn't mind sharing the house with a few others who were trying to oppose He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named.

"Oh, there's also a thing or two here that might interest you guys," Sirius added on, "Both in terms of that little collection you've got going on, and maybe just find pretty cool,"

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"So, what do you want to get?" Toby asked Isaac, the two of them looking over the laminated cafe menus, "To drink, I know what you're getting to eat,"

"Hey, maybe I want a panini," Isaac would deny the fact that he was pouting to anyone who asked.

"Alright then, what panini do you want?" Toby asked him, a trace of smugness in his voice.

"... I'll have the waffles," Isaac mumbled, admitting defeat.

The bell above the door rattled from someone coming in and the two of them looked up to see who was walking in.

Isaac sat a little straighter, his hand slowly dropping down to the knife hidden on him at the sight of his old Professor Lupin holding the door open for another old professor of his, Mad-Eye Moody.

Though, his hand did still in its descent when he saw that Moody was helping an old lady wrapped in a white shawl through the doors.

Lupin looked around the cafe and it was as if a small ray of sunshine hit his face when he saw Isaac and Toby.

Toby pushed out the chairs opposite him, inviting them to sit down with a cautious glare at Moody.

"Hello," Lupin said, his control practically gone as he beamed at them, though it was gone a moment later, "I'm sorry that we had to meet under these circumstances,"

"Me too," Toby said, his eyes not leaving the muttering Moody as he got another chair to sit upon when the little old lady he was helping in claimed the other seat.

"Shut up and order some food, you get all _Moody_ when you're hungry," the old lady said, her wrinkled face shaking from contained laughter.

She lifted the shawl away from her head to show how her face to Toby and Isaac.

Isaac's hand started going down to the knife again when she briefly changed into someone much younger with vibrant bubble-gum pink hair, though the wink directed at Toby definitely brought a little colour to the killer's pale face.

"Right, enough of the chit-chat," Moody grumbled, sitting down with a groan as his leg creaked, "We've..."

Moody froze across from them and, a moment later, his hand slowly started dipping below the table. Presumably going for his wand as Isaac was for his knife.

"What's..."

Before Lupin could finish his question, he noticed the other three figures that had silently surrounded them.

"Hi," Tim said, looking down at the three of them, "Let's just keep those hands where we can see them," he growled at Moody.

Moody looked as if he was going to argue with him, but a casually placed hand on his shoulder from Brian, as well as a pointed look, got him placing his weathered hands on the fake wood table.

"Morning," Liu said, sitting down on half of Toby's chair after getting him to budge over.

"Do you mind?" Moody growled, "This is a private conversation,"

"Since it's about our pseudo-little brother, I think we get to join in," Liu said, locking eyes with both of Moody's mismatched eyes.

Lupin shared a quick, worried, glance with Moody.

"We weren't..." Lupin started, but was cut off by Isaac.

"No, I thought we went over this?" he said, turning to Liu, "You're pretty much the brother-in-law at this point, Tim and Brian are the pseudo-uncles, Sally's everyone's little sister, and Jeff's the..."

"The emo cousin," Liu finished for him, "Yeah, I know... though wouldn't he be..."

"No, even though he's your brother, he's still the emo cousin," Isaac said before Liu could finish speaking.

"Can we get back to the matter at hand?" Moody growled, ignoring the snorting laughter coming from Tonks trying not to laugh, "The letter that Sirius said hed sent off said that we'd take Isaac in for his trial, and make his defence, I might add, we didn't say anything..."

"Why should we trust you?" Toby asked him, his voice as cold as the ice cubes floating in his drink.

"Him, I don't know," Toby pointed at Lupin, "She can change her face into anyone, so why should I trust _anyone_ I'm speaking to from now on.

And I don't know... no, wait...

I do remember you. You're the guy that poisoned my little brother, tried to kill him, and me, in the name of that racist wannabe dictator... well, the guy wearing your face did... but given the fact that he was taken down by our friends _guide dog_ , I don't think that gives the best picture of _you_ ," Toby ended, a judgemental sneer on his face.

Mad-Eye Moody's face burned as if scalding water had been splashed into it, even Lupin and Tonks' cheeks were tinged pink from Toby calling out Mad-Eye.

Even Tim and Brian were glancing around, trying not to make it too obvious that they were biting the inside of their cheeks to prevent themselves from laughing.

"Look, it's obvious that we can't convince you to let him come with us alone," Tonks said, pulling back the shawl and stuffing it into her bag, her features fully shifted to the young witch she had flashed them with before, "So... why don't we let them come with us?"

"Tonks!" Moody growled softly under his breath.

"I'm not saying make them part of the... duh-nuh-nuh," Tonks said quickly, bringing her hands up onto the table after another pointed look from Brian, "But... they were there when the Dementors attacked, we do have to kinda bring them along, they're witnesses... and they're on good standing's with the M.A.C.U.S.A agent that practically tore The Ministry a new one about those morons forcing their way into the American Embassy," she pointed out.

"It is a good point, Mad-Eye," Lupin pointed out softly.

Moody didn't say anything, the only motion he had was stroking the stubble that had begun to grow under his chin.

"... the Knight Bus is out, to open and we can't give away the location before we get there," he mumbled to himself while Tim checked his phone.

"Well, considering it's less than three miles from here, why don't we just walk?" Tim asked him.

Moody, Tonks, and Lupin froze.

Tim leant back in the chair he had pulled over, smirking as he reached for his drink.

"Sometimes I love the resources we have," he sighed as he tried to get the straw into his mouth.

Knowing when they were beaten, Lupin, Tonks, and Moody led them down the many roads until they came to a small green area in an unassuming square of houses.

"Right," Moody said, resting his staff against the iron fences that stretched along the front of the houses, "The lot of you, come here,"

He held out a scrap of parchment.

"Read that, and don't say it!" he hissed at them, his eye whizzing around the inside of its casing until it got stuck and made him look cross-eyed.

As they took it in turns reading what was written on the small scrap of parchment, Moody started prodding at his mechanical eye, muttering about how it hadn't worked properly since the imposter had worn it.

Isaac was given the piece of parchment last and looked down at the loopy handwriting.

~ _The Headquarters of The Order of The Pheonix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.~_

As soon as he finished reading the piece of parchment the sound of brick scraping against brick filled the air.

Looking up, he found a house squeezing the other houses out of the way to fit into a gap between number eleven and thirteen that he hadn't noticed before, if it had even been there.

"What?" Liu said, looking at the newly appeared house and voicing what all of them had thought.

"Inside," Moody hissed at them, flapping his hand at them to move towards the recently appeared building.

Brian took the lead, Liu following behind him, while Tim and Toby walked behind Isaac; all of their eyes darting around, looking for something that might jump out at them.

"Get in quick," Lupin said after opening the door with a tap of his wand, "Don't go far, and don't touch anything," he warned them.

Isaac's eyes lingered on the silver knocker, twisted into the form of a reared serpent, before following Liu into the dingy, musty, hallway.

"Why can't..." Tim started but was politely shushed by Lupin.

"Don't want to wake anything up," Lupin said as the sound of muffled and rushed footsteps came from the other end of the hallway.

"You..." the voice of Mrs Weasley paused when she saw Lupin, and all the other, unplanned guests, "... you better go on through, I'll send them up, the meetings just started,"

Lupin smiled at the group before going past Mrs Weasley.

"Upstairs," Mrs Weasley said, a faint quiver in her voice as she looked up at the defensive looking party, "Dinner will be after the meeting, I'll show you up,"

Brian and Liu moved out of the way to let her pass towards the stairs.

As she passed Isaac a relieved smile graced her face and she led them up the dusty stairs.

"So, what's..."

" _Shh!_ " Mrs Weasley quietly turned to face Tim, "Wait until we're upstairs,"

Tim, Isaac, Toby, Brian, and Liu all paused and didn't follow her up another step.

"Why?" Brian asked, ignoring Mrs Weasley's shushing.

"There are things here that don't like noise," Mrs Weasley said in a carried whisper, her eyes quickly glancing to a pair of moth-eaten curtains at the end of the stairs.

As they kept going none of them, save maybe for Tim, noticed Toby place a small white object inside the umbrella stand made from the foot of a troll... nor did they hear the very faint ticking that now came from within...

Mrs Weasley led them further up the stairs and soon came to a stop at a landing floored with the same dull, musty, and dusty carpet.

"Right, we'd thought that maybe Toby would be coming with him," Mrs Weasley said, facing Tim and Brian.

"Why does everyone assume that they're always the ones in charge?" Toby quietly asked Isaac and Liu.

"Maybe because they are," both Isaac and Liu said, causing Toby to huff before the three of them tuned back into the conversation the other three were having.

"... send the twins along, Fred and George, to tell you a bit more, and we'll answer any questions that you might have at dinner," Mrs Weasley assured them before making her way up another flight of stairs.

The room that Tim and Brian led them into was in the same state of disuse that the other parts of the house were in.

Two single beds stood with a shared dresser between them, a cupboard that seemed to have forgotten its original colour from decades of dust stood tall in the corner, and there was what could almost be described as a faint buzzing coming from them.

"Right, Mrs W said that she'd clear another bedroom for us tomorrow, she'll be bringing some roll mats up for us after dinner," Tim caught Toby, Liu, and Isaac up from when they hadn't been paying attention, "For now, let's just focus on what we're doing here.

Find out what we can about what's happening at the trial, see whatever it is that Sirius thought that we might find interesting, go to the trial and..."

Tim paused and gave Isaac a quick glance.

"Depending on the outcome, are you still gonna go back to that school?" he asked him.

Isaac could feel everyone in the room's eyes on him.

"I still want to find out everything I can, but..."

"You don't need to explain yourself to us," Tim cut him off, "I understand your reasoning, even if I'd prefer you to stay at The Ark,"

Isaac could feel a mild blush begin to tinge his cheeks, bowing his head to hide the fact.

"So, get a defense bigger than The Great Wall of China, smack those pricks with said defense until they're a mushy paste under our shoes," Toby began listing off, ticking each point off with a finger, "And whether they let you back to that dump or not, we'll send them a few gift baskets..."

Tim found his hand drifting to his jacket pocket, where he kept his cigarettes, to sooth his nerves, when the door practically flew open.

Fred and George had barely taken a step into the room before they skidded to a sudden halt at the sight of four Americans that looked ready to either punch their lights out, or throw them out the window, and one far younger American that had a mildly amused smile on his face.

After a tense moment of Fred and George silently backed up a step, Isaac finally broke the silence.

"Hey," Isaac said, giving them a quick wave, "Sup?"

"Hi," Fred said nervously, "Did we interrupt a thing?"

"Kinda," Isaac shrugged.

"Should we go back out for a while?" George asked slowly.

"Probably," Isaac said in a carried whisper.

"Nah, we were pretty much done," Tim said, letting his hand fall away from where it had been going for the knife hidden in his jacket.

Before any of them could say another thing, a thundering rush of footsteps came from the stairs out the doorway.

" _Isaac_!" Hermione happily cried as she ran into the room, launching herself at him in a hug of smothering bushy hair.

It was only Brian's quick hand that save Isaac from toppling over onto the bed, upon which it would have been open season for jokes from Liu and Toby.

"Yes, I'm fine," Isaac sighed, returning the hug while trying not to inhale any more of her hair.

"What happened? What..." Hermione finally seemed to notice the others in the room, quailing slightly from the sight of the emotionally stoic Tim and Brian.

Though, the amused Liu and Toby probably calmed her down a little.

Isaac and the others ended up answering the many questions that they had about the dementor attack and the subsequent beat down of the Aurors.

Eventually, they were summed for dinner by Ginny, sent on her mother's behalf.

As they descended the stairs a loud trilling from a recently concealed egg timer went off and the house was filled with screams.

"... _Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt..._ " the screeched cries echoed through their heads until Tim wished that Toby would hurry up and throw a Molotov at whatever it was.

As they came to the first landing they saw the cause.

The pair of curtains Mrs Weasley had crept around were flung open to reveal a hyper-realistic painting of an old woman who was screaming her lungs out.

Lupin and Sirius were wrestling with the curtains, trying to shut them over the howling portrait.

Once the curtains shut, silence settled over the hallway.

"Sorry about that," Sirius muttered, "So, erm... food?"

As they moved past the now silent curtains, Toby paused to re-tie his laces again and subtly reached into the umbrella stand to retrieve his egg timer.

Looking back up to see if anyone had spotted him, he found that Fred and George had paused on the stairs since there hadn't been enough space to pass.

The identical grins on their faces only got wider when he tossed the egg timer at them with a wink.

Dinner was a... tense time.

The five Americans sat on one side of the table, all of them acting like a guard around Isaac, while every other person kept giving them quick glances.

A few members from the group that Sirius had mentioned had stuck around for the offered dinner when they had heard who was joining them. Wanting to get a glance at the fabled 'Boy Who Lived'.

"So, where exactly is the hearing?" Tim asked, leaving the question open for any of them to answer.

"I'll be taking you there," Mr Weasley said, tearing a bit of bread to dip in his soup, "Not exactly in my area, but I don't have much to do aside from making sure that a few reports are in the same place that I left them.

But the actual hearing will be in a meeting room not too far off the Auror offices,"

"We've got a meeting a Silent to go over our defence in a couple of days," Tim went on, taking the plate of bread offered to him by Brian without looking away, "Take it nobody has any objection with us leaving on our own?"

His eyes were drawn to a member that sat on the other end of the table from them.

"Don't know why you're bothering to listen to those excuses for an Unspeakable," he snorted, "Hardly hear of them aside from the odd article in the papers.

Besides, you'd be better with Dumbledore handling your case,"

Tim, Toby, Liu, Isaac, Brian snort in laughter.

"I think we'll stick with the guy that comes through with everything he promises," Toby said, "Besides, shouldn't the fact that you don't hear about them mean that they're doing their job properly?

And, call me cynical, but I don't exactly think the guy who looks old enough to have been around when they first started putting power lines in the ground will be the brightest bulb in the store,"

The member went red in the face, clashing with his ridiculously long muttonchops.

"Don't expect that you'll be getting into _The Order_ with that attitude," he seemed to be biting back a sneer, if the muddled expression on his face was anything to go by.

"Why would we want to be in your little club group?" Toby asked, "Seems a little too, 'Come here. Trust us. Don't question us. Have some of the cool-aid,' for my liking,"

The Order member turned a deeper red and started going on about how He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had to be opposed.

"Not our problem," Toby, Isaac, Tim, Brian, and Liu said at the same time, barely a seconds hesitation from them.

For a moment, there wasn't any noise, not even a breath of wind, nor a creak of a chair.

"Surely you don't think that things over in the colonies will be any better if he takes over?" the man was now turning an awful shade of purple, "There'll be deaths by the dozen every day, and soon..."

"Not our problem," Tim said again, "He's a British terrorist, working in Britain, to control Britain.

If he was really this big a threat, then I don't think it would be just this little wannabe revolution club fighting him.

Far as we're concerned, he's your problem,"

Mrs Weasley brought the argument to an end, saying that no one can force them into the Order, and how it would be too dangerous for them anyway since they weren't Wizards.

Fred, meanwhile, was sitting there in silence, rubbing the back of his hand under the table.

He knew that if they so wanted to, that the five Americans sitting across from him were more than capable of killing everyone in the room in under a minute without so much as a second glance.

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Mr Weasley twiddled his thumbs as he sat awkwardly in the American Embassy as Isaac and the others were led away through a set of double doors not too far away.

"I don't think we've met before, my names Ethan Jackson," Jackson said, offering his hand to Isaac, "I'm the Silent that's been assigned to your case, and I'd bet my bottom dollar that you're gonna be walking out of there with your wand in one piece.

Now, how much do you know about the 'Reasonable Restriction of Underage Wizardry'?"

For the better part of the next hour, Jackson went over how the hearing would go, what questions they would ask him, and what to do if he feels like they're deliberately railroading him so that he can't get a word in to defend himself, doing the same for the others.

The only point that caused him a moment of concern in the meeting was when he asked if they had a defence lawyer, or if they would like him to act as such aside from counsel.

"We have the defence lawyer part covered," Tim said, casting a glance at Brian, who was picking at a bit of dirt that had somehow gotten stuck under his nails, "But we might need you to jump in at one point,"

"Alright," Jackson said, making a few more notes on his pad of paper, "And will be anyone else turning up in support of Isaac?" he asked them, nodding at Liu.

"Just our boss, he had some business to take care of before he heads over, he'll be here a day before the trial," Tim told Jackson, who was scribbling everything down in a planner.

"Right, well, I think that's everything sorted out," Jackson said, giving the pages of paper a quick glance over, "I'll get my notes properly written up and out to you by the end of the day.

Anything else you wanted to go over?" he asked them.

"Not that I can think of," Isaac said when all eyes fell on him.

"Well, I'll see you on the twelth," Jackson said, getting up and collecting his things.

When they re-entered the atrium of the Embassy the found Mr Weasley looking rather glad that they were done, he had gone through all the papers and was too nervous to ask anyone about where the toilets were.

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The Forest of The Slenderman.

The sound of frantic footsteps carried between the twisted trees as the three of them ran as fast as they could.

Meanwhile, The Slenderman watched them.

His blank stare, even if he had the facial features to do so, was devoid of any emotion; from amusement to outrage.

He considered himself rather lenient, if they didn't have to die, then why should they?

But... trespassing in his domain...

None of them would leave _his_ forest alive.

Blending in with the twisted trees that dominated the topography, he watched as one of the three split from the others, desperately willing their legs to go faster.

He watched as the lone runner sped towards a thick bramble of berryless bushels.

A tendril that seemed to have been made from the darkest of smoke, or blackest of blood, snaked around his ankle and tugged sharply.

The runner was sent crashing to the ground for a moment, the heavy thud sending a few dead leaves dancing away before he was dragged along the ground faster than he had been running.

For a moment, he held the man up so that he could look at the being behind his demise before throwing him with such force that when he met the outstretched limbs of a not too distant tree, he became pinned.

He watched for a moment as the man feebly grasped at the impaling piece of wood before falling limp; and then he was off once more, for there were still two intruders in his realm.

Finding them was easy, they were the sole source of noise in the silent woodland.

The two had tried hiding in the shack that was kept ready for whenever his Proxy, Hoodie, was in a state of deep intoxication.

There had been a time when his Proxy had been forced to attend a job while still recovering from a night of heavy drinking, and the destruction he had wreaked was a bigger mess to deal with than the original task he had been assigned to solve.

Flushing them out of the hut was easy, seeing your only companion get pulled out and off to his assumed death, that would come only after he hung alongside his already dead friend, tended to do the trick.

The Slenderman followed the final intruder until the man's legs gave out.

He had been ready to end the man's life when two fast, black and red, blurs took him down.

It turned out that the man had unwittingly run across the demon hounds that had settled into The Ark.

After the man had been most viciously torn apart, they returned to the game of hide-and-seek they were playing with the wind-up construct that his youngest Proxy had been gifted from The Toymaker.

Once he saw that Clockwork and young Sally were watching them, he returned to The Grove to collect his thoughts.

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Endnotes.

So, I'm burning my candle not only at both ends, but I'm just tossing it straight in the furnace here.

I'm really sorry that these are coming later than they usually are, but I'm working 5 days a week and studying for exams on top of helping out around the house.

I do want to stick with the schedule of 1 a week, but it's becoming harder.

Doesn't mean that I'm stopping with that plan, however, only that I might start uploading on Saturdays, or Sundays, if I can't get them finished in time.

Ok, let's get to the reviews.

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

Oh, which one was yours, or did I miss yours in the reviews answers?

I'm gonna keep a lot of things secret for now, particularly around Dumbles.

Sanity is overrated.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Guest (Guest);

Yeah, I will be.

I feel like if I can keep going at the chapter a week pace until this story ends, then I'll have truly accomplished something for once.

The next fic I write, it'll definitely be a lot more sporadic.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Zero Zanity;

Oh, which review was yours?

Oh, the above review was you!

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

I definitely have a planned chapter for EXTRAS that's just pure fluff for DigitalMagic fans.

If there wasn't all the other blood, he probably could tell.

I had fun at the con, you saw what changed at the top.

Hehehehe, autocorrect is hilarious.

Everyone feels like Isaac is hiding something, might have made it a bit clearer this chapter.

Definitely need to write more with BRVR in mind.

That coffee will be on my Christmas list this year... yes, a to be twenty-year-old will have a Christmas list.

The goblins are awesome in most, if not all, of the fics.

I'll have to see if they are flammable.

Isaac's patronus kicks ass.

With how the story was going, if they died then there would be a lot more problems.

Masky's not an impulsive psychopath, he's a calculating killer.

The British Ministry are a bunch of idiots, we all know this.

The goblins are awesome, see above.

Glad you thought that the reaction fit.

Cool, did you know that if you read Shakespeare as an out of breath male prostitute it is rather accurate to how the actual Shakespeare would have directed his cast members?

What passage did you read?

 **(X) Review (X)**

ChaosDragon25;

YES, I AM!

Glad to bring you a ray of sunshine in this world.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

She Who Cannot Be Turned;

Yep, I upload every weekend.

I deal out the curses, I don't receive them.

It's the benefits of being a very bored teenager at the beach and deciding to find a hag stone, go through a ritual to bestow it with protection abilities, and then leave it hanging in my room.

I'm glad that you like the story, I'm sorry about how cringey the first 50 chapters are.

Isaac doesn't care, but **[SPOILERS]** so... y' know... gotta go back.

Dumble can go suck an out of date lemon.

I had fun.

I went as Ticci Toby, it was Edinburgh Comic Con at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

Met up with a couple of my bf's friends there and we might be arranging a D&D night in the future.

I am in the UK, so you might not have seen me unless you live there too.

No problem, glad to... well, that's a fairly interesting name.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Katropis12;

Course, always nice to my reviewers.

Oh... sarcasm about the story... gotcha...

No, that wasn't scripted, I answer as I go and thought it would be funny to leave it in...

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

DAMMIT TOBY!

I just sent two random Aurors, I might use those names since everyone loves to shit on those two.

OOH... sounds fancy

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Thank you.

Hope you get better soon.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Hell yeah! Thank you! I will

 **(X) Review (X)**

Myra the Dovahkin;

thank you. will do. upload regularly. Yes, you can! Yes, it is.

Isaac's patronus kicks ass.

 **(X) Review (X)**

joshua. obryan. 549;

Ok... I haven't seen Naruto so I can't really pass comment.

 **(X) Review (X)**

wow-im-satan;

Y E S he is.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

Congrats.

Yikes, have fun with that nightmare.

Yeah, I think he would... definitely might be worth an EXTRAS chapter.

DigitalMagic for life!

Huh... I don't want to hear what else you found, please don't tell me.

Yeah, the goblins know who Slendy is, they seem like a race smart enough to remember the immortal being that kills many, many, people.

I'm gonna have fun tearing Britan apart in the future.

Trust me, it was fun to write... or will be if I can get what I want to be put in before upload time.

Toby ain't sunshine, but nobody's perfect, boys will be boys.

 **(X) Review (X)**

DariceSB:

(Chapter 41)

Yeah, I had watched the Creepypasta animatic for 'The Cell Block Tango' by 'IjustWannaHaveFun' and decided to have some fun with it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

He's deluded himself into thinking he's doing the right thing.

[SPOILERS]

If I'm asked nicely enough, then I'll make an EXTRAS chapter about how each of them would react.

Huh, definitely makes sense of the Ripper was a butcher, or a surgeon, as I've heard elsewhere.

I got a call saying that there was an arrest warrant out for me the day after April Fools, might have been the same scammer bastard.

Well, I hope that things get better for you, and your family.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Blacknight Reaper;

(Ch1)

Welcome!

Erm... you do know that there are 79 other chapters for you to enjoy, right?

And EXTRAS.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Ok, that was the last of the reviews for this week.

Sorry about it being late again.

And with that, I'll see you next week.

Hope you enjoyed,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao & Room 42 (Zippers & Sir Pebbles The Third) – Jinbeizamezama.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – Tomorrow-yesterday - I don't know how accurate this is, but if it's wrong then can you let me know?

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	81. Chapter 81, The Hearing

Chapter 81, The Hearing.

Or

Brian Freaks Everyone Out.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Alright, alright, alright.

Alright, alright, alright?

Alright, alright alright.

Alright, alright alright!

I've just started writing and I'm already deciding that I need more sleep.

Ok... my apparent transformation into McConaughey aside,

Welcome back!

Chapter 81 and I think I just _might_ be able to stretch it out to 104 chapters long...

I probably won't be able to end it on chapter 104, but it's nice to believe that I can.

Anyway, I've got to go to sleep, despite my joke at the start, so I'm gonna leave a big space where the chapter should go, mark where the reviews go, and then deal with that in the morning before going to work.

Toodle-pip!

SteamGeek01.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

The Mansion.

Ben woke as a rather irritating sound filled the air.

No, it wasn't Jeff trying to learn a new song, it was the sound of the alarm he had set.

After hitting it off, which took two or three whacks until he found the button, he sat up and tried to push the tangles of hair that hung limp in front of his face back before heading over to his desk.

The Cyberspace around The Mansion was... quiet.

No purchases for him to re-direct, no requests to crash a security server's footage, nothing.

It was almost deafening.

With that, he crawled back out of the downstairs t.v and began making his way through to the kitchen.

After rounding the archway, there was a solid minute of him, Jeff, L.J, Teer, and Helen staring at one another while L.J tried to subtly hide a book bound in red leather that Ben knew all to well was banned in The Mansion.

"What's the bet now?" Ben asked quietly.

"Nothing," came the simultaneous reply from each and every one of them.

"Why don't I believe you?" Ben said, trying to peek at what L.J had written down, but L.J clamped it tightly shut and stuffed it into his pocket.

"Scram!" he said, shooing him out, "Shouldn't you be checking up on Specs right now?"

"Y'know he's going to slap you for calling him that," Ben pointed out as L.J practically pushed him out of the kitchen so that they could get back to their plotting.

"Oh, how will he know?"

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Grimmauld Place.

Isaac looked up from the bowl of porridge that he was spooning orange slices into.

"Something wrong?" Toby asked him, mixing in some sugar to his own bowl.

"I feel the need to slap L.J," Isaac said, still holding a spoon with a few pieces of orange on it, "Does anyone else feel the need to slap L.J at the moment?"

It was a rather quiet morning.

Order members didn't tend to stay the night, or for dinner anymore.

Only he and the other 'guests' from The Mansion were sitting down at the table with Fred, George, and Sirius.

Mrs Weasley was in the kitchen, frying up the rest of the breakfast for that morning.

She had been surprised to find them already down there, especially recalling the stories about how Tim wasn't the fondest of an early morning.

"Sausages will be a moment," she called through, "Any preference on sauces?"

The rest of the house slowly milled downstairs, half asleep conversations rambling between them, as Ron sat down in the furthest possible chair from the Americans with his usually sullen expression.

"So, what was it you thought we'd be interested in seeing?" Tim asked Sirius, pausing mid-bite of his toast.

"Oh, it's a couple of floors above you," Sirus said, "Old drawing room, sort of a..."

"Oh for heaven's sake, Sirius," Mrs Weasley sighed, "You're not going to seriously take them to _that_ room, are you?"

Sirius rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair to peer into the kitchen.

"There's nothing wrong with the room, it's just what's inside it that's..."

"What's inside it is... _heinous_ ," Mrs Weasley shuddered, thinking to what it held behind its door, "I'm surprised that you would even consider showing... anyone what's in there,"

Isaac, Tim, and Toby all shared glances, Brian was too busy focusing on drinking his coffee and Liu was helping Mrs Weasley with the cooking.

"Well, that settles it. Give me five seconds," Tim said before he quickly chugged the remainder of the large mug of coffee he had brewed himself, "Right, now let's see it,"

Mrs Weasley made the twins, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny stay behind, saying that they would be far better off never seeing those ghastly creations and that she would be telling Sirius to get rid of them by the day, or she'd be turning them into dust and burying them in a jar in the practically dead garden the house had charmed into it as an extension.

Meanwhile, Sirius led Toby, Isaac, Tim, Liu, and Brian up the many stairs to the second to last floor of the house.

"Even my parents didn't like this room," Sirius said as they reached the landing, "Used it like the Bogeyman to scare my brother and me... grandparents were quite fond of having this stuff, even if they didn't use it.

Probably the only time a muggle did anything worthy in the eyes of a Black,"

He patted the locked door that they had stopped them at.

"Know that at least one of you will want them, even if it's just to destroy them," Sirius said before tapping the handle with his wand.

The sounds of rusty locks clicking open rattled before the door swung slowly open.

All of them peered into the dusty room, cobwebs hanging from the filthy chandelier to ceiling.

And centred in the room, was a large, ornate, desk that was turned so you could see the chair of whoever sat there.

"Is that... it's not... is it?" Isaac asked the others.

"Looks like it," Toby muttered, looking at the matching footstool, lamp shade, and corner table.

A chair made of old bones sat at the desk, pushed out as if inviting someone, anyone, to take a seat.

The leather was old, worn, and cracked with the ageing of decades upon decades it had existed as well as coming away in several places.

"The collection of one Isaac Grossman," Sirius said, a slight grimace upon his face as he took in the macabre creations, "Hated this room growing up, was always told that I'd be turned into a footstool if I didn't do as I was told,"

Silence settled over them as they looked in the room.

"We should probably get a hold of L.J," Tim said, "These... technically... he'll know what to do with them,"

Just before Sirius closed the door, Isaac's eyes drifted over a portrait hanging above the fireplace that had a thick layer of dust covering quite a fair few of the grim-faced blonde with dark, cold, eyes that had been painted.

What caught his attention, however, was that it wasn't an animated portrait, just a standard painting of a woman in her late twenties or early thirties.

"Who's she?" he asked.

"Hmm? Oh.

Cabrilla-Claire Black," Sirius' face twisted as if he had been forced to eat a lemon whole, "One of the biggest names in Dark Magic.

Came up with one of the most powerful curses ever cast.

Think of the Killing Curse, except it could chain through opponents.

Took it with her to her grave, thankfully," Sirius added on, "Her parents even burned her original portrait and made a static one to replace it just to make sure that the curse stayed dead with her,"

L.J was shocked to find that his first friend's creations had survived the test of time and took them to The Carnival to store away in what Isaac suspected to be the large tent where he kept all the mementoes of his past playmates.

The days to the hearing crept by with not much excitement.

Brian, Liu, and Tim tended to either be in the second room that had been cleared for them, or

Isaac and Toby wandered around the large house, occasionally helping with the cleaning that was going on that everyone else in Grimmauld Place that weren't a part of the Order was doing.

A day prior to the hearing, they helped clear a drawing room with a large tapestry covering an entire wall of the room.

Mrs Weasley was keeping a close eye on the twins since there had been whispers that the two of them were experimenting again so Toby ended up hoarding a thing or two for them, namely a snuffbox filled with a powder that caused rashes and a few Doxies, which were small, four-legged, flying, monkey looking things.

Another thing they found was a decorative locket that none of them could open.

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The Ministry of Magic.

There was an area of the Atrium that everyone seemed to be avoiding.

Not because of some taboo belief, nor because the area was marked to be kept clear, but because of the lone man standing there.

A man taller, by far, than anyone hurriedly walking past stood still and silent by a small section of the wall.

Dark eyes skimming over a paper purchased from a nearby vendor as he feigned reading about the latest going-on's in their world.

His head raised from the page, however, when he heard familiar voices and two not so familiar ones.

"Here he is," Tim said, leading a small party over to where he was stood, a silver badge fastened to the front of his jacket, the rest of them wearing similar ones save for the ginger man, "Mr Jackson, Mr Weasley, this is our boss,"

Though... he did get a double take when he took in the more formally dressed attire of Brian, a change to his normal appearance of slightly baggy cargo trousers, mustard yellow hoody, and a plain shirt.

"Nice to meet you, sir," Jackson said, reaching out to shake the offered hand.

 **"Likewise,"** Thalmann said, moving to shake Mr Weasley's hand as well, **"I take it that you are Arthur?"**

"Y-yes, I am," Mr Weasley said, nervous to be addressing the imposing man.

 **"Thank you for being our guide today, I hope that we aren't taking too much time out of our work schedule,"**

"Not at all, there were no raids planned for the rest of the week, so it would have just been checking over paperwork to make sure we've spelt everything right," Mr Weasley said, "So, shall we get going?"

At the inclination of Thalmann's head, Mr Weasley led them through the Atrium and over to a check-in desk that Isaac had to pass through.

"Ask for a copy of the slip," Jackson whispered to Isaac as the Ministry wizard read out Isaac's wand specifications.

The man shrugged at the request, tapping his wand on the machine to have it produce a second slip that he handed to Isaac.

When they got to the elevators Mr Weasley had led them too, Brian, Tim, Toby, and Liu took the chance to look around and get the lay of the land for the area.

"Who thought a statue that gaudy would be a good idea?" Toby asked Liu and Tim.

"I don't know, and I bet that the goblins hate it," Tim said, looking at the adoring gaze that the golden statue had upon its face as it stared up at a regal looking golden statue of a wizard.

After glancing around to see who was nearby, Toby leaned closer to Liu.

"Bet you that a couple of pounds of C4 would make light work of it," he whispered.

 **"Now is not the time to find out,"** Thalmann said idly, causing the two of them to jump a little.

"So there will be a time?" Toby asked hopefully.

"This is us," Mr Weasley said, getting their attention as an elevator rattled into position to be boarded by the awaiting party.

The elevator was thankfully empty, after the few got that were in got off at the Atrium, which was fairly helpful in the fact that Thalmann had to crouch down to get inside.

After rattling through the floors of The Ministry, Mr Weasley stopped the elevator and led them through the floor.

All of the Americans, save for Jackson and Mr Thalmann, tensed as they passed through the Auror offices.

A general rule of thumb was that they tended to avoid police stations, so walking through the head offices of what was a magical police agency, even with how incompetent they were, put them on edge slightly.

"That's my office over there," Mr Weasley said, pointing over towards a door in the wall that Isaac would have mistaken for a broom closet, "Need me, I'll be in there,"

Before going into his office to sort through what Isaac assumed was incredibly boring paperwork he showed them to the meeting room that they had been told to go to.

Isaac sat in the not at all comfy chairs, wishing that they spun, as he and the others waited for whoever the British Ministry was sending in regards to his hearing.

"They're late," Jackson said, consulting his watch.

Barely a few seconds later, Mr Weasley burst into the room.

"They changed the room of the hearing!" he gasped, the short run had left him out of breath in his panic, "Courtroom twelve!"

Isaac could have sworn that he heard Jackson growl under his breath as he quickly re-gathered his notes before following Mr Weasley out, muttering about improper procedures.

Brian calmly followed them out at a hurried pace, adjusting the tie of his suit as they waited for the elevator to return.

After descending down multiple flights of stairs, the elevator didn't go all the way down to the old courtrooms, apparently, Mr Weasley led them through a large tunnel that reminded Isaac of an old subway station, if it had been made out of reflective black stone bricks, that

is.

"Right, good luck," he wished them, stopping them in front of a large pair of double doors.

"Now then, my time to shine," Brian said, stepping forward to stand next to Isaac, "For the first few minutes, don't say anything unless spoken to.

If you can't get a word in, like Jackson said, make sure that they know you've got more to say on the matter..."

Brian kept going, giving Isaac a cliff noted version of what they had gone over with Jackson at the meeting.

Meanwhile, everyone else, save for Jackson, Tim, and Thalmann, were leaning back away from him as if he were a carrier of the plague.

"... right, ready?" Brian finished, giving Isaac's jacket and collar a quick fix, straightening the lapels.

Isaac nodded mutely.

With that, Brian pushed open the doors, nodding for Isaac to go in after him.

"You're late," a cold voice stated from somewhere up on the high stands upon which row after row of witches and wizards wearing robes were sat.

"If you wanted us here on time, then you should have sent a proper notice out relating to the change in venue," Brian said after clearing his voice, "We had to hear it second hand as well as have someone guide us down here,"

"This is not the fault of The Wizengamot," the voice drawled, "An owl was sent to you this morning,"

"Then you need to re-train your flock," Brian matched the drawl, "Considering that no such notice was received,"

"Matters aside," a new, clipped, voice said, cutting off the red-faced Minister Fudge, who had been the drawling man, "Everyone is here now, and we may proceed,"

Jackson walked Isaac over to an area just to the right of a lone chair sitting in the middle of the floor and he didn't like the way that the chains that were draped over the armrests rattled as he walked past.

"Is there something wrong?" the clipped voice coming from the woman with the monocle eye-piece asked.

"Just making sure that everyone testifying has a seat," Jackson said, conjuring a table with five chairs to go with.

"Very well, if that is all," Fudge grumbled, "I'll get us started..."

He began reading out a list of names, and Isaac frowned when he heard Percy's name get called as he had thought that after the whole Mr Crouch fiasco, he'd have a hard time getting a high position within the British Ministry so soon.

As Fudge continued to read out names the doors creaked slightly as another person entered.

Isaac turned his head slightly to see the silvery beard of Headmaster Dumbledore silently cross the room to sit in the stands on the other side of the room.

It seemed that Fudge had noticed him by the way he trailed off.

"Y-yes, well, erm... let's get this over with.

Are you Harry James Potter?" Fudge called over the railings.

"No," Isaac replied.

"And do you... what?" Fudge snapped.

"I am not Harry Potter," Isaac said, looking up at the slowly turning red in the face Minister.

"Not this nonsense again..." Fudge could just barely be heard muttering.

Jackson quickly scribbled a few notes down on his pad of paper.

"Mr Potter..."

"Mr Rogers," Isaac corrected him.

"This... this game has gone on for..."

"I didn't know that federal laws and unsolved murder investigations were a game to you," Brian said calmly, staring up at Fudge with cold, hard, eyes.

Fudge turned a deeper shade of red, unable to maintain eye contact with the stone-faced man for a few mere seconds.

Brian, after a quick word with Jackson, turned to face the woman with the monocle.

"May I see a copy of the summons for this hearing?" he asked her, "Just to clarify a thing or two before we proceed,"

"You may," the woman said, passing a roll of parchment down to him via Percy Weasley.

Brian took a few moments to read the scroll of parchment, pacing the length of the stand as he did so.

"May we proceed?" Fudge asked, quite fed up with how long this was taking.

"In a moment..." Brian said slowly, "... ah...

Madam Bones, I would like to move for an immediate dismissal of any charges to my client..." Brian paused as a few cries of outrage went up, "... on grounds that you are not charging him with any of the crimes being discussed here today,"

"This is nonsense!" Fudge spluttered, "That boy is..."

"... is Isaac Rogers," Brian cut him off, "This hearing summoning is for Harry Potter,"

"And he is Harry Potter!" Fudge hissed.

"As we have stated already, my client's name is Isaac Rogers and is most definitely _not_ Harry Potter.

This fact has already been brought to your attention multiple times, Mr Fudge, both during and before his third year where you accosted him in the street outside The Leaky Cauldron, were reminded his name by teaching staff at Hogwarts..."

"Now, see here..." Fudge tried to interject, but Brian kept going.

"... and the blatant... _witch hunt_ , if you'll pardon the term, in the newspapers that you have stirred up has created a large amount of noise that could attract unwanted attention,"

"Y-you listen to..."

"Enough, Cornelious," Madam Bones hushed him, "Unfortunately, past records that have been confirmed with the Hogwarts school register say that he once was Harry Potter, the error on our end..." she cast a quick glance at Fudge, "... there for, even though he no longer goes by that name, he was still born under that name.

The records of this hearing will be summarily changed to correct this, but it does not negate the issue that is being addressed today,"

"I see," Brian said, "Well, then, I guess we should move onto our defence,"

Brian walked back over to the table, handing Jackson the copy of the summons.

"You're up," he said, taking his seat.

Jackson nodded to Brian before standing.

"Witches and Wizards of The Wizengamot, the incident that this hearing is based upon is the only instance of underage magic that Mr Rogers has..."

"There have been multiple accounts of underage magic from _Mr Rogers_ , in fact," Fudge cut across him, fumbling with pieces of parchment, "First off..."

"I'll rephrase," Jackson said, looking up at Fudge with a locked jaw, "Since this is the only instance of underage magic, in _Britain_ , I'm questioning why a warning was not sent out, as is normal procedure,"

"Due to the nature of the spell performed, the Patronus charm," Fudge said, a small amount of spittle hanging on his lips, "We determined the possibility of a muggle seeing the display to be great enough to forego the warning,"

"I see," Jackson said, "And the fact that Mr Rogers cast the Patronus charm to protect himself, and his family, mind you, from two dementors means nothing to the Wizengamot at all?"

Mutterings broke out amongst quite a few members on the benches above them.

One member audibly snorted in laughter.

"I thought we'd hear this," Fudge said, wagging his finger at the Americans, "You see, muggles can't see dementors, can they?

So..."

"Tall, ratty black cloak, scabbed skin," Tim said, "Took about half-a-dozen rounds and still kept coming,"

"Whithered figure, bony, bald and faceless," Brian added on.

"Cold," Toby said, and his face flashed back to the near petrified state he had been reduced to back in the alley.

Brian, Tim, Isaac, and Thalmann turned to face him, all of their jaws hanging just slightly open.

He hadn't told any of them about how he had felt during the close encounter.

"Never felt cold before... it's odd..." Toby went on.

Madam Bones looked from Toby to the others sitting at the table.

"And Mr Rogers Patronus successfully drove the Dementors away?" she asked them.

"There were no dementors!" Fudge hissed, "All dementors are controlled by this Ministry, and none of them were ordered away from Azkaban!"

"Not unless the dementors are taking orders from someone outside The Ministry," a faint, but clear, voice said from elsewhere in the room.

All eyes turned to face Dumbledore, and Fudge started trembling as his face turned a darker shade of the pale scarlet it had been simmering at since the beginning.

" _There are no dementors outside of Ministry control_ ," he seethed at Dumbledore.

"Mr Dumbledore, you have already made your views on this particular matter," Madam Bones said, narrowing her eyes so that her monocle didn't fall off, "If you are to remain in the courtroom for the remainder of this hearing, then you are not to interrupt proceedings unless you are invited to or have evidence to show,"

Dumbledore bowed his head, muttering his apologies.

"Now then, while whether or not the dementors that were in the alley..." she sent a quick, silencing, glare at Fudge when he turned to argue, "... were under Ministry control or not, we cannot deny that there was at least the two claimed dementors present, or, at the very least, two creatures that re-created the effects.

Mr Rogers' actions taken in the defence of himself, and his family, fall under the admittable reasons of underage magic being performed in accordance with The Reasonable Restriction of Underage Wizardry..."

"Mrs Bones," Fudge spluttered.

" _Madam_ Bones," she corrected him, giving him the barest of a side glance, "... and as such, I believe that the situation that arose on the second of August falls under the circumstances allowing Mr Rogers to cast the charm.

However, since the matter was brought before The Wizengamot, the decision must be put to a vote.

I call for everyone in agreement that Mr Rogers acted in a justified manner of defence to raise their hands," she said, raising her own hand into the air.

Hands went into the air, far more than half and Isaac's eyes glazed over in an attempt to count them all.

Minister Fudge's hand remained firmly down, however, as well as a witch, wearing what seemed to be a bright pink cardigan under her black Wizengamot robes, with pouchy cheeks as well as a few other random members.

"And I believe that calling those in favour of charging Mr Rogers with the crime of underage magic would be pointless at this point," Madam Bones said, "Mr Rogers, we of The Wizengamot clear you of all charges, you may return to Hogwarts this term if that is your choice, and retain your wand,"

With that, she waved her wand over the pieces of parchment that she had laid out before her and they all rolled up neatly with bows tying them closed.

"That went rather well now, did it not?" Brian said, smiling as he turned to face the others.

"Stop talking," came the response of Liu, Toby, and Isaac.

Brian merely cackled in response.

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Endnotes.

Alright, that was... no, not repeating my out of body experience at the beginning!

And 'new' things are happening, what do you like of the twists and turns in my master plan... even though a few of you probably already knew of them because you read EXTRAS... just realised that I never killed Umbridge in 'Werewolf'.

Should I remedy that, or leave it as is?

Well... enjoy the reviews.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Zero Zanity;

Ok.

Fudge is going to fall flat on his... fell flat on his face in the sass department considering who he's up against.

Britain is beyond fucked if... well... either way, they're fucked.

If you're waiting for permission to do it, then go ahead.

If you're not that good at drawing, then go ahead and do it.

I can't draw for anything, my style revolves heavily around templates and rubbing out more than a decent amount per line.

I really couldn't care less if it's a Van Gogh level drawing, or whether it's like a toddler got into the pen box.

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

No, I haven't. Insomnia is a bitch lately.

What mistakes, aside from the 'DATE' part, which I've fixed, I couldn't find any.

Bear in mind, I'm British, we spell things differently, like 'Colour' versus 'color'.

Waffle panini is just waffle, ham, cheese, waffle.

Not gonna take a break, work is my break from writing, and I have the date of my college exam so I'm good to go.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

Yep, they should have.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Guest (MyraZinshu because they forgot to log in);

My god, I knew that was you before you posted the one saying that it was you.

BRVR and Sally? Can do.

Really need to try that coffee.

Yes, they did, trial writing is... I don't know, haven't written it yet.

My allergies turn me into the Michelin Man.

They spent a few hours in the American Embassy, the letters were sent during then.

Yep, Sirius told Arthur to send the letter since he was 'feeling sick' and wasn't able to 'leave the bathroom'.

Dumbledore really believes that he knows everything.

That mirror is awesome.

He has the Gameboy, much better version because Ben can pop through it.

I already know who's representing him, and I think everyone will be as weirded out as they were.

Ben makes a bunch of electrical feedback whenever he passes through something, that's why he always takes his time getting out.

Yes, they would, I imagine Sally immediately thought of the magic mirror from Sleeping Beauty.

Not the locket... just wait until next week...

Considering that the two relationships I have in the story are Liu/Toby and Ben/Isaac, I thought that those two needed a bit more attention.

Jesus, this is a long one.

They would have planned to lose any tails by looping around the place, Sirius just told them to choose that cafe since it was close and would prevent any Mad-Eye escapades.

Not Isaac...

I'm going to have to make either another EXTRAS chapter with Toby helping the twins with Chaos now, aren't I?

I really like being able to insult people and not have them get angry at me, writing is awesome.

Yeah, Fizz needs a bit more mentioning now and again.

Glad to hear you've been alright.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (guest);

All they were told was that the stories are a bit truer than most people think, not that they are true. The same way that The Conjuring movies are based on true stories, but not entirely true.

 **(X) Review (X)**

nobody51;

Thank you, but I'm sticking with one a week uploading.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Glad you liked it.

Stormy weather is awesome.

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Glad you're feeling better.

Molotov? Well... hehehehe...

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

Yes, we do.

Huh, good to know, remember what it was called?

Toby is the murderous sunshine boy, yes that is a good way to describe him at times.

The Order is definitely a good cause gone wrong with a blind leader.

Mr Weasley wasn't in the room with them, he was waiting in the Atrium while they were taken to a meeting room.

But yeah, everyone's been there.

Slendy definitely needs a bit more time, always a pleasure to write him.

 **(X) Review (X)**

KanaRadiance;

Welcome!

Glad you like it.

Ron will get his.

There will be more interaction with the Creep-world.

Oooh... haven't had to do any extra hours, yet, so I'm glad to be the ray of sunshine you get.

I do know what fic I'm writing next is, another Harry Potter crossover, yes, but I won't be crazy enough to make that one a weekly update as well because my god, this was a minor mistake, but I love it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

Yes, they are my boyfriend.

And I can finally talk about this, he's catching up from the very beginning of Supernatural and was a big shipper of Jo and Dean.

And then he hit season 5.

And I cackled.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Good to know, my story loves you too.

Thank you.

 **(X) Review (X)**

joshua. obryan. 549;

Sounds like a ninja version of Supernatural.

It's alright, rant away.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Myra the Dovahkin;

Well, what did you think?

We'll see...

 **(X) Review (X)**

She Who Cannot Be Turned;

Thanks.

Well, hope it was fun to read.

There is a betting pool, and it's going to be paid out very soon... well... maybe not _very_ soon, but... within 20 chapters...

I'm planning on going to MCM!

It's either going to be as Castiel, if I can get the coat and make an Angel Blade, Ticci Toby, or Death, what day, we'll meet u and it's going to be interesting to meet a fan IRL.

British for the win!

Technically I can miss 1 week without a chapter since I originally uploaded 2 chapters one week, the prologue and chapter 1, before I made the prologue part of chapter 1.

Speaking as the first born of my family, "Neener Neener,"

 **(X) Review (X)**

Chandragrigus;

Welcome!

Well, what did you think?

 **(X) Review (X)**

Opal Cipher;

I'm glad that you check in regularly, but wouldn't it be easier to just follow the story?

Unfortunately, it will end one day, but I've got a bunch of stuff for EXTRAS that'll keep me busy until long after the final chapter.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Guest (Guest);

Live review, whoop-whoop!

Alright, I'm gonna answer it as I go too, double live Whoop-whoop!

My reasoning exactly.

Haven't had him use eyes as marshmallows in hot chocolate yet, going from the red-eye coffee comment... 'adds it to list'.

Yes, they do.

A thing or two, as you saw.

You don't hang around Slendy without learning how to talk down to someone.

Well... probably soon...

Toby can cut people with words just as well as he can with knives.

Yes. It went exactly where you thought.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

Yeah, I'm alright, just tired from covering shifts.

I will be having some serious relaxation going on.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Ok, that was the last of the reviews... none from YinYang this week... ok then, that's...

I don't know how to feel about that...

Guess who's weekend off was ruined because a co-worker called in sick and they needed someone to cover for them!

And I now know who I'm sending Jeff after at some point.

So, this weekend, you're going to get the small celebration chapter as well as a couple of other things that I wanted to put in this one.

It's going to be a bit smaller, but I'm wanting to do my best to retain my 1 chapter for each week until the end quota.

And with that, I'll be seeing you in the next one,

Peace out,

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao & Room 42 (Zippers & Sir Pebbles The Third) – Jinbeizamezama.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – soffbois - According to reader research.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	82. Chapter 82, After the Hearing

Chapter 82, After the hearing.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Well then, I hope I'm back to my proper schedule, and that no coworkers call in sick again because that was an utter pile of bull!

So, I've not got much to talk about here...

See you at the end.

SteamGeek01.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Ministry Of Magic.

Mr Weasley paced the length of the doors to the courtroom.

He had taken his watch off as it kept getting caught on his sleeve while he was writing so he had no idea how long had passed since the group of Americans had gone in.

Just as he was about to complete yet another lap of the doorway when the sound of footsteps heralded the doors swinging open.

His eyes went wide, automatically returning the greetings that a few members of the Wizengamot nodded his way, as he took in the sight of just who had been the judging body for the hearing.

A cackling laugh echoed out from the courtroom, giving him enough of a distraction from ignoring his third eldest that he missed the sight of the man with a long silver beard exiting the room.

"You were tried in front of the entire Wizengamot?" he asked the group when they started making their way past the viewer stands.

"Seems like it," Brian said, a large grin to fit a Cheshire upon his face.

"Stop it," Isaac squirmed, pressing the base of his palms hard against his ears.

Brian cackled again as they made their way back along the dark stone corridor to the elevators.

Thalmann placed a hand on Isaac's shoulder, as well as an invisible tentacle in front of him if the just barely noticeable shift in the front of his clothing, as they came to two men standing at the side of one of the corridors.

"Well, well, well..." Lucius Malfoy said, a sneer that was barely a second away being held back by the sheer amount of people standing before him, "Minister Fudge was just telling me about the results of your hearing... quite astonishing just how capable you are of wriggling out of these situations... almost _snakelike_ , in fact,"

Isaac sent a silent thank you to Slendy for having a hidden tentacle to hold him back because he might have just punched the slimy blond in every place he could get, and then again with his fists alight.

"That looks like one nasty burn," Toby, taking a step forward and tilting his head towards the pale stretch of skin that marred Lucius' ear and the skin from brow to collar bone, "You should take more care... you never know just how dangerous something so innocent looking can be,"

Lucius' lips curled as he looked down at Toby.

"Perhaps we should take our business elsewhere, Minister," Lucius said, turning to the nervous looking Fudge, pouring on the charm, "Somewhere more... private to finish our talks,"

"Y-yes," Fudge said, trying to maintain... whatever image it was that he had, before leading Lucius away to elsewhere in the caverns.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Grimmauld Place.

Mrs Weasley was, once again, shouting at Fred, George, and Ginny to stop shouting, "He got off!" as they danced through the halls, setting off the Portrait of Sirius' mother once more.

"Ok, that's it!" Tim said, practically slamming the glass down, "Toby! We're going shopping!"

"But..." Toby started, looking down at the slice of cake handed to him that Mrs Weasley had, with Liu's help, make to celebrate Isaac successfully telling the Ministry to 'Shove it.

"No buts!" Tim seethed, literally dragging Toby out the door.

When they returned they had with them two bottles of turpentine, several boxes of matches, a pair of noise cancelling earmuffs, and a new sharpening stone.

Tim took pleasure in having them leave the curtains open just a crack while he sharpened a hunting knife on the stairs before the portrait.

"Hope these do it for you," Sirius whispered, setting down the recently charmed earmuffs next to him.

The only response he received was a particularly sharp sounding grind from the knife against the oiled stone.

Everyone in the kitchen waited for the inevitable screeching.

Kreacher had been sealed in his cupboard, also charmed silent to block out the wails he was screeching over the disrespect and attack upon his dear mistress.

Mrs Weasley stood next to the kettle, sending nervous glances at the closed door.

" _... FILTH! SCUM! WASTRELS UPON THE EARTH! UNFIT TO... STOP THIS!_ "

"Oh, I think it's working," Toby said, happily chewing on his slice of cake a few stairs above him with a set of earmuffs of his own.

"... _STOP! HEATHEN! MONSTER! MURDERER!_ "

"Can it you half-wit trollop!" Tim growled as he cut down the frame of the portrait.

The back of the picture frame had been bewitched with a permanent sticking charm to make sure that you could never remove it... but the actual painting itself had not.

Soon enough, Mrs black was shouting from inside a rolled up piece of old canvas stuck inside a Bin.

Tim hummed a song that he couldn't place as he unscrewed the bottles of turpentine and started soaking the wailing portrait.

He began audibly trilling along to the song as he started dropping six of the boxes of matches into the bucket before going over to the door of the kitchen.

"The hallway is fireproof, right?" Tim called through, "Knock once for 'yes', and twice for 'no',"

When a firm and solitary knock shook the door Toby popped open the seventh box of matches, lit one, shoved it in the other side of the box, and then dropped in into the bucket.

Tim quickly pulled Toby back as a large plume of flames rushed upwards.

The wailing of Mrs Black echoed around the stairwell for a few moments, setting off other portraits here and there, before dwindling down to nothing as the canvas smouldered a crumpled to ash.

"Aah," Tim sighed as he took off his earmuffs, "Peace and quiet...

Sure," he shrugged as he finished his thought before taking the second toasting fork with a fat, white, marshmallow on the end that Toby was offering to him.

The remainder of the day passed rather quickly compared to the slow morning.

Letters came for the other returning Hogwarts students in Grimmauld Place, Hermione practically squealed when she saw that she'd been made a Prefect, and Isaac couldn't help but think that there was still something wrong...

His hearing was sorted, everything was dropped... but the fact that his letter came a lot sooner than everyone else's was confusing him...

He shrugged as he helped Bill, who had gotten some time off from Hogwarts to spend with his family, aside from helping the Order, take through a set of plates and cutlery for the dinner table.

They had probably realised that they'd have to send the international letters a bit earlier than the domestic ones.

"Y'alright?" Bill asked as they handed the plates down to be passed along.

"I'm fine," Isaac said, rubbing the side of his head, "Just a headache,"

Dinner was rather joyful, the twins and Ginny still humming their victory chant under their breath as they ate up the practical feast that Mrs Weasley had cooked up.

As they all ate, Isaac and the others felt a faint buzz of static pass through the air, though it was only Isaac that heard their name being quietly said as if by a person standing right behind them.

"Be right back," Isaac said, excusing himself from the room for a moment.

As soon as Isaac reached the second landing of the stairs he found himself back before the comforting sight of the towering Slenderman.

 **"I trust that everything has gone well?"** he asked his youngest Proxy.

"Yes," Isaac said, "Nothing happened from coming back here from The ministry, and nothing has happened afterwards,"

 **"That is good to hear,"** Slender said, his blank head looking skyward, **"Are you aware that there is another soul shard here?"**

Isaac blinked and looked upwards as well.

 **"I take it from your silence that you did not,"** Slender said, looking back down at him.

"Is... is it the same as... mine?" Isaac asked hesitantly.

 **"I do not know,"** Slender admitted, **"But I will be taking it regardless.**

 **If it is a piece of the same soul that parasite in the attic is, then I'll be able to learn a great deal more about what depraved mind did this,"**

Isaac nodded as he fiddled with the hem of his sleeve.

 **"Is there anything on your mind?"** Slender asked, concerned for his Proxy.

"I'm fine, just a bit of a headache," Isaac said.

 **"Alright,"** Slender said, **"If there is anything else then you can feel free to ask,"**

"Ok," Isaac nodded, "Do you want me to go find the soul piece and send it to you?"

 **"I already know where it was, I have already taken it back to The Ark,"** Slender said with a shake of his head.

The door below them clicked and the sound of feet on stairs coming to meet them.

"You alright?" Hermione asked, reaching the landing where Isaac was stood alone.

"Yeah, just needed a moment... for my headache," Isaac said, rubbing the side of his head.

"Oh, do you want me to see if there are any pain relief potions around after dinner?" Hermione offered.

"No, it's alright," Isaac said, shaking his head, "I'm fine, I'll just be a moment,"

"Alright," Hermione said, "Don't take too long, your food's getting cold,"

Isaac watched as Hermione went back down, and as soon as the door closed Slenderman re-appeared right beside him.

 **"That was Miss Granger, yes?"** Slender asked.

"Yeah," Isaac said, "She's..."

 **"The Scholar,"** Slender cut Isaac off.

A moment passed before Isaac fully realised what had been said.

"Wait, she's... but I thought that... the, erm... wandmaker guy... Corriander?" Isaac said, looking up at the tall being.

 **"Mr Ollivander was The Scholar for a long age, perhaps it was time for another to take the mantle,"** Slender said, turning to look down at Isaac.

"Oh..." Isaac said, a small amount of colour draining from her face.

 **"You do not have to tell her right away,"** Slender said, **"In fact, given the circumstances, I'd say that once she has left Hogwarts would be an ideal time as she would have more time to mature to the nature of the world around her, as well as not have to contend with forced education,"**

"Right... so keep in touch with her after the end of this year, and tell her once she's finished her seventh year?" Isaac checked.

 **"When you tell her is your decision,"** Slender said, **"I just thought you'd appreciate the advice,"**

"Right, thanks... why can't..."

 **"I tell her?"** Slender completed the question before Isaac could finish, **"Normally, I would, but...**

 **Are you aware that for every Orbitor there is that a Shadow-kin, the original name before 'Creepypasta', that acts as the Guardian to them against our world?"**

"No..." Isaac said slowly, trying to remember if it had ever come up.

 **"Well, every Orbitor that you have met, I am the Guardian for them all.**

 **However... you seem to have, unwittingly, assigned yourself to the role of Guardian for Miss Granger already,"**

Isaac blinked, his mouth forming a perfect 'o'.

"Oh... so..."

 **"It is up to you when you tell her, if you need so I can assist you in explaining everything, but you have to be the one to tell her.**

 **I will go over everything that being a Guardian to her will mean at a later time, but if you have any questions at the moment you can ask Timothy, he will know how to explain it in a way that may be easier for you to understand.**

 **For now, I must take this soul shard back to examine it,"**

Slenderman crouched down a little and placed a hand on Isaac's shoulder.

 **"Take care,"** he said before departing.

"Thanks," Isaac said a moment later to the empty clearing.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

The Mansion.

The Slenderman appeared silently in The Attic of The Ark before he made his way over to a small section not too far away.

A pedestal stood alone in the small area, a glass container in the shape of a bell with no visible seam sat upon its surface.

Inside the container, a pulsating red orb with faint red tendrils that reached out to caress the inside of the container in a sickening manner.

Slenderman pulled out a heavy locket with a thick golden chain out from one of his suit's pockets, holding it up so that he could look at it.

The Aura of whatever slice of a person's soul that was held within the locket was the same, if stronger, than the pulsating orb that shimmered in the glass container.

 **"What have you done to yourself?"** he said with almost a hint of pity that was barely noticeable over the disdain that shrouded his words.

He made to hang the locket on a hook protruding from the pedestal when a thought came to him.

In his Proxy's second year at that magical institute, he had encountered a book that he had said held a memory of the man who killed his biological parents from over fifty years in the past... but he himself had never heard of a memory being able to think for itself, nor take over the mind of another being...

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The Carnival of The Laughing Jack.

It was an odd occasion whenever one of Laughing Jack's playmates left The Carnival.

True, the occasional few ventured out into the surrounding forest, but it was rare that they ever left a line of sight of the bleakened playgrounds...

Rarer still was one of them seeking him out while he was at The Mansion.

Following the small child that had come to bring him back, he thought for a moment that he'd perhaps been gone too long... but he had been there that very morning.

Laughing Jack let the small child pull him along by his long arm until they came to a crowd outside the tent in which he kept every item that had been made by his previous playmates.

"What is it?" he asked the quietly chittering crowd, but received no answer.

Moving carefully past them all, he made his way to the front of the tent.

Hesitating for a brief moment, he went inside and looked around.

Nothing had changed... except...

He looked around, and the only things that were missing were the things he had brought in that very morning.

The Grossman collection was... gone...

A deep frown had settled on the clown's face as he looked around.

There was something new on the ground, however, that he hadn't put there.

Bending down, he picked up a long, thin, piece of glass, smudged slightly by fingerprints.

The frown deepened as he tried to think where it could have come from...

His gaze settled on the display case that stood in the middle of the entrance area.

Walking over to it with three long strides, he pushed back the curtains in the space made by the missing glass pane.

Grossman's mask was missing as well.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Endnotes.

Yes, it's a short one.

This was originally supposed to be attached to last weeks chapter, but it was late enough so I made it it's own chapter to tide you over until I've finished my exams.

I've got my exam next week, as well as scattered hours at work so I've been focusing on what's important in my life at the moment rather than this, which is something I'm doing for fun.

You've still gotten something that furthers the story, even if I've not had time to put in the normal amount of filler that I normally shove into chapters to pad the word count, and once my exam is over I'll have more time to focus on the story and the chapters will probably get longer once again.

But, for the time being, I'm in priority concentration mode.

And with that, time for the reviews.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Sabriel Orion;

Thank you.

How ironic, I'm often too busy with work or life to write at the moment.

Hehehehe... she will die, don't worry.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Zero Zanity;

But can you do this?

'falls on the floor'

IGNORE THAT!

Yep, the Blacks found Isaac Grossman's collection.

Dumbledore was only there to find out Isaac's fate, whether or not he'd be returning to Hogwarts, and maybe to try and make The Wizengamot make sense if he could.

I... don't want to know... but tell me why the nasty man.

Awesome, PM me when it's finished.

Plan too.

I haven't had a good night of sleep since the 17th.

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Thank you!

Hehehehehe... Brian is awesome.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

No problem, I always do.

I have seen the trailers for it, and I think it looks good.

I'm gonna go see it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

Good to know, I've got a bunch of American readers so it was a reasonable guess.

So what spelling errors was it? I went back over the chapter and I couldn't find any at the start.

I'm gonna make that, and I'm gonna enjoy it, and I'm gonna give myself heart disease from too much sugar.

Dobby's interference wasn't addressed by the British Ministry this time because they didn't know about it.

Yikers... have you tried taking a long bath?

 **(X) Review (X)**

Myra the Dohvakin;

Thank you.

Plan too.

Will do.

Yes, you can.

Yes, it is.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

Congratulations, you know about the lightweight that messages me at 15 past in the morning.

Not gonna tell you.

Imagine it as if I sang the sentence above.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Yeah, I immediately think it's you when the email gets truncated.

Yeah, they've confirmed it.

Moody being paranoid is so fun to play with, as you'll have read if I managed to put it in.

The book has been around since the first 5, or so, chapters.

I'm hitting a bit of a roadblock with how to kill Ron... I know what I want to do, but how to get there... oh well, guess you'll find out eventually.

Yep, he definitely took care of them.

That typo made me judge very hard for a moment there.

I'd say being turned into a chair, the Grossman style, would be worse.

Yes, she was.

The locket is done and dusted.

I'm glad someone picked up on that, definitely explains why he'd be a bit shaken up by it.

I've said why Dumbledore was there in the review for Zero.

Hehe, name puns.

Toad bitch has been established, now to... I can't think of a way to kill someone that rhymes with that so pretend I came up with something clever to say instead.

Brian is awesome.

Glad you had a nice Easter, as of Wednesday morning I still haven't had any of mine yet because my appetite has been going on and off like a metronome... also I want a metronome.

My week has been good so far, Monday to Wednesday off.

Hope you like this one too.

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

Shame, what happened?

Glad you liked it.

No spoilers.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

If you want to buy some marketing stuff for me, feel free.

Huh, definitely sounds interesting... at least.

Glad that you feel better about things nowadays.

It's no problem, you feel free to get it all out whenever you need to.

Murderous Sunshine Boy Toby for the win indeed!

The Order was good once, definitely has gone askew now though.

Good question on the bet, definitely NSFW whatever it is.

The Blacks collected the set, I don't know if he made furniture out of the other ones he killed, but I think he wouldn't have stopped at the chair.

I'm glad people are making the connection.

I love that fact that I've made Brian a lawyer, just the layer of irony is hilarious to me.

Glad you liked it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Not yet, he hasn't...

Brian is awesome, yes.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

AAAH!

What are you doing so early?

Hehehehe, take it you forgot to sign in again?

I gathered.

I want that on a shirt, "When is there not a need to slap someone?".

Yep, I'm glad people made the connection.

C4 is definitely a win.

Brian is the best lawyer.

Nah, trying to keep the schedule as best that I can.

Hehehehe, glad you liked it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

joshua. obryan. 549;

Yes, Thalmann is.

L.J had closure ages ago.

Brian is awesome.

Ben and Isaac need a vacation together with a locked room.

When isn't Dumbledore being an idiot?

Fudge is a dumbass, I love shitting on him.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Right, I hope that you've enjoyed this weeks chapter, even though it was a short one.

I've said why at the beginning of the endnotes, so hopefully you'll have a longer one next week.

With that being said, I bid you all adieu.

SteamGeek01.

Creepypastas in this fic.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao & Room 42 (Zippers & Sir Pebbles The Third) – Jinbeizamezama.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – soffbois - According to reader research.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	83. Chapter 83, I don't know what to call it

Chapter 83, I don't know what to call this one.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Well... work was fun.

I'm not fired, but I had to serve 4 kids who were practically the picture perfect definition of a 'Chad'.

Most annoying douches I have ever met.

Anyway, chapter...

'insert Sharky death noise here'

SteamGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

The castle stood proud upon its slight perch, the waves of the lake cresting and crashing against the stone cliffs that were strewn with ivy.

Within the halls, barely any noise par for the whistling of the wind through the empty spaces could be heard... save for one corridor, that a man wearing garish robes with a long, white, beard was striding down.

He didn't halt his stride until he was stood inside a disused classroom.

The door slowly swung shut behind him as he looked into the large and ornate mirror that dominated one wall of the room.

Albus let out a soft sigh as he gazed at the image of himself, his brother, his sister, their parents, and another young man talking animatedly with one another one a warm, sunny, summers day.

His hand came up for a brief moment, almost as if he'd been about to reach out and touch the one there he did not have a blood relation to but decided against it at the last moment.

Closing his eyes, as if to try and sear the false image deep into his mind, he raised his wand to the mirror.

With a sharp slash across the air before it, the aged wizard removed the multiple layers of charms that he had placed upon it years ago.

Opening his eyes, Dumbledore took in the image of himself sitting upon the large chair he had fashioned in the Great Hall, alone. The Minister's personal express owl standing proud on a stand next to him, Fawkes perched on the top of the throne above him.

He had cast the charms in order to try and influence the Potter boy to remain within his domain, and it seemed to work for a short while.

The boy had seemed to play his part for his first and second years, the brat had gone through the challenges to protect the false stone he had planted, and even gone after the youngest Weasley when she had been taken deep into the Chamber of Secrets... but something had changed...

His third year... that was the turning point when he suspected that he had lost the chance at a subtle hand guiding the boy back to his righteous light...

Potter had begun publically hanging out with two Slytherins, one of the said children being the sole son of one of the Dark Lord's inner circle members, mind you. Then the boy had terminated his friendship with the Weasley boy after the ginger's temper had gotten the best of him and had only found his way into the predicament with Black and the Dementors by way of accident and coincidence...

Perhaps it was his own fault that the Weasley boy's temper had worsened to the point of rage, the continual use of memory charms and the Imperius to maintain a constant stream of information from the boy's day to day routine that he couldn't achieve with the portrait of the merchant he had bought and bound to himself, who had vanished sometime last spring.

Albus sighed as he turned his back on the mirror, casting his thoughts back to the prior year.

The Triwizard Tournament had seemed like the perfect time to test the boy.

He had caught the fake Alastair putting the boy's name in the Goblet of Fire, a moment of pure luck when he had descended from his tower for a nightly cup of hot cocoa.

Since that moment, for the rest of the year, he had watched the boy go up against everything that they had come up with for the champions to fight, from dragons, to those hybrids that he had subtly led Hagrid into breeding.

But even he couldn't have prevented the resurrection of the Dark Lord.

Riddle's rising had forced his hand.

The Wizarding World needed its pawn, it's martyr, and he would make sure of it.

His original plan had failed, due to whoever it was that sent those dementors after the Americans.

But, he was nothing if not flexible.

He had been carefully following them along the street, a powerful 'Notice-Me-Not' charm upon himself to make any and all persons that might have seen him either not notice him, or forget.

Following the quartet had been tedious, going from shop to shop, and at times he felt that the one with the bushy sideburns and grumpier attitude out of the elder pair seemed to be on edge, as if aware that someone was following them, at times, but he knew that a muggle wouldn't be able to overcome _his_ proficiency at spellcasting.

The Dementors had been an unwelcome surprise.

He had been about to stun the elders and abduct the brat, all for the greater good, when they had attacked.

It had taken him by surprise and sent him retreating through a door into a muggle building nearby from which he watched the unfolding event.

Potter's patronus had fully destroyed a dementor, proving that without a doubt, in his mind, that the boy _was_ the one to vanquish all the evil from their tainted world.

The muggles accompanying him proved that they could be of some use when they easily bested two of the Aurors sent after Potter, proving that he might have had a rougher time than he had originally thought to be present, before escaping into the American Magical Embassy.

Following them further would have been nothing but trouble, the charms, wards, and defences would have torn his disguising apart within seconds and he would have been facing charges for assaulting the building like the twelve Aurors the Minister had foolishly sent after them.

Crossing the room to the door, he cast a quick glance back at the image presented before him, his hand resting on the frame.

It was the only course of action, that wouldn't prove a fool's errand, and he had to act carefully...

With the information that the portrait, the one that had gone missing, had retrieved in his mind, he had begun planning how to act around the boy.

One thing that he had gleaned from it's... acceptable work, was that the boy could tell whenever he was being lied to.

The muggles had stuck by the boy all throughout their stay at their Headquarters, proving a most difficult task to try and whisk him away, even if he could have explained it as being all for the greater good to the various members of his Order, and the children also receiving sanctuary...

An idea came to him as he pulled the door closed.

"Yes..." he muttered softly to himself, "They would... but how, if I... no... they'll all understand eventually..."

It was for the greater good, after all.

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Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place.

Tim, Brian, and Toby all looked at Isaac.

Isaac had waited until the next morning to tell them about what Slendy had said to him and now he was waiting on some sort of reaction from them.

"Kid... your life's a mess," Sully said, sitting on top of a chest of drawers.

"Yep, fully aware of that," Isaac nodded.

Tim sighed, reaching instinctively into his jacket pocket only to find an empty packet.

"Alright, I'm gonna go get some more smokes, you two tell him what being a Guardian means, and don't... I don't know, burn the place down while I'm out," Tim said, shrugging his coat on.

"Want me to save you some oatmeal?" Toby asked as the only reason any of them were up this early was because Mrs Weasley had called up for breakfast.

"Nah, I'll grab a roll or something while I'm out," Tim said, lacing up his boots and leaving.

"Ok," Toby said, closing the door behind him, "Erm...

So, you've found out that you're a Guardian... I don't know what I'm doing, help?" he turned to face Brian.

"Suffer," came the singular reply.

"Basically, you're their go-between for anything that they find that pertains to our world," Sully said, "They find something kooky, tell you, you go sort it out, winner winner, chicken dinner.

It's also your job to make sure that nothing too bad happens to them.

Mundane problems like taxes, dui's, unexpected children, not your problem... unless it was caused by something from our world, then it's your problem," he shrugged, "Now, I'm hungry, I'm gonna go get some sausages, unless..."

Brian clamped a hand over each of Isaac's ears as Sully leaned closer to Toby before lifting him out of the room and towards the stairs.

"I can walk," Isaac protested, ignoring the laughter coming from Toby and Liu, as he wriggled free from the iron grip of Brian.

Before he could be caught again, he hopped up onto the bannister and slid down the rest of the stairs, Toby copying him shortly after.

The two of them landed one after the other, Brian and Sully opting to use the stairs, and pushed off against the now empty portrait frame where the recently fired Mrs Black once resided.

Landing on the landing, the two of them shared a quick grin before turning to look at the casually descending pair they were waiting on.

After the two of them finally reached them, they followed Isaac through into the kitchen, having waited long enough to indulge themselves on Mrs Weasley's cooking.

As soon as Isaac had pushed the door open, and walked in, he froze in his tracks, causing Toby, Brian, and Sully to all walk into the backs of the other.

"I'm fairly certain that none of our fathers were glaciers," Sully chimed in from the back, pulling one of Brian's hairs out of his mouth, "Can we get a move on please?"

"Hello, Professor Dumbledore," Isaac said, moving out of the way so the others could file into the room.

"Good morning," the old wizard said cheerily, a plate of toast before him and a knife with marmalade in his hand, "

"Morning," Isaac said as he, like Brian, gave the room a quick headcount.

Dumbledore, Sirius, six Weasleys as it was Bill's day off, Tonks, and two Order members that they had seen in passing only.

"He finally gave in," Mrs Weasley called through from the kitchen, a large frying pan filled with pork sausages sizzling away in front of her, "For weeks I've been saying he needs to stop by for breakfast, or stay for dinner,"

"Running a school is no easy feat," Dumbledore said, returning the knife to the jar of marmalade.

"As you've said," Mrs Weasley said, waving the spatula, "But you've finally come,"

"Yes, I have, however..." Dumbledore started.

"Oh can we get this over with?" one of the Order members sighed, sounding rather tired.

Toby and Isaac shared a quick glance as Dumbledore adopted a more relaxed pose, turning to the man who had spoken.

"Over with what, Dedalus?" he asked softly.

"Albus," the other said, sounding as weary as the first had, "While it is nice that Potter won his trial..."

Toby, Brian, and Isaac both leant back, their arms crossed.

Sirius and Fred both had worried expressions on their faces, everyone else looking at them as if they had insulted their mothers.

Sully, meanwhile, had started smiling.

"... and it's nice having more hands to actually tidy up this place, but the Headquarters of The Order is not a hostel for muggles,"

"I think you'll find that this is still my home," Sirius said, leaning forward to try and defuse the situation before it got worse, "And I can decide who..."

"Oh, it's fine," Sully said, proving that it had already gotten worse, "It's fine... if they want us to leave, that's totally understandable.

I mean, I understand that they're just scared of us, who wouldn't be, after all?"

Dedalus and the other shared an insulted look.

"Scared of you?" Dedalus almost laughed, "Why..."

By the time that Dedalus had turned to look back, Sully had already walked around the table and was now leaning over the man wearing a purple top hat.

Dedalus jumped out of his chair, nearly knocking the other man to the floor, and glared through a vibrant red face at Sully.

"Hi," Sully said in a cheesy voice as Dedalus drew his wand, "... so, what you planning to do with that?"

"Now, gentlemen," Dumbledore said, his voice calm and even, trying to regain control of the situation, "Let's not do anything rash and unnecessary,"

"Oh, it's alright," Sully said, not breaking eye contact with Dedalus, "I'll let him have one... free... shot..."

"I'd rather not have fighting in my dining room," Sirius said, noticing what Diggle had not, as Mrs Weasley and Dumbledore tried to stop the standoff.

"Now, now, there's no need..."

"Setting a fine example..."

"... can resolve this without..."

"... supposed to be adults!"

" _Sudolescii_!" Dedalus cried. *

A streak of pink shot out of Dedalus' wand and struck himself squarely in the chest.

Sully stood over the hunched Dedalus, watching as the man's eyebrows started growing with incredible haste.

"Did you know you were holding your wand the wrong way around?" Sully asked, a sneer to rival anyone else's morphing his features.

He left Dedalus' companion helping the spluttering wizard try and control the ever-expanding masses of hair before walking out of the room.

"I've lost my appetite," he said, ruffling Isaac's hair as he passed them, "Gonna go take a walk, get some fresh air,"

As the footsteps got further away from the kitchen, ending as a door opened and closed, Dedalus and his companion left through the fireplace, shooting glares at the remaining three Americans as they disappeared.

Silence reigned over the kitchen and dining room, only the faint crackling of sausages could be heard on the stove.

"I leave for five minutes..."

Many in the room jumped as Tim made his presence known, the stench of recently burned tobacco lingering around him.

"... and someone tries to start a fight, what happened?"

"Basically... Sully said 'hi'," Toby said, pointing with an open palm at the now empty fireplace.

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Endnotes.

* Supercilii adolescit = sudolescii = Eyebrow grows

Well... my writing skills are going down the toilet.

I know _where_ I want to go in terms of the story, but I don't know how to get it there.

I'll probably start year 5 next week, back to Hogwarts woo-hoo!

But, I'm starting to run out of ideas for things.

So, unless you just want chapter after chapter of plot driving material with no actual substance, I'm gonna need some help.

Give me mini-plots.

Give me a scenario that could happen within Hogwarts, or what you'd like me to try and have happen.

I'll be going to those sub-plot concept generators to try and find some ideas anyway, might as well ask you guys for help.

There's probably a fair few typos in this chapter that I'll fix later, really need to get some sleep at the moment.

Ok, my panicking ass aside, reviews!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Zero Zanity;

I don't know how to type... I can't type it because I can't spell it...

Swedish for "You Laugh, You Lose" goes here!

Slenderman does what he wants, wanna tell him no?

Lucius' is already burned, that was Toby rubbing verbal salt into the wound pointing out that a 14-year-old bested him.

Yep, totally didn't tell everyone about that already in Werewolf... totally didn't spoil that...

It's alright, I went to the shops and bought one sleep.

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

Same.

Hehehehehe... innuendos...

Fire makes the world go round.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

I really want to know your mom's reaction to you and the turkey.

I know that it was only like... twelve seconds in the story, but I like the idea that Brain was cackling the entire time that you were all waiting for the next chapter.

It wouldn't be a trial, it would be a manhunt because Isaac would have smashed Lucius' face apart.

Yeah... they are Wizards, though... common sense...

Yep, finally getting to those plot threads... anyone know of any others that I need to tie up before ending the story?

 **[SPOILERS]**

I'm glad that you liked it, even if it was shorter than the others.

I know that saying, "Fuck it!" is really motivating, it's how I get through about 70% of my days so far.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Yep, she does.

No problem.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

Yep, something did.

Yeah, she'll be fine... no spoilers...

I'll check it out later.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Myra the Dovahkin;

Thanks.

No spoilers.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

BADGER AWAY!

Here, take my badgering badger, his name is Thomas.

Yes, it would be very NSFW.

I think that he made every victim into something, whether it was a lampshade, or something...

You want an EXTRAS of Lawyer!Brian? Eh, sure, I'll put him in something in the future, why not?

Ok... good to know... say hi to whatever ghost your sister has befriended for me.

Hehe, I need to have Isaac call Lucius Lucy now and then.

SOMEONE GOT IT! Yes, I burn a witch!

Spoilers.

Yeah, definitely need to decide things for the future... no spoilers...

Yep, and another one is sent up to the Attic.

Yeah, wonder who...

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Oh, are you sure you know who's being number 6?

No, seriously, who?

 **(X) Review (X)**

Anonymous Fan (Guest);

Hi Anon!

I have been waiting to use the 'the silent character talks non-stop for half an hour' trope since chapter 1! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG THAT WAS? Like... well over a year of sitting on that trope!

Yeah, Toby's feeling better now, cake and Liu cuddles = perfect cure.

...

Is that an actual story, or is it a Fanfic?

Because if it's a Fanfic, god damn! There better be a lot of philosophical waxing in the story to live up to that name... also I want that on a poster...

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

You know... I'm starting to doubt your username...

Plz, don't rob me!

Erm... I will take that £5, thank you!

 **(X) Review (X)**

No, wait, THIS IS A NOT FOR PROFIT STORY! THIS IS A NOT FOR...

'Smacked with Ban Hammer'

loading...

loading...

= Active.

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

Oh dear. What a shame. Did you make sure you never lost an internet connection?

Yes, Hermione is the Scholar.

No spoilers have been allowed to be posted here.

Yes, you will.

 **(X) Review (X)**

joshau. obryan. 549;

The desk wasn't... you know what, yeah, he made a desk too.

Ok... I don't know what to say to the boom, doom, gloom...

Broccoli?

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Thank you!

No spoilers!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Stormseer (Guest);

No problem!

Welcome to the story.

Eurgh... I really need to go back and tweak some of, if not all, of my earlier chapters since the level of cringe is too damn high!

Brain is a legend, yes.

Toadie is gonna croak eventually.

Yep, temper tantrums are a killer.

Erm... well... I don't want to kill certain characters... but... plot.

Yeah, I do love 'Cedric lives!' fanfics.

Yeah, stuff disappearing is never a good sign.

Werewolf spoiled quite a bit in terms of the story, never expected it to get that big.

Slender is definitely going to be able to guess how many have been made, by the one that was in Isaac's head alone.

Oh... the fight scene I could make with the Inferni...

I like fire.

Erm... I dunno.

Don't worry, you are nowhere near the longest rambler I have leaving reviews.

 **(X) Review (X)**

She Who Cannot Be Turned;

(CH81)

Yay!

Having Brian talk was fun.

It's fairly easy, you just make them 'human'.

Oh, AWESOME!

I'll probably stick with the Ticci Toby Cosplay, unless I can find a Castiel coat then I might go as my most people's favourite angel.

Yep, I think it definitely was.

 _I'm_ making you look bad? My cringey, unorganised, kinda late lately ass, is making you all look bad... ok... sorry?

Hope the muse sticks with you.

(CH82)

Erm... I have put a bit of thought into it.

In my mind, Isaac is a Proxy of Slenderman until he has a 'story' of his own.

When he snaps, he will still be a Proxy until he has a Creepypasta made around him in 'my' world.

Thank you.

Burny, burny, Black, bitch.

Well, that would be telling.

He sent it earlier than everyone else's, to get him back to the UK faster, like I went over in the start bit.

No problem.

Oh, cool, I'd love to see how that looks.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

Sure...

Yeah, he's awesome.

It's fun having them be savage, I love insults.

Yeah, that portrait kept waking him up.

He's the one that knows Hermione the best and has already become Guardian.

Yeah, Isaac has one scary family, but that doesn't stop Jane being a bitch.

Something found, and something lost.

Hehehehe, I'm telepathic.

Yeah, I saw it, you go look at the thing below this.

Glad to know I'm quality.

 **(X) Review (X)**

And that's it.

So, did anyone see the trailer for the new Sonic the Hedgehog movie?

I'm gonna say... I'm hopeful.

Jim Carrey might just be cartoony enough to bring Eggman to life, and I'll admit it, I don't think the design of Sonic is... _that_ bad.

It's nice to know that they're fixing the design nonetheless, get it looking back to something we know a lot better.

And with that, I bid you all a good night... mainly because I'm writing this part at 10 to 3 in the morning for me and papa loves his sleep sleeps.

Toodles,

SteamGeek01.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao & Room 42 (Zippers & Sir Pebbles The Third) – Jinbeizamezama.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – soffbois - According to reader research.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	84. Chapter 84, Year 5 Begins PT1

Chapter 84, Year 5 Begins PT1.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

"No... ones...

Thick as SteamGeek; needs some sleep like SteamGeek; no one's nights are as incredibly bleak like SteamGeek's.

For there's no one half as sleepy!

My what a wreck, that SteamGeek!"

And like that, I was more creative for the minute it took to come up with that than I was all of last week.

Like, no joke, I wrote that, and then went on facebook for about an hour... God, I need a better life.

BUT! I'm stuck with the one I've got, so I'm gonna go take a nap, and then I'm gonna crack on with this chapter.

Thank you to everyone that gave me mini-plot suggestions, they'll be a grand help when it comes to writing... someone suggested that I read an H.P book to try and find a bit of motivation... well...

I did read a new book I've gotten, and H.P is on the cover... it just so happens to also have the name 'Lovecraft' follow that... yeah... I really like the two I've read so far, "Night Gaunts," and "Dagon,".

I'm about to start, "The Statement of Randolph Carter," I'll let you know my thoughts at the end.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get my head on straight and get a good chapter out, the last few have sucked, in my opinion.

SteamGeek01.

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The Hogwarts Express.

Isaac sighed as he stared out at the rolling green hills that they were passing by, letting his eyes slowly close shut and letting the gentle rocking slowly lull him to sleep... he really didn't like getting up early... maybe Masky was rubbing off on him...

Hermione glanced up from the book she was reading, getting a few minutes of research in before motion sickness took over and forced her to stop.

Before closing her eyes to overcome the momentary nausea, she glanced over at the dozing American sharing the compartment with her.

Had she known exactly what sort of messes her raven-haired companion would get himself into, she didn't know whether or not she'd still have made friends with the quirky teenager... she'd probably have not gone into that bathroom back in their first year, though...

Letting her head fall back onto the cushioned leather seat, she thought back to the past few days and just how odd things had become lately...

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Grimmauld Place.

"Sully?" a fair few people at the table asked.

"Yeah," Toby said, looking down the corridor that the aforementioned had gone down.

"I thought his name was 'Liu'," Mrs Weasley remarked, looking a little embarrassed at getting someone's name wrong for a couple of weeks.

"Oh, it's... erm..." Toby started, "Imagine a coin.

Two sides, two faces, one coin, or body.

Liu is one, and Sully is the other," he finished.

Silence held it's reign over the kitchen.

"How... peculiar," Dumbledore said, shifting in his seat a little.

"That's one word for it," Tim muttered, taking a piece of toast off of Isaac's plate.

"Yes, indeed... I do apologise for the drama this morning," Dumbledore said, waving his wand over his beard to remove any crumbs that had gotten stuck whilst he ate, "I was told there was a developing situation that required my attendance by Dedalus, but it appears that he was merely feeling a little hot-headed,"

"And?" Tim asked.

"I beg your pardon, I don't quite understand?" Dumbledore frowned, resting in his chair, hands folded on his lap.

"Do you agree with him?" Tim asked, leaning forwards.

Dumbledore didn't answer straight away.

"That decision is, and was, not mine to make," he said after a moment, "As Sirius so accurately pointed out, this is his home. He is allowing me to use it as a meeting grounds for The Order, yes, but that is his choice to allow us to do so.

Just as it is his decision to decide when any guest he has has outstayed their visit,"

"That didn't answer my question, though," Tim pointed out.

"No, I guess it didn't..." Dumbledore sighed as he leant back, "... I can understand where Dedalus is coming from.

This is the Headquarters for The Order, so it does make sense that if you're not actively helping us that you would be asked to leave to make space for those who would.

But, he is also acting like a child who doesn't want others there because they join in with him.

It would be unreasonable to ask you to leave as you haven't done anything to warrant your removal.

And, as I said before, the decision would rest with Sirius,"

Dumbledore had ended up staying for a few more minutes, finishing his toast before bidding them all farewell until the term started, stating that he had more paperwork to finish.

"What do you think?" Tim asked Isaac once the two of them had a moment of privacy, washing the dishes in the kitchen, "He lying and wants us out, but too polite to admit it? Or does he want us out because he thinks the same as the discount Confucius"

"Well... he didn't exactly lie..." Isaac said, nearly pushing his glasses up with a soap-ridden hand, "Basically, everything he said was true, but didn't say what he thought directly, so...

I guess it's a lie by omission?"

"I'm not quizzing you on becoming a lawyer," Tim said, flicking some suds at him, "I asked if you thought he was lying or not,"

"Someone call for a lawyer?" Brian asked, leaning through, "You know I happen..."

" _SHUT UP_!" Isaac cried, throwing a just about to be cleaned spatula at his head.

Sully, or rather Liu, didn't return until just before lunch, trudging into the room with his hair wet and rubbing his eyes like he'd not long woke up.

"Must have been some walk," George said, looking at the fairly weary Liu sitting a few seats away, "Gone long enough like it's a new person sitting there,"

"Yeah," Isaac said, rolling his eyes, "Wonder what he got up too?"

Light didn't begin to shine on that particular matter until Ginny came down the stairs a few minutes later.

"Something's going on," she said, bouncing into the room, "Policemen are out and about,"

Toby, Tim, Brian, Sirius, and Fred all turned to look at Liu.

Liu, in turn, looked behind himself before realising that everyone was looking at him.

"Oh... yeah, saw them wandering about and decided to head back..." he answered, trailing off to take a drink of lemonade.

Tim leant a little closer to Isaac.

"What colour is the pen?"

"The pen is red," Isaac said, chewing a cheese sandwich while looking at Liu with a grin of impish anticipation.

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"What did you do?" Tim asked Liu.

" _I_ didn't do anything," Liu said, leaning back a little as Tim stood before him.

"What did _Sully_ do?" Tim asked.

"Well... he got really pissed off at that guy from this morning, so he went out to let off some steam..."

"What part of, 'don't draw any unwanted attention while we're here' don't you, or him, understand?" Tim cut him off.

"The part about not killing because that's like shoving Toby in a room full of bubble wrap and expecting it to..."

"Hey!" Toby cut him off, "... ok, fair enough...

So, what'd ya do?"

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Sully didn't glance behind him as the building he had recently left disappeared from sight.

He nearly turned back, when he realised he hadn't brought anything with him, but carried on down the street.

Pausing for a moment, he let out a breath as the sounds of the city surrounded him.

Busses passing, tourists whining, people trying to hail a taxi, honking horns...

"My god, it's way too noisy, how the hell do people stand this place?"

As if to add to his torment, the mild pattering of raindrops descending from the heavens began to sound on the canvas shelters out the front of cafes and the tops of bus shelters.

Sighing, he pulled his jacket a little tighter and began making his way over to the nearest place he could get something to drink and eat.

Sully let out another sigh, this one of annoyance, when he realised that he didn't have his phone, nor his wallet, on him.

For a brief moment, he debated running back to that shamble of a house to grab his things, but decided that he already had everything he needed right here.

Sliding past someone to get into the little chip shop, a precise hand found the phone in his jacket pocket without the man knowing it had even left him.

Thankfully, they were someone who couldn't be bothered remembering a password and only had a slider to unlock their phone.

#"Hello?"# Ben's mildly distorted voice came through the speakers.

"Hey, it's Sul," Sully said, glancing around, "I might have forgotten my wallet, able to lend a hand?"

#"Sure,"# followed the sigh, #"Give me a few moments to find you,"#

It took Ben two minutes to find him, another one to get an account linked to the phone.

"Thank you," Sully said, spinning the phone around before tucking it into his pocket.

Retreating into a corner of the little shop to eat peacefully, Sully sat down and started looking through the window at the passers-by, trying to find someone who looked like fun to 'play' with.

'... wannabe radio host... sells shoes to old ladies... doesn't know his shirt label is sticking out...' Sully rattled off, giving a quick judgement on all the people walking by the little store.

All of them shared one very important detail.

They were boring.

There was not a single person in this street that would be fun to kill, or torture, at the very least.

Sighing once again, Sully took a bite out of the bridie he had bought, chewing thoughtfully at what to do next.

He needed to let off some steam after that moron he had met that morning and nothing fun was presenting itself...

"Oh, timing, thou brother is irony," Sully said, watching the two people walk down the road.

Now, on their own, the two of them looked rather boring, but the fact that they both had what he estimated to be several charity collection tins, probably from the people looking around on the other side of the street.

Following them was easy, they were only looking for other charity collectors who might realise that they aren't collecting, for a charity that was.

Eventually, the two of them ducked into a quieter street, a blessing to Sully's ears as he was starting to get a headache, or maybe that was just Liu's way of saying good morning...

After following them for another few minutes, the two of them finally jumped over a small chain, not so gracefully descending the stairs to whatever dingy little sub-apartment they had either broken into or rented.

"So, how much?" one of them asked, unable to keep his hands still, constantly trying to find something to fidget with.

"Give me two secs," the other one said, hands too sweaty to get a proper grip on the container.

"Come on, man!" the first said, hitting the shabby table he was sat upon, "Do we have enough or not? Crack it open already!"

"With pleasure,"

Before either of them could move or say anything else, Sully swung a half broken lamp into the head of the jittery watcher, sending him crashing into the other.

"WHO THE FU..."

The second didn't get to finish his sentence, for Sully had thrust the bare end of the lamp into his mouth, driving it forward so that he had no choice but to scramble backwards until his back was pressed flush against the wall.

Sully caught the man's flail with a quick hand, forcing it back into his own face hard enough to break his nose.

Hearing a groan from behind him, Sully saw that the first one had recovered and was about to rush him.

Letting go of the second for a moment, Sully landed a punch square on the man's neck, sending him spluttering to the floor, before turning back to the second.

A quick punch to the underside of his jaw resulted in a satisfied smirk spread Sully's lips as the sound of breaking glass was accompanied with the sound of whimpering pain before pushing the lamp further into his mouth.

Glancing behind him, after checking just how much wire he had left on the lamp, he clicked on the switch for the lamp.

The man behind him started screeching, trying to pull the lamp free for a few moments before collapsing onto the floor, convulsing heavily.

All the while, the first one had begun crawling towards the door, desperate to get away.

Picking up the loose slack of the cable, Sully grabbed the first man's filthy hair and began wrapping the cord around his neck until he almost pulled the lamp free from the now still body across the room.

Feeble hands grasped at the tight black wire wrapped around his neck as Sully pulled harder, and harder, against the two ends he held as he began forcing his head down with a heavy boot.

Hearing something snap, Sully dropped the cable and looked at the two bodies lying on the floor.

Glancing down at the several knocked over collection tins, he kicked the red-faced corpse to the side before leaving the filthy basement and re-ascending onto the drizzle spotted streets of London.

Sully and, by extension, Liu had ended up not being allowed out unless he was accompanied by either Tim or Brian.

It was decided fairly early into the discussion that both Toby and Isaac were not suitable watchers because the mayhem they would get into would be worse than...

Tim had actually paused for a moment to try and think of a good enough example before deciding that every mess was less chaotic than whatever they could get up too.

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The Hogwarts Express.

"Isaac?" Hermione called over to the dozing teenager.

The mumble of sleep she got in response caused the brainy witch to roll her eyes before throwing a chocolate frog box at him.

A quick hand caught the box before it hit him in the face.

Even Isaac looked surprised that he had caught it.

"Whazzit?" Isaac fumbled over his words, hitting himself in the side of the head to try and wake up.

"You'll not get any sleep tonight if you waste it all on the train," Hermione said, "Plus, we're getting close to the castle and I'd like to change,"

"You know that you'd have been fine to change with me asleep," Isaac pointed out, getting up all the same and fixing the strap of his braces that had fallen away.

"I'm sure you say that to all the girls," Hermione said, unfolding her cloak.

Isaac paused, mid childish retort, to think back to the conversations that he had had in Grimmauld Place.

"Did... I didn't tell you... did I?" he asked slowly.

"I don't know, because you haven't told me much," Hermione pointed out.

"Oh... well... erm...

So... Ben... felt the same way," Isaac said, scratching the back of his head and trying to ignore the red tinge rising in his cheeks, "So, that's... yeah,"

As he finished, Hermione put the cloak down on the chair and turned to face him, giving him a hug and laughing at how much of a tomato Isaac resembled at that moment.

"I'm so happy for you," she said, letting him go, "You deserve some happiness... especially since things, well... tend to go to Hell in a handbasket at times for you,"

"Yeah, you have no idea..." Isaac said, turning to leave and give Hermione her privacy.

"Well, maybe one day I'll get an idea," Hermione said, drawing the curtains so that she got some more privacy.

"Yeah... one day..." Isaac trailed off.

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Endnotes.

Right, I don't know whether or not I'm back in my prime for writing, but I'm confident in saying that I'M BACK!

And what's new while I'm back?

Well... nothing really... not much is different.

Also, yeah, another one that's a little late... I blame the morons who took me out drinking, mainly because they claim not to be lightweights and I know how to hold my liquor.

Eh, what can you do about it?

Reviews!

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

I'm glad that I can bring some light into your days.

I do plan to continue, I just want to try and make sure that what I'm releasing is better stuff than what's been going out lately.

Definitely going to be interesting.

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

Did you ask Jane to put in the advertisement?

I've put a fair bit of thought into how I want to kill Umbitch, now I just need to refine it.

Oh, that's... pleasant?

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

I got there, I've got a plan in mind for... well, you... I HATE TENSES!

I've got a plan for this chapter, in order to try and make up for the really short one, and I'm fairly certain that I'll manage to fit everything into it.

Thanks for the idea, that does line up with a couple of ones I had so it'll probably happen.

 **(X) Review (X)**

KanaRadiance;

Planning on that.

Chapter for The mansion folk, I can do that.

The Slendy Brothers aren't in this story, but there is a chapter dedicated to them on EXTRAS.

Hermione meeting them would definitely be interesting, logic would definitely struggle to keep up a bit there.

I hope I do too.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MidnightLoverGirl46;

I'M AWARE OF THAT!

AND I HATE IT!

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

I'm going to need to write a parody chapter in EXTRAS where E.J is some Halle Berry chef teaching you how to cook.

Dumble's plans have fallen apart long ago, he's just blinded himself to it all.

Sully is fun to write, I don't think I've said that before – Sarcasm.

I didn't have him saying morning twice, I had him say hello, and then good morning.

I love that Sully made him panic enough to not notice he was holding his wand the wrong way.

Tim is the mother that turns her back for three seconds and her children have already gotten into the crayons at times.

I have done a bit of a time skip, a bit of a flashback, with the timing of this chapter, as you saw.

I hope I can.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

Yeah, I do.

Well... you saw the book thing... Lovecraft is really interesting to read.

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Still deciding who I want to have taken the Grossman collection.

 **(X) Review (X)**

yorushihe;

WELCOME!

With how the story is going, I'm maybe able to introduce 2 more without it being a big shift away from where it's going... if it's going anywhere other than off the rails...

I could have a few CP things end up at Hogwarts, that's not a bad suggestion.

I can make a few jokes about dentists being evil, maybe not a full-blown character, though.

I can mess around with the pictures, that'll be easy enough to do.

Luna and Jack would be fairly easy to do... since with how I've set them up, I will leave it open in the future.

It would have to be revealed in a jump forward since Luna is 14 in the story at the moment, I haven't checked when her birthday is so I'm assuming it's that since she's going into her 4th year... I guess I could hint at it a bit since... I'm just awkward with age groups in terms of writing relationships, he's a few centuries old and she's 14.

So I'll leave it as a maybe for now.

 **(X) Review (X)**

BloodyKitsune1997;

Welcome!

I can do that!

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Thank you.

Yes, he is.

Yes, he does.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death.

Dumbledore will most likely die this year.

I can do more of Fred, Isaac, and L.J interactions, maybe throw some Luna into the mix.

Umbridge will die.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

I know of that list.

I love that list.

I will probably reference that list.

Hehehehe... thank you for that image.

I've got the instructions for a field detector, a few of the components as well, so I'm probably going to end up going off in search of a ghost at some point.

I will use the line, "Lucy, I'm home," in this story.

Yeah, I think the little bits with Dumbledore do a fairly good job of showing how far he's gone.

Compare how I wrote him at the start, to how he is now. Big change.

Sully is the champ of the breakfast table.

I could have Jeff kill some chads at some point, fairly easy to do that.

Locklear could make a comeback, can write some of him.

I think a few chapters at The Mansion, that take place during the same time as things at Hogwarts, wouldn't go amiss.

Eww... I'm fairly sure one of them was barely a teenager, so not going to do that.

Wouldn't waste my time on them if I could.

Thank you, I will.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Nixabell-2019 (Guest);

Welcome!

I'm sorry for the cringe in the earlier chapters.

I'm glad that you like the story.

Nearly 2 years, yeah.

I LOVE TOBY!

He's my favourite and I wanted to do him justice.

Many write him off as a screw-up goofball or don't have him in enough to get a focus on how he is, "Tale of The Clown's Mage," is one that does him fairly well, but doesn't show him often.

I would have him find out about Marble Hornets, but he doesn't know how to use a computer or the internet.

I could have him try and research another, but we'll see...

Thank you, I hope it comes back too.

 **(X) Review (X)**

tanner-tanner (guest);

Feel free to draw it.

You'll have to PM me about sending the pics to me, I'm not putting my email address onto a chapter.

If I can make a request for some, one Isaac getting trained by Brian and Hoodie, one with him, Toby, and Ben playing games, and one for Werewolf in EXTRAS?

It's still up to you, but those are on my drawing list and I'm not good at drawing.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Anonymous Fan (Guest);

Thank you, Anon.

I'll probably give it a look soon.

 **(X) Review (X)**

randomperson (Guest);

Oh, cool!

Ditto with the lazy comment, even I can't be bothered to check things sometimes.

They're a pale blue, think salt and vinegar Pringles can blue.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

Yeah, I do get my fair share of people who are really nice.

Had a few old friends from High School pop in the other day.

Awe, she seems like such a nice lady.

Yeah, Dumbles is pretty deluded at the moment, and he hides it so well when others are around.

Brian's back to normal, yeah.

I wonder if the average words he says was levelled out with him not appearing in a few chapters with all he said in the Hearing.

Eh, might as well, it's been a hot minute since someone died.

Tim knows better, he was still sleepy though and rebooting.

I'm going to use that, "Act your age, not your shoe size," thank you for that.

Yeah, they are redesigning Sonic to appease the fans, so it could be worse, they're actually putting effort into it.

I'll check out JigglesWorth's video later.

I love The Terroriser's rage at Cuphead, he went through like 5 controllers.

I'm not making any promises about Grinny, I still have to check out their story, but if I like it, then I might add them if it's not too big an issue.

I know what I'm doing with the Grossman collection.

I'm definitely going to read it, I can ask a friend of mine if I have any issues following the Naruto side.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Bean (Guest);

I have thought about putting it on AO3, I do have an account, but I'm probably going to wait until I've finished uploading it on here before putting it up there since it'll give me a chance to refine it and fix some of the earlier cringe or things that bug me.

Also, it took me an annoying amount of time to realise that O3 in AO3 is for 'Of Our Own'... I'm a dumbass at times.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Ok, that was the last of them.

Some of you may have noticed that I've put a link in at the top.

It leads to the Pinterest board where I show the fanart I've been sent.

I'll probably add it to all the other chapters at some point in the future, it's so that those who drew them can get their work viewed.

With that being said...

And now, I bid you adieu,

Till the next one,

SteamGeek01.

SteamGeek01.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao & Room 42 (Zippers & Sir Pebbles The Third) – Jinbeizamezama.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – soffbois - According to reader research.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	85. Chapter 85, Year 5 Begins, PT2

Chapter 85, Year 5 Begins, PT2.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Ok, I gave myself a couple of days break.

Had a bit of relaxing, did some gardening, came second in...

'flying kettle to the face'

... a game I'm not allowed to disclose...

Other than that...

THE STORY PASSED 1000 REVIEWS!

Yay! Fanfare! Popcorn!

So, I'm gonna head over to the reviews so I can work out who was the thousandth reviewer, you read whatever drivel I can come up with in the meantime.

Enjoy yourselves, because I know what I'm going to write, and I think a few people will enjoy it as well.

We're finally at Hogwarts, after another flashback, yes, I'm just tying wrapping up the summer holidays, ironically they're right around the corner for me irl, so we should be good to go for year 5...

this is gonna be good...

SteamGecko1

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The Hogwarts Express.

Isaac sighed as he stared out at the rolling green hills that they were passing by, letting his eyes slowly close shut and letting the gentle rocking slowly lull him to sleep... he really didn't like getting up early... maybe Masky was rubbing off on him...

The rocking of the train slowly faded away, until it was barely there, and the gentle breeze that Isaac knew well proceeded his surroundings changing to a field of lush, green, thigh high, grass.

Just as a serene smile began to crawl its way onto his face, something small, red and yellow, and fast collided hard with his legs, sending him sprawling onto the ground.

"Isaac?" a welcomed voice called out, "Isaac? Where'd you go?"

"Pi-Pi-PIKA!" BRVR cheered joyously, leaping over Isaac in happiness as small arcs of yellow lightning burst from his cheeks.

"Need some help?" Ben laughed, seeing Isaac's predicament as he made his way over.

"Save me!" Isaac called out dramatically, flailing an arm into the air for Ben to grab and pull him to his feet.

With a roll of his eyes, Ben grasped the offered arm and pulled Isaac back up to his feet.

"My hero," Isaac sighed, dusting down his legs and what he could of his back, "Could you get my back, oh night in shining Dorito dust?"

"Certainly, my fair maiden," Ben pronounced pompously, patting down the rest of where Isaac had missed.

Upon Isaac turning to face Ben once again, he found the living glitch wearing one of the various armour sets from one of the Legend of Zelda games.

Closing his eyes, Isaac took in a slow breath before speaking.

"Ben... if I open my eyes and I'm wearing a Zelda dress, then I'm going to tell Toby who keeps taking from his 'hidden' waffle stash,"

"So, how's the UK been?" Ben asked, snapping his fingers and picking up a begging BRVR, "Get up to much?"

"Nowhere near as much as I wanted to do," Isaac said, glancing down to look at the jeans he was now wearing, "Masky didn't let me leave... I can't say the place, why can't I say the place?"

"Say what?" Ben asked, a sly grin on his face.

"Stop it," Isaac swatted his arm, getting hit with BRVR's tail for disturbing his carrier in turn, "Give me a moment..."

The grassy field shifted away until they were standing on a street in London.

Isaac led Ben and BRVR over to where his memory-self was standing and peered over his so-slow-it-might-as-well-have-not-been-moving shoulder.

"That place," Isaac said, pointing at the scrap of parchment in his memory-self's hands.

"Oh, Grimmauld Place..." Ben read, "Why couldn't you say it?"

"Grimmauld... WHY CAN I SAY IT NOW?" Isaac fumed, "Magic is..."

He broke off with a groan of frustration.

"Annoying, helpful, irritating, useful, handy, and confusing all at once?" Ben offered as BRVR twisted to get into a comfier position.

"Yes..." Isaac sighed, "So, what's been happening since we've been gone?"

"Well..." Ben trailed off.

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The Mansion.

The Slenderman appeared in the corner of the room, watching the havoc unfold.

Jeff and Jane were darting around the growingly destroyed room.

With every parry, thrust, counter-strike, and lunge another section of the wall, floor, or ceiling gained a large gouge.

Broken chunks of plasterboard lay in scattered pieces all across the floor while every weapon in the room had been used, discarded and were now either broken, embedded into the wall, floor, or ceiling, or some combination of the three.

Even the door was off its hinges, placed back in the frame as if they were hoping nobody would notice.

 **"ENOUGH!"**

A forceful wave of static hit the two, causing them to falter in their step while still taking a swipe at the other.

 **"I think that that was enough for this week,"** Slenderman said, splitting the two apart with two tentacles each.

That didn't stop them spitting insults at each other... not until Slenderman hit the two of them against the ceiling, that was and sent another large chunk crashing to the floor that tossed up a wave of dust coating his suit until you would have thought the jacket was had had holes cut out of it.

A room or two over, in the dining room, Laughing Jack had occupied the entire table with various items to be either sent out, re-stored, put on the 'not-safe-for-public-use' shelf, or binned.

Ticking the items off a list as he went over them, L.J hummed softly to himself until the same wave of static washed over him.

Elsewhere in The Mansion, Smile and Eris whimpered slightly and rushed out the door to go run in The Forest for a while and hunt whatever unlucky woodland creature they found.

Shaking his head, L.J returned to the list clipped to his board as he continued marking off what went where.

"... explosive dog turd... to box three... fake eyeball that oozes, box seven... electrocuting razor, eh, that can go to three as well... half cooked...

WILL THE TWO OF YOU FUSSOCKS STOP LEAVING YOUR BLOODY LIVERS ALL OVER THE PLACE!" he shouted through The Mansion, hoping that the two resident medics were actually there somewhere and not out getting more livers to try cooking to find the perfect degree of cooking.

"They're out at the moment," Clockwork said, sticking her head into the room to check if there was anything to trip over before walking in.

"Gonna leave Kalakuta in their pillows," L.J hissed under his breath, throwing the liver into a corner.

"Yeah, take it that things are going well... why are you staring at me?" Clockwork asked as L.J peered closely at her.

"Half past five, thanks," L.J said a moment later, returning to his clipboard... which was promptly thrown over next to the liver.

"Me and Sally's going out for a bit," she said, turning around and leaving, "Just letting you know,"

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The Dreamscape.

"... and the less said about what Teer and Helen have been getting up too, the better..."

Isaac let out a low whistle.

"Yikes, Masky really needs to hurry back,"

"Oh yeah," Ben agreed, "Things have gone to Hell faster than a suicidal sinner since he's been away,"

Just ahead of them, BRVR started chasing a hare that Ben had summoned for him through the fields.

"So, what do you think your final year at that draughty mess of a castle is going to be like?" Ben asked, his leg swinging under the branch of their tree.

Isaac leant back against the tree as he thought, wrapping his arms around Ben's waist a little more as he pulled him closer.

"I don't know...

I mean, I'm looking forward to being able to ditch that place for good, half of them are dumbass trend followers without a brain cell between them, it's a wonder they can even tie their shoes at times...

Looking forward to raiding the good stuff out the Library, might smuggle a few of the more interesting books out through Teer or L.J, but...

I don't know, something feels... off..."

Ben closed his eyes as he soaked up the warmth coming off of Isaac, leaning into his hold.

"Well, whatever tries to trip you up, I'll catch you," he promised the raven-haired killer.

A relaxed smile etched it's way onto Isaac's face as he lay against the tree, the faint rustling of BRVR chasing the hare dipping in and out of hearing range as the two of them ran the other ragged.

Eventually, the peaceful moment between the two of them ended when Hermione woke him up as the train got closer to the Hogsmeade Station.

The Hogwarts Express rolled into the station, moments later Isaac and Hermione joined the throng of students disembarking out onto the station.

Cool air draped the land as smatterings of clouds, just discernable in the darkened sky above, rolled over.

"First-years line up over here, please! All first-years to me!"

Isaac frowned as an unfamiliar voice called out instead of the gruff barks that he had been expecting to hear from the friendly giant that was Hagrid.

Instead, it seemed that...

"That's the witch that covered for Hagrid for a bit last year, isn't it?" he asked Hermione, passing her Crookshanks basket as she stepped down from the carriage.

"Erm, yes, that's her," Hermione said, looking over at the witch holding a lantern and calling out over the noise from everyone else, "I wonder why Hagrid's not here?"

"I don't know," Isaac said in a low tone, stroking Hedwig through a gap in the bars of her cage.

As the two of them made their way down the cobblestone path it became harder to ignore that everyone seemed to be giving the two of them a wider berth than they normally got.

"Is it just me, or is everyone looking at us?" Hermione asked Isaac as they climbed into one of the carriages.

"I'd think the term would be 'stealing glances'," Isaac said, carefully watching a small group of Ravenclaw fourth-years through the edges of his glasses.

He was so preoccupied watching them that he nearly walked right into the skeletal horse that stood between the breechings that allowed it to pull the carriage.

"Whoa!" Isaac exclaimed, taking a quick step back away from it.

The skeletal horse snorted at him, shaking its head before returning to idly waiting to take the carriage to the castle.

"Always weird me out, those horse things," he muttered to Hermione as he climbed inside.

"What horse things?" Hermione asked him, accepting his helping hand to get up the step without dropping Crookshanks.

"Thestrals,"

Hermione jumped slightly, and nearly fell out of the carriage if it hadn't been for Isaac's second quick catch of the day.

"Hey, Luna," Isaac said, having seen her from when he himself had gotten inside.

"Hello," Luna said, smiling warmly at the two of them before returning to her, for some reason, upside down magazine.

"Hello," Hermione said, trying to ignore the red blush in her cheeks, "... is there..."

"Evening,"

Before Hermione had gotten to finish her query about whether or not they were waiting for someone else, Draco and Blaise climbed into the carriage, taking the seats opposite them.

The carriage started with a slight bump and soon they were off down the uneven road that led to Hogwarts, shining lights from the castle windows off in the distance just visible between the trees.

"So... what are Thestrals?" Isaac asked, turning to Luna.

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Grimmauld Place.

Fred Weasley sighed as he tossed aside a cracked Dungbomb pellet, not knowing when it had broken and if any of his clothes would have been fumigated with the foetid odour.

What he smelt a moment later, however, was nowhere near as repulsive as what could be festering in part of his trunk... in fact, it was rather sweet in aroma...

Turning around, he wasn't surprised to see Laughing Jack now sitting on his bed... he was surprised to see a scarred and pale killer, however.

"He was getting cranky, needed some fresh air," L.J said, patting Jeff on the head and dodging the heavy kick aimed his way.

"Oh, hey, so... wait, you need to go!" Fred said urgently, cutting off any bickering remarks from Jeff, "Mad-Eye is coming here shortly, he can see through walls with that weird eye thing of his if he sees you..."

"Then he'll get what's coming to him for being a perv," L.J shrugged nonchalantly, "Besides, I needed to ask you to do something,"

Fred paused in his paranoic plans of plotting an escape to turn to the homicidal clown.

"Ok... is... is it..."

"No, I don't need you to do a ' _job_ ' for me," L.J said with a wave of his hand, "Nah, I just need you to keep an eye on the kid, Isaac,"

The request caused Fred to pause for a moment, the only motion was to blink.

"So... why? Is he..."

"He's not in trouble... well, not in trouble yet, anyway," L.J decided, "It's just more the fact that I think he's..."

"Can we wrap this up?" Jef interrupted, "I'm already getting bored of this place, and you said this wouldn't take a minute,"

L.J sighed and bowed his head.

"Pedantic, little...

Look, gonna level with you on this," he said, shifting a little closer to the edge of the bed and getting serious, "The reason I'm saying this is because I got a feeling. And not a good one at that.

Something big is going to go down, and I've got the feeling that with all the metronomic flickering of luck that Isaac's got, he's going to slap-bang in the middle of it,"

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Endnotes.

So, I may have fallen in love with something.

If you can, listen to '8D music'.

I cannot stress how good it is, especially with headphones.

And I can't think of a clever lead in so... reviews!

 **(X) Review (X)**

iPCM;

No, not at all.

The idea that he'd be completely fine, but things around him keep going to hell is hilarious to me.

It's more flashback to the past few days, before they boarded the train.

Aww, I'm sorry to hear that.

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

Yeah, would have had to get around to that eventually.

I am very good at timing apparently.

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Erm, I guess I could bring Goldsmith back for a quick appearance, but I never really had a plan for him.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

I do have a few ideas for stuff I can do for EXTRAS, and I'll definitely get around to them at some point.

Oh, I'll need to check it out, it's been a while since I've read other people's stories.

I'm going to love having Brian torture them with a wordy sentence every now and again.

Are you kidding? Being difficult is fun.

The police heard because the collectors reported the theft, someone else reported the noise of the two of them shouting, and they found the bodies.

That's one-way they found out, the other was that the two of them have a record for stealing collection tins and went there because of their records.

 **(X) Review (X)**

ChaosDragon25;

Hehehe, login trouble.

Yes, I do.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Pheonix373;

1000TH REVIEW!

WOOHOO!

Don't put my food to the test, it's mine, I'll eat it.

I've gotten some (see A Metric Fuck-Load) of sleep.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

What's G.F. An abbreviation for?

Maybe I'll go check out what it once was.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Yes, he is.

I can't wait for that as well.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Thank you.

It's fine, I took French for a couple of years and learned to pick up on what the translation means.

Yes, she will die soon enough.

 **(X) Review (X)**

joshua. obryan. 549;

You have a checklist for my chapters?

I'm gonna nick that.

You got the Ben and Isaac cuddles this chapter, so we're square.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Randomperson (Guest);

No, I don't.

You're the first to ever tell me about them.

Trust me, your reviews are nowhere near the longest that I have to deal with.

Judge Angels, one I have heard about, but yet to read.

I'll look into her, see what I can do.

Chances are, she won't appear in the main unless it's a blink and you'll miss it cameo at the end.

Yeah, autocorrect is fun.

I don't have gacha life, haven't heard of it before.

It's fine, you don't have to apologise for autocorrect each time.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

Bagels are lovely.

I feel the need to try and do covers of Disney songs relating to me now.

I'll probably throw one or two up on EXTRAS at some point.

Yeah, he's learning... which could be dangerous.

It was either Sully or Toby... I actually did flip a coin for it.

Eh, I'll probably google it at some point.

I love those guys, Terroriser was my first actual crush.

If I do end up bringing him into the story, he'd probably go to Zippers since he knows how to take care of cats, plus Smile and Eris would probably stir the hornets nest a bit...

Never assume that I know what I'm doing.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Kumo-No-Kuro;

Hey, it's been a while.

I'm glad that it's worth the re-read.

I do plan on changing a thing or two that I think's a bit too cringy or stupid.

Thanks for the heads up on your name change, unlike one reader who had an identity crisis for a month...

'dissolves into angry mumbles'

 **(X) Review (X)**

Dudalol;

Welcome!

Thank you!

And I'm adding Brazil to my list of confirmed readers, awesome.

I appreciate some good constructive criticism, always helpful.

I've read that story, enjoy it myself.

Toby is my favourite as well.

Can you explain what the OOC actions are?

I'd like to know what to avoid in the future when it comes to writing them.

I'm glad I could introduce you to some new Creepypastas.

You can't avoid every cliche.

Everyone is uncertain where they belong in the world, it's a matter of life.

He's still learning, and I'm fairly confident that I've given him a fairly believable way of doing things.

Just using magic would be a bit dull.

Having him go ham with knives would be a bit too much like a generic killer or Jeff.

Brute force would be too much like Masky or Hoodie.

Sly stalking that leaves you uncertain whether or not he's actually there and drives you insane would be Slenderman's style (in some cases).

So, having him develop a way of his own with what he's been taught from everyone else seems the most believable and realistic.

Pleasure chatting to you, hope you enjoyed this chapter.

 **(X) Review (X)**

And that was the last one.

So, it turns out that my work is having a celebration soon... on my birthday...

Completely unrelated, something about the, excuse me, Toby's scratching to be let out.

Toby is now sitting on my lap, looking shocked that there's a magic thing with symbols appearing before him.

So, with a dragon clawing it's way up my arm, I bid you farewell until the next chapter.

See ya!

SteamGeek01.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao & Room 42 (Zippers & Sir Pebbles The Third) – Jinbeizamezama.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – soffbois - According to reader research.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	86. Chapter 86, Speech and Slaughter

Chapter 86, Speech and Slaughter.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Well, I'm back again.

So, for the foreseeable future, the story is going to be uploaded on Sunday evenings / Monday mornings.

If I can get a good spree with writing back and resume uploading on Friday's again, then I'll do that.

And... I don't have anything else to say...

Broccoli?

SteamedGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

Isaac frowned, his mouth slightly agape, as Luna and Blaise told him about the Thestrals that were pulling the coaches.

"Huh... so that's...

Actually, you know what, no, no jokes.

Those things are awesome!

They are badass horses of death, and the only thing wrong with them is that they're not pale, because I could totally see Death, as in the Horseman, riding one of them,"

Blaise ducked his head, his shoulders shaking from quiet laughter, while Draco seemed to be trying to decide between joining him or being put off at how excited his Gryffindor friend was about equines you could only see after witnessing death.

Hermione, who had grown used to the macabre sense of humour her friend had, merely rolled her eyes and returned to the copy of The Daily Prophet that had been left on the seat.

Luna, meanwhile, hadn't seemed phased by the exuberant rant and was still reading her magazine.

Silence fell down over them for a few moments, the only sound was the rumble of carriage wheels over stone and dirt.

"So, can I erm... address the Thunderbird in the room?" Blaise asked timidly.

"Just don't mention the elephant," Isaac said, shrugging his shoulders and leaning back against his chair.

"Who did you, erm... you can only see them if you've seen someone die, so..."

"Oh, my Aunts," Isaac said dismissively, "Plus Cedric last school year...Oh! Quirrel in our first year, so... a fair few people, yeah,"

He looked around the people in the carriage.

Hermione and Blaise looked well out of their comfort zones being lost for words, the casual tone seemed to have unnerved them more than a little.

Luna still didn't care.

And Draco seemed to have bowed his head out of shame, though, in the small part of his eyes that Isaac could see, there was a determined fire flickering into life.

"So, matter of fact things that none of us can change aside, how was everyone else's holidays?" Isaac asked, hoping that they would snap out of the funk that he had sent them into.

"Rather nice, thank you," Luna said, flipping her magazine around so it was upside down, "Daddy took me down to the cliffs of Dover to try and find the nest of a Crumple-Horned Snorkack,"

"Sounds fun, any luck?" Isaac asked, taking a biscuit out of his pocket and biting a chunk out of it.

"No," Luna said, turning the page on her magazine.

"So, you won your hearing," Blaise said, eager to participate in changing the topic away from the list of people Isaac had seen die.

"Yeah," Isaac said, scratching his chin as he yawned, "Considering that I'm here, I'd say that I won,"

"I wouldn't put it past you to turn up anyway," Draco said, shaking his head a little.

"... Yeah, wouldn't put that past me, either," Isaac shrugged, "Become the Hogwarts Cryptid, aside from one-third of the things that people think are in the forest,"

Conversation took it's time to flow naturally, but once they reached the path of the castle things were as normal between them as if they hadn't started the carriage ride talking about the grim reminder of the cloak of death that seemed to linger around their friend.

Clouds had begun to roll over the castle as the carriages arrived at their destination, each stopping with a bump that jostled the occupants in their seats.

The warm glow emanating from The Great Hall that caused many to erupt with shivers as they crossed the short distance to the steps, also lit the low hanging clouds that hung in the air over Hogwarts' aged turrets and towers.

When the time came for Isaac's carriage to come to a halt; with the same jolt that nearly caused Isaac to drop his biscuit, even if it was thrown out the window by Hermione a few moments later as he still seemed to have a never-ending supply hidden on him somewhere; he and Blaise leapt down without breaking momentum from the conversation they had started.

"But if it was thrown at the right angle!"

"Well, you know what they say about clocks," Blaise muttered, "When broken, they're still right twice a day,"

"Will you two stop it?" Draco asked, stepping down from the foot ladder and dusting himself down, "Why are you even arguing about eggs and catapults anyway?"

"Because of... I plead the fifth," Isaac said, cutting himself off and leaving them in suspense as the five of them split their ways to their tables.

As Isaac and Hermione made their way towards the empty spaces for the fifth-years at the Gryffindor table, Hermione still seemed unnerved by the sheer number of glances that people seemed to be casting their way, despite Isaac's seemingly nonchalant attitude to them.

"Will you stop that?" Hermione said, hitting Isaac in the side after making eye contact and waving at what had to be the fourth group of people to 'subtly' try and judge them.

"If they want to stare at us, then they can at least have the dignity to be open about it," Isaac said, sitting down at an empty space and looking around.

Soon enough, Professor McGonagall entered the hall with a long trail of soon to be sorted first-years following behind her.

"Wow, to think we were ever that short," Isaac muttered to Hermione, receiving a disapproving, though friendly, glare in return.

A grin had begun to slide it's way onto Isaac's face quickly seemed to disappear when the ragged and fraying Sorting Hat opened it's brim and began to sing to the gathered masses.

Its song didn't hold the same warm tone as it had done the past four years... it was a warning.

A warning that had Isaac debating whether or not he had made the right call to return this year, but... but he had too... he had too...

...his head hurt...

Sudden clapping caught him off guard as everyone gave applause for the song, even though there were more than a few that seemed to know it was a warning as well.

Once the clapping died down, McGonagall proceeded with the sorting ceremony and Isaac had to wonder if some of the seventh-years had started a game where they took a shot for every new student to their house.

After the last name had been called, sorted, and seated, Dumbledore stood up with his arms outstretched to warmly welcome them all back to a new year at Hogwarts.

But... something new happened this time.

Halfway through his opening speech, a soft, yet well-heard cough interrupted him.

Heads, teacher and student alike, turned to look at a small witch clad in pink clothing from bowed shoes to the frilly bow in her hair.

Isaac narrowed his eyes at her, ignoring the mutterings of everyone around him, as she spoke in a simpering tone that set his nerves on edge.

"I know her," Isaac said slowly, his voice low, "She was at my hearing, one that voted guilty...

Don't think she liked how calm Brian and I were about the entire thing..."

The pink clothed witch finished her long-winded speech before settling back down in her seat, Dumbledore having to politely start the smattering of applause she received.

"Professor Umbridge?" Hermione asked him, "Why do you think that she got the position?"

"I don't know... but I do know one thing," Isaac said, "This is going to be a ' _fun_ ' year,"

Hermione, even though she rolled her eyes at the heavy amounts of sarcasm ladled onto his words, couldn't help but wonder about what this new teacher planned for Hogwarts... but when she asked Isaac about it, mid bites of mashed potatoes and gravy, she learned another piece of information that had her worried.

"You're not coming back next year?" she asked, almost hoping that she had misheard what her friend had said.

"Nope, this is my last and final year here," Isaac said, sliding a few more pieces of roast beef onto his plate, "It took me a good couple of hours to even convince Toby to let me come here for my fifth.

I'm getting my OWLS, and saying goodbye to this castle for good,"

"You're serious... you're really leaving?" Isaac frowned and turned to face his friend, and charge, at the upset tones in which she spoke.

"I'm leaving Hogwarts," Isaac said, after swallowing his latest fork load, "I'm leaving this castle and the torment that it's brought me...

But that doesn't I'm that I'm leaving you," Isaac finished, putting down his fork since he felt like he still had a bit of talking to do.

How come?" Hermione asked, blinking away the beginning of tears.

"You, are my friend.

I stick by my family and friends, so if you need me, then I'll be back faster than you can say 'cheese knife' with a wake of chaos for those who deemed themselves my targets for having a go at you," Isaac said, not breaking eye contact with his bushy-haired friend.

Hermione scoffed and ducked her head.

"I'm serious," Isaac protests, "There hasn't been a place I can't break into yet, and you better not be doubting my ability to fuck shit up,"

"Language!" Hermione said, the beginnings of a laugh audible in her voice as she hit his arm, "There are new first-years about,"

"There's never an age too young to learn to properly cuss," Isaac defended himself, "It's all about context, situation, timing, and humour,"

Hermione rolled her eyes again.

"You know, I'm starting to believe those saying that you're a little ball of Hellspawn," she said, picking her cutlery back up and returning to her plate.

"Well, you know, raised by murderers, monsters, and cannibals... it's a hard-knock life,"

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Isaac was fairly glad that no one seemed to want to talk to him, beyond a friendly hello from not seeing the other for a long time from Dean and Neville, as it allowed him to return to bed quicker.

Sighing to himself, the elves had outdone themselves with the waffles this time, he settled down after changing and let his relaxed state lull himself to sleep.

He had barely appeared in the field of long grass when Ben came barreling towards him.

"SPECS! ISAAC! SPECS! You're never gonna guess what's happened!"

"Whoa," Isaac said, barely catching himself from when Ben's exuberant entrance almost knocked him over, "Calm down, you're fritzing,"

Ben took a few moments to calm himself down to the point where he didn't look like a bugged out loading screen.

"Okay, now that you have actual edges... shut up, don't let Toby hear that out of context, what the Hell could have happened in the, what, two-ish hours since I last saw you?"

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Laughing Jack hummed to himself as he appeared atop the roof of the church, Jeff at his side.

"OW! OW! OWWW!" Jack cried as Jeff grabbed two large fistfuls of his hair to avoid falling over the edge.

"Why didn't you put us on the ground?" Jeff hissed at him, finding his footing and sitting down on the damp beams.

"Because now we have the high ground," L.J pointed out.

"At the cost of me nearly breaking my neck?" Jeff hit him in the shoulder.

"When you say 'at the cost of' you really should follow it up with something that's actually worth something," L.J ducked before he could get hit again and rolled down the roof toward the gutters.

Catching the edge of the roof with one hand, he spun himself around so that he was hanging over the edge to peer inside.

"Hmm... just what I thought..." he muttered to himself as Jeff carefully made his way down next to him.

"What is it?" he asked the dangling clown.

"You can't see through a brick wall," L.J said before shuffling a metre over so that he could look in through a window.

"Aside from the obvious, what do you see?" Jeff asked, debating whether or not if he could kick him off the roof without being dragged down as well.

"I see the statue," L.J confirmed, pulling himself back up, "And it looks like the room is empty,"

"What is it we're getting again?" Jeff asked, not changing a glance over in case L.J threw him over instead.

"Idol of Bokrug," L.J said, "Slender said it was... I can't remember, something about ancient civilisations, worshippers, and a city getting turned into a swamp,"

"Awesome, let's get in there, crack it open, grab the idol it is that Slendy wants from the inside, and then ditch this dump," Jeff said, cracking his knuckles.

"That is a very good idea, but there is just one slight problem," L.J said, glancing back over the edge and into the window.

"What?"

"The room is no longer empty," L.J said.

"Oh, for the love of... who is it?" Jeff asked, rubbing his forehead out of frustration.

"Cultists,"

The group of seven within the church, accompanied by the lone surviving guard they had saved as a sacrifice, paused for a moment during their procession towards the altar when a cry that vaguely sounded like someone crying out, "Son of a Bitch!".

"Proceed!" the head of the group commanded, waving at the two holding the guard to put his bound body upon the altar.

Rolling back the deep red trim of his sleeves that set him apart from the others, he approached the statue of a praying man at the front of the altar.

Grasping the stone effigy, he lifted it up off its plinth as to study the craftsmanship... before letting it fall down to the floor with a loud crash.

The statue split open, revealing a sea-green idol around the same size of a small, crouched, house cat; though the likeness was nowhere near that of an adorable feline.

A soft gasp of relief escaped the lead cultist as he tenderly picked up the carved rock, that felt oddly warm to the touch, and took in the amphibious form that it had been sculpted after.

Long limbs wrapped around its finned feet, fine lines etching the pattern of scales, and a pronounced underbite that held two large fangs that curved back up its face.

"Yes... after all this time... _we have it_!" he stage whispered to his followers, "Our Lord Bokrug, Ruler of the Dagons... _shall rise_!"

"He shall rise!

He shall rise!"

The followers began chanting as he placed the idol on a plinth above the altar.

"He shall rise!

He shall rise!"

"I can feel the bile in my stomach rising," Jeff whispered to L.J as they watched the lead cultist place a weathered book bound in peeling leather on a podium so as to make it easier to read.

As the cultists had uncovered the idol, L.J had smoked the two of them up into the rafters in the ceiling.

"Yeah... so, when should we interrupt them, or are you waiting to make a pun?" L.J asked the pale killer.

"I dunno, I was waiting for you to smoke us down there," Jeff shrugged, "So... when you thinking about giving Fred a real job to do?"

"You mean like help me take down a brat?" L.J clarified, "I don't know...

He's got the attitude, the fire, and he's definitely got the skill and style to keep up with me... but I don't know if I could have him do what I do,"

Jeff hummed, bobbing his head side to side for the moment.

"You could have him be your show assistant at The Carnival?" he suggested, "Or you could pretend that he's the Ringmaster and a good friend of yours,"

"Nobody runs that place but me," L.J said, "But that's not that bad an idea,"

"Well, if you ever need someone to train him up to fight a bit," Jeff shrugged, turning check that nobody else was entering the church.

"How... uncharacteristically nice of you... do you just want to see him again?" L.J asked, blowing rose petals at him.

"Stop it!" Jeff growled silently, thankful that none of the cultists heard his hiss or noticed the sudden appearance of rose petals, "It was just an offer, considering you spend so much time with your head up your ass,"

"Sure... so, you wanna get back to the task at hand? How about you do some weird parkour thing to get down there and decapitate a guy or three?" L.J said, shifting so that he was sitting a bit more comfortably.

"Do I look like Toby?"

"Do you want an honest answer?"

A loud thunderclap above the church broke their quiet bickering apart, causing them to look down at the chanting occultists.

"He shall rise!

He shall rise!"

A green fog seemed to be enveloping the squirming body of the guard, whether sinking into his skin or pouring out of him was up for debate, but it most likely didn't mean anything good.

"Jump to killing them?" L.J asked.

"Oh yeah," Jeff said, grasping a knife with his teeth before dropping down the rafter, and swinging down to catch a curtain.

"Sure, that's totally Toby's thing," L.J muttered, falling backwards and dripping to the ground in suit.

Jeff landed hard, not bothering to try and hide his presence, before throwing another knife with what would have been deadly accuracy towards the head cultist if it hadn't been intercepted with the quick hand of a cultist that stood between him and the altar.

"I'll be taking that back," Jeff growled, spitting the first knife out into his hand.

"You will fail," the voice of three cultists intoned as two others had turned to face him.

The first lunged at him, swiping hard with the stolen knife at the space Jeff had occupied moments before.

Cultist two and three rushed at Jeff, each of them picking up a broken armrest to swing at the killer.

Next to him, L.J leapt backwards onto one of the pews before slicing the throat out of the fourth cultist and jumping forward to land on the chest of, by his count, the fifth cultist.

"... _Ergo, Sactimii Ferosci Totalus_!"

Jeff, L.J, and the remaining five cultists turned to see the green fog fully envelop the writhing guard's body.

"Oh... great..." Jeff gritted out.

The spasms got harder, sharper, louder, and more violent as his skin seemed to bubble and crack into scaly leather.

His hands stretched out, growing into webbed claws that cracked the stone of the altar he was bound to.

With the distraction presented to him, L.J quickly grabbed the two cultists in front of him, his fingers piercing large gouges into their chests, before lifting them into the air and slamming them down, impaling them on the corners of the pew stands.

Jeff, likewise, had taken advantage of the distraction resulting in two of his three cultists.

"Told you I'd get that back,"

The first cultist spun around, meeting Jeff's eyes before the two knives; one of which was literally ripped from his hand, taking three fingers with it; before they were forced through his eyes and out the sides of his head.

Pulling the knives free, and a quick flick to shake the excess blood off the blades.

"I'll take this one," L.J said, rolling his head as the reanimated body reared off the table, it's skin now a motley and pock-marked ripple of scales while it's head seemed to be modelled after a fish if evolution had been an extreme fanatic of H.R Geiger, "You go get idol and that dip shit cultist,"

Jeff's eyes followed the trail of a red robe as it whipped around a corner.

The lead cultist had grabbed the idol once he had finished turning the guard into a Dagon and was now fleeing out the back door of the church.

Leaping over a fallen pew, and across the others, Jeff just narrowly ducked under the swipe of a webbed claw from a violently hissing Dagon.

One of, if not the biggest, reason that Jeff wasn't a pile of sliced serial killer at the moment was because at the same time the Dagon had tried to catch him, L.J had launched himself at it, sending it tumbling over the altar before he, himself, smoked out of its reach.

L.J gasped, leaning against the wall on the other side of the church and looked down at his hands, taking in the seared skin that had peeled slightly.

"Ok... ok... no contact, I can do that... I can do that..." he panted to himself.

A gargled screech came from the altar, where the Dagon was now focusing on him with large eyes that seemed to see right through him.

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Jeff leapt over a fallen bench, feebly pushed into his path to try and delay him from reaching the fleeing cultist.

Said man was currently panting heavily, clearly not used to doing any actual work, with the idol still clutched to his chest as if it was as precious to him as a newborn is to its mother.

Unfortunately, Jeff had knives...

... and one of those knives was currently being aimed at either the man's leg... or his ass... either or, he was about to be...

"GYAAH!"

... stabbed.

The lead cultist fell to the ground, instinctively letting go of the idol to brace himself for the fall.

" _No_!" he gasped as he watched the idol tumble away to the edge of an overgrown thicket.

"Thanks for this," Jeff said, yanking the knife free from the man's right cheek before scooping up the idol, "Definitely saved me a _butt-load_ of time getting this thing,"

"You... you fiend!" the cultist spat, dragging himself closer to Jeff, "You _dare_ to go against the..."

"I don't care who you are," Jeff cut him off, "I don't care what your little girl guide group is called, but my... Hell, my boss wanted this thing, and he scares me more than you,"

Jeff crouched down, pulling the man's face up closer to him by the scruff of his beard.

"That is the only time I'll ever admit that, and do you want to know why I'm telling you this?" Jeff asked the man.

But before the man had another chance to start hurling insults at him, Jeff swung the idol into the side of the man's head.

Rolling him over, Jeff stood with a foot squarely on the man's neck, keeping him pinned, before raising the idol as far above his head as he could.

"Dead men tell no tales,"

With a grunt of exertion, he threw the idol as hard as he could straight down into the man's face.

The crunch of bones, followed quickly by blood squirting out from his nose and the multiple splits from his face that splashed across the ground, the upturns of Jeff's trousers and his shoes.

Picking up the idol, and having his grin stretch wider from hearing the squelch of blood and flesh peeling away from the cultist's face, Jeff wielded it high once more before throwing it back into the man's now twitching corpse.

Taking a step back to admire his handiwork, Jeff sighed as he watched the still body slowly staining the ground red with satisfaction in his eyes.

"Well, that wasn't too hard," he said to himself, spinning the idol around before catching it again, "Christ, this thing is heavy..."

A gargled and shrill shriek burst out of the church.

"Oh, yeah, that thing," Jeff quickly muttered, running back into the church.

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Meanwhile.

L.J leapt back again, throwing multiple breakable glass balls filled very distilled acid down at the Dagon.

The resultant shriek from the writhing Dagon only seemed to come from further enragement.

Smoking away to avoid a large clawed hand, L.J reappeared in the rafters of the church again, resting against the wooden beams and panting heavily.

He had tried slicing its limbs off, but they grew back and the severed limb turned into sludge that burned and liquidated whatever it touched.

He had tried crushing it, but the Dagon had far greater strength than the sinewy and slender limbs would have had you believe.

He had tried acid, but that only seemed to piss it off.

And another thing that was causing the demon clown more than just some grief, it didn't stop growing.

Since it had turned from unfortunate guard to Dagon it kept growing bigger, and bigger, and bigger; from the size of an average man, albeit with spindly limbs, to what he estimated was around the size of a car.

"... ok... ok... I need a volcano... or a decently sized warship," L.J decided between pants.

"Come on then... fish lips!"

L.J's eyes went wide as the rather feeble taunt from Jeff rung out into the room.

Turning on the rafter, barely holding on due to the speed at which he moved, he saw Jeff leap from pew to pew and launch himself at the Dagon, both knives in hand and a manic fire in his eyes.

"Oh shit!"

Jeff was barely a foot away from the Dagon's back when a large plume of smoke appeared, grabbed him, and smoked away to the rafters.

"Why'd you..."

He broke off when he saw L.J twist in pain.

His back had taken the blow of whatever it was that caused the Dagon to burn and Jeff could almost hear the sizzling.

"Burn... burns a lot!" L.J choked out, "No touchy! Touchy bad!"

"Ok... so what do we do?" Jeff said, looking down at the lumbering amphibian below.

"I don't know, you got a nuke in your back pocket?" L.J asked, shaking his hair off of his back and tying it up so it no longer agitated his back.

"So... this thing is basically a lump of living acid moulded into a fish, right?" Jeff asked.

"Pretty much, I can confirm that it does sting like acid," L.J said while glaring down at the Dagon.

"So... acids, aren't they... cancelled out by salt, or something?" Jeff gave up trying to find the right word.

"You mean neutralise?" L.J turned to face Jeff, "Some do, but it has to be alkaline,"

"Well, can't we just get a few buckets of the stuff and start pouring it over that thing?" Jeff pointed out, "MOVE!"

L.J and Jeff quickly leapt to the other rafter next to them as a webbed claw swiped upwards, clipping the beam, if they hadn't moved then there was no doubt that the Dagon would have gotten the both of them.

"You keep it busy, I'll go get the salt," L.J said, smoking away.

"Keep it busy, ok, yeah, sure, I can do that," Jeff said, leaping across to another beam when the Dagon lunged once more.

Minutes passed and Jeff began to tire.

The Dagon was bigger than a van now, and while its size did mean it had less space to move in the quickly becoming cramped church, its attempts to get him had resulted in Jeff breaking through a hole in the ceiling, made from damp, rot, and a missed strike from the Dagon, and retreating to the roof.

"Come on," Jeff muttered, "Don't have all day, where are you?"

A plume of black smoke billowed out not too far away from him.

"Got it!" L.J shouted over.

In his long arms were multiple bags of salt, each causing the already beaten roof to creak when put down.

"Took me a bit to find the special kind that works with acid," he said as Jeff helped him tear one open, "Plus, thought we'd make this fun!"

Disappearing again for a few moments, L.J re-appeared holding what looked like two leafblowers attached to large tanks.

"What'cha think?" he asked as he handed one to Jeff, "Ready to bust some Dagons?"

"Where'd you get these?" Jeff asked, pouring the salt into the tanks and ignoring the gargling shriek from below as a few granules spilt over and onto the Dagon's back.

"Had them for when I needed to quickly make a beach," L.J said, shouldering his own once he had filled it, "Figured if it worked for sand, it'll work for salt,"

The church shook as the Dagon started thrashing around inside, determined to escape the cramped situation it had found itself in.

L.J grabbed Jeff, smoking him and a bag of salt down to the ground, before returning to the roof.

"Time to either be right and smug, or wrong and in a whole load of trouble," he muttered before turning the sand blower, turned salt blower, on.

The Dagon's screeches got louder and the thrashing increased as the salt poured over its body.

Evidently, Jeff's idea had worked and the salt definitely worked against the Dagon.

"This is for the burns," L.J began listing off as he increased the pressure of the blower, "This is for making me burn my pop tarts... and this is for..."

The roof cracked under him, splintering as the walls began to crumble.

Grabbing the bag of salt before it rolled away from him, he appeared next to Jeff.

"How do you focus this thing?" Jeff growled, trying to get the spray to go further.

"Twist the nozzle," L.J said, having far too much fun with trying to get the salt into the Dagon's eyes.

Painful and angered shrieks came from within the church, only furthering L.J and Jeff's enjoyment.

"Uh, oh," Jeff muttered.

The Dagon, having had enough of being pelted by streams of salt, had started bursting the roof.

It's webbed claws scraped across the tiles of the roof, cracking a few as the increased weight buckled the beams beneath them.

"Steeple!" Jeff said suddenly.

"Please tell me that you sneezed, because what was..."

"No, the steeple!" Jeff said again, cutting L.J off and pointing at the thin tower that stretched upwards, holding the bell.

"Oh... OH!" L.J exclaimed, shrugging off his salt blower and disappearing with a puff of smoke.

A few moments later, black smoke escaped through a few holes and cracks of the tower showing where L.J had reappeared.

"Hope Toby doesn't mind me nicking these," he muttered to himself as he stuck a few charges of... he didn't know, it had an explosives sticker on it, it'd do... onto the sides of the tower so that it would buckle before doing the same in the small room that held the bell.

Lighting the charge with a spark made from the snap of his fingers, L.J returned to where Jeff was duel-wielding the salt blowers to try and slow down the Dagon.

A boom shook the church and the grounds around it as the charges blew out a section of the wall.

"You sure this is gonna work?" L.J said as he threw an arm up to block any of the debris that flew at him or Jeff.

"It better," came the grunted reply.

The bell tower began to crack, collapsing in on itself where L.J had removed a sizeable chunk, and soon it was falling down on the Dagon.

More watery shrieks tore through the surroundings as rubble pelted the Dagon's back before the steeple at the top of the tower pivoted over and dropped to the ground.

Jeff and L.J covered their ears as the loudest shriek yet tore through the grounds.

The steeple had fallen down and impaled itself in the Dagon's head.

That, combined with the renewed stream of salt, sent the Dagon tumbling and thrashing from side to side before falling back into the church.

"Is it just me, or was it getting smaller?" Jeff said, peering at the Dagon through the breaks in the walls and the shattered windows.

"I definitely think it is," L.J's face was half grin at that point, satisfaction knowing that the Dagon was suffering and dying flooding his body.

Re-entering the half-demolished church, the Dagon was writhing on the floor.

Dark green blood coated a large amount of the ground around it, the steeple still protruding from both sides of its neck and holding it in place.

Waving a bit of smoke that drifted into his face away, L.J crouched down and began pinging bits of salt at the Dagon, just to drive home the fact that it was beaten.

"Mind the blood," Jeff muttered, nudging the clown to the side a bit with his foot, "Didn't Slendy say that it was harmful, or something?"

"Yeah," L.J said, throwing the rest of his salt on the Dagon's still body, "Turned an entire section of the ocean into a dead zone apparently... also, didn't he say that it turns gaseous after a bit and's more than a fair... bit... flammable..."

Jeff and L.J, the former slowly rising off the ground, looked around the church that was splattered with blood from the Dagon's dying frenzy and how it was slowly starting to vaporise.

Their eyes quickly darted over to a few pieces of the flaming debris scattered around the room.

"We should..."

"Yep!" L.J quickly grabbed Jeff just as the gas from the Dagon's blood reached the burning boards of wood.

From more than a mile away from the church, L.J and Jeff watched as a toxic green flash lit up the clouds in the sky before the fire took hold and gave the forest around it an amber glow of danger.

"We should go before anyone notices that," L.J said, staring at the now mile-high plume of smoke in the sky.

"Yeah, I think the ISS just got a whole new thing to look at," Jeff said, letting the clown grab his shoulder and smoke them away.

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"Aww... why couldn't I have gone?" Isaac whined.

"Because you'd have done it on purpose," Ben pointed out, picking up the ball that BRVR was playing around with at their feet and throwing it.

"And you think L.J didn't?"

"... fair point..." Ben admitted as BRVR returned with the ball.

Isaac sighed, picking up the ball and throwing it for BRVR to chase after.

"So, Toby, Masky, Brian, and Liu back yet?"

"Oh yeah, he's back..."

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The Mansion.

Masky had barely taken three steps into The Ark when a wave of disturbing tension washed over him, forcing him to take a slow.. deep... breath...

"Why is there a bloody LIVER HANGING FROM THE GODDAMN LAMP!"

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Endnotes.

Yes, I took a week off.

I have had people shouting at me through reviews to do just that for weeks now, and I definitely needed a break.

I managed to go 85 weeks with consecutive uploads, and I think that is definitely an accomplishment that I am proud of.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me through this, I had thought I'd be able to finish with a chapter a week, but things change.

And I did see a review mention one thing that I want to address, so I'm just gonna jump right into them.

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

Yeah, my timing is awesome.

No spoilers.

Luna already knows about their world.

Hope I can.

 **(X) Review (X)**

iCPM;

Yeah, I wonder how many I can come up with.

I know, but writing has been harder than it was at the start and I hate myself because of it.

Shall I have a chapter where everyone is only able to use an instrument to kill?

S'mores are fun, aren't they?

 **(X) Review (X)**

wow-im-satan;

It's fine if you don't review, people are complaining that the endnotes are too long anyway.

You know what, review more.

I'll be putting a more accurate word count into the description at the end anyway, so who the Hell cares about the whiny prattle.

They came to read the story, every chapter adds something, even if it's on the short side, and I can wrap everything up once I get there.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Happy Birthday to your dog!

We're dogsitting for my dad's friend again, so Chase is currently dozing on the floor next to me.

Yeah, Isaac was.

DAMN IT!

I'll fix it later.

Yeah, I figure that they wouldn't be able to say it, but nothing about writing or showing it.

Because why not?

Human.

I love the Thestrals, skeletal horses are just awesome.

Luna is fun.

Slightly untrained Proxy, he's just not done any of the killings yet.

Glad you liked it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

There was a smudge on my screen that made it look like you had a foreign 'a' for a moment.

Glad that you liked it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

vexingReject (Guest):

Yeah... you wanna go get some more wheely chairs and duct tape?

 **(X) Review (X)**

bloodydarkangel;

Hmm... I'll leave that up to interpretation...

Thanks... I'm just gonna go... read a book...

 **(X) Review (X)**

KanaRadiance;

Yeah, now I just need to figure out what to do later on...

Torture, probably.

 **(X) Review (X)**

rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Yeah, it's fine, don't worry about it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Yeah, he's still alive.

I can probably throw a few L.J scenes in Hogwarts.

The teasing isn't around just yet.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Stormseer (Guest);

Chaos is definitely on the horizon.

If you're re-reading things, then I apologise for the cringe.

Masky is going to be needing a large number of painkillers because of the mess that's happened in his absence.

I think Holy Hell sums it up quite nicely.

Thank you!

I'll see if I can scrounge something together for EXTRAS to celebrate.

Huh... I can probably do something with that... maybe...

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

Sorry to let you down.

 **(X) Review (X)**

joshau. Obryan. 549;

Yes, bring on the checklist!

Cuddles, yes.

BRVR being adorable, yes.

Jack and Jane... you mean Jeff and Jane? Then... sure?

Luna could probably be related to the Addams... and an idea for a new story is... I'm gonna write that down somewhere...

Yeah, it is some pretty heavy foreshadowing... I mean, who keeps leaving the props lying around like that!

With everyone building the end up, I feel like I'm going to let everyone down.

I hope that's not the case, I'm going to do the best I can, but I have no idea how it's going to pan out.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Beemsjess;

I can make that an EXTRAS chapter, that'd be easy enough to do... how to cause the most chaos with it, however... hehehehehe...

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

I seem to be sleepy 24/7 lately.

I'll try listening to that, haven't before.

Ooh, war is fun.

Tim is going to have a migraine when he sees what they've done in his absence.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

Why did your brain go there?

Now I want to throw up!

Loopholes are fun, especially when they can mess up other people's plans.

Lockhart wasn't even the practice mode.

Jeff and Jane would probably destroy The Mansion if Slendy didn't stop them.

They need to clean up after themselves, the livers are starting to go off and stink up the place.

I've seen pretty much all of the CAH episodes.

Masky is going to throttle someone.

It's a bit better when you put it in context, "Going to Hell faster than a suicidal sinner,".

Well... not for Fred... and always trust L.J's gut instinct.

 **(X) Review (X)**

connormayor50;

Welcome!

I hope the chapter was at least fun, despite being late.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Randomperson (Guest);

I'm glad you liked it, at least.

No problem.

I do have a bit of a concern with making them more 'human'.

For some of them, they aren't, so it does take away part of their charm when you realise that they aren't these single-track mind murderous machines, they have motives, reasons, and charm... on the other hand, it does make them a bit more interesting.

Nah, I have a lot of fun writing the kill scenes.

Toodles!

I'm fine.

There wasn't a hiatus, I just took a week off.

Yes, this is Isaac's last year at Hogwarts.

I don't know, wasn't the biggest fan of Ginny and their entire relationship in the book seems really out of the left field.

I might throw that into EXTRAS, could be a fun one.

THANK YOU!

Now, I will not get angry over people criticising my work, but if they complain about me being a decent person and taking the time to answer I'm not gonna get mad, I'm just going to accept the fact that they're a whiny baby who doesn't like it when what they want isn't being focused on.

I'm glad mine are fun to read, I try to entertain everyone.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Sly the gratsulover117;

CH44

I will be putting an accurate word count at the end.

However, I am going to continue answering each and every review I get left.

There are parts that I cannot remove, like the disclaimer and the writer acknowledgements.

When I upload this on AO3, I will remove the author notes, put the multi-part chapters together, and probably fix a lot of spelling errors that I made, as well as change a few of the cringy parts, so when it goes up there you can read it without me prattling on and on.

Making longer chapters is a struggle at the moment, I've been hitting a fair few roadblocks and work has been sapping most of, if not all, of my energy.

I have taken my friend's offer to help write this, which will just be the two of us riffing ideas off of one another to try and put more padding into the chapters.

CH55;

Yes, and I have said this more times than I probably have random junk around my room, and I'm a hoarder so that can give you an idea of how much junk is in my room...

I HATE THE FACT THAT THERE ARE CHAPTERS WHERE MY NOTES ARE LONGER THAN THE ACTUAL CHAPTERS.

I hate it.

I want to deliver quality, I want to please everyone, but it's getting harder for me to think of extra stuff to pad out the chapter.

CH85

Glad you're caught up.

If you wanted me to lessen the author notes, then why didn't you just save everything for just one review?

Also, you hate it?

Imagine how much I hate it.

I had far longer chapters at the start when I wasn't sure where it was going, and now that I know where it is, it's getting shorter and shorter.

I want to keep writing longer chapters, but that's not always possible.

I've made peace with that, even if I don't like it, so that I can try ways to improve, but we can't always get what we want.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Ok, that was the last review.

WE'RE PAST 500 FOLLOWERS!

I have half a thousand fans of the nonsense that I put out and I'm thrilled.

Thank you all for sticking with me through thick and thin.

As I mentioned in either a review or another part of the endnotes, a good friend of mine has offered to help me so I'm definitely taking them up on the offer.

So, with the hope that things get better, I'll see you next week.

Hopefully.

SteamGeek01.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao & Room 42 (Zippers & Sir Pebbles The Third) – Jinbeizamezama.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – soffbois - According to reader research.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	87. Chapter 87, Meals and Meetings,

Chapter 87, Meals and Meetings.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Yes, another late upload.

Yes, my schedule is going to Hell.

You don't need to remind me on that, I know that at least several people were going to comment on it, I am clairvoyant, don't even bother.

Now that that's out of the way, I have 2 big things to say/fix.

1; I'm going to upload every 2 weeks from now on.

It's fairly obvious that I was starting to burn out, stress from trying to get a good chapter, work, social life, I was just a mess.

I either forgot to mention that last chapter, or didn't make it clear enough, so for that, I apologise.

So expect a chapter 2 weeks from now.

2; There might be a new story coming soon.

Not for EXTRAS, not the story I have kinda planned for when B.I.A wraps up, but a completely new story that's not just me.

A friend messaged me and asked if I'd proof-read and go over something he'd written.

He isn't wanting to make an account to upload it himself, so he's letting me upload it when it's finished. There are currently 7 chapters written, excluding the prologue, and we've gone over the first 2... my god, he wasn't taught how to use punctuation at all!

Seriously, I've had to remind him to put a goddamn full stop at the end of sentences so often that I'm debating becoming an English teacher just to make sure it doesn't happen again!

So... that's that... not got anything else to say really... except maybe see you at Edinburgh Pride? I'll be wearing a grey SG1 cap (Stargate SG1).

Well, you know the drill, responses to the reviews are at the bottom,

Enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

It was on a rather dull day that Isaac and Hermione joined the shuffling crowd of students going to the Great Hall for their first Breakfast of the new school year.

"So, what do you think it'll be first?" Isaac asked, pausing to let a smattering of second-years past.

"I don't know... I hope it's Ancient Runes, we'd be moving onto some of the harder translations this term, for sure," Hermione answered, keeping an eye out for any of the few hundred odd different items that Filch had deemed as 'dangerous and disorderly'.

"Still don't see how you can find the translation side more appealing than Runic-Crafting," Isaac muttered as they finally reached the ground floor.

"Runic-Crafting is fun, and all, but it's more for the Curse-Breakers for Gringotts," Hermione said, perking up a bit as the smell of fresh bread and juice wafted through the air, "Translation, however, lets you read all sorts!

Imagine what you could learn what Witches and Wizards back in the days of The Founders were like, and..."

"Nerd..." Isaac stretched out under his breath, "Nerd... ow!" he broke off when Hermione hit him with an apple she had picked up from the fruit bowl.

It didn't take long for Professor McGonagall to start heading down the table, handing out timetables to everyone.

"Let's see then," Isaac said, unfurling the scroll handed to him, "Runes, Transfiguration, Lunch, History, Defence... and Astronomy night classes on Wednesdays and Mondays," Isaac read out before letting the scroll wind itself back in where it now sat, rather loosely, at the side of his plate.

"So, sounds like a fun day," Hermione said, buttering a slice of toast, "At least they're giving us a day to get used to Hogwarts again before making us stay up for Astronomy,"

"True, true," Isaac agreed, dicing up a few slices of bacon to season his waffles with.

Aside from Angelina turning up to tell Isaac that she had been made Quidditch Captain, to which Isaac gave a quick toast to with his pumpkin juice, and wanted Isaac to be at the tryouts to find a new Keeper now that Oliver had left after what had been Isaac's third year.

"So, gonna be blunt, can you _not_ piss anyone off until after Friday?" Angelina said, looking him dead in the eye with the same sort of determination that Isaac was used to seeing from Oliver.

"I'll be there," he promised.

Angelina gave him a critical glance up and down before walking off, passing a late-coming Ron as she left the Hall.

"She looked like she was ready to tear your head off if you couldn't make it," Hermione said, not looking at the ginger that passed them by as she read over one of the many books from her bag.

"She can't," Isaac said, rather matter of factly, as he cut into his bacon sprinkled waffles.

"... I don't want to ask, but how do you know that?" Hermione gave in.

"Tissue, muscle, and bone structure make it kinda hard with brute strength, so it's more like twisting it off, like you do when you unscrew a cabinet, makes it easier since you need to..."

"Why did I ask?"

"Because morbidity... is it just me, or do the waffles taste different than before?" Isaac asked, breaking off from whatever joke he had been setting up.

"I don't know, and maybe it's the bacon grease," Hermione suggested.

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Malfoy Manor.

The regal home stood proud over the field it was built upon.

While not the tallest manor one might have found, the mirrored wings that stretched backwards out into the gardens certainly gave it it's well-earned dignity.

A tall, blond, man stood outside, looking over the garden nestled between the two wings as he waited for his summons.

His Lord had called for a meeting that night and he was thankful that Draco was already back at Hogwarts and away.

Draco had once looked at him as if he was everything he wanted to be when he grew up...

Lucius let out a sigh as he thought of what his son had become.

One one hand, his son was choosing his own way in life.

He had started pursuing more interests that he had chosen himself, been more sure of himself, and was relying more on his own skills and talents rather than the family name...

But, on the other hand...

Lucius worried for his son.

In his younger years, he would admit it as a fault that he was a bit too heavy handed with him, his temper boiled over easier due to the stressful days when The Ministry had entered a frenzy with Potter's return, coupled with the muggle protection act that Weasley senior pushed through, that restarted a series of audits and searches on those with ties to the old Death Eater crowd.

More gold in Fudge's hands had cleared his family much faster, and it certainly didn't cause harm that the buffoon was denying his Lord's return...

But Draco's friendship with Potter, or rather, Rogers, was worrying.

He knew that his son could, and would, hold a grudge; something he could do nothing but accept was from his side of the family.

Their Lord knew that Draco was on close terms with Rogers, from what the spy Crouch had relayed the prior year, and he was able to play it off as his son merely forming political ties with old names as well as taking some of the suspicions away from their family should anyone try to investigate ties between him and any Death Eater activity...

But he worried just how long he could keep his son away from that side of his life.

One thing that Lucius did not want to happen was for Draco to take the mark.

He himself had taken it in his younger years when his arrogance still held it's strong grip on his beliefs.

Yes, he knew that muggles were dirt beneath his boot, but now that he had grown and allowed his rational mind to take the forefront of his decisions, there really was no need to slaughter them like cattle.

Fools like Goyle and Crabbe were always the ones to enjoy harming them for the sake of causing harm, and he had no qualms with giving them the taste of the Cruciatus if asked too; he just didn't see the need to go out of his way to do so.

"Our Lord is ready," a gruff voice called out.

Without saying a word to the werewolf, Lucius walked past Greyback, already planning on telling the elves that ran the estate to polish the floors twice once the flea-bag had left, and back into his manor.

Lord Voldemort stood at the head of a table, a grand fireplace that had been temporarily blocked from the Floo network held a neat stack of roaring logs that cast flickering shadows and light across the room behind him.

"Lucius... Greyback was able to find you rather quickly, it would seem," the high voice remarked.

Lucius bowed his head, knowing that he had not been asked to speak and would have suffered for it if he had, and took his space not more than three heads away from the red-eyed man.

"Now then, as we are all here, minus Severus who is unable to attend for his duties at Hogwarts, we can begin,"

The Lord's main point of talk for that night was to update them on the envoy he had sent out to the giants, in order to gain allies for if the time for war should ever reach them.

"Those'll come in handy should we ever need to get a' Hogwarts," one of the Death Eaters further along the table jeered.

"Quite... speaking of our old Alma Mata, Lucius, Draco is starting his O.W.L year, is he not?"

Lucius stiffened slightly as Voldemort's violent crimson gaze fell upon him.

"Yes, my Lord,"

Voldemort's lips began to curl in a cruel smirk.

"And how is his he faring? Not falling behind his peers, one would hope...

Or how about his friendship with Potter?"

Lucius kept his emotions in check as a few Death Eaters down the table jeered at what their Lord had said.

"Their friendship continues, I see no reason to forbid it,"

The Death Eaters along the table went silent.

Lucius was always one to go with whatever their Lord said, despite whatever his own opinion was.

"Really?" Voldemort's eyes narrowed on the tall blond, "And the fact that Potter was the one to vanquish me all those years ago means nothing? The scars he gave you the night of my return mean... nothing?"

"I hold no compassion for the boy," Lucius said, not letting his voice quiver, "He could die and I would shed not one tear.

However, the ties he has with Draco are no drawback.

You want the Ministry to continue denying your return while you rebuild your strength? Why would Potter continue his association with my son if you had returned?

Suddenly breaking apart from one another would only give people cause for concern...

As well as the fact that..."

" _Crucio_!"

Lucius' knees buckled, his grip on the table being the only thing that prevented him from falling to the well-polished floor underneath him.

For how long The Dark Lord kept the Cruciatus on him, he did not know.

When it was finally lifted his breathing took a moment to calm.

"I care not for whatever reason your child chooses his company," Voldemort hissed, "Potter will fall, by my hand, and if Draco should side with him then he will suffer the same!"

"Yes, my Lord," Lucius whispered, it was all he could muster with his strength sapped.

"Leave me," Voldemort ordered, "All of you... save you,"

He singled out a solitary Death Eater standing far on the other length of the table.

As everyone filed out the Death Eater told to remain kept his hood up and mask on, not meeting any of the curious glances coming from the others.

"Come..." Voldemort said, beckoning him closer, "I hope your first meeting wasn't anything of a disappointment?"

"No, my Lord," the young man replied.

"And I trust that you have not forgotten what you are to do?" Voldemort continued, "Potter must be kept weak for when the time comes...

Isolate him, drive walls between everyone who dares to help him, and make sure that he knows not that it's your hand guiding him to me,"

"Yes, my Lord," the determination in the young man's voice showing the fire he had within.

"Do this, and I will personally see to your reward," Voldemort promised, "Now, return back to Hogwarts, we wouldn't want anyone to notice your absence,"

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Twelve Grimmauld Place.

"I thank you all for coming to this meeting, I know it wasn't expected to be here again so soon," Dumbledore addressed the members kindly.

"Yes, Dumbledore, it was no hassle," was the majority of responses he received.

"Always glad to have company," Sirius muttered, "Now, what was...

Oh, what was that?"

A loud banging noise from upstairs somewhere had echoed through the house.

"Sorry about this, Kreacher's probably found an old pair of my father's briefs and knocked over a cabinet in joy," Sirius muttered bitterly before leaving.

"I apologise for the ruse, but having Sirius here would have proven difficult for what I am about to discuss," Dumbledore spoke carefully, trying to make it seem as if he was apologetic about whatever he was about to divulge.

"What do you mean?" a member sat several seats away from him spoke up.

"I believe that we may run into... certain troubles with Mr Black," Dumbledore said, adding a sympathetic layer to his grandfatherly facade, "His intentions are well founded, but I fear that he shall abandon our cause,"

A few cries of protest came from a couple of members, each of them proclaiming that Sirius would never leave The Order.

"He lost his best friends, Harry was orphaned because of You-Know-Who!"

"He would never let You-Know-Who win!"

"I'm not saying he would switch sides, not at all," Dumbledore placated, "His losses can stand as proof to that... but his primary concern not only now, but back then, was to secure a world that the young Potter could grow up in.

Now that he is practically a young adult, and plans to discontinue his education at Hogwarts once this year passes..."

More cries of shock and outrage.

"... Mr Black will have very little reason to continue fighting with us,"

"But... but You-Know-Who will kill him if..."

"Not if he goes neutral," another Order member cut across them, "He offered the deal to all Purebloods last time.

Stay out of his way, get to live,"

Dumbledore leant backwards in his chair, seemingly observing the debates that had sprung.

In reality, he was congratulating himself.

"Gentlemen, please, I do have solutions prepared for this," Dumbledore spoke over the chaos, "Mr Black may not want to, but we must accept the fact that there may come a time where we can no longer use this house as our meeting grounds,"

A few more disgruntled cries.

"I have a small property not too far from Godric's Hollow, left to me by a dear friend, that we can use instead..."

"But what if he starts telling him our plans to ensure that he is left alone?"

"Fear not, I have a back-up plan in the event that Mr Black becomes too unruly...

We shall have to continue this at a later date, I can hear him returning,"

True enough, Sirius entered the room moments later.

"Right, where were we?" Sirius asked, reclaiming his seat.

"I was about to read a letter from Rubeus, I believe he has made some progress with the giants," Dumbledore said, delving into his cloak and producing a slightly muddied and rain-worn letter.

Once the meeting had ended, another Order member approached Dumbledore as everyone dawdled before leaving.

"Albus, you said that Potter would be leaving, didn't you say that he is the only one that can finally defeat You-Know-Who?" he asked in hushed tones.

"Worry not, my friend," Dumbledore said, placing a hand on the wizard's shoulder, "I have other plans concerning the boy, he _will_ have to aid us, it is his rightful duty, after all,"

"True, true," the wizard said, shuffling his way towards the fireplace to use the Floo.

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Hogwarts.

The bell had gone not too long ago, signalling the beginning of the first Ancient Runes class of the year.

"Still say Rune-Craft is more interesting," Isaac said before their debate about which aspect of the class was the more interesting.

He had conceded that learning the language was a rather handy idea, though that was just because if he did so in his letters home, then they could be a lot more descriptive with what they got up to.

However, Hermione still had to come up with a better point for the usefulness of Rune-Craft over translation unless it was for, in Isaac's opinion, the off switch to a doomsday bomb.

At the front of the room, Professor Babbling began with the register, as usual, before going on about how important the end of year examinations were.

Once the mini-lecture had been finished, she set them to work copying down the sets of phrasing rules that came with the order of runes as a refresher of what they covered last year to see what they needed to go over again before the O.W.L's.

However, once Isaac was halfway through copying down the rules about how animal depictions mean described characteristics...

"Now then, I would like you to all copy down the basics of Gamp's laws," Professor McGonagall's voice called out.

When Isaac looked up, Professor McGonagall had just flicked her wand at a piece of chalk that was now scribbling down a series of statements onto the chalkboard.

Looking around him, he was no longer in the Ancient Runes classroom but in Transfiguration.

After quickly scribbling down the first law, Isaac quickly dipped into his bag to grab his Runes notebook.

'What the Hell?' he thought to himself, running a hand over the dried ink of the translation homework that he had been assigned.

A gentle nudge at his elbow from Hermione, plus a subtle nod towards where Professor McGonagall was coming down the rows to check on everyone.

Isaac didn't speak throughout the entirety of the class, not even humming under his breath as he was prone to do.

"So?" Hermione asked once class had ended and everyone was beginning to descend the many stairs for lunch.

"What?" Isaac turned to face her.

"You looked like you'd had your world flipped upside down," Hermione said, "At the start of class?"

"Oh... you... you ever had a moment where you blink, and suddenly like... an hour went by without you noticing before you opened your eyes again?" Isaac asked her.

"Are you feeling alright?" Hermione asked him, immediately peering at his face to try and see if he looked pale and clammy.

"I'm fine, don't you dare suggest I need to go to Madam Pomfrey, I'd like to last at least a week before visiting my bed there, thank you very much,"

Hermione rolled her eyes, saying that he had a 'brain-fart' moment and should probably drink more water since his head hurt again, if the way Isaac was rubbing his temple was by any indication.

Although Isaac seemed alright after sitting down at the table, a quip ready for the go at a moments notice, he couldn't help it when his mind drifted away to the worries that lingered in the air.

The main thought powdering him with sprinkles of anxiety at the moment was if he was losing time like he had back in his third year... when he had killed MacNair...

He couldn't bring this up with anyone there, he didn't remember if he had told Fred about the whole MacNair incident, and he'd have to either wait until that night to talk to Ben about it or send a letter to home after dinner.

As hard as he tried, he couldn't remember what it had felt like when he had skipped from the halls of Hogwarts after helping Luna get her shoes and then suddenly sitting in the carriage with Hermione being sent home a day early.

To try and vent some of his frustration and worry, he'd need all the focus he could muster for History of Magic, he started to cut into the baked potato he had picked from the slightly steaming pile.

Despite all this, however, he couldn't help but feel... at peace.

Being back at Hogwarts wasn't as bad as he had thought it would be... in fact, he could see himself rather enjoying this year.

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Endnotes.

Ok, I need to geek out about something.

Wind Rose, a band under Napalm Records, have released a cover of Diggy Diggy Hole!

There is now a heavy metal cover of Diggy Diggy Hole! Some random song born from a man mucking around some 8-ish years ago has been covered by a band within an actual record company!

And I'm in a good mood now, review time!

 **(X) Review (X)**

iPCM;

I really want to draw Slenderman in a band and holding eight different maracas now.

I agree with that statement about Toby.

I didn't mean for it to turn out like that, it just did... though, I did have fun with the Dagon.

It's winter for you? It's just turned summer for me.

 **(X) Review (X)**

buterflypuss;

I do plan to go over that, whether it was in this chapter or another, but I do have an answer for it.

The rune took him the better part of an hour, and it was modified to block the inhabitants of The Mansion from entering his room through a form of teleportation.

 **(X) Review (X)**

connormayor50;

I cannot wait to write that, I'm probably going to have her be a bit more confident than in Werewolf.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Sorry for worrying you.

I have loved nearly every version of a Thunderbird I've ever seen... though 2004 is definitely at the bottom of the list, though there are a fair few things that I liked about the movie.

I imagine that there are definitely different versions of idioms that are reflected with magical twists.

Everything will slip your mind once, no matter how big or small.

I will have him with a biscuit in every scene I can. No, it's a normal bag, he just has a very large stock.

Foreshadowing is fun.

I'll try to come up with a longer DigitalMagic chapter, I'm fairly certain that I can come up with a way to do that.

I have definitely been reading Lovecraft, he had a way for monsters.

Explosions are fun, though.

Congrats for graduating.

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rosie isis and rai the kitsune;

Yes, I have.

Thanks, glad you liked it.

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Katoptris12;

Yep.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Thanks, glad you liked it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

Thanks for not getting too upset over me taking a break.

I'm glad you liked it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

skylarenderbrine;

Welcome!

What?

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Not A Criminal;

Chapters haven't been as long as they used to be and I feel like I should be writing longer chapters.

Dumbledore imperio'd Madame Macabre, and I did state what he had learnt a few chapters later... or, maybe a bit later... but I definitely got out what he learned.

No, I'd already addressed it, but I'm getting to the finale of a fair few plot points soon-ish.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Sly the gratsulover117;

Thanks.

Yeah, I hate them.

I'm not going to message everyone their responses, it's easier to do it this way and gets me in the writing mood.

Thank you, but I think I'll just take things a bit easier when writing the chapter and stick with the new timetable.

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Thunder-Death;

Thank you.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

Jesus Christ...

I'll raise a glass to your social life.

I've only heard one or two songs from D.E.H so I'll reserve judgement until I actually watch either of those.

Well done on not starting a war.

Tim needs coffee and cake, yes.

I wouldn't put it past him.

He knows how to make watchers awkward, for sure.

I'll leave that detail until later.

Pink toad... I'm actually struggling with her... how to make conflict when Isaac doesn't care... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Nice to know I can write moving scenes just as well as I can write combat.

Yes, they did.

I will be honest, I don't know. I am open to it being in the story, but I think I'd need a few chapters centred around them before making it a definite thing, or I could always do what I'm planning for Toby and Liu where I write a bunch of scenes with them before they get together for EXTRAS.

I was humming Ghostbusters while writing it, so no, it's not.

It's good to be back.

 **(X) Review (X)**

joshua. obryan. 549;

Snapping point will be in year 5, for sure, just working on how to do it in a way that makes sense for the story.

Don't antagonise them unless you're the person who has to deal with the flak afterwards.

Besides...

It's from...

The endnotes...

Being longer...

Than they...

Want them...

To be.

 **(X) Review (X)**

wow-im-satan;

I can't wait to write a bit of mayhem too!

I'll probably take a bit longer to write that one, but I'll put a message beforehand whether or not I'll be taking longer for it.

Glad to know I can do character continuity.

I don't know what's going to come, but I definitely know that It'll be a cluster bomb of mayhem for sure.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Randomperson (Guest);

I ship Drarry too.

Haven't seen countryhumans, no.

Ok, maybe think before posting, so you don't leave about eight reviews at a time.

Fizz is back, forgot to add Isaac shushing him in his pocket in the carriage last chapter.

Haven't played Undertale.

DP hasn't been beta-ing chapters because they were taking too long for me to write, get checked, and then upload when going with the old schedule.

We're still in touch with each other, we chat from time to time.

I don't think I have the following to do a meet and greet.

It'd be awesome if at some point, I could, but I don't think there are many people who would be interested in meeting some just turned 20 year old from Scotland who writes fanfiction in his spare time.

Also, if I did, it'd be in Scotland because I'm lazy and can't be bothered going further than the park.

I haven't died, I've explained this already.

Writing things, I get tired easily, and I'll make little mistakes now and then.

When I upload this all to AO3 I'll be going over it to fix things like that.

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Guest (Guest);

I have reasons why he hasn't done anything.

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten.

 **(X) Review (X)**

ShadowAzar;

Welcome!

I am better, thanks.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

Yeah, that's the best idea, Miniladd has better content.

I have no problem whenever a Ricardo pops on screen.

Never doubt the ability of mayhem to occur at The Mansion.

I love writing L.J and Jeff together.

I had to take a break there to catch my breath from laughing, that was brilliant.

No, I was humming Ghostbusters when writing it.

Masky is probably never leaving them without a baby sitter again.

I had optimism for the Slenderman movie, but I didn't see it in cinemas.

The trailers looked interesting enough, the idea's seemed kinda dumb but it's high schoolers in a horror movie, that's just a given, and I did like the idea that they went looking for their friend and hoped that it would be more psychological with them trying to help their friend recover and keep the idea of whether or not Slenderman is real ambiguous as much as the could.

But, apparently, they went standard horror movie schlock-fest. Still haven't seen it, but I don't have the interest anymore for it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Anonymous Fan (Guest);

Chapter 23;

Wait, what did I do?

If I made a reference, then yay me, but chapter 23 was quite literally over a year ago and I can't remember if the OHHC reference was on purpose or not.

CH 60;

Maybe, it's chapter 60, I can't remember what I was writing that chapter.

I do exactly the same, I'm currently being told off for reading another story when I'm supposed to be writing this chapter.

CH 86;

Congrats on catching up!

Might I suggest making an account and following the story?

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Sabriel Orion;

Yikes, how bad was it?

Might I suggest EXTRAS?

 **(X) Review (X)**

Guest (Guest);

CH 77;

?

 **(X) Review (X)**

Jaybird (Guest);

Hey!

I didn't explain it properly, but I'm uploading every 2 weeks now.

It's to make it easier for me when writing so I can have (hopefully) better chapters.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Sabriel Orion;

Yikes!

How cringey was it?

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Void (Guest);

No, the brothers won't be appearing in the main story.

However, I have written an EXTRAS chapter based around them.

You don't like the author notes? Don't read them.

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Kat Chaos (Guest);

I've gone over this at the beginning, but the upload schedule has changed.

I'm fine, I just have a bit of trouble writing lately.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Kalliso-Myth;

Welcome!

Thank you!

 **(X) Review (X)**

And that was the last one.

I am now 20, and I have no idea where my life is going, so somebody pass me a bottle of vodka because one of the only things I can do straight are spirits and I need my booze.

Hope you enjoyed this one, thought it'd be about time to get some plot threads woven properly and set things up a bit better.

Some you can probably see coming, some you probably already have, but they're still going to be in here.

So, toodles!

A now 20-year-old SteamGeek01.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao & Room 42 (Zippers & Sir Pebbles The Third) – Jinbeizamezama.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – soffbois - According to reader research.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	88. Chapter 88, Professor Dolores Umbridge

Chapter 88, Professor Dolores Umbridge.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

So, what's on the writing list for today?

Erm... no idea, haven't really thought about it.

Had fun at Edinburgh Pride, lots of walking, lots of fun, and as of writing this nearly a week later I still have some rainbow chalk stuck to my arm and glitter in my stubble.

So definitely had a good time.

But, you come here for the chapters, so that's where I'm gonna go,

Now, it might be a little later than what should be normal now, but that's because I'll have been away on holiday, so expect an apology at the end if that's the case.

Hope you enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

Albus Dumbledore looked out over the bustling hall filled with students that had arrived from their morning classes.

The one student that he was looking for took a moment longer than most to enter.

As Potter walked into the hall, many seemed to be trying to give the boy as wide a berth as possible as he walked past them.

With how the students seemed to treat him...

He let out a sigh under the guise of enjoying some of the cream of tomato soup that had been served that day.

For the rest of the lunch period, nobody but the Granger child talked to him which he filed away for later use if he needed it.

Further along down the table, he could just make out the merry humming of his school's latest Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Dolores.

The Ministry had strong-armed the petite witch into his system under one of their latest 'Educational Decrees' in order for 'the betterment of Wizarding education'.

How the simpering eyesore was thought to be the best suited for teaching was beyond him.

He remembered the small half-blood Slytherin that Umbridge truly was, always trying to reach for stations she had no idea how to run and resentful of her father for marrying a muggle, giving a squib for a brother, and how he never tried to push himself for a better position beyond Magical Maintenance.

A far cry from the witch that claimed to be the sole, Pure-Blooded, daughter of one of The Wizengamot's most prestigious members.

His thoughts were interrupted by the gonging of the bell that marked the end of the current period.

Students began filing out for their next class, Potter amongst them.

He did not know what Potter had for his next class, but he had glimpsed that the fifth-year Gryffindors had DADA for their fourth period.

If this was Potter's first Defense class of the year then it stood to reason that there may be some sort of altercation between him and Professor Umbridge today...

The woman was sure to be questioned on her methods of teaching the class, fifteen-year-olds felt oddly entitled to things they had no privilege in knowing about.

Since Dolores' first class with Potter was sure to have some sort of event occur... it only seemed prudent to invite Hogwarts' newest Professor to tea later...

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Outside Umbridge's classroom.

Isaac had finally gotten Hermione to accept a biscuit from the seemingly endless supply he had as they waited for the class to start.

"Have you read through the book?" Hermione asked, accepting another biscuit as she really liked the sugar coated 'Nice' ones.

"You mean the... something to something that's... the book for this class?" Isaac clarified after swallowing is own biscuit, "Had a look through the first few chapters, kinda boring... and I fell asleep,"

"There doesn't seem to be anything about actually using defensive magic," Hermione said, tapping the cover of the book inside her bag and wondering how the class was going to go.

"Explains why I thought it was boring,"

It was at that point that a rather amusing distraction appeared in the form of Neville.

"Isaac... are you a hitman?" he asked, a few beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

"Well, depends on your terminology of what a hitman... wait... why am I being asked this?" Isaac paused, looking between Neville and Hermione, "Neville, did you draw the short straw?"

"I... erm... well... you see..." Neville stammered.

"Relax," Isaac said, waving his hand, "If I _was_ going to kill someone, I'd be upfront about it and tell them.

You, I don't want to kill, I've got no reason to, and you're alright in my books... but tell Seamus that he can feel free to ask me anything," Isaac finished with a toothy grin, that totally didn't set Neville's nerves alight at all, on his face.

As Hermione and Isaac watched Neville return to a small group, where a sandy-haired Irish Gryffindor was waiting, the doors to the classroom swung open and a voice from withing trilled outward.

"Come in,"

As everyone filed into the room, Isaac did something that he hadn't done for a while.

He sought out a couple of chairs that were the furthest away from the desk.

In Hermione's memory, he had only done this once and that was when Professor Lockhart had been teaching the class.

When Hermione probed into the situation, the only response she got from the American was;

"I've got a feeling,"

Barely a minute later, the small witch descended from the stairs at the back of the classroom before coming to a halt in the middle of the room.

The wide smile that stretched her flabby cheeks caused more than a fair few hairs to raise on Isaac's arm, and the way her beady eyes switched from each student in the room only heightened the resemblance to a toad that he had once fed to Kalakuta.

"Well, good afternoon!" Umbridge said, sounding far too happy to ever be a teacher.

A few people mumbled the greeting back, tired from the classes beforehand.

"Tut, tut, now _that_ won't do. Will it?

I should like you, please, to reply 'Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge',"

Isaac mouthed along as everyone else, urged on by the pink-clad teacher, repeated their greeting.

If he had thought that Umbridge would have been a bad teacher before, the thought was further confirmed by the following six words.

"Wands away and quills out, please,"

There were more than a few audible groans from others in the class, as there had never been an interesting lesson that came after hearing those words; save from a few lessons that Professor Lupin did where he recounted methods and anecdotes of how various creatures handled their prey.

And it seemed to come true.

After Umbridge went on about how their curriculum for the year was designed by The Ministry she had them write out the course notes and set them to task in reading the first chapter of the assigned book.

A couple more groans came as the completely dull lesson started, some were taking their time writing down the course aims just so they had something to do, other's were doodling on a scrap of parchment hidden behind their book, and Hermione...

Isaac did a small double-take.

Hermione was not reading the book.

In all his years of knowing her, Isaac had won a fair few quick bets with other Gryffindors about how long Hermione could go before opening a book left next to her.

He had won so many, in fact, that he hadn't been able to get another person to make one with him.

She hadn't even opened the book, her hand was in the air, and her eyes fixed on Umbridge.

It took the better half of ten minutes for Umbridge to finally address her, and that was only because more people were looking at her than reading the book.

"Do you have a question about the chapter?" Umbridge asked in a sweet tone.

"Not about the chapter, no,"

What followed was one of the more interesting parts of the lesson... and probably the only interesting thing that would happen for the year.

Hermione... argued... with a teacher!

Isaac sat there, following the conversation as one would a tennis match.

Slowly, others began to join in.

Once Hermione pointed out that nothing in the course aims were to do with actually using defensive magic some dropped their jaws when they double checked their notes.

Umbridge never once dropped the condescendingly polite mannerisms she always answered in.

Not when Hermione pointed out that the point of Defence Against the Dark Arts was to practise defensive magic.

Not when a Ravenclaw Isaac didn't know pointed out that there'd be a section of the O.W.L exams for practical use of magic, and that they'd need to practise.

Not when Seamus tried to defend Professor Lupin from the witch's derogatory remark

Not when Dean Thomas tried to point out that they'd have to face the risks later in life and would need training for then.

Each time, Umbridge would shut them down with the same tone and same excuse.

"... Ministry-trained educational experts... the view of The Ministry..."

Nothing, it seemed to be, could come out of her mouth unless it was to claim that The Ministry was in control.

And then, one student seemed to finally push Umbridge near the breaking point.

"What about Diggory then? He just drop dead because he didn't get trained right?"

The silence could have been cut with a rusty pair of nail clippers and the air in the room seemed to grow a little colder.

Finally, the wide smile on Umbridge's face turned more into a grimace.

"Mr Diggory's death was nothing more than an _highly_ regrettable and tragic accident," she simpered in a cold voice, her eyes narrowing on the Hufflepuff who had spoken out.

Most of, if not all of, the students in the room cast a glance, or two, in Isaac's direction.

Umbridge, noticing how many of them had turned to a silent person at the back of the room, who seemed to be reading the book, gave out another simpering cough.

"Anything to add, Mr... Rogers?"

Isaac barely suppressed the shudder that came with the sickeningly sweet way she called his name.

"No, Professor," came the simple reply as he glanced up before finding his place again in the book.

Umbridge raised an eyebrow, looking almost disappointed about something, but didn't pursue it any further before returning to her desk.

Hermione, meanwhile, turned to Isaac with a look that could have been described as the offspring of flabberghasted mating with surprise.

"I thought you said that V-v... that _You-Know-Who_ killed him?" Hermione whispered to him, glancing up at the squat witch sitting behind a doily adorned desk

"I actually didn't say anything about him being back," Isaac pointed out, "I was a bit pre-occupied with being poisoned and unconscious, if you didn't know,"

"But... this is..."

"Mrs Granger, if you have something to say, then you may raise your hand," Umbridge simpered, "And, for talking out of turn _yet again_..."

The shudder was getting stronger.

"... five points from Gryffindor, rules are rules,"

The loss of those points was enough to keep Hermione quiet for the rest of the class, as well as everyone else, in fact.

Silence ruled over the classroom, the only sound from quills when they had to copy down Slinkhard's methods for noncombative methods, before the bell rang and everyone began packing away.

"Homework!" Umbridge trilled at the last moment, "A copy of your notes from today, handwritten, of course. No duplication spells. And go back over the chapter, just to let it sink in,"

There were a few just concealed groans from more than a couple in the class as they filed out the doors.

Isaac wasn't surprised that Hermione made him walk a little slower than the rest that were heading towards their dormitories to rest for the short while between now and dinner.

"So, I'm guessing that you want to..."

"That woman is vile!" Hermione seethed.

That wasn't what Isaac expected to hear.

He was half expecting Hermione to start asking him why he hadn't said how Voldemort had killed Cedric.

"And you..."

There it was.

"Why didn't you say anything about... about how Cedric died?" Hermione turned to face him, stopping them in the middle of the corridor.

"Hermione," Isaac sighed, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes, "There was no point.

She's from The Ministry, she's Fudge's lapdog, she's going to shut down every single argument you try and make about Riddle.

 _She will not listen_ ," he stressed before Hermione could talk, "I have no idea why she is really here, but it is probably not to play nice and teach us any actual Defense..."

Hermione took a step back as Isaac started rummaging through his book bag.

"... this book, is an utter crock of shit, I couldn't think of a single thing in here that's actually helpful, his reasons for not fighting are childish at best and what he suggests to try and defuse a situation would just leave you open to get attacked from anything, nothing useful... except from maybe using it as a doorstopper, or as kindling... remind me to do that once..."

"Then The Ministry really is interfering," Hermione cut across him, "With how outspoken Dumbledore has been about You-Know-Who's return..." she ignored the roll of Isaac's eyes from her refusal to say Voldemort.

"Let's leave it for now," Isaac said, glancing around the corridor and the paintings, "We've had a long day, we've got Astronomy tonight, and I might have a... how do you say... cheat sheet? To help us,"

"How can you cheat at Astronomy?" Hermione asked as they resumed their walk to the Gryffindor Tower.

"Graph paper,"

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Dumble's Office.

The large and ornate desk that stood in Dumbledore's office was covered in paperwork.

Someone at The Ministry of Magic had decided that Hogwarts should undergo an audit, since the arrangement that The Tri-Wizard Tournament came with also involved quite a bit in order to hire keepers for the creatures in the tasks, the maintenance for the delegations preferred methods of travel, the Yule Ball, and so on...

If that was the actual reason for the audit, then Dumbledore would sooner admit that Potter was an actual threat to him!

Nonetheless, he still had to sort through the necessary paperwork, receipts, and expense reports before sending them off.

As he sat there, he wondered if their newest Professor would accept the invitation he had extended to her...

Just at that moment, a knocking came from the door.

"Come in," Dumbledore called, setting down the quill he was using to keep a note of everything he had sorted.

Umbridge slid through the door, her heels clicking on the polished stone.

"Good evening, Dolores. Tea?" he offered, gesturing towards the silver kettle he kept next to his desk.

"Thank you, Albus," Umbridge smiled sweetly, taking a seat opposite his desk as he retrieved the silver tray, "Two sugars, no milk, please,"

After spooning in two helpings of sugar into Dolores' cup, he poured a generous amount into his own cup before passing Dolores her cup.

"Tell me, how was your first day teaching here?" Dumbledore asked, parting the many white hairs of his moustache and beard so that he could gain access to his teacup, "I hope that there weren't too many disruptions, it being the first day of the term, after all,"

"The first-years were delightful," Umbridge said, and Dumbledore became thankful he could hide his true feelings so well as the tone she used almost made him grimace, "And the second-years, well... the only trouble I had was with the fifth-years..."

Dumbledore leant forward.

Potter was a fifth-year! Perhaps...

"Mrs Granger seemed particularly outspoken in class today, after ignoring multiple warnings, she continued to speak out of turn and questioning matters in inappropriate mannerisms," Umbridge said, sipping on her sweetened tea.

A frown appeared only to crease Dumbledore's brow.

His hopes that Potter would have been the one to interrupt the class had been dashed.

"Mrs Granger?" Dumbledore shifted forward so he was closer to the desk, "I'll have a word with Professor McGonagall, she's normally very respectful towards teachers,"

"Oh, I wouldn't want to bother Professor McGonagall with a simple matter of a student speaking out of turn," Umbridge almost conveyed a sympathetic tone, but the sickly smile on her face ruined the attempt.

"Professor McGonagall is her head of house, if Mrs Granger is causing disruptions, it is her responsibility," Dumbledore pointed out, "With settling in, getting the students prepared for their examinations, I wouldn't want to overwork you,"

"Nonsense," Umbridge let out a short laugh, "At The Ministry, things can get quite a bit more hectic, I assure you, I can keep up,"

"I don't think anyone can argue against that," Dumbledore said, a twinkle in his eyes, "But Hogwarts too can have it's fairly frantic stretches.

I'll still be having a word with Professor McGonagall, Mrs Granger can sometimes work herself too hard to learn, gets lost in her own little world sometimes,"

"Well, if it is her duty, though I don't want to have to have her deal with _every_ troublesome Gryffindor that I may encounter, I shall be more than happy to deal with further disruptions on my own," Umbridge finished with another high-pitched and girly giggle.

"Of course, after all your years in The Ministry, one would expect you to have a very good grasp on judgement," Dumbledore nodded, setting his now empty cup down on the table.

"Well, Albus, I'll leave you to get back to your work," Umbridge said, brushing off her skirt as she put her teacup down, a few dregs swirling at the bottom, "Audits can be a rather tedious matter,"

"That they can, good night, Dolores," Dumbledore said as he put the silver tray away, flicking his wand at the cups to clean them.

As Umbridge turned her back, he quickly sent a silent stunning spell in her direction.

Just as quick, he cast a simple levitation charm over her to prevent the witch from landing hard on the floor and re-seat her.

Moving slowly around his desk, Dumbledore rolled up his sleeves and aimed his wand between Umbridge's blank eyes.

" _Legillimens_!"

A whirlwind of memories passed by, until he landed in the classroom of the fifth-years from that day.

Leaving her mind, and taking with him a copy of the memory, Dumbledore summoned the pensieve from its cupboard and dropped the silvery strands into the bowl as fast as he could, as if he didn't want his wand tainted by the Ministry worker.

A few more spells and Umbridge's memory had been corrected so that once she woke up from the stunning spell she wouldn't remember being stunned or her memory being taken.

With another quick flick, Umbridge's body began to rise as if lifted by the strings of a puppet master and was slowly dragged into place.

Resuming his seat behind his desk, he flicked his wand and Umbridge was removed from her trance, the magical supports removed, and prepared the worried grandfather persona he had perfected.

"OH!" Umbridge squealed as she stumbled, misstepping and nearly tripping over the steps down from the raised platform.

"Oh, my dear, are you alright?" Dumbledore asked, fake concern and compassion dripping from his words.

" _I'm fine_!" Umbridge snapped, "I'm fine..." her voice gradually grew back to it's attempted girlish charm.

"... I'm fine, just missed the step, is all,"

"If you're sure," Dumbledore said, opening the door with a quick twist of his wand, "But be sure to see Madam Pomfrey if..."

"I said I'm fine," Umbridge trilled shrilly, "Goodnight!"

The door slammed behind her and Dumbledore relaxed in his chair.

Casting a quick glance down at the audit papers on his desk, he decided that the memory he had retrieved that night was of far greater importance than some stupid upstart at The Ministry wanting to try and play office worker.

Summoning the pensieve, he brought the memory to the surface and dove in.

Landing in the horrendously pink office, he followed Umbridge out of the door and down to the awaiting class of fifth-years.

Spotting Potter near the back, the old man positioned himself close to the boy and observed.

Throughout the argument that erupted from students questioning whether or not they'd actually learn anything until the moment when a Hufflepuff brought up the departed Cedric Diggory.

Dumbledore's intense gaze focused in on Potter, watching as the mid-teen... did nothing.

Realisation and dread set fire to Dumbledore's plans.

The apathetic manner in which Potter denied having anything to say proved that he would not be any sort of willing aid to his Order.

Exiting the pensieve, Dumbledore paced around the room, ignoring the questions from the past Headmasters and Headmistresses about what he had seen.

If Potter wouldn't help them willingly... then it fell to him to force him to help them, for the greater good, after all...

But how to do it?

He knew that the boy was close to Mrs Granger, perhaps... no, there was little to suggest that the boy would stick with the muggleborn if he used her...

He could try getting a hold of that meddlesome brother and his two friends, he didn't know if those three were related or not, they did act like brothers more often than not, but he couldn't see any similarities between them...

Moving past mundane ponderings, there was another one that came to mind...

A dull, boring, simple, name that had been relayed through members of his Order that had overheard it...

Ben.

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Endnotes.

I've gone on my... summer holiday...

Didn't have to work for a... day or several...

I can't remember the rest of the song, so I can't continue with whatever it was this was...

Well, have a review segment!

 **(X) Review (X)**

iPCM;

No, losing time is never a good thing, unless it's time between your next plate of nachos, then it's... kinda alright.

Erm... considering that I've never really given Voldemort any actual weight in the story, I don't think it's wrong that you want Dumbles, who I've shown quite a bit more and given more light on his bastard attitude, dead.

I fucking hate anti-vaxers with a passion, I will slap someone who tries to push 'no vaccine' lifestyles onto me.

 **(X) Review (X)**

buterflypuss;

Thanks.

 **(X) Review (X)**

BluePhoenix37767;

Welcome!

Thanks, I'm glad you've enjoyed it.

Yes, I do have Wattpad, but I hardly use it because I mainly upload on Fanfic.

If you want to try and find me, It's the same username.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Sabriel Orion;

If you say so.

I'm glad that you like my style, can't wait until I have to write an actual story.

Glad you like my idea to take things a bit slower.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Galra-din;

Huh, you mean that youtube show about people who tried to make a fitness channel, with Slendy as a selling point, that ended up actually being followed by the Slenderman... no idea what so ever.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Sorry.

I'm not going to spoil anything.

Random morbid knowledge will be making more appearances because my friend is going back over their human biology stuff, and considering that they can work as a licensed mortician... yeah.

Voldie is fun to write at times, just having him be pompous is fun.

There's always stupidity afoot.

Not going to spoil anything.

Yes, listened to 'Secure Contain Protect', even made a comment about it being something that Dr Bright would come up with.

I do listen to Aviators, have for a while.

Glad to know, will do, plan to.

 **(X) Review (X)**

connormayor50;

Thanks, definitely want to avoid burning out.

I'm also going to be going back to EXTRAS to write something new.

I've been promising it for a while, and I think a bit of a distraction to help get things going would be welcome.

 **(X) Review (X)**

joshua. obryan. 549;

No idea what the first part of this one was.

Oh, I get it, big big fight with many sides, got it.

I have no idea how I'm going to have Isaac snap, really can't think of a way that would bring everything Isaac's gone through to a satisfying arc.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

Erm... I think it's called 'of his own choosing', if my memory is right.

Yes, I'm fine.

Still have a bit of trouble writing, and I was away with a pretty shoddy internet connection and couldn't upload even if I used mobile data.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

No spoilers.

Yeah, probably will be able to reach it... might have it end on 99 just to piss people off.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Thank you.

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

Nearer? Are you sure?

Or is this... something else?

 **(X) Review (X)**

nobody51;

Thanks, I am too.

 **(X) Review (X)**

skylarenderbrine;

I'll give it a look.

 **(X) Review (X)**

zekedavis (Guest);

Ch1.

Erm... no...

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

Ooh, another live review, it's been a while.

Yeah, I probably forgot to mention it.

I'll tell him that, I am very grateful that he can spell.

Wow... that's... I can't even be bothered to come up with a competence joke it's... wow...

Yeah, Isaac's pretty much unkillable, plot armour, y'know.

I'm not going to tell you who the mole is... it's Cthulu!

Dumbledore is a bitch.

I can see Sirius singing the 'Friends on the Other Side' song now... hehehe...

Missing time, how... suspicious...

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

I will be, this is a fun thing for me to do, not a priority that gets me any actual wage towards digs, phone bill, food, food for Toby, etc. Etc.

Thanks for understanding.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Randomperson (Guest);

It's fine, it just makes it easier when answering and doesn't clutter up the page.

Well, if you do make an account, it's up to you.

Have seen the book, haven't watched the series yet.

 **(X) Review (X)**

destielis4ever;

Welcome!

Thank you, it's always nice to hear from a new follower... I sound like I'm indoctrinating you into a cult... eh, pretty much am.

I'm glad that you like the way that Isaac and Ben got together, definitely need to do more with it in the future since it's been a while we've had some nice fluff.

Hopefully, I can deliver a good snapping chapter.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt the Hedgehog Android;

Thanks.

You'll find out... eventually...

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

It's fine, I don't really care how long the reviews get.

Oh cool, good luck with when you sit your test.

I just give the console pad over to my brother, because he's the type of person who gets every single achievement in a game.

Oh yikes, I've been a bit bed-lain with hayfever and a cold, it's not a good combo.

Everything is fine at Hogwarts, it just depends on who you ask.

We needed a bit more from Voldemort, considering he's supposed to be a big thing.

Dumbledore and The Knockoff Brand of KFC... gonna steal that one...I wish you luck on getting into the fic, just watch out for the random murder crowds.

I'm not going to say much about what I'm planning, mainly because I've only decided on little things.

Glad to know I've got you in suspense.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Percy's Dongos;

Good question, I'm wondering what it will be too.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Endnotes.

Ok, I was away on holiday for the week before uploading this, what's happened?

I had a lovely lunch inside a restored carriage pulled by an actual steam train!

Look at my name! YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THE CAPS LOCK!

Also got rope burn on my neck from almost hanging myself by accident on a zip line, got stuck twelve feet up a tree because my boot laces hate me, and got a properly sized jawbreaker that's bigger than a tennis ball...

So, all in all, a typical holiday for me.

Sorry it was late, but the internet was terrible so I had to wait until I got home and when I got there I was pretty much done with everything so I went to sleep.

Geeky needs his sleepy.

And with that, I bid you all a lovely weekend, hope you enjoyed the 4th of July, any Pride parades that you went to, and I'll see you next chapter.

SteamGeek01.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao & Room 42 (Zippers & Sir Pebbles The Third) – Jinbeizamezama.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – soffbois - According to reader research.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	89. Chapter 89, Knitting, Newspapers, Knives

Chapter 89, Knitting, Newspapers, and Knives.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Ok, so if you haven't re-read the last chapter, I added a small bit onto the end.

It was supposed to be there, but my computer froze for a moment and I accidentally deleted it when trying to get it to work.

And, as you can guess, I managed to recover the word document.

There might be a bit missing at the end, still trying to remember everything, so I hope this goes well and I can remember what it was for the next one.

Oh, almost forgot, I mentioned that I've been getting back into drawing lately, well I've found a template for something that I've been wanting to draw for a while, so if you can find my Pinterest, then there's going to be something new there eventually.

SteamGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

The last rays of the sun slowly crept away from the towers of Hogwarts as night began to crawl its way over the land.

Inside the castle, torches had been lit, fires crackled softly and threatened to burn the shoes that people had left there to dry after a drizzling afternoon softened the dirt for those going to Care Of Magical Creatures.

High in the Gryffindor common room, two fifth-year students were sat looking over their latest piece of homework for Potions.

"Ok, I've got that the most common sources of Moonstone are Sri Lanka and India, with some other notable deposits in Australia, Germany, Norway, and Switzerland," Isaac listed off, "... and that it is linked with calming, soothing, and feminine energy, have you got it's... uses in...

Hermione?"

She wasn't listening.

"Hello, Ground Control to Major... insert pun on your name here," he finished as he couldn't think of a way to end his joke, "Hello?"

When that didn't work, he played dirty.

"Hermione, your book bag's on fire,"

That got her attention.

After giving him a swift withering stare, she returned to observing the small crowd of first-years that were sat around Fred and George Weasley and Lee Jordan.

"No, they've gone too far," Hermione said, looking around to see if she could find Dean Thomas, the other Prefect for Gryffindor.

"He's been sent to help Filch watch some third-years that tracked in muck through the entrance hall clean up their mess," Isaac told her, watching now as Fred and George handed out sweets amongst the group, "What'd you bet, Fainting Fancies, or Puss Pops?"

One by one, the first-years slumped over as if shot by one of L.J's more potent tranquillizer darts.

As Hermione put her book down and went to go tell the twins off, Hedwig flew in through one of the high windows and dropped a letter onto his lap.

Almost immediately, Fizz scurried out of Isaac's pocket and up onto her back.

The two of them had seemingly come to an agreement between themselves that Fizz was allowed to ride Hedwig's back.

What Hedwig got in return, he had no idea.

After tearing open the envelope, Isaac shook open the letter and started reading.

The more he read, the wider his smile got.

~Heyo, Kiddo!

Been a while since we saw you and things are DULL!~

The 'dull' had been underlined several times.

~So, was wondering if you wanted to stretch your legs a bit, as well as some other muscles, and get out of that stuffy castle for a bit?

Plus, Ben's been getting mopey since he can only catch you at night and it's "just not the same" - his words,~

Isaac rolled his eyes, skimming over the rest that was about meeting him at midnight on the coming Saturday, before quickly tucking the letter away into his bag as Hermione came back from chastising the twins.

"So, they gonna stop using the firstie's as lab mice?" Isaac asked her, passing the piece of parchment he had written down his references on to her so she could look them up herself.

"They'd better," she said, flicking through _The Secret_ _Strengths of Stones_ for a moment before putting it down with a sigh, "I'm going to miss you,"

"That's why you lead your target," Isaac said, looking up and smiling at her, "Besides, it's not like we're not going to see each other after this,"

Hermione gave him a sad little smile, returning back to the book and finding her page again.

"Oh, I can't focus now," she said, putting the book back down, "Those two..."

Breaking off in mutters, Hermione began rummaging her bag.

Frowning as something woollen and lumpy was dumped down on the table in front of him, it took Isaac a moment to realise what was going on.

"Hermione, why are putting a pair of knitted pancreases on the table?" he asked her, lifting a piece of parchment she had covered them with before his hand was slapped away.

"They're hats," she said, "I'll admit that I'm not the best at knitting, but I can do a lot better now that we're back in Hogwarts, so leave them,"

"Hermione... eh, what's the harm?" he shrugged, knowing that he wouldn't be able to sway his friend's mind as she retired to the girl's dorm for the night.

The day had been a long one, and the repetitive task of reading, writing, checking, and then repeating over and over had begun to get tiring.

Considering that it was the third essay he was writing for homework, he probably deserved to call it there for the night as well. So as he was packing away his book bag, he didn't notice the figure watching him from across the common room.

As he ascended the stairs, the sound of a second pair of footsteps soon joined his and he froze just inside the door.

Throwing his book bag onto his bed, wincing as he remembered that the inkpot he had been using didn't have the best stopper, he quickly leapt up and hauled himself up onto the rafters in the room as quietly as a cat stalking a moth would be if that cat didn't have the tendencies to launch itself headfirst at a window.

Slowing his breathing so the only sound in the room was the faint whistle of wind behind the glass windows and warm crackle of the fire in the heater, he watched as his attempted tail walked into the room.

A head of sandy hair bobbed into the room.

Isaac slinked between the beams, quickly pushing his glasses up higher on the bridge of his nose, as he crept carefully behind Seamus before silently lowering himself down. His landing barely made a noise as he hung by the tips of his fingers before dropping down.

Seamus didn't seem to have heard him, quite appropriate since that had been Isaac intention, and his Irish roommate continued to look around before spotting the tossed book bag that lay splayed on the bed.

Crossing his arms, with what Isaac assumed was a smirk on his face, Seamus leant back, intending to wait for Isaac to reveal himself, to rest against the door.

"Good evening,"

The Gryffindor teen leapt near two foot into the air, practically skipping away from the statuesque and silent Isaac that he had been about to lean against.

"So, how was your day?" Isaac asked him, an overly chipper tone to his voice and a smile that didn't seem to reach his eyes but still kept them looking just a hint psychotic.

After not getting a reply from a rather pale Seamus, Isaac slowly walked over to his bed to clear it so he could actually get to sleep.

"What really happened to Diggory?" Seamus blurted out, his courage returning.

"He got killed by Volde... no, wait... he got killed by Peter Pettigrew, who was following order's from Voldemort so that he could be resurrected," Isaac backtracked on what he was saying, picking up the inkpot and letting out a sigh of relief that it hadn't spilt, "So, all in all, he got killed,"

"And you didn't do anything to try and stop it?" Seamus asked, moving around the room so he was next to his own bed.

"I was a little preoccupied with being poisoned to do anything,"

Nothing was said between the two for a moment.

"Me Mam didn't want me to come back this year, 'cause of everything The Prophet was saying about Dumbledore," Seamus said, breaking the silence, "But this is my O.W.L year, y'know, so didn't really want to miss that one out,"

"Yeah, same here," Isaac said, "This is the last year I'll be spending here, leaving once I'm done,"

Isaac thought the conversation had finished by that point, climbing onto his bed and getting ready to draw the curtains to a close with a charm so they couldn't be opened from the outside to ensure he would have privacy to change, but it seemed that Seamus had one last thought on his mind.

"Are you really a hitman?" he asked.

Isaac slowly turned around from his perch on his bed and stared at Seamus, not breaking eye-contact with the sandy-haired boy, before letting his mouth split open wide in a smile that would make any man uneasy before slowly drawing the curtains around his bed to a close.

Judging by the sound of the door closing shortly after, it would seem that Seamus was no longer in the room.

The rest of the week passed by with...

... and, eventually, the Saturday night arrived and brought with it a layer of clouds thick enough to obscure the Astronomy Tower enough so that classes were halted until it cleared.

Peeking out through the curtains, Isaac quickly and quietly climbed back out and opened his trunk.

"Hey, wake up!" he softly spoke to the small lump of midnight-blue cloth that was curled up in a winter hat, "Fizz, time to get to work!"

With a few squeaks, and a quick turn or two of his key, Fizz rattled into life and scurried up Isaac's arm.

After telling the small mouse the plan, he quickly changed into his 'murder suit' as Ben had taken to calling it, before wrapping himself up in his dressing gown, and sitting up in bed with a book open in front of him.

The hours ticked by, and if Isaac was being honest, he was getting a bit too interested in the book and wouldn't have minded it if L.J didn't turn up.

But, as arranged, as soon as the hands on the clock hit twelve, a flurry of black smoke that smelled vaguely of cotton candy and burnt sugar wafted in through the closed bathroom door.

Silently climbing out, Isaac carefully crept across the dorm and over to the bathroom.

"Took you long enough," Laughing Jack remarked, sitting on top of a cistern.

He wasn't the only person in the room.

"Oh, right, Isaac, meet Daniel," L.J said, gesturing to the black-haired zombie child sitting on the toilet next to him, "Daniel, Isaac,"

Daniel waved rather happily at him.

"He's going to be your stand-in for the night," L.J explained, "It'd be a bit hard to explain why you disappeared for the night and get found covered in blood,"

"I don't make that much of a mess," Isaac protested, "I'm not Jeff or E.J,"

"Says you," L.J snorted, "Right, debate on who's the messiest aside for later, I think we've got somewhere else to be, don't we?"

L.J turned to look at Daniel, who had now glamoured himself up so that he looked pretty much a clone of Isaac, except maybe with a bit of a wider face and tidier hair.

Daniel carefully crept into Isaac's bed, drawing the curtains closed and settling down so that if anyone checked in during the night they would never suspect a thing.

Meanwhile, L.J had held Isaac by the shoulder and transported the two of them to an almost barren street. The sun was still in the sky, though just barely, and was feebly casting the street in shimmering tones of golden amber.

"We're here," L.J said, letting go of Isaac once they had found their balance on the roof of a house, grit from the tiles grinding underfoot.

"Where are we?" Isaac asked, a small grin beginning to pull at the edges of his mouth as the familiar rush of excitement he had missed began rushing his system.

"House of a kid who's now staying at my carnival," L.J said, sliding down the roof and hanging over the edge to look into a window, "Kid snapped, and it's quite rare that I can find out why they would as well.

For her, it was her father,"

"How come?" Isaac asked, carefully peering over as well.

"Don't know,"

"You said that you found out why she did," Isaac pointed out.

"Maybe should've phrased that better," L.J began mumbling about pedantic pipsqueaks, "I know that the dad would've played into it somehow, just no specifics...

Don't know why you're complaining about things, you're out of Castle Crap-enstein for a good couple of hours, and I didn't even get a thank you,"

"Thank you..." Isaac said, rolling his eyes as he adjusted his face-mask, "... oh gracious murder clown,"

"You are most welcome, tiny fire child," L.J mock bowed before transporting the two of them into an empty room.

"I'm like an inch from six-foot,"

"Now go put that bozo six foot under," L.J ushered Isaac towards the door as he adjusted his hood.

"Wait," Isaac paused at the door, "Does Slender know I'm out of the castle?"

"He knows," L.J said with a wave of his hand, urging him to go, "Sorted this out with tall and scary before I got you. He agreed that you'd been a bit too cooped up ever since the attack of the flying toilet paper rags, and that this would be good for you since repression isn't healthy,"

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

Old cans of beer threatened to spill over from the bulging bin that sat next to the worn and stained armchair, the pungent odour, a mix of stale and fresh cigarette, threatened to eradicate any chances of smelling ever again.

The man sitting in the chair had his eyes glued to the screen, as if there wasn't a single thing in the world that could have gotten him to redirect his gaze.

Even when the t.v sagged a little lower towards the ground, his eyes didn't flicker one inch save for following it down.

Taking another swig of the open can in his hand, followed by a drag from the stump of a cigarette in the other, the man put the can down on the leaflet his now ex had insisted he take about Rowan's funeral, creating yet another rim stain on the discoloured picture of his now-deceased daughter's face... not that he'd even have gone.

He hadn't wanted anything to do with that runt, but he'd been forced to care for the brat regardless. He might have not minded, as much, if it had been a boy, then he might've had someone to finally get him to use the baseball bat that was propped up behind his chair gathering dust.

Now that the whining bitch had gone from the house, and it's mother, he could at long last get some god-damn peace and quiet...

A growl escaped his lips as the sound of some tinny voice from somewhere upstairs began calling out.

"Damn bitch," he muttered, slurring the words slightly, "Leavin' the shit's fuckin' crap upstairs,"

The floorboards of his weathered staircase creaked underfoot as he made his way upwards to the room he had been forced to give to the brat.

A book, one of those ones you'd play sound cues when reading from it, was propped up on the wall on the far side of the room.

Shuffling over, the man snatched up the book and looked down at it as if it's mere existence offended him.

He knew what he was going to do with it.

Making his way back down the stairs, he carried the book past the living room and through to the kitchen.

Turning the oven on to full, watching for a moment as the blue flames at the back burst into light as he waited for the heat to build, before returning back to glaring at the book that had interrupted his peace.

Another growl escaped his lips as each obnoxious ring of the landline tore through his joy at getting to burn the little shit's toys, a fitting end as the brat was getting tossed in a big-ass furnace herself.

Stomping back through to the living room, he nearly knocked the charger off the table with the force he yanked the phone free with.

"What!" he barked into the phone, reaching around behind him to mute the television and grab his beer.

"Where are you?"

He held the phone away from his head as he groaned, emptying the last of the can in a single go as the voice of his ex-wife berated him through the phone.

"... said you'd be here, David!"

"Oh, will you quit your yappin'!" David cut across her, "I didn't promise no nothing to be there.

Far as I'm concerned, that shit got what she deserved and no less! I didn't ask for no kid, and I damn didn't want one with you!"

A third growl escaped him as a continual stream of insults flowed through the phone as he turned back to the t.v and un-muted it.

"... in other news, the body of David Scorber was found burnt and mutilated late last night following a house fire that seems to have stemmed from an unattended stove..."

David did the fastest double-take of his life as his head snapped back to the screen.

"... are you even listening to..."

Setting the phone down on the table, cutting her off mid-speech, David took a few ambled steps closer to the television.

The screen had a picture of his face in the upper left-hand corner, and what looked like stock footage of fire-fighters tackling a house-fire. The entire situation was rather… disturbing…

What confused him the most though, was the fact that the usual blonde he so enjoyed watching wasn't on the screen…

It was a kid, a teenager.

Their almost night-sky black hair hung in long strands that pointed every which way, sometimes getting caught on their glasses as they bobbed their head whilst talking about how a fire in the kitchen led to the house becoming a blazing inferno within minutes by spreading to the clutter of trash kept inside from a lack of both decorum and cleaning.

It was only as the teen talked about how his money-pit of a daughter had been cremated earlier that day did he remember what he had been planning to do.

Hurrying through to the kitchen, he fumbled with the knobs of the oven before eventually shutting it down.

Panting, as it had been a long time he had moved that fast, he slowly lurched back through to look at the television.

"... and in other news, the world's smartest man... well, pig, has been discovered.

One David Scorber, only mere seconds ago, realised that one of the dumbest things that you can do is leave an oven unattended when planning to destroy children's playthings...

Bet you think you're a real smart one, huh, Davy?"

David nearly against the wall behind him as the teen on the screen turned and seemed to be looking right... at... him...

"No," his raspy voice muttered quietly to himself, "No, no no... this is... this is just some bad shit I've been drinkin'..."

"Could be a bad drink... or six," the teen on the screen said, scratching his chin, "Though... I do think that there's a much better question to be asked here...

You wanna see a magic trick?"

The teen on the screen leaned a little closer, as if he could fall right through the glass and tumble out onto the unkempt carpet below, and David could see something akin to barely restrained excitement glistening in the harsh blue eyes.

"What do you want?" David snarled at the teen, his eyes darting to the phone on the table.

"Just to ask you a question... try it," the teen smirked, "No, seriously, if you think calling anyone will help, then go for it,"

David glared feebly at the screen, watching as the teen leant back non-nonchalantly in the chair he was presumably sitting upon.

"Fine then," David's gravelly voice made the unimpressive threat just the tiniest bit more believable as he walked around his armchair and picked up the phone and dialled.

"9-1-1, what's your emergency?" the voice on the other line asked.

"There seems to be some punk messin' with my t.v, hackin' it an' all that, goin' on 'bout how I'm gonna die," he told the person, not breaking eye contact with the teen.

"Very well, sir, we'll have an officer with you shortly to check things out, meanwhile, I'm going to transfer you to our documenter so that he can get a statement in the meantime while you wait, is that alright?"

"That's jus' fine," David's lips curled as he watched the teen's mouth turn into a twitching sneer.

The victorious smirk that had spread across his cheeks quickly turned south, his eyes widening with shock and horror, as he watched the teen pick up a mobile phone, click answer, and bring it to his ear.

"Hello, David, how can I help you?"

The voice echoed through both the speakers from the television and the phone in his hand, though he could feel the latter slowly sliding out of his grip.

Once the phone thudded on the floor, the teen looked at the phone in his hand, shrugged, then turned back to David.

"Huh, guess the call dropped," he shrugged, flipping the phone closed to end the call.

"What do you want?" David asked, fear stretching out his eyes.

"I only want to ask you a question," the teen said, leaning forward, their face arranged into a mock expression of hurt that couldn't quite hide the malevolent smirk on his face.

"What question?" David asked, knowing that there was little choice he had left.

"Do you want to see a magic trick?"

David couldn't bring himself to look away from the screen as the teen leant a little closer to the screen, almost close enough that his face took up the entire picture.

"What do you want?" David asked as he, in a moment of faked bravado, took a step forward.

"Do you want to see a magic trick?" the teen repeated, more forceful this time, more demanding.

"What trick?" David asked, a quiver of fear escaping despite his best attempts.

"A magic trick," the teen smiled happily, "Come on now, a yes is all that's needed for this to be over…

Do you want to see a magic trick?"

Seeing no other way out, the freak probably had someone waiting outside the door if he tried to escape, David gave a growl that was close to feral.

" _Fine_!" he snarled, "Show me your trick,"

The teen leant forward, a new manic energy shining through his smile.

"Look behind you," he whispered.

David's eyes widened in horror, slowly turning to look behind him, as he kept shooting glances from side to side, not wanting to see what was… behind… him…

Confusion reigned over him as once he had turned around, he was faced with his empty room, armchair, and ashtray.

A nerve began to twitch in David's cheek, his eyes darting around to try and find anything that was out of the ordinary.

Feeling that he was definitely being fucked around with, David began fuming and spun around to yell at the teen for wasting his time…

Only to find that an almost identical copy of the teen was sitting atop his television.

A face-mask with a solid grey bar across the area where the mouth would be covered the lower portion of his face, while a pair of light-blue goggles pushing his hair up and out of his face.

"Ta-da!" the teen cheered while shaking his hands at David, who had fallen backwards into his armchair out of shock, "Pretty cool, huh?"

"Wha… how… what are you?" David gasped, his eyes wide and face gaunt.

"I'm a Djinn," the teen said cheerily, "Call me Isaac,"

Now that David had had a moment to calm himself down, he could take the… Gin's apparel in in a better light.

The hooded jumper he wore hung off him slightly, and the…

His eyes immediately focussed in on the various knives, sorted into sheaths along a leather harness that cross the teen's chest, before darting to the old axe that hung at his side.

"Oh, like my knives?" the teen asked, looking down at the various handles, "Kinda hard to use my magic when you've got those magical fuck-wads that police us like we're cattle for a starving banquet… that's a way too accurate analogy..."

David frowned as he listened to the Gin talk.

"So… why are you here?" he asked it.

"Those fuck-wads I mentioned? They're getting ready to order the main course, and can you guess who's on their chopping block next?" the teen made a mockingly cute face, framing his expression with his hands.

"So… _Gin_ , what do you want?" David asked, his lip curling once more.

"Well, to keep my pulse is a good place to start, but to do that, I can't be found by those wand-waving morons, so… I had a plan," Isaac was glad he was wearing his face-mask because the grin he had on underneath would have been far too telling, "… I followed a ley-line until I found one that intersected another and hid there.

But, nothing is ever that simple.

This house..." he gestured around, "… is built on the crossing point, and I can't live in a place without someone knowing I'm there, a bit like how a vampire can't go into a place without being invited..."

"And you need me to say that you can live here?" David sneered.

"Pretty much, I'd not be doing this, but Charlotte died, so..."

"What do you mean?" David cut across him, his face rapidly going through all the bright shades of red, "You mean that wasted load said you could live here?"

"Every kid wants to hang out with their imaginary friend," Isaac said, holding his hands up, "And it's going to be weird if a forty-year-old man suddenly has a fifteen-year-old looking kid appear randomly, so… I'm going to offer you a deal,"

"What deal?" David asked, thinking of how he could get to the kitchen and get a knife to get rid of the Gin.

"You don't want me here, you didn't want Charlotte here, and Charlotte being dead is going to raise a literal shit-storm with the police, social services, and they're gonna win a court case and charge you with negligence for sure.

So, I'm going to make a deal with you.

I can bring Charlotte back, I can make it so nobody remembers that she died, and I can make it so that Charlotte and her mother move to a place with another ley-line intersection and leave you alone for the rest of your life,"

"And what do I get out of it?" David demanded, "The brat's dead, so I don't have to deal with her and the bitch, I've got my peace and quiet the now, seems like..."

"You've forgotten the part about the police?" Isaac finished his sentence early, "A kid randomly dying, being watched by her alcoholic father, who hated her and didn't want her there… probably not gonna end well for you in court, like I said before,"

David ground his teeth.

"Fine, whatever," he said, anything to get rid of the Gin at this point.

"Alright then," Isaac said happily, ungloving one of his hands, "All we need to do is shake on it,"

David crossed over the room and was about to snatch the Gin's hand, when Isaac pulled his hand out of reach.

"Should probably mention this, but when we shake, my hand's gonna do the whole 'burst into flame to seal a deal' thing, just a heads up," Isaac said as he stretched his fingers.

"Just get this over with," David snapped.

Isaac reached out and shook his hand.

David gasped in pain as blue flames with the occasional spark of green erupted around their hand, searing his skin and causing blisters to bubble forth.

" _LET GO_!" he screeched, trying to pull his hand free to no avail.

Isaac tightened his grip for a few moments before letting go and watching as David fell backwards and collapsed on the ground, sitting on his knees and cradling his burnt, raw, hand.

"Well, a deal's a deal," Isaac said, hopping down and dusting his untarnished hands off, "So, I'll go play memory-operation on whoever knew Charlotte had died, and she'll be happy playing upstairs with a few toys I'll pop in there,"

David wasn't really listening to what the Gin had been saying, but when he said the runt's name he was about to shout at the kid saying he didn't want her in his house ever again.

But, the Gin had already disappeared in a puff of black smoke, for a moment, David thought that he could see a tall figure of monochromatic black and white behind him, but everything was gone before he had gotten a good enough look.

Now that it was just him again… David began to wonder what had really happened…

There wasn't any evidence that the kid had been there, beyond his agonisingly sore hand, and it could easily be explained as having burnt himself on the stove after nearly blacking out due to his beer…

Then the laughing came…

The sound of a small child gleefully playing floated downstairs and David could feel his blood run cold.

It couldn't be… it couldn't… could it be…

He didn't want to know…

He didn't want to look…

He didn't want to be slowly walking up the stairs, but that didn't mean his overwhelming sense of curiosity kept him moving one leg after the other.

Stopping outside the stained door of the room he had been forced to give up, the laughter seemed…

David sharply shook his head, as if this was all one bad dream and he would wake on his chair having spilt his drink…

Yeah, that was it… this was all one bad dream… so what did it matter that he was opening the door, it was just a dream, after all…

Right?

The door slowly swung open, the old hinges creaking from years of dirt build-up, and David looked into the room.

Lying down on the ground was… Charlotte…

His spawn was lying there, legs crossed and waving in the air, as she scribbled away at one of those drawing books he had been forced to get her last Christmas.

"Daddy?"

David's blood seemed to chill as Charlotte turned around and looked at him.

Her rotten flesh was pock-marked skin seemed to go all the way to the bone in various parts, a black sludge dripped from several of them, as if her blood had been replaced by the world's darkest blackberry jam, and her eyes looked as if they had been built from various piles of spider webs.

"Daddy!" Charlotte gurgled happily, "You came back!"

Nearly falling over in his haste, David scrambled away from the door before reaching for a discarded pair of trousers. Wrestling with them to take the belt off of them, he fastened the loop around the handle before tying it off against the bannister of the stairs.

The door shook as Charlotte tried to pull the door open, the frame shaking as it protested being strained in such a way, as David almost smashed into the front door as he rushed back down the stairs.

" _GIN_!" he bellowed, hoping he could get the freak's attention, " _GIN_!"

"You called?" a cheeky voice asked.

The Gin re-appeared in the doorway of his kitchen, eating an apple, and looking bored.

" _THE HELL IS THAT THING_?" David screeched at him, gesturing up the stairs towards where the monster of his daughter was.

"You're daughter," Isaac said, "Oh… wait, did you think that something dead for the better part of two weeks would be the same as you left it?"

David's face quickly turned the shade of well-ripened tomatoes.

" _You lied to me_!" he hissed at him, "You said she'd be gone and away! Denise isn't going to want to take a thing that looks like an Evil Dead extra into her house! It's an abomination!"

All while David had been speaking, Isaac was getting bored.

True, it wasn't likely that he'd get brought along for a kill for a while, but he'd had his fun toying with this moron and he was _really_ getting on his nerves.

"So… I take it you want to cancel our deal?" Isaac asked him.

"YES! I WANT TO GET RID OF YOU! THAT BITCH! HER MOTHER! ALL OF YOU!" David screamed so hard Isaac thought that he'd throw up one of his lungs.

"Well… that's a problem..." Isaac sucked in air through his teeth, "You see, a Djinn deal can't be broken… that easily…

You see this?" he fished out a ball of his pocket.

Although Isaac knew what it was, to David, it looked like a small cage around the size of a tennis ball.

Gold plates held in place by strips of silver dangled from a short-chain.

"It's basically what passes for our… well, let's say life-support.

Our heart's beat, lungs breath, and eyes blink, but what lets us live is essentially this.

A Djinn can't go back on a deal, magic won't let us, but if you hold this, then our will to live can let us break a deal.

I'll send little Charlotte back to whatever circus of the afterlife she comes from, and you can go on your way… _if_ , and only if, you can get this from me," Isaac let the small ball wave slightly on its chain.

"So give it to me!" David demanded, "Just get this over with,"

"Not that simple," Isaac smirked, "You gotta take it from me,"

Isaac's eyes met David's as he put the ball back in his pocket before taking out the hunting knife Jeff had given him.

A tense moment passed, neither of them blinking, looking away, or moving.

Rolling his eyes, Isaac slowly turned to face away from David.

"Well, if you're not wanting to get out of it that badly, then I'll just go..."

His smirk renewed itself, splitting his gums apart as fast as one could blink, as he heard the rush of David's footsteps thud towards him.

The baseball bat was raised high above his head, ready to swing down, but a quick turn let him block it, even chip out a large chunk, with the knife.

Twisting it around, David surprisingly managed to hold on to the handle as Isaac deflected his attack before planting a foot squarely on his gut and kicking him away further into the living room.

By the time that David had recovered, Isaac had landed a clean swipe against his burnt hand, splitting the cracked skin open and digging it in further along his arm.

David's howl of pain only caused Isaac's grin to widen further until it was manic in proportion.

Pushing him further back, Isaac slammed David's body against the window before yanking the knife out, taking as much skin with it, and prepared to see just how stringy his intestines were, when David's fist connected with his jaw.

The force caused him to stumble backwards, just holding onto the hilt of the knife as his kick was returned with vigour.

A roar of pain bellowed through the rooms as David charged Isaac again, swinging the bat around madly and smashing the t.v, a lamp, and the ceiling light, before Isaac grabbed it and yanked it free from him.

His breath was knocked out of him as all of David's weight fell against him, following him pulling the bat off of him, and he was flattened against the floor beneath the foul stench of the unwashed man, stale beer, and tobacco.

David's elbow pinned him on the floor as he felt the man's un-burnt hand rummaging against his hoodie pockets.

"HA!" David jeered, waving the ball in his face before getting up, making sure to stamp on his leg as he did so, "I got it!"

Isaac took the chance to catch his breath, glad to have somewhat fresh air filling his sinuses once more.

"Very well," Isaac said, pulling himself up into a sitting position to rest against a cabinet in the kitchen and putting the knife back in it's sheath, "What do you want me to do?"

"Get rid of the bitch!" David growled at him, holding the ball tightly in front of him, "And get the Hell out of my house!"

"As..."

Isaac stood up, pulling out a small metal tube with a red button on the top out of his other pocket.

"… you..."

David and his eyes met once again, seething hatred from David and delight in Isaac's.

"… wish,"

He slammed his other hand down on the button.

The ball blew outwards in a large ball of fire, engulfing the living room and David in a matter of seconds.

Isaac himself would have been caught in the wave of fire, had he not rolled out of the way into the little hollow where the garden door was.

David's screams grew louder and more pain-filled as the flames stuck to everything they could, chair, wall, floor, ceiling, clothing and skin.

He had fallen to his knees by the time that Isaac returned to the room, the fire reflected in his goggles as he let the handle of his axe slid down until he had a proper grip on it.

The burnt husk of David turned to look up at him, skin as raw as his hand had been and burnt beyond healing.

"Back-yard napalm packs a pretty punch, don't it?" Isaac asked, looking down at David's trembling body.

David's cracked and torn lips opened, tearing his skin further still, as he tried to speak.

But before a single whimper or plea could escape him, Isaac swung the broad face of the axe into his head, knocking him down onto all fours.

Raising the axe above his head, Isaac looked down at David one last time.

"Show's over,"

Slamming the axe down on his neck, David's head just barely stayed on, a single strand of muscle even smaller than the one that held Nearly-Headless Nick's head on, stretched as David's lifeless body crumpled onto the ground.

A creaking overhead heralded the ceiling giving way.

"Welp," Isaac yelped, "Time to go,"

Running back into the living room, Isaac picked up the heavy knife block he had debated whether to smash into David's head earlier, and threw it as hard as he could at the big window above the kitchen sink before following after it with haste.

He barely got out through the smashed opening before flames bellowed out, strengthened by the sudden influx of air.

Getting up from his roll on the unkempt grass, Isaac watched as the flames got higher and hotter, just able to make out the ceiling of the living room giving out and collapsing in on itself.

A low whistle yanked his attention away from his devouring inferno to the clown and small child standing in the garden and clapping.

"Not bad, see you haven't lost your touch," Laughing Jack nodded his approval, "Surprised you toyed with him for that long,"

"Probably not gonna get a chance to get out like this for a while," Isaac pointed out, "Might as well have some fun with it,"

Charlotte waddled over to him, wanting to get picked up so she could see the fire better. To which Isaac gladly helped, picking her up and popping her on his shoulders.

"And you can't fault a guy for wanting to have some fun," L.J said, pulling a bag of marshmallows out of his pocket and producing two long poles from the other.

After toasting the better half of the contents of the bag, L.J admitted that he'd probably have to get Isaac back to Hogwarts sooner than later.

Though, he did let Isaac grab a quick shower at The Carnival beforehand.

 **(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)**

L.J's Carnival.

Scrubbing his hair furiously, Isaac stepped out of the bathroom and into a room he hadn't been too fairly often in all his visits to The Carnival.

L.J's tent.

That was, to say, what one could have assumed to have been where L.J had lived before joining The Slenderman at The Mansion.

The tent itself was hardly any different to the others dotted around The Carnival on the outside…

But, on the inside, it was clear that it stretched higher than it should have and didn't have any of the sway of creaks that the others did.

It also had modern lighting, functional plumbing, and a very comfortable rug, though that last one wasn't too hard to find.

His change of pyjamas had been lain out on the plush couch, yet another amenity not commonly found in tents, but he wasn't complaining, the thing was damn comfy.

As Isaac was mid-change when he felt the odd sensation that came with being watched by someone you hadn't noticed.

"Had fun?" Ben asked, leaning against the frame of the door…

Isaac would have had a quicker time listing what you did find in tents that were in L.J's tent rather than everything you normally didn't…

… and looking at him with a wide, although blushed-red, smile.

"Like you wouldn't believe," Isaac said, his own grin growing as he pulled his shirt on before getting knocked onto the couch.

Ben let out a brief yelp as L.J practically threw him onto the couch.

"I'll give the two of you an hour, have fun,"

Both Isaac and Ben blushed at the sing-song tone L.J used before disappearing.

"So, what's been going on while I've been away?" Isaac and Ben both asked at the same time.

"Jinx!" Ben cried, "You first,"

Isaac rolled his eyes, tugging Ben closer as he did so.

"Well, where should I start...

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Wednesday morning.

The slow start to the equally dull day was about to have its monotonous ways broken very shortly.

Isaac had just plodded his way into The Great Hall, a yawn stifled by his sleeve, as he sat down opposite his bushy-haired friend and poured himself a generous amount of cereal.

"Anything interesting in the… in the…" another yawn broke through, causing him to break off, "… interesting in the paper this time?" he asked Hermione.

"Yes," she whispered, passing it over to him, "Take a look at this!" she urged quietly.

~COVER-UP AT AZKABAN!~

~Last night, a whistle-blower from within The Ministry of Magic has confirmed that a recent count of the Dementors that are employed to guard the nigh-inescapable fortress reported that a minimum of two Dementors were missing!~

~The Ministry worker, who's name shall be struck from any of our articles or records, at their own request, has brought proof that a recent survey within the prison has confirmed that the number of Dementors that are expected to be found on the remote island was less than the count taken just after the New Year!~

~This revelation will undoubtedly raise many questions within the community at large about the promises from Minister Fudge about the updates to Azkaban following Sirius Black's escape just over two years ago.~

The rest of the paper went on about how the writer expected the public to react to the reveal of the article as well as Fudge's promises to the Wizarding world and, sure enough, when looking around the Great Hall many were whispering amongst each other about this morning's newspaper.

Meanwhile, at the far end of the room, Hogwart's newest Professor was looking over the paper with pursed lips and a sour look on her face as though she had been forced to swallow a peeled lemon whole after going a day with nary a drop of water.

The rest of breakfast was incredibly dull in comparison to that.

Classes that morning were filled with whispers about the situation at Azkaban, and the rumour was that Umbridge was giving anyone who so much as muttered it in her class detention.

During the lunch break, Hermione and Isaac were heading off to the Library to get a head start on homework and read to read the book about defensive magic Umbridge had them using.

"I don't think she'll have been particularly happy about this," Hermione said, adjusting her bag strap as they walked down the corridor.

How Umbridge was reacting had been a point of debate for nearly everyone, with rumours like the one from before ranging to her performing 'Obliviate' on anyone that brought it up.

Isaac, meanwhile, was too busy thinking about the fun he would be having that up and coming Saturday.

"She can't do anything about The Daily Prophet printing the article, but she's definitely going to try and stop people talking about it whenever she can..."

Hermione broke off with a scoff.

"Hopefully she'll be too busy stopping people talking about it to actually teach us any of the trot she calls 'Defensive Magic'..."

Just as they rounded the corner, they were met with the squat witch herself.

Hermione immediately went pink in the face, her eyes wide as she looked down at the pink-clad Professor.

"Mrs Granger, I had hoped that the deduction of points was enough," Umbridge began before either of them could speak, "But if this continuous behaviour has proven anything, it's that tougher punishments are needed.

Detention, my office, tomorrow, seven o'clock,"

Casting one last glance at Isaac, she bustled away and Isaac could have sworn she had looked at him with loathing regret.

Regret for what, however?

He didn't care.

"You alright?" Isaac asked her, leaning forward to see around the mass of hair.

Hermione didn't answer him, opting to continue on their path towards The Library.

When they got there, she sat in silence long enough for Isaac to go off and find a few books on Runes and modifying them.

"Look, it's not your first detention, and you know she's just pissed off at the fact people are questioning those Ministry morons," Isaac told her twelve minutes into her self-imposed vow of silence, "And she can't do anything really horrible to you..."

He paused to give Hermione a moment to speak, but, when she didn't take the chance to say anything, Isaac sighed and continued.

"... plus, if she really does anything of high-degree bitchiness, then I'll give L.J a ring and have enough military-grade tear gas to choke Cthulu out pumped into her bedroom before you can say..."

"Where would he even get military-grade tear gas?" Hermione asked, choking on her brief chuckle as she turned to look at him, wiping away some of the excess water in her eyes.

"... that,"

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Endnotes.

For reference to non-English speakers, "Djinn" and "Gin" are pronounced the same in English.

 **(X) Review (X)**

WhiteWolfWinter;

Welcome!

Eh, who do you like more, and it's for them?

It's an idea so far, as I'm still figuring out the best way to do it.

Don't apologise for sharing an idea, I rely on readers for ideas all the time.

 **(X) Review (X)**

buterflypuss;

Thanks.

 **(X) Review (X)**

HEAllbeeCat;

Welcome!

Yeah, Dumbledore is going to die before the story ends, I just need to figure out how to do it.

Thanks, glad that you love it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

destielis4ever;

I am pleased with your eagerness.

I think it's probably a dumb idea, whatever he does.

 **(X) Review (X)**

connormayor50;

He just keeps a decent supply of biscuits on hand because he gets peckish.

I don't want to burn out or abandon this, nor do I want to go on a hiatus, I want to get this out with regular uploads, even if it does take a bit longer.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

I love morbid knowledge.

Eh, it's just a Mechanical Instinct to recommend them on our Little Horror Story.

That's the only two I can remember off the top of my head that I can use when talking about the story.

That _is_ her backstory. I went on Pottermore to find stuff about her and that fitted right in.

That book is a disgrace, yes.

Hermione and books is a very easy subject for bets.

Isaac doesn't know what exactly she's doing, just that it's not something he's interested in.

I definitely want to write more about the student's perspectives of Isaac.

Dumbledore does run his school, he just wants to defeat a Dark Lord by making a student his sacrificial pawn.

Bear in mind, Dumbledore is a wizard, he will definitely know a fair few things to make life a bit harder when escaping.

A boat? That doesn't work when in reverse?

Well, there's no going back on that purchase.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Randomperson (Guest);

Isaac can't hear you, he's wearing tide pods.

Yes, I love annoying people with outdated things.

I believe I've read Time Turned Back, but I'll check the other two out.

 **(X) Review (X)**

thebluerose27;

Welcome!

I am too, and I know what's coming!

I actually don't... my brain isn't working at...

'begins to buffer'

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

Where you leaving to go to?

I think you'd be the least of Dumbledore's problems.

He gonna have one pissed off flaming murder boi after him.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Katropis12;

Oh?

Oh yes.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Jaybird (Guest);

Weeb...

'ignores the Yuri On Ice poster hanging on my wall'

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

He better not cry.

He better not shout, I'm telling you why.

Isaac's plotting murder, tonight!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Phoenix373;

I've just realised, your name sounds like an aeroplane call sign.

Maybe not this time, but definitely... eventually...

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

The Order is dumb.

If I finish the story on 99 chapters, then I'm gonna be happy and cackle like a witch.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Koolkat1573;

I will make a bunch of Wil-E-Coyote styled attempts on EXTRAS at some point of that.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

Life is going a bit downhill for me too.

Let go from work because 'References were unable to be contacted', even though one is a family friend who swears that he hadn't been contacted.

Ended things with my boyfriend, our relationship had been falling apart for a while and things weren't going to get any better.

On the plus sides, I did have a lovely time on a day trip to Burntisland.

Found a few Hag Stones, a few things for Warhammer details, visited a lovely shop called The Green Witch. All in all, a very good day.

I haven't tried DDR for ages, and I think I'm still terrible at it.

I really want to do a chapter where Isaac and Voldemort are forced to talk to one another, and Isaac proves that he'd be a much better Dark Lord if he could be bothered before snapping his neck and going to snuggle with Ben.

Don't worry about Isaac, he's got a biscuit.

I should write an Assassin AU for these guys, adding it to the list...

I'm glad that you liked Umbridge's first class.

Dumble and Umbridge, the perfect duo of assholery.

Yes, Ben better be careful.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

I will try and make Dumbledore's death as memorable as possible.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Being an adult sucks!

Glad you liked it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt the Hedgehog Android;

Yes, Ben, Ben be in deep doo-doo.

Dumbledore is Arse, yes.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Anonymous Fan (Guest);

Dumbledore is being an idiot, and I love it when they doom themselves.

Awesome, let me know when you finally make an account.

Try underscores '_' when separating things if the name is taken, or numbers as I've apparently got a plane that... actually... a plane named 'Phoenix' isn't exactly the most reassuring thing out there...

If I can, she will.

 **(X) Review (X)**

KanaRadiance;

Dumbledore is gonna have one Hell of a time if he does try and get Ben.

The fit has definitely hit the shan.

Glad you liked it, hope you like this one too.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Sly the gratsulover117;

If I can't work it into the story, then it'll be an EXTRAS.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Gia Bean;

Welcome!

I'm assuming you're talking about L.J teasing Jeff?

If not, you'll have to specify.

It's alright, I've had many a messed up review.

I'm glad that you liked it, and I hope that you like this one as well.

Dumbledore is going to regret a large amount of this.

 **(X) Review (X)**

theaceoffire;

CH5;

Welcome!

I hate those two words.

I detest those words.

I'm fairly certain that I overused them in one chapter just because I felt like I needed to show I can use them properly.

 **(X) Review (X)**

navyboo0480;

CH25;

Welcome!

Thanks, if it hasn't been changed, then I'll have fixed it.

CH29;

Thanks, I think I'll go with that one.

 **(X) Review (X)**

LoveFanFictionForLife;

CH1;

Welcome!

Thank you, hopefully, I will be able to get a bit more traction in the future.

You're welcome.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Vendetta-Singe;

Welcome!

Yeah, I have no idea how that's going to go down.

I'm going to have a lot of fun, which-ever way I write it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

'Gasp'

Can you say that?

Eh, it's fine, I can't really judge anyone for censorship, I have failed the art.

Dumbledore's body won't even be in big enough pieces to hide.

Yeah, definitely would make an interesting AU idea.

If L.J turns up to teach, I don't think there'd be a single one who wouldn't remember that class...

Trust me, it's going to be Hell.

I really want to do a story that revolves around music, not like the ones that take a song and write something that'd go with the themes and tone, but songs are an integral part of the story and events.

I've seen the Umbridge version, respect to getting that done so well.

OI! I'm under 30! But, yeah, I can't really disagree...

 **(X) Review (X)**

Guest (Guest);

I hope this wasn't too late, been a bit busy.

 **(X) Review (X)**

I'd like to thank everyone who gave their support in the reviews on the apology letter, I'm not spending time putting the responses to them all in this one, and if it turns out that I got reviews on other chapters while I was recovering this then I'll answer them in the next one.

Now, there's a bit that definitely looks weird when compared to everything else, but I've got everything thought out so trust me on it, an answer will come in due course.

Writing things has been getting tougher, and since I've been accepted into a college course I've wanted to do for a while, I'm hoping that it'll get my creativity going once again since my original weekly update streak came when I had another full-time course going on as well.

I've also had a few more ideas for EXTRAS stories so there might by updates in those in the semi-near future since I'll try writing multiple things at once to try and jump-start my mind again.

I've set the end-point of the story for the same date as it was first uploaded, and I hope that I'll be able to have enough chapters by that point for my once-a-week plan to have seemed true.

So, assuming that my sanity hasn't dissolved by the time I upload the next chapter, I'll see you all then.

SteamGeek01.

SteamGeek01.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – God knows.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao & Room 42 (Zippers & Sir Pebbles The Third) – Jinbeizamezama.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – soffbois - According to reader research.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	90. Chapter 90, Detention Interruption

Chapter 90, Detention Intervention.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Alright, hopefully, I'm back on track.

The last chapter has hopefully gone over well, and I've got an idea on what I'm wanting to happen by the time this has all finished.

I've been having a bit of fun trying to get my creativity jump-started.

If you watch SCP Illustrated, I'm making a model of his version of SCP-173.

I've been DM-ing a campaign for friends that's gone to Hell in a good way. They're all Chaotic-blank, so this is the prequel campaign for the next one where I'll be a player trying to fix the mess of my campaign… it's weird… so many baby sacrifices… ' _bring us the child_ ' has become the tag-line, you can probably guess why… and the fact that they crafted a sentient sword and it can only talk in varying inflexions of George Takei's "Oh my,"...

My impending mental breakdown aside, hope you enjoy this.

SteamGeek01.

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Laughing Jack's Carnival.

"So, what was the detention?" Ben asked, looking up from his make-shift pillow of Isaac's chest.

"Oh, it was… was…" Isaac shook his head, like a dog fresh out of a pond, "… lines, yikes, must be tired..."

"Hopefully not tired enough to hear about Slendy ripping some demonic lizards to shreds?" Ben asked him, reaching up and flicking the side of Isaac's head.

"Murder? Mayhem? Slendy playing demonic Fruit Ninja?" Isaac grinned and pulled Ben up closer, "Always,"

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Fordell Firs.

The Slenderman stood as still as the many trees around him as he surveyed the land.

Just in front of him, Masky, Hoody, Jeff, and Clockwork were fighting off wave after wave of demonic lizards that were barely an inch off of the size of Rottweilers.

Up ahead, the ditch from which the infernal monsters were coming from glowed with a sickly orange burst of light, arcs akin to solar flares spurted forth every so often.

What currently had a hold of his attention, was the lizards that could dwarf even the biggest of black bears currently pulling themselves free.

Appearing before the first, his arms limp at the side, tendrils that seemed to have been born from the darkest of smoke and purest shadow tore into it's chest, lifting it into the air, before ripping it in two and tossing the halves of the carcass to the side as one would a wrapper from a lollipop.

The second and third creatures hissed a raspy and guttural cry before charging at him.

Within moments, the second had had it's head ripped from it's neck and slammed into the side of the third, which was bifurcated moments later with one fell swipe.

A fourth leapt forth from the pit, it's rows of razor teeth dripping with spit and claws outstretched.

Tendrils slammed it into the ground, head first, before Slendy finally used his hands to rip the creature's skull open. Digging his bony fingers deep through flesh, muscle, and bone, The Slenderman pulled it apart before throwing the body back into the put.

Metres away from him, a shout caused him to turn.

Masky was duelling with one of the smaller creatures, but his cry of asking if anyone had seen where Toby was caused them all to pause.

"BONZAI!" a shout of joy echoed through the field.

Toby was speeding along the field on a quad-bike with a short trailer attached to the back of it… with a piece of sparking wire waving behind him.

"Toby?" Masky paused before driving the knife he wielded into the skull of the creature he had been holding in position, "Toby… TOBY!"

" _TRUST FALL_!" Toby shouted, his eyes zeroed in on the ditch in the ground.

"TOBY!" Masky shouted, dropping the now dead demon to the ground and sprinting towards the speeding pyromaniac, "DON'T YOU DARE..."

"TRUST FALL!" Toby shouted before launching himself off the quad-bike and towards the flannel-wearing killer.

The two of them fell onto the ground in a crumpled pile of mud, wheat, sweat, blood, and the bits of gunpowder that had gotten stuck to Toby's clothes when making his gift for the demons.

"MORON!" Masky said, hitting Toby around the back of his head so that his face was planted hard into the dirt beneath them.

"Worth it," came the giggly and quite muffled response from the twitchy killer.

When the momentary break of silence had finally settled there, rather suddenly, came an ear-splitting ka-boom as the mobile bomb Toby had been driving mere seconds ago detonated.

Dirt and rapeseed seeds went flying every which way and coating next to everyone in the field as well as knocking Clockwork and Hoodie, who had been the closest to the source, onto their backs.

Of the chaos, the only two who escaped the showers of mud were Jeff and The Slenderman.

Jeff, upon seeing Toby speeding their way on the quad bike, had immediately run for cover behind the table that the cultists, whom they had already introduced to the stimulating sensation of having their throats slit, and braced for whatever mayhem was going to ensue.

Slenderman, however, had done nothing. Not even took a step back.

The most that the tall being had done was turn his head to look at bomb Toby had sent flying into the pit.

Gazing down into the pit, recently turned nine-foot radius crater, the obsidian and black marble monolith that had been buried for centuries were little more than tiny, little, pebble-sized, chips scattered across the lands.

Their recent 'party' with cultists had come when a local Explorer from the Scouts had gone looking for the alleged Roman road buried in one of the fields, an apparent stop for any and all ghost walks that the camping site hosted from time to time.

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"What happened to the Scout?" Isaac asked, letting his head rest atop of Ben's.

"Knocked him out, blacked out the memory, and sent him on his merry way," Ben said, closing his eyes and enjoying the moment.

"Really?" Isaac blinked in surprise, "Didn't kill him?"

"Didn't have a reason to," Ben said, "Not like anything bad would've come from letting him live.

Plus, you know Hoodie's a Time Team nut," Ben snickered, "Like he'd be able to blame the guy,"

At this, another old memory drifted up from the depths of Isaac's mind, causing him to start giggling once more.

"Remember… remember that time, there was that, erm… that… the dig, couple years back, somewhere near the big place where… Salem, that's the place, and there was that…

Slendy was in the room, and they were digging up a few skeletons, and they held one of the skulls to the camera so it could see it better, and..."

"And he said, 'Oh, it's Flaversham,'," Ben joined in after a minute of confusion, "And we were asking him how he knew..."

"And he said, 'You never forget an idiot like that,'," Isaac finished as the two of them burst into more laughter.

"I still… I still stand by..." Ben said, gasping for air, "… stand by that Toby looked insulted when Slendy said that that man could've given Toby a run for his money,"

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Eventually, L.J did have to return Isaac to Hogwarts.

"You two have fun?" the gangly clown asked him as they appeared inside a tall room with high windows and, up until a moment ago, one other occupant.

"Oh, hey guys," Fred said, looking up from cauldron, "George's sleeping over there, so shh,"

The other Weasley twin was indeed sleeping peacefully on the other side of the room, unaware of the sudden appearance of two murderers.

Fred had taken a break from working on the new Blister Bon-Bons for their latest set of Skiving Snack-boxes seen as the mixture wasn't taking to the moulds as well as others had.

"Looks good to me," L.J said, picking one of the defect ones off the table and popping it into his mouth, "Tastes good too, could you send me any that you can't sell?"

"Didn't Slendy say that you're not allowed to do anything with potions from here?" Isaac pointed out, stifling a yawn against the back of his hand.

"Technically, it's I'm not allowed to brew any of the potions, or have you do it. So, if it's made by Freddie over here, then it's all good," L.J said, patting Fred on the shoulder.

Fred rolled his eyes at L.J, coughing a moment later when he disappeared in a whirl of black smoke that stank of burnt sugar.

George sniffed in his sleep, but turned over and slept on.

"Looks like a sore one," Fred said, waving the last of the smoke away and pointing to the blooming bruise on Isaac's jaw.

"Yeah, stung for a moment, but I'm fine," Isaac said, remembering David's lucky shot at him.

Turning to a mirror propped up on one of the sinks, he closed his eyes and concentrated as he carefully applied layer after layer of a glamour.

He hadn't had much need for the use of glamours before, as unlike some of the others, he hadn't suffered from any outward deformations that needed hiding.

"You're not a Gorgon, looking at your reflection isn't going to turn you to stone," Fred said as he lifted some of the brown goop in the cauldron out and began pouring it into a mould he had next to him.

"Har-de-har ha," Isaac muttered, opening his eyes and checking the quality of his work.

Moving some of the skin on his jaw around, he could feel the dull ache from being punched, but there was no outward show of the bruise that could be seen.

"Good enough,"

"Y'gonna stop mumbling and tell me what you're saying?" Fred asked, setting the trays to the side.

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing, just checking the glamour to cover the bruise.

What-cha doing?" he asked, wandering over to the setting trays.

"Making more toffee's," he said, "One of the more popular things, especially since we're offering a sample kit of our Skiving Snack-boxes to a few lucky people who get the ones with the green wrappers,"

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Thursday evening, two days before Isaac's night out.

The morning broke as dull as it had the past days of the week. Grey clouds rolled lazily overhead, the breeze was hardly a nip to the ears and cheeks, and even the birds seemed to be half-assing it with their songs.

Breakfast that morning brought hardly any interesting events, the most exciting being a sale on fertilizer!

Hermione seemed to be in a dour mood since leaving bed that morning, and Isaac knew why.

"Do we need to repeat our conversation about the tear gas?" Isaac asked her as they walked into the Great Hall, "Or the one about..."

"If you bring up the spider cannons again, I'm going to charm your nails blue," Hermione said, shivering slightly.

"… it's a spider _mortar_ ," Isaac said with a charming smile.

"Cyan, or Navy?" Hermione reached into her bag and got out their charms book.

With Hermione's mind successfully distracted for the meanwhile, the two of them were able to spend a rather interesting Magical Creatures class outside with Bowtruckles.

It wasn't until their fourth period, D.A.D.A, when her mood turned south once again.

As the class ended, another waster fifty-five minutes of reading boring and pointless pages, Professor Umbridge deemed it necessary to remind her while everyone was packing their things away to go for lunch.

This sent mutters flourishing through the class, which put a smug look one particular ginger, as they filed out the room.

Hermione's mouth was once again glued shut, her face expressionless, and eyes downward.

"You'll be fine," Isaac reminded her once again.

"Mrs Prefect in detention?" Fred mock-gasped, sitting down next to her.

"I can't, nay, shan't believe my ears," George shook his head and took the seat next to her.

"Leave her alone, guys," Isaac said, subtly nicking a spoon from the spot next to him and ladling it and his own with mashed potatoes ready to fling at the pair.

"We surrender!" The twins said, glancing at each other before holding their hands up at the same time.

"I shall spare you..." Isaac added on, returning the spoon and taking a drink.

He nearly choked on his juice when the person next to him choked later on when they went to take a spoonful of custard and ended up with one mixed with potatoes.

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Sunday night, Malfoy Manor.

Lord Voldemort sat at the head of the table, looking at his assembled followers as they took their places along the mahogany expanse.

Many of those he would have liked to be there were unfortunately absent.

Bellatrix, and her husband, were still captive with other devotes. The plans to raid Azkaban and release them from their cells was one such matter they were going to discuss that evening.

Severus was maintaining his presence at Hogwarts, monitoring Dumbledore's actions. Though, there was little news on that front, just that the Headmaster seemed to have a new issue troubling his mind that he hadn't revealed the nature of to the rest of the staff, or The Order, at that moment in time.

And his newest recruit… well, he was performing his task… passably. He could allow for his mediocrity to impede his attempts for the moment, he was new, after all.

The meeting went as it normally did.

Report after report, plans discussed to improve their methods, and laughs at the expenses of filth, Mudbloods, and Dumbledore.

Something that had captured his interests, however, would have to wait until the very end to address. He did not want this idea to be known to his followers until he was certain that it was possible.

Once all matters of business were concluded, he called for Lucius to remain.

Many of his followers gave Lucius a fearful glance as they filed out, some hurrying to escape the area before things kicked off.

"Lucius, did you bring what I asked for?" Voldemort asked, his high voice sending a chill down the Malfoy Patriarch's spine.

"Yes, My Lord," he said, bowing before his seat and snapping his fingers.

A House-Elf quickly appeared, placed three old tomes on the table, and disappeared before the snap had finished echoing around the room.

"Are these to your liking?" Lucius asked, a quiver of nervous anticipation as Voldemort's hand ghosted over the cover of the first.

"These should do fine," Voldemort said, looking down at the faded covers, "Leave me,"

Upon his Lord's dismissal, Lucius bowed as low as his still pained leg would allow him to before making a hastened exit from the room.

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Hogwarts, Thursday 7 o'clock.

Isaac wrote the finishing touches to his essay on the principles of crystalline transfiguration before stretching and checking the time.

"Really need to get a new battery..." he muttered to himself.

Getting another piece of parchment out, he began to write out a letter home.

He had barely finished writing ~Hello~ when he felt something.

It wasn't as if something had touched him, there wasn't another student close enough to do so, and nothing was poking out from the chair he was on… if he was being honest, it was more like when he'd watch someone get hit with a dart, a phantom pain… but it was more of… well… a sense of alert that there was something he should know was causing pain...

"You alright?" George asked as Isaac passed him, going in rather a hurry, up the stairs.

"Yeah, just need to go for a run," Isaac called back, disappearing around the corner.

"Sure you not got ' _The runs_ '?" Fred asked as he sped back down and past them.

"See ya later," Isaac was gone before either of them could speak again.

Moments later, he was legging it down the corridors.

Fizz's key was in his hand, taking a few juddering attempts to get it into it's hole, and soon the midnight-blue mouse was scurrying up onto his shoulder.

His footsteps echoed slightly in the corridor. He normally would have been more concerned with being heard, but he _needed_ to get there!

In his pocket were his goggles and facemask. He hoped he didn't need to use them, but this feeling in his gut was practically screaming at him that something was wrong.

"Defence office, head-count," he told Fizz, carefully throwing the mouse ahead for it to scurry along the wall.

Isaac started to give stealth more consideration as he neared his target.

A quick glance down the bannister revealed Filch prowling below him. Luckily, there was a pebble dragged in by someone on accident.

Taking aim at a portrait, most of, if not all of them, were asleep at this point, so no witnesses, and threw it at a bust of some ancient wizard who had done something important enough to warrant a bust being made of them.

Filch dived forward and caught the bust less than an inch off the ground.

His cries of pain echoed around the empty corridors, waking a few portraits up to startled chokes, as he eased it onto the ground. A hiss filled with seething hatred escaped him as he stood up.

Having already left, Isaac could just hear his bellow of outrage to Peeves for trying to break the bust as he reached the corridor in which the door to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom was.

Scaling up into one of the stone rafters above, to avoid further confrontation, Fizz scurried over to him.

"How many?"

"Squeak,"

"Ok, two, Hermione and Umbridge?"

"Squeak,"

Over the years, it had become quite a bit easier for Isaac to distinguish between the idiosyncrasies of what each type of squeak meant.

"Squeak!"

"She's bleeding?" Isaac needed the sharp breath to calm himself so that his hands didn't burst into flames.

"Squeak," Fizz was practically shaking as he chirped away.

"Alright… make a distraction in the classroom, break a shelf with something heavy on it," Isaac said, looking for the nearest window to climb out of, "But wait for my signal to do so,"

Fizz squeaked, sounding rather like a private saluting a Brigadier to Isaac, but maybe that was just Isaac projecting a little...

It took Isaac no time at all to be outside the castle wall, clinging onto the bricks, as he edged his way along the wall.

The wind had picked up since that morning, or maybe that was just because of the height, and he was definitely thankful that he had brought his wand with him. It was a long way down.

Just because he knew what he was doing, didn't mean he couldn't make a mistake.

Finding the edges of the bricks, with careful movements, he carefully made his way closer, and closer, to the only source of light being cast from the tower.

He was barely a couple of feet away from the nearest office window when he heard voices.

"This is… this is _barbaric_!"

Hermione's words were underlaid with pain, shock, and she sounded like she was trying to hold back tears.

"This is..." Umbridge's sickeningly sweet voice carried out through the wall, "… a punishment given out by a Ministry-approved Professor. Now, Mrs Granger, you are not a Ministry-approved _anything_. You are nothing, in the eyes of The Ministry. So if you..."

Her words were almost blocked out by the blood rushing through Isaac's ears.

He knew that he had to take a moment to compose himself.

One reason being that if he didn't, then he could really make a mess of things and summon a tidal wave of trouble that he couldn't handle on his own.

The other was that he was hanging onto the wall of a few hundred-foot high tower and that he ran the danger of making a rather different kind of mess if he wasn't paying attention to what he was doing…

Shaking his hands to cool them down a bit faster, those scorch marks really gave the wall more personality, he cupped them together and started blowing through them.

A hooting noise, quite similar to that of an owl, warbled out over the grounds.

To any students, teachers, or any of the various inhabitants of The Forbidden Forest, they wouldn't be able to connect the sound to the loud crashing that came from the castle moments later.

"… if you continue to cause..."

Hermione let the Blood Quill drop from her hand as she and Professor Umbridge both turned to look at the closed door of her office.

"Stay here," Umbridge ordered Hermione and taking out her wand, "And keep writing, I expect to see a dozen more lines before I return!"

Through gritted, Hermione grabbed the quill once more and began writing, pausing for a gasp of pain every so often as more blood leaked from her hand.

That was, until a hand was clamped tight over her mouth.

"Don't scream!" Isaac said quickly, "It's me..."

He broke off, doubled over and gasping, as Hermione drove an elbow deep into his chest.

"Isaac!" Hermione immediately clamped her hand over her mouth due to the volume she had said his name, "What are you doing here?"

"I don't know," he admitted, "All I know is that we're getting out of here,"

"But, what about..."

"Don't worry about..." Isaac broke off and pulled Hermione's hand into better light by her wrist, "Hermione… what is she making you do?"

Hermione flinched at the cold tone that could have made her blood freeze, thankful that it wasn't at her.

"It's… it's her quill..." she told him, "Isaac, you need to go, if she..."

"And just what do we have here?"

Umbridge had barely spoken, her voice threateningly sweet, before Isaac had turned to face her.

Within the time it had taken Hermione to blink, Umbridge was slumped down against the door. Her nose was gushing with blood, and her hair, while already quite curled, was curling from heat, turning white, and crumbling away from the force upon which a flaming fist had contacted with her face.

Isaac let out a strong hiss of breath as he flexed the fingers, savouring the mild bit of pain he had gotten from decking the bitch.

"Isaac… what did you do?" Hermione's face was aghast as she took in Umbridge's unmoving figure.

"Let off a little steam," Isaac smirked, feeling a burn from the green flames that had flared.

"Isaac, you attacked a teacher..." Hermione started panting, unable to stop herself from panicking any longer, "A Ministry… Umbridge… Fudge… Dumbledore…"

"Ok, slow down, breath," Isaac guided her back into a chair, "It's alright, I've got everything covered.

What we're going to do, is leave Umbridge here, we're going to go back to Gryffindor Tower, I'm going to get my Gameboy, and then we're going to…

… So, what do we have today?" Isaac asked Hermione, stabbing another piece of recently cut-up waffle and sticking it into his mouth.

Hermione finished her gulp of orange juice before checking their timetable.

"Runes, then Charms," she said, "After that, it's Care and then Transfiguration, lunch, then double Potions to finish,"

"Cool..." Isaac paused for a moment.

"Something wrong?" Hermione asked him, watching as he put the fork laden with pieces of waffle back down.

"Hmm? Oh, no, it's just… feel like I forgot something..." Isaac said before picking the fork back up with a shrug and eating on.

Besides, all was well.

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Endnotes.

Well, I've got my fingers crossed that this goes up on the Friday.

Don't have much to say at the moment, aside from that I'm about 4 weeks into rugby training (my dad finally convinced me to give it a go) and I'm wishing I had done it sooner.

Yes, I've been fairly muddy, I live in Scotland, rain is a given.

So… yeah, that's about it, other than I've bought my ticket for Comic-Con on the 28th, MCM Glasgow, see you there!

And with that, onto the reviews.

Like I said, I'm not answering the ones I got on the apology letter. The overall reply to those are thank you for understanding.

 **(X) Review (X)**

PEDAwriter;

CH 8;

WELCOME!

Yeah, I have a tendency to create moments where despite hating a character, you feel sorry for them.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FelineHart;

Hey, congrats on getting an account!

I'd forgotten who Toby Spicer was, that was fun to rediscover.

Awesome, I'm your first! Wow, that sounded wrong not even a second later…

I'm glad that you still enjoy the story so much.

 **(X) Review (X)**

navyboo0480;

CH 88;

Ok, I'm gonna update that, thanks.

CH 48;

I'll go back and double-check that.

CH 84;

I've changed his birth/death dates around a bit, yes, I know. It was on purpose.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt the Hedgehog Android;

CH 88;

Hehe… she wears a bow… hehe…

CH 89;

YAS! YAS QUEEN! YAS!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Thunder-Death;

Thanks, have fun re-reading everything.

 **(X) Review (X)**

iPCM;

I'll definitely write a sappy chapter before everything kicks off, and there's gonna be a bucket of sap waiting at the end as well.

 **(X) Review (X)**

buterflypuss;

Thanks.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

I've missed these long reviews.

Yes, I wanted a moment of shoe fires.

My friends and I went to a Wiccan shop, cool place, got some gemstones and I'm trying to find my bags in the attic from when I went to museums and exhibitions and got a bunch from the gift shops.

Fizz definitely needs a bit more screen time, hence his bit in this chapter.

Yeah, E.J'd get a kick out of the misshapen hats.

Well, he is, from a certain point of view...

I love those types of smiles, and the deadpan face to maniac smile in less time than it takes you to blink.

I'm gonna call it his murder outfit from now on, yeah.

I should have L.J come up with new ways to describe Isaac every time they meet.

No, I don't think it's going to be Djinn… Oh… I know what I'm going to do.

I'm not going to give him one.

I will end the story with them discussing it, one gets suggested, and that one is what it's gonna be, but you're not gonna get to know what it was.

I'd gotten a review asking if Isaac's 'saying' was asking people if they wanted to see a magic trick, so I decided to write it happening at least one time since it was thrown around in other Crossovers.

Who says that's when Ben walked in? ¬,¬

Pissing off Umbridge is going to be a priority whenever Isaac gets the chance.

Hope the boat fixes soon.

Is it maybe the spark-plugs? Or fuel injectors? Driveshaft? the bearing's needing to be replaced?

Or is the motor a write-off?

Welcome to adulthood! It sucks, everything hurts, and you want to die!

My Aunt was in America for the Scouting Event, visited the Smithsonian while she was there, brought me an astronaut ice cream bar. I want more!

Glad you had fun!

 **(X) Review (X)**

Joshua. Obryan. 549;

I'm not the biggest horror fan, but I enjoy them, so I'll check them out when I get a chance.

I'll check those all out in due time.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

It's no problem, did make me want to get it up on time.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Thanks.

I'm glad the wait was worth it, I did, hope this one goes well too.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Vendetta-Singe;

Oh, well… I'll work the gas into something else… like a…

No, joke cancelled, joke cancelled, no Holocaust jokes, no.

I'm gonna power through the story so I can finish when I want it to, but I'm taking things easier than I did before.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Not A Criminal;

L.J does use them on occasion, I can write a chapter with an L.J kill scene where he uses the kids if you want.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Opal Cipher;

Welcome!

Not sure if you're new or not, so welcome anyway.

Thanks, glad you like it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

Yeah, life is a mess that everyone is tangled in.

I'm glad to hear that things are better for you.

You can buy me any drink you like, I prefer Gin, Cider, Rum, and Irn Bru.

I remember the Irish Jig story, I'm not trying DDR unless there's a compensatory bottle of Jingle Gin in it for me… or Gordon's… or just Gin…

Fizz and Hedwig could take over The Mansion if you gave them enough time.

I love making Isaac a maniac than gets away with things.

I really enjoy writing L.J, it's so fun to have him cause chaos.

Killing assholes is very therapeutic.

No, Djinn isn't Isaac's CreepyPasta name.

I like putting those two together… and torturing them… yeah…

THE MINISTRY IS FINE! FINE I SAY! NOTHING IS WRONG AT ALL!

This P.S.A from the desk of Dolores Um-bitch.

I'll be fine, thanks!

 **(X) Review (X)**

evelyn. Snyder. 27;

CH 29;

WELCOME!

I'll see if I can write Tails Doll into the story before it ends, I have an idea or two.

I will need to re-read it first though.

 **(X) Review (X)**

etbagel2122 (Guest);

CH 88;

Who's there?

CH 89;

Good to know.

Erm… who's Charlotte? I think you've misspelt someone's name and autocorrect has changed it.

I'm sure those treats will go down a storm.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Lonecho;

WELCOME!

I'm glad that you like it.

I do have to think of the jokes, but it is fairly natural for the most part. I've got a mind that runs a mile every half-hour, so not too helpful with school work, but brilliant for the story.

Hope you like this chapter!

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

Yeah, Peru now has me on a no-fly list now… it was just a Flammenwerfer!

I can't use flash drives, they always break around me.

I've gone through 5 just trying to keep a back-up of this story.

E.J will be getting one of them, yes.

I still don't know what I want Isaac's kill style to be, but I have a fairly good idea going at the moment.

The T.V trick was done by Ben and Isaac, a lovely couple's kill.

The Daily Prophet isn't being as cautious due to past issues with reports being deliberately altered by outside forces, i.e. Skeeter's articles about Isaac.

Umbridge punishment has begun, don't you worry.

E.J wouldn't eat a single square inch of that woman if you gave him _anything_!

Oh, don't worry, I deliberately go out of my way to complain about things like a 78-year-old man anyway, mainly because my youngest brother is one of them.

I go through my reader stats fairly often, always a surprise to see a country that doesn't really get mentioned a lot pop up.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Harley2003;

Welcome!

Umbridge, disappear? Whatever do you mean?

That was sarcasm, I have to mention because a few reviewers didn't pick up on it in the past.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Ok, that was the last of them.

Little late again, I know, but it's progress.

So, thank you to everyone who's been supporting me as of late, it means the world to me to read your words of encouragement.

So, last bit of personal news.

1, I'm going to MCM Comic Con on the 28th, say hi if you spot me, gonna try and be dressed as Daniel Jackson from Stargate SG1.

2, Been playing Black Ops 3 more often as of late, finally got around to sorting my proper account out, and I'll be online playing multiplayer for the next few days before my 14 day free trial runs out, I'm getting the year to PS+ at Christmas.

So, with that, I'd like to thank everyone for reading, and I'll see you all soon, hopefully.

SteamGeek01.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – Mary E.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao & Room 42 (Zippers & Sir Pebbles The Third) – Jinbeizamezama.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – soffbois - According to reader research.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	91. Chapter 91, Mayhem at The Mansion

Chapter 91, Mayhem At The Mansion.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

Ok, 2 chapters in a row, let's keep it going.

Don't think I'll be able to end it exactly on the 2 year anniversary, but I've got something in the works in the event that I can't finish the main story there. Yes, it'll be up on EXTRAS and I think everyone will be happy with what I've come up with.

But, I've got reviews to go answer, so I'm gonna let you read the chapter while I go do that.

Enjoy,

SteamGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

Albus Dumbledore took a careful step as he exited the fireplace that stood in his office.

Giving the mantle a quick tap with his wand, to renew the wards so that he would not be disturbed, he made his way around to the table filled with various silver devices.

Following a recent development, he had re-purposed two old devices he hadn't used in over a decade.

He would have continued to examine his devices if it hadn't been for the untimely arrival of an owl from The Ministry.

Reading through it, he found nothing that demanded immediate concern, just that The Ministry workers had confirmed that there were no irregularities within the Hogwarts budget found by the Audit.

While this was good news, he considered The Order meeting he had just came from as holding more pleasing news.

They had heard back from some of their contacts within the muggle community, having half-blood members really was a boon at times, and they had returned with answers to some questions he had raised.

The meeting at his brother's tavern, with his select few, had been to try and come up with ways to force the Potter boy to help them.

One such idea they came up with, was getting a hold of the brat's adoptive family and use them as leverage. That particular idea had been brought up before, but the fact that they didn't have enough information about them had hindered that plan…

Until this time…

A member had brought in the research done by his muggle contacts and everyone was eager to get their hands on it.

But, what they found, was both troubling and progressive.

The security firm that Thalmann claimed to head, in which the two pseudo-uncles that Dumbledore wished would mind their own business, seemed to only exist on paper and had no real-world address.

But that wasn't the most interesting points.

What one of them had come up with, was that an increasingly odd number of incidents had been documented ever since the 'firm' had begun operating.

A housing block blowing up with no fire-suppression systems activating.

A town having reports of monsters roaming the streets.

Various death reports from across the colonies.

And nobody could ever remember them living there.

Many suggestions were being thrown around, from Dark wizards to a cult of devil-worshipping muggles who were in over their head.

The most humorous one that had been thrown into the ring was that they were a band of freelance assassins, with Thalmann being their handler, and Potter being raised as the newest member.

Albus had proved that wrong, however, because there was no way that someone as docile as Potter could ever be brought into that lifestyle…

Although… with what had transpired recently, he would admit to having his suspicions about the boy…

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The Mansion.

Toby threw the ball across the room, watching as it knocked over the last can on the bench.

Watching it fall to the ground, joining all of the others with various dents deforming their sides.

As he jogged across the room to reset them, he could hear the door on the other side of the room open with its usual juddering creak.

"I thought we fixed that?" Liu asked him as he wiggled the door back and forward.

"That thing sucks down oil like Hoodie does cider," Toby said, setting the cans back up.

"So, this where you holed yourself away?" Liu asked, grabbing one of the tennis balls Toby had piled up and rolled it along his arm, popping it up with his bicep, and catching it.

"Yeah," Toby admitted, "Slendy's got me on job probation, Masky's going to tear my arm off and beat me with it if he finds me,"

"Why's he gonna do that?" Liu asked, throwing the ball and sending a can flying into the far side of the wall.

"I may have turned a quad bike I found into a bomb, drove it into a Hell-gate, and jumped out when I was like… twelve feet away from falling in… landing on Masky… shouting 'Trust fall,'…

Stop laughing," Toby let his arms fall to his side, turning his head to look at Liu who was trying to stem the flow of snickers escaping him.

"So, you're stuck in here?" Liu asked, throwing a ball to the same effect as before.

"Yeah," Toby said, grabbing a ball and throwing it.

If it hadn't been for a timely tick, then the ball would have hit the target… instead of the light fixture on the ceiling.

"So… would you like to go somewhere with a functioning lightbulb?" Liu's voice asked from somewhere within the dark expanses surrounding him.

"Probably a good idea, yeah," Toby said.

After about a minute of the two of them trying to find the door, and two bumps to the head against a wall, they finally managed to make their way back into the light.

"Right… you wanna go out someplace?" Liu offered, kicking the door closed behind them.

"Not allowed out," Toby reminded him.

"Not allowed out, _on jobs_ ," Liu corrected him, "Doesn't say anything about going out and getting a Starbucks,"

"Well, only place that steals about as much as we do, why not?" Toby shrugged, "Now we just gotta get out off here without Masky spotting me,"

"Oh, he's out on a thing for Slender," Liu said, "Something about an ancient tiki mask from some cult or other popping up at a summer camp..."

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Camp Lapis Lagoon.

Masky pulled the body of the recently killed head counsellor off the side of the road before anyone came across it, counting on the fact that there was a warning on coyotes and other dangerous animals being highly active in the area.

This was not how he had wanted things to go. The original plan had been to get in and out without anyone noticing him, but the untimely arrival of the now dead man rolled into a ditch at the side of the dirt road had been an unfortunate hiccup in that plan.

Moving deeper into the camp, he found a few other counsellors walking around, raking away the mess of twigs and leaves of the archery range. His target was pretty much on the other side of the camp, next to the waterfront, so he started making his way in the direction of the faint waves of water rolling onto the stony shore.

Sneaking around to the cabins to the other side of the camp, he had just reached what he assumed was a shower block, when an unsuspecting counsellor exited, wiping their hands on their shorts.

There was a tense moment when Masky and the woman looked at each other, neither saying anything. The woman's eyes were wide, taking in the dark attire that made the white mask stand out like the beacon of a ship in a stormy night.

Masky could tell that she was about to either scream her head off or faint. So, not taking any chances, he rushed forward. Clamping a hand over her mouth, he forced her back until her back slammed against the tiled shower stall.

She tried to fight against him, but the repeated smashing of her head into the shower pipes, slowly making a bloody mess against the wall, floor, and a few splashes across his mask, ended her results.

Dropping her body, watching as it crumpled on the floor, wet and slippery from residual water and fresh blood, he pulled the curtain across the front, tucking it in so that nobody would see the mess he made.

Making a run down the edge of the beach, he had already caused enough trouble and was eager to get the mask before anything else could go wrong… then he heard someone scream…

But what was odd about the scream, was that it was coming from somewhere where he hadn't been yet.

With the hope that the mask hadn't been disturbed dashed, he hurried around the block to see if he could find where the scream had come from.

He found himself in front of a cabin, light shining dimly through the window that illuminated the two bodies that lay in pools of their own blood. A javelin from the archery range further afield in the camp had been forced through the back of the first, and front of the second.

As he looked at the bloody mess through the window, the door to the cabin opened and a woman walked out. He was thankful that the door to the cabin creaked as it swung inward, as it alerted him to his new company.

The woman was wearing the same camp apparel as everyone else, those blue shorts and a white shirt, but hers was streaked with fresh blood and her face covered by an old mask. A thin machete for clearing overgrown plants from paths and roads in her hand.

Well aged straw and what looked like animal hair stuck out along the carved piece of wood, thick lines of deliberate and intricately carved grooves ran across the face and cheeks, over the bridge of the nose, and were coloured in with a mixture of dark blue ink that bordered on black, and blood.

Her eyes were visible through the oval slants, but they were bloodshot. Every part of the iris had been drained of colour so that it looked like their pupils' covered one-third of their eyes.

Fast-paced breaths were pushed out the small slits of where the mouth would be, creating a hiss as each sharp intake of air was sucked through clenched teeth, getting shorter and shorter had Masky grip the blade of the knife he held much tighter and brace himself.

Just as his foot had found solid ground to brace himself against, the woman raised the machete into the air and struck down at him; parried just in time by Masky raising the knife and catching the blade's strike against the crossguard.

Grinding his teeth together, Masky twisted the machete away, darted around her side and slashed at her right knee; the woman screeched out loud in pain and wildly swung at the space he had been.

The machete just clipped the heel of his boot, hitting more stone than rubber; taking the chance to grab a nearby rope, Masky stuck the knife into her elbow, hearing the crack of muscle and bone as the knife found it's way between the joint.

She screamed in pain once more, she couldn't keep hold of the machete as the tendons, nerves, and muscles in her arm were severed. With the machete now on the ground, and rope in hand, Masky threw the rope around her legs, locking a clamp attached to the end around the rope before darting forward again.

Soon enough, her arms and legs were bound up by the rope and she was wriggling on the ground trying to get free.

Knocking the mask off with his boot, careful not to touch it with any bare skin as he had been warned, he looked down at the struggling woman with frothing at the mouth.

Picking up the discarded machete, he gave the woman a few quick swipes on the back of her neck. Each slice cut deeper, and deeper until the machete got jammed against bone.

With heavy breathing, Masky shoved the mask into the bag he had brought with him, sealed inside the three zip-lock freezer bags he nabbed for good measure, before he picked up the slack end of the rope and began dragging her further along the camp.

Spotting an open door straight to the attic, plus a handy pulley arm, and a few of the other camper's bags he began pulling the dead weight over there.

Tying the rope off to the one already hanging, he pulled the body up into the air. The rope slid off her until the original loop he had tied around her legs had been pulled upwards and tightened around her neck.

Ripping the straps of the camper bags so they broke, it now looked like she had accidentally gotten caught in the rope trying to pull their stuff up through the access door.

Zipping his jacket up a little tighter against the wind, Masky began the trek back through the camp.

He had just reached the entrance gate when a blood-curdling scream echoed through the trees.

"Not my problem," he muttered to himself, tugging the rucksack into a comfier position and striding off.

The Slender-Port was in sight when a sense of deja vu struck him.

"This feels familiar… why does this feel familiar..."

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"You sure Jeff's fine with us nicking his car?" Toby asked, closing the door to the back after placing their bags in and climbing into the front.

"Not like he owns the thing," Liu said, adjusting his seat, "Teer stole it, he cleaned and fixed it, but nobody here actually owns the thing,"

"I beg..."

Liu and Toby jumped in their seats as Jeff rested his elbows on their seats.

"… to differ.

Now, why you wanting my car?" he asked them, strumming his fingers on the upholstery.

"We were going out for a bit," Liu said, turning the keys and pressing the button on the little fob.

It had taken them the best of three days to install the remote-controlled door to the place, mainly because only Ben had experience in wiring and The Mansion was a mess when trying to understand the wiring.

Everything worked, but nothing was wired.

"Oh, date or just out?" Jeff asked, dropping his arms and crossing them.

"Just out," Toby said.

"Oh, cool, mind if I tag along?" Jeff asked, but the tone in his voice definitely left the option of saying 'no' out of the situation.

With that, the three of them…

"Oh hey, where you going?" Laughing Jack asked, walking around the front carrying around several boxes he was taking to mail.

"Out for a bit, you coming?" Jeff asked, leaning out the window while Liu reached down for the lever to open the boot.

Once L.J's boxes were in the trunk, and everyone who needed them had glamoured up, the four of them had taken off before anyone else could try and tag along.

Driving through the Slender-Port, the four of them split up when they reached the town.

"So, how's your Proxy doing?" Jeff asked, having been dragged into helping L.J send off his packages.

"He's doing fine," L.J said, balancing another box on Jeff's arms, "Been thinking about a thing, or two, with him actually.

One, is that he doesn't actually have a way to contact me," L.J said, grabbing the rest of the boxes and closing the boot so that Liu could lock it, "So I've been thinking about getting him some sort of key so that he can get to my Carnival,"

"Oh, you don't think there's an easier option?" Jeff said as the two of them began making their way to the post office.

"Probably, but a key's easier to hide, and explain, in that place than a Frankensteined phone, or Gameboy, is," L.J said, "Besides, I'm going to be getting him to help me with other things soon enough, makes sense he can get to my Carnival,"

"Fair, do's… and number two?" Jeff asked.

"I'll tell you after we send these things off," L.J said as the post office was practically looming over them.

Sending the boxes was fairly easy, and considering the things that L.J normally got involved with, Jeff was surprised that the parcels passed any of the tests that were done.

"So, number two?" Jeff re-started their conversation.

"How'd you like to give him a bit of hand-to-hand?" L.J asked him, having to bite down on his tongue a second later at how red Jeff had gone, "Combat training, gutter brain, combat training,"

"I knew that!" Jeff snapped at him, "Just swallowed my tongue, that's all..."

"Sure it's not someone else's..."

"I will skin you," Jeff growled at him.

"Glamour's make you look normal," L.J said, crouching down to look Jeff in the face, "But reactions are all the same,"

Jeff's response was to grind his teeth at the disguised clown. He would have kicked the gangly figure, but the presence of a few police officers strolling past prevented him from knocking the smirking beanpole on his ass.

"Now then..." L.J said, resting his arm across his shoulders, "Let's make a hypothetical about Fred and…"

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Later at The Mansion.

"Oh, hey, didn't know you guy's gone out," Clockwork said, looking up from where she and Sally were making bracelet charms from a few bits of bone that E.J had brought back with him.

"Good to know we mean so much to you," Liu yawned, "Right, I'm gonna head for a nap before we end up in another conference call, got a job tonight,"

"I thought there was a reason we ended up getting more oil for the stones by chance," Toby said and Clockwork frowned.

"See you later," Liu said, giving a quick kiss to Toby and grabbing the bag with their new purchases before making his way up the stairs.

Once he was far enough away to talk without overhearing them, Clockwork leant down to Sally and told her to go wash up before dinner.

Sally happily skipped away, looking forward to her and Clockwork cooking that evening, and once she too had moved beyond hearing range, Clockwork turned to Toby with an accusatory gleam in her eye.

The two of them had relocated from Sally's floor to the living room table when Eris had tried to eat a few of the bones, which resulted in one of them getting stuck in her throat and having Clockwork shout at Ben for instructions on how to give a dog the Heimlich manoeuvre.

"So… what was that?" she asked, her tone sharply innocent.

"Oil for the sharpening stones," Toby deflected, unscrewing the lid of the coke he had nabbed.

"Not that, what was that tone?" she went on, her voice becoming a bit more forceful.

"Drop it," Toby threatened and Clockwork blinked.

Not that he had threatened her, they would often hold glaring competitions between one another to see who would go do something that needed to be done if both of them were feeling particularly lazy.

What had taken her by surprise, was that there was almost a hint of an emotional plead in his request…

"What happened?" Clockwork asked, "Is he making you..."

"No, he's not forcing me to…" Toby shook his head, sending the brown curls whipping around his face.

"Alright, I believe you," Clockwork said, and she really did. Toby always got that bit more serious about something when he was trying to lie, "But if everything's alright, why do you look like you…

You didn't accidentally kick a puppy, did you?"

"I saw my mom,"

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Toby and Liu watched as Jeff and L.J ambled off, a stack of boxes between them.

"Right, so… where are you wanting to go?" Toby asked, trying not to hit or kick Liu with his ticks as the two of them walked, hand in hand.

"Well… I'd say get a bit of shopping done, and then go get a bite somewhere," Liu shrugged.

Once 'their' wallets were a little lighter, thank you random obnoxious tourist who couldn't chew with their mouth closed, the two of them were on the lookout for a good place to stop to eat.

"How about that place over there?" Liu nodded towards a teal-walled cafe that stood next to the corner of the street, a warm orange glow lit up the sign to show ~ _Connie's_ ~ in cursive writing.

"Looks good," Toby said, already smelling the various aromas of enticing cake wafting through the air.

The inside was as quaint as the outside suggested.

Neat little rows of chairs, polished floor, art on the walls that even Toby admitted was kinda interesting to look at.

Toby's eyes went wide as he took in the sight of the menu, there were about twelve different kinds of almond cookies before gasping.

"You can get a platter selection with a drink," Toby turned the menu around for Liu to see.

"Yeah, says the same on mine," Liu smiled, looking around at the other patrons.

There didn't seem anyone out of the ordinary, just the normal folks one would expect to be milling around at that time of day.

Eventually, a smiling server made her way over to them.

As predicted Toby got the platter, which was the patron's choice of a selection of twelve cookies as well as a large drink, which was a hot chocolate because of course it was, extra marshmallows.

Liu was a bit more sensible, a coffee with a grilled cheese and chicken toastie, plus a half portion added on because he knew Toby would end up nicking part of it anyway since he would, in turn, nick a cookie.

"Alright, I'll go get those made for you, Connie'll bring them out when they're ready,"

Once the two of them were alone again, the talks turned back to what jobs were up and coming.

"So, you've got a week and a bit left before you can work again, know where you'll be going?" Liu asked, glancing around to double-check just in case anyone had moved within hearing distance.

"No idea what I'll be doing," Toby shook his head, picking up a few packets of brown sugar and shaking them, "Knowing Masky, it'll probably be going to the middle of a desert where there's nothing to blow up for miles,"

"You'll find something to blow up,"

"Course I will," Toby snorted, "Anyway, know what your next job is?"

"Somewhere in New Mexico," Liu shrugged, "Something about… oh, food,"

"Sounds like a weird… oh," Toby broke off when a woman with her hair done in…

Toby froze as the woman spoke.

"Right, toasties for you," the woman said as she put a plate down in front of Liu, "And the cookie platter for..."

It seemed as if everything around them had gone silent as soon as Toby and the woman looked at each other.

Liu frowned, his eyes flicking between the two.

"Is… something wrong?" he asked.

His question seemed to snap Toby and the woman, presumably Connie, back to reality.

"What, oh, sorry, it's just… something silly, you looked like someone I knew..."Connie said, her face a mix of emotion from pain to embarrassment to cluelessness.

She placed down the plate of cookie's in front of Toby, as well as the drinks, before hurrying back to the kitchen.

"That was… weird," Liu said watching the doors to the kitchen swing closed before turning back to Toby and seeing his ashen face, "You alright?"

Toby didn't say anything, just looked between the spot where the woman had been stood and the doors.

"Someone you know?" Liu asked, wondering if the woman had been the mother of someone Toby had killed.

"That was my mom," Toby said, barely above a whisper. The cluelessness in her deep green eyes had felt what he assumed getting stabbed would feel like, despite it being years since he had seen her.

Liu's face fell as he looked down at the platter of cookies in front of Toby.

"You want to head early?" he asked, "I can get a doggy-bag for them?"

Toby shook his head.

"No, it's… it's fine..." he said, looking up and smiling at him, "Let's just eat and go,"

The rest of the meal was spent in silence.

Toby did end up pouring the packets of sugar into his hot chocolate, mixing it slowly with the wooden stick provided, but there wasn't much to his actions beyond monotony.

When he looked down at the cookies, Liu could see glistening almonds on each and every one of them.

Something that he would always find amusing was how despite how much sugar Toby would always pile into things, he would quickly exchange it all for almond cookies, or anything baked with almonds really, to be honest.

Connie didn't return, though they did see her pass by the door, lingering ever so slightly each time she passed, as if hoping to catch a glimpse of the twitching teenager sat out there.

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"Wow," Clockwork exhaled, "You alright?"

"I… honestly… don't know," Toby said, "I mean… I've moved on from that part of my life, but..."

"You still think she didn't deserve to be caught up in all this?" Clockwork offered.

"… kinda, yeah..." Toby said after a few moments of silence, "But, y'know, shit happens. Can't change the past, and…

It was just a shock, that's all,"

"Imagine so," Clockwork muttered, "Go out for a date, oh look, mom's spying on you,"

Toby snorted a bit of the water he had been drinking out his nose.

"You can't escape the spying eyes of a parent, even if their mind's been wiped," he giggled.

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Elsewhere in The Mansion, two others were both wondering the same things.

Separated from each other, residing in their own rooms, their minds clouded by the conversation one had had with the other earlier that day...

"Oh, as if you can talk," Jeff growled, "Pot calling the kettle black, much?"

"What do you mean?" L.J asked, letting Jeff shrug the arm off his shoulders.

"Since when have you ever pussy-footed around an issue before?" Jeff glared at the clown, "If it was anyone being forced to help you, you'd have them stringing kids up by their lungs on day two!"

With a whirl of smoke, Jeff found himself pinned against a tree.

Laughing Jack had moved them somewhere, trees stretched into the sky, leafy canopies overhead sending dancing streaks of light as the wind blew.

He'd have told you what the ground felt like, but he was currently around a foot and a half off of it, held in place by a fistful of his hoodie.

"And what gives you the right to say how I do things is wrong?" L.J growled, "Have you any idea the number of children I've had to slaughter? Don't you think I'd rather be going after morons with delusions of grandeur instead of a kid who might do something horrible if left alive?"

For what Jeff believed to be the first time, he felt a ripple of fear within him from facing the clown's cold eyes. But it was quickly replaced by a wave of anger.

"Doesn't stop you sending someone else after them," Jeff snapped back, "And so what if I think the ginger's alright, not like he's actually a Proxy.

You might have made him one, but you've used him as nothing more than a fucking secretary,"

L.J's eyes seemed to go unfocused as the dark abyss of his pupil's seemed to grow darker still and, for a moment, Jeff thought that L.J was about to recreate his facial scars across his neck.

A sigh escaped his black lips, shoulders slumping, as he let go of Jeff.

"Town's a mile behind you," he said, his voice dropping to a raspy cockney before turning around and walking away, "Get walking and piss off,"

The crack of a stone striking a tree inches from his head sent little chips of wood scattering across his shoulder, but he didn't grace the action with a glance, nor a snort of disregard. He just kept walking.

Jeff brushed the dirt off his hands before shoving them in his pockets, pulling his hood up, and making his way back to town.

Thankful that the emergency key he'd stashed under the rim of the front left tyre was still there, he nearly broke the window as he slammed the door shut.

Now though, he was back in his room. Lying on his bed and staring up at the ceiling.

Not like he could do much else besides stare, couldn't exactly close his eyes now could he?

His conversation with Laughing Jack replayed in his head over, and over, again. Some words, and perhaps, an action, he regretted playing out more often than the others, and more vivid than them as well...

Jerking into an upright position, he grabbed the strips of gauze that lay on his bedside cabinet and started wrapping them around his hands as he made his way to the training room.

He needed to punch something, and he needed to punch it hard.

The sounds of fist against bag thudded through The Mansion as Jeff whaled into the punching bag made their way to the monochrome clown sitting on an old chair, twirling a tarnished bronze key between his fingers.

Laughing Jack took in a slow breath, letting it out just as slow, maybe slower, as he looked at the key before over to its copy on his desk.

That one, he had been planning to offer to Jeff.

In recent weeks, the two of them had been getting on quite a bit better than they ever had, when the scarred killer wasn't acting like an obnoxious emo and he curbed his pranks against him, that was.

He'd planned to offer it to him after the post office, saying that he might as well start storing his music equipment there since his room was about as cramped as a minivan for a week-long camp for a family of six.

Now, though… he didn't know what to think.

As much as he hated to admit it, Jeff did have a point.

His treatment of Fred was practically a joke.

Sure, he wasn't the most adjusted for dealing with matters such as killing, but that could change with time…

He let his head hit the back of the chair.

Fred needed to be more involved with his 'line of work' far more than beyond distracting a couple of his playmates or sweeping a floor. He knew that…

Asking Jeff to teach him how to handle himself was a given. Jeff was easily their most adaptable fighter by a long shot.

Masky fell into habits, Toby was a frenzied rush, Hoodie relied more on stamina than actual force. The only one who could probably give Jeff a run for his money would be Isaac, but, even then, Isaac would need years of experience to reach Jeff's level, and that was only in the perpetually grinning teen _had_ peaked.

"You're gonna want to come and see this!" The Puppeteer scrambled to get the door open, "Jeff and Jane are really going at it this time,"

A moment of worry flashed through Laughing Jack's mind before following Teer out the door and down the stairs.

L.J almost had to push his way into the room as everyone that was there seemed to have come to watch the show.

Jeff and Jane were circling each other in the ring that had been built after the wall's had needed the plasterboard replaced a dozen times too many.

A spray of blood marked what remained of Jeff's cheek as he spat out a mix of said blood and spit.

Evidently, he had just missed Jane land a punch.

Both of them had gone down to vests and the bruises spreading across their arms, shoulders, and faces were darkening with each passing second.

Within a second, the two of them were back trading blows, blocking half but feeling the force of just as many.

Jane landed another blow to Jeff's jaw and Locklear winced. He had seen jaws fracture for less.

A feral growl escaped Jeff as he snapped his jaw shut before continually forcing Jane back with punch after punch.

She tried to block them, but he always seemed to know which way she would block and landed another blow around it.

The gauze on Jeff's hands was bloodied, whether his or Jane's was anybody's guess, as he kept up the streak of hits against her.

With a quick jab to her sternum, followed by one on her shoulder, ribs, and square in the chest.

Jeff roared as he landed a haymaker against the side of her head before an uppercut sent her sprawling on the ground. Something small, bloodied, chipped, and white flew out of the ring

Spitting out another gob of blood and mucus, Jeff ducked out of the ring, snatching the bottle of water that sat on the bench and began walking out of the room.

The gathered crowd parted like the seas did for Moses, none of them wanting to get in his way after something had gotten him worked up like that.

Jeff gave L.J the briefest of glances, the skin around his mouth and eyes tightening as if to sneer at him.

Next to him, E.J and Locklear turned to each other and flicked their wrists.

"Rock beats scissors," Locklear smiled, patting the eyeless man on the back before making his way over to the ring to see what state Jane had been left in.

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Endnotes.

Well, I'm writing this in practically nothing but a dressing gown because my stomach hates me and I feel like I'm going to throw up 7.86 litres of stomach acid.

No idea why, might have caught something at rugby or college.

So, in other news, my going to MCM Glasgow is confirmed, I've got my ticket, and I can't wait for the 28th!

My D&D campaign beat the first boss… after taking over the town, converting every member into a worshiper of Nurgle, killing a few babies for sacrificial rituals, and turning a few people into breeders…

I don't know why I offered to DM a campaign, nor why they decided that that was a good way to spend their time, but I think I'm getting the hang of this…

Oh no, a level 16 inquisitor squad is charging towards them, oh no…

Well, while I wait for the next session, might as well as answer some reviews.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Guest (Guest);

CH 23;

Hmm… it's been a while since I saw 'I eat Pasta for Breakfast,'…

I'd have to re-read the series before deciding anything, but the most that'd happen at this stage would be a cameo at the end.

If it doesn't happen in this story, then harp on at me in the reviews for EXTRAS and I'll probably pop a chapter up there at some point.

 **(X) Review (X)**

buterflypuss;

Thank you.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

I'm glad it was worth the wait.

Erm…

Ok, so I'm gonna have fun with killing Umbridge in the future… but who's Mia?

 **(X) Review (X)**

Toffeecat15;

Welcome!

The ending was supposed to be like that.

I'm glad that you liked it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt the Hedgehog Android.

Hold on, my brain's stalling, need to look that saying up…

Yeah, I have no idea, I'm getting things about building permits…

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

Speaking as someone with a pet lizard, you better have a good gag reflex, the poos are disgusting.

Toby pulled a Toby… I'm nicking that one, for sure.

I may have been marathoning Time Team for a while.

Yeah, glamours can come in handy when you don't have any make-up.

I'd been planning to use burnt food as a cover for L.J for a while now.

I would make a spider mortar, but I don't like spiders, so I'd be more busy making a mortar to kill spiders.

I'm certain that I've read troll fics that are more informative about things than that book.

I've still to read the book, I've watched the movie in Higher English, and gotten some other books that we looked at, plus some others just because I'd heard good things about them, but it's one that I've never gotten around to.

I've had the idea for how being a protector affects someone, and I do think it's a bit like 'The Mom Sense' where you can tell that your child is in danger, or, about to do something stupid.

Private Fizz reporting for duty!

I loved writing that punch.

Your uncle sounds awesome, probably would have fit right in in The Mansion.

I'm glad that you liked it, hope you enjoy this one too.

 **(X) Review (X)**

wow-im-satan;

I'm glad that you like it.

Umbridge is gonna die, I just need to find a way that's fitting in terms of this story…

Fred and George are awesome, they'll get a bigger part in my next story for sure.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Joshua. Obryan. 549;

I'm not confirming anything that people might guess.

If I go around talking about spoilers in the chats, then it's going to take away the impact for when it happens.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (Guest);

It's one way to read it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

vampireharry the 2;

Welcome!

I'm glad that you liked it, hope you enjoy this one too.

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

Umbridge hasn't even begun to get the start of what she deserves.

It's fine, you can always tell me your opinion via DM chat, or include it in your next review.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Percy's Dongos;

Yeah, I really liked that punch.

Hermione and Isaac would be unstoppable, if Hermione really knew about things then she'd probably be able to take over the world within a week.

Probably with a fatal dose of death.

Thank you!

 **(X) Review (X)**

FelineHart;

I'm not confirming any possible ideas that people may have, or denying them.

This way people can get the most out of the story.

I loved that mobile bomb.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

Yeah, I've had some problems sleeping lately as well.

Yeah, murdering people in creative ways is fun.

I'm glad that you enjoyed it.

I think this is the shortest review you've left yet.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt (Guest)

I'm trying to keep it to around 1 a week, but that all depends on how quickly I can get the chapter made.

 **(X) Review (X)**

jaybird (Guest);

Oh cool!

Hope they like it, I'm waiting on a review from them, or one from you telling me what they thought, any day now.

 **(X) Review (X)**

And that was the last review.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, despite it being a bit late, got caught up emptying the garage with dad, and "causing" another argument because the asshole can't finish his sentences properly and gets pissed off when I don't understand what he's saying.

Adding on that, for some reason, my laptop randomly goes to shit now and then.

By that, I mean that the key binds will change and the language switched.

So, |"| will become | | and I have no idea why.

Also, a bit late, and that's my fault.

I had this finished on Friday night, but I thought that it was Thursday.

My college timetable has me in Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, or, as the head of my course put it, I'm on the 'Twat' timetable.

Long story short, my sense of time and date has been kicked out the window.

Anyway, hope you liked this chapter, say hi if you spot me at MCM Glasgow on the 28th, I'll be dressed as Daniel Jackson from Stargate SG1.

Till the next time,

SteamGeek01.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – Mary E.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao & Room 42 (Zippers & Sir Pebbles The Third) – Jinbeizamezama.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – soffbois - According to reader research.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


	92. Chapter 92, Starset Transmissions, No6

Chapter 92, Starset Transmissions No.6.

"Word" – Speech.

'Word' – Thought.

" **Word" –** Slender Speech.

#Word# - Texts, messages, phone calls and on-screen words. Will have speech marks if words are being spoken at the same time as they appear on-screen or through a speaker.

~Word~ - Written words.

$"Word"$ - Parseltongue.

Disclaimer, Harry Potter is the creative property of J.K Rowling and the studio that produced the films.

Any CreepyPastas mentioned in this fic will have their creators stated in the endnotes.

I also have no ownership of any brands, games, franchises or shows mentioned in this fic.

Any persons mentioned outside of the stories that this fic is based on, that I haven't stated are a reference, are purely fictional. I do not condone killing unless it is justified, i.e. hunting animals for food or as a last resort in defence. Any similarities to any persons mentioned are purely coincidental unless it is in reference then I will have stated where the reference was from if it is overly obscure at the end.

Locations in which the kills are chosen are selected by online generators and I zoom in to see what's near there on google maps. All kill scenes that I write that did not occur in the Harry Potter book series are not based on any real-life events.

Author's note.

And this one's probably going to be late.

If I get it finished on the 27th, then awesome, it's on time, and I'm getting ready to go to comic con tomorrow.

If not, then I'll tell you about comic con in the end bits.

Not really sure how I want this chapter to go, to be honest, since I've got a good idea of where I want it to go, but not how I want it to get there.

Writing sucks sometimes.

Anyway, I'll go figure that out and answer the reviews, you read whatever drivel my mind's spat out this time.

Hope this is somewhat enjoyable because I have no idea what I'm doing this time.

SteamGeek01.

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Hogwarts.

"Wow, you know what was going on," Isaac asked Ben, throwing another rock across the lake.

BRVR's head bobbed up from the water not too far away from them, a deformed Barboach in his mouth.

"No clue," Ben said, picking up a stone to throw, "All I know is that Jeff beat the ever-loving crap out of Jane, she's still in bed up in slings,"

"Show-off," Isaac bumped shoulder's with him when Ben's latest throw skipped twelve times before spinning across the surface like a coin on a table.

"When you got it, flaunt it," Ben cheesed as BRVR ran after the stone.

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Isaac soared around the Quidditch stadium on his Firebolt, Katie Bell following close behind as they practised with their new Keeper. A fourth-year, who's name always slipped Isaac's mind.

Catching the Quaffle thrown his way, he began feinting as Angelina had instructed to help break the new kid in. It was only less than a week since he'd joined the team, after all.

He didn't know why, but even though it was in practice, he was feeling a sense of urgency as they flew around… it didn't have anything to do with the game, it was more… more a pull…

Even if he knew what it was, he was still unsure of whether or not that Angelina would have let him go find out what it was. Their new team captain seemed to have become possessed by whatever it was that made Oliver Wood so… Oliver.

The series of feints, throws, passes, and blocks ran on for as long as it took for the sun to dip and moon rise to begin it's wane before Angelina finally allowed them to retire for the night.

"Right you lot," she shouted as they landed, "That was the last chance we're getting for September to practice, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw have nabbed the pitch for the evenings for pretty much the first two weeks in August, so I don't want anyone getting rusty and slacking off..."

As she spoke, Isaac had an odd moment of disconnection from the universe around him.

He had thought it had only been just over a week since the new school year had started, that they had held the trials for their new Keeper just a day or three ago… It was almost August?

"...ac… Isaac!" Angelina snapped her fingers in his face, "Ow, let go, let go, let go..."

Releasing the clamped fingers, Isaac blinked and rubbed his eyes.

"Sorry, sorry… mind's in miles an hour right now, can't think..." he said, removing his fingers once spots occupied more of his vision than his sight actually allowed him to see.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Angelina asked, looking at the other five members of their team that were already halfway to the changing rooms, "You've been pretty out of it lately,"

"I'm… fine..." Isaac said, though he was trying to convince himself more than he was Angelina…

He wasn't succeeding.

"Well, if it gets worse, then go to Madam Pomfrey," Angelina sighed, "If you're coming down with something, I'd rather it be sorted well before a game and rather than a night before and have it affect the game,"

Isaac rolled his eyes.

"Like I'd do anything to ruin this," he scoffed, "It's the only thing I can do here, without getting into trouble, that gives me my adrenaline high. I need my fix,"

It was Angelina's turn to roll her eyes at the antics of her American teammate.

"Look, relax in Hogsmeade tomorrow, take it easy," she advised, "Have some fun, take a break from everything, chill, and get some sweets in you.

I honestly think this is as long I've ever seen you go without putting something drowned in syrup in your mouth,"

"Yeah..." Isaac reluctantly agreed, scratching the side of his face.

He had stopped putting things like cream, syrup, caramel, and even chocolate spread on his morning waffles. If you asked him, then he would have still sworn that he thought that the elves had changed the recipe.

Whenever he added something to them now… they just tasted… off…

"… speaking of sugar, biscuit?" he asked, producing a bourbon out of seemingly nowhere. *1

Angelina let out a slow breath.

"How in the name of Merlin's tea cosy do you always have a biscuit on you?" she asked.

It had been a running mystery for a long while, even the twins and Hermione didn't know how he had an endless supply hidden away on him at all times.

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Hogsmeade.

Honestly, Isaac was starting to see why so many of the higher-ups skipped Hogsmeade when he was in his third year.

If you weren't going shopping for something specific, then there was hardly anything you couldn't get ordered in that was in the town.

In other words, the place was starting to get really, _really,_ dull.

"So, where to next?" he asked Hermione who, in his opinion, needed a day to relax almost as much as he did.

She had already been in the common room when he had finished Quidditch training the other day, and she wasn't normally this quiet.

That wasn't to say that she wasn't quiet, his bookworm friend always tended to do her homework in silence unless fact-checking with another, but… but the quiet she had been working in last night was… 'quiet' quiet.

"I need a new quill, and some more wool," Hermione said, leading the way to a supplies store across the street, "For some reason, all of the wool I had brought with me ended up getting soaked and tangled so I couldn't use them,"

Isaac could have sworn that Fizz started shifting in his pocket.

Their travels, after re-filling on what they needed to keep up with the demand for homework essays, took them further into the other side of the town.

Normally, they stuck to the streets that put on sales whenever a Hogsmeade weekend was on, to attract the students looking for cheaper products, but the more interesting stores lay deeper into the town.

"Have you been down here?" Isaac asked Hermione as they walked the dull streets, looking at the mostly empty streets.

"Not really, I've never really had a reason to," Hermione said, looking around with her interest piqued by the many stores around her.

Hermione ended up breaking off to look at a quiet book store that seemed to hold a bit more variety than the one in the main street while Isaac, now left alone in the street, wandered over to the other side of the road, looking at the various trinkets on display in the windows.

Only one shop caught his interests and attention.

Just as he was debating going into the book shop Hermione had gone to when he saw it.

It didn't stick out from any of the others, the bland storefront blending into any of the others along the street. But what caught his eye wasn't any sign or poster advertising the shop.

What caught his eye, was the small red mouse that he had seen scurry away from the window and deeper into the rows of shelves.

The door opened with a stiff creak and the musk of dust and stale air hung around like a blanket over the face as Isaac crept inside.

Shelves holding everything from a perfectly spherical sphere of black sand held in the middle of a framework of shimmering metal to a necklace, rather reminiscent of a silver flower with a large red gemstone as it's centrepiece, secured behind thick glass with a warning not to touch it glued to each side. (1) / (2)

A hissing noise came from a grotesque lizard held in a tank in the corner of the room as it slowly turned and looked at him. (3)

Though it wasn't a snake, the moist rattle it breathed was rather close to passing for Parseltongue.

$"… pathetic..."$

Moving on past the very judgemental lizard, Isaac caught sight of the little red mouse once again as it scurried around a corner behind the desk.

If the clothes dumped on a chair he saw where to be believed, he could probably make a good guess who the mouse belonged to.

Stopping only to look at a scroll of papyrus that had various musical notes that looked as if it had been written by multiple people with whatever was in hand, even blood judging by the dulled brown smudges, Isaac lifted the divider with ease and followed the path he had spotted the mouse take down a flight of stairs hidden behind a false bookcase. (4)

Grimy lanterns cast flickering shadows as he descended the rickety steps.

When he came to the bottom, however, he was stopped by a set of large, and quite potentially painful, claw-like fingers pressing against his throat.

"Oh, it's you," Jason the Toymaker said, lowering his hand, "What are you doing here?"

"Well don't sound so disappointed," Isaac scoffed, "Not like a bright red mouse in a dull grey shop is hard to spot at all.

I saw him wandering around, thought it was you, came to stick my nose in,"

As he looked around, Isaac saw the twitching body of a man huddled in a corner. Still breathing, but his arms looked as if they'd been pulled through spools of barbed wire for days on end.

From where he was standing, Isaac could see his face. And what he saw, was definitely painful.

The same bloody streaks on his arms were repeated until Isaac could see the marked white of bone underneath. Whatever bags had been under his eyes had been stretched so that they ended halfway down his cheeks.

"I interrupt something?" Isaac asked, looking at the various instruments scattered over a worktop.

"Not really, I was taking a break," Jason said, "Cup of tea?"

"Eh, sure, why not," Isaac shrugged, following the tall man back up the stairs, "So, do you own the shop, or is it about to go up for sale?"

"It's not mine, but I frequent various ones like it whenever I feel bored or need specialist parts that I can't be bothered making," Jason said, picking up his coat and hat from the chair Isaac had passed earlier.

Jason picked up a rather nondescript brown teapot, Isaac had overlooked it on his earlier walk into the store as nothing about it seemed interesting, and put it on a small burner on the counter. (5)

"So, how have the months been faring for you?" Jason asked, spooning what seemed like a teaspoonful of ashes into the pot.

"Not too bad," Isaac said, "Bit of hassle at the start of the year, but pretty dull so far,

"Sounds boring," Jason agreed as he turned the heat up, checking the tubs to see what sugar was left in there, "I had heard, through the grape-vine, that Laughing Jack abducted you for a night,"

"Oh, yeah," Isaac said, passing Jason a cup he had motioned to, "He got me out for a couple of hours, got to kill a guy who's kid he had been watching,"

"I take it you had fun?" Jason asked as the teapot started whistling.

Isaac frowned at how fast the teapot had heated water up and began to wonder just what sort of shop this was.

"So, what is this place?" he asked the Toymaker, looking around at the shelves holding a more diverse collection of items than most charity stores could ever hold.

"Simply put, a variety store," Jason said, pouring measures into the two cups, "But the variety that they hold..."

He let out a low whistle.

"I think that even The Slenderman would willingly wander these shelves and peruse the wares," Jason continued, "Items like these have teetered on the edge of deserving his attention and not deserving the time for decades.

Take things like that book..."

Jason nodded towards a heavy-looking book with a black cover. (6)

"… I had a look at the text on its plaque earlier.

Burn the correct ingredients, read the page, recite the incantation, add a drop of whoever's blood you want to curse, and they will feel the effects of _any_ disease written within its pages," he finished.

Isaac felt that the thick glass surrounding it was well needed.

"And these shops don't get shut down?" Isaac laughed a little as he accepted his cup, "Surprised that they're allowed to sell this shit,"

"Well, they technically don't sell them," Jason murmured, taking a sip of his tea, "I've got orange zest, how about you?"

Isaac, who had been about to take a sip of his tea, paused and looked at the steaming water in his cup.

"What does that teapot do?" he asked.

"Effectively, it randomises what flavour of tea you can get," Jason said, taking another sip, "I assure you, I have no intention of bringing the wrath of The Slenderman to myself, nor that of your brother and boyfriend… which reminds me..."

As Jason spoke Isaac took a sip of his tea, blinking at the pleasingly sour taste that swirled in his mouth.

"… are you planning on sending a letter to your brother anytime soon?" Jason asked him.

"Erm..." Isaac paused to think by taking another sip, "I've got to send him one tomorrow, so… yes,"

"Do you think you could pass something along for me?" Jason asked, taking a plain brown envelope out of his pocket and placing it on the counter, "I owe him thirty-five dollars for a bet I took part in,"

A long-suffering frown appeared on Isaac's face since he could probably make a well-educated guess about what bet Jason had been involved in where he ended up owing Toby money.

"Sure, I'll pass it along," Isaac said, pocketing the envelope and taking another sip of his tea.

By the time that Isaac had finished his cup, he had remembered that Hermione had no idea where he had gone.

Thanking Jason for the tea, he let him get back to… whatever it was that he had been doing before… probably something murderous… he wandered back outside and began his search for Hermione.

It turned out that she was finishing her shopping trip at the same time, and was about to start her search for him.

"So, find anything interesting?" Isaac asked her, looking at the new bag she now held in her hand.

The two of them began their meander back to the main street, debating where to go to get lunch as Hermione talked about her new purchases.

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Jason watched as Isaac left the store, thinking back to just how different the young Proxy was in comparison to when he had first met him.

Wandering back through the shelves to replace the kettle, an empty space on the row above caught his eyes.

Reading the text on the small metal plate, he felt the edges of his lips prick up at the beginning of a smirk.

He wasn't surprised that Isaac had taken the chance to grab something, not like the shop owner was going to be around to report it for much longer, and he would have been in for a good chance of winning if he were to bet on just what he had taken.

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Fred was worried.

Now, that wasn't exactly big news for him.

He was currently studying a mix of subjects that all required a fair amount of effort from him. He was the Proxy of a semi-malevolent demonic clown. He was friends with another Proxy of a being that he was pretty sure had been around since before fire was made.

But, all of that, seemed to be a bit less worrisome than the letter he held in his hands.

You see… all of those things weren't exactly the biggest of problems to him.

He had gotten used to the monochromatic prankster and all of the zombie children that ran amok in his playground. He and Isaac were on great terms, even with the awkwardness of being the brother of his ex-friend. He was even on top of all of his homework.

The reason he thought the letter was going to be the biggest problem, however, was that his father had overheard something that could spell big problems down the line.

With the parchment in hand, he began his search to find his American friend and warn him. Isaac had left with Hermione not too long ago.

It shouldn't be too difficult to get him to read his dad's letter. All he had to do would be get to Isaac, give him the letter to read in private, and hope that Hermione didn't notice him handing it to him.

If only things could go so simply…

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He was halfway out the gates, ambling his way down the cobble and dirt path when something grabbed him.

In a moment of panic, he made to elbow whatever it was as hard as he could with all the strength that came with being a Beater, but his arm was twisted behind his back and mouth clamped shut by his attacker as he was dragged beyond the treeline.

"Oh, quit struggling," a gruff voice said.

Fred's panic flickered between intensifying and heart attack.

"Jeff?" Fred asked, gasping in the air now that he could now breath again, "What are you doing here?"

"Organising a fundraiser to help reduce knife crime," Jeff rolled his eyes, "Getting you, why else do you think I'm here?"

"Well, it's not like you have a habit of popping up and giving people a free bloodletting session," Fred snapped, hoping that his heart wasn't actually in his throat like the thumping suggested it was.

"Yes, well… ok, I'll give you that one," Jeff shrugged, "Anyway, I've not got much time. Managed to grab a lift with Jason on his way over here and he's probably going to be done in the hour,"

"You still didn't answer my question," Fred pointed out, making a note to double-check who 'Jason' was later, "Why are you here?"

"I said, getting you," Jeff repeated, rolling his eyes as his glamour allowed him to use the illusion of blinking.

Fred shivered a little, and he wasn't sure whether or not it was from the cold air that lingered with the slight breeze. Lately, he was beginning to agree with Isaac about something. Jeff was weird when he had eyelids.

"Getting me for what?" Fred wouldn't deny that there was a small flicker of panic that tore through his nerves.

"I dunno, a drink?" Jeff shrugged, "I'm not really hungry… well, maybe I can go for something..."

For what felt like an eternity, but was probably not even a minute, Fred stood there looking at Jeff.

"Erm… sure..." Fred said, his arms falling to his side, "You got someplace in mind, or..."

"Well, there's probably a place we can get something," Jeff began walking down the road to Hogsmeade, "You comin'?"

Nearly tripping over an unearthed root in his haste to catch up with him, Fred's call to 'wait up' did have Jeff slow his pace down for the ginger to catch up.

"So, how've things been?" Fred asked after a minute or two of walking towards the town, "Isaac mentioned that you and Jane had a big fight a bit back,"

"Oh, that wasn't a fight," Jeff smirked proudly, "Calling it a fight implies that there was a chance I'd lose…

So… what about… you?"

Ignoring the awkward way Jeff asked, Fred told him about the training that was going on for Quidditch since it was the most exciting thing that was going on currently aside from the still ongoing attempts to perfect their Skiving Snack boxes to a point where they could start selling them.

"You thought of making one that dissolves their tongue?"

"That already exists, and it's called acid,"

"See, knew you'd get used to hanging with us," Jeff thumped Fred's shoulder before walking into one of the more empty coffee shops along the street.

Much to Fred's surprise, his unexpected meeting with Jeff was a rather pleasant and enjoyable experience.

The, now disguised, mousy-haired killer had plenty of stories to laugh about that had nothing to do with killing or mutilation that had him spend half of the time he should have been drinking his hot chocolate.

For once, he considered it a good thing that George had gotten a detention from Filch as it would've been quite a bit harder to explain why he was sitting down with someone that was supposed to be halfway across the world.

"So, how's L.J been?" Fred asked as the two of them, after he insisted on getting Jeff something from Zonko's to mess around with, walked back along the path to where they had first met that day.

As the chance of being spotted had been brought down to effectively zero, Jeff had finally dropped the glamour.

"He's fine. Been working on things in his carnival, as always," Jeff stated rather matter-of-factly, running a hand through hair that was far more unkempt and tangled than normal.

"Oh, 'cause it's been a while since me and George've heard from..."

"He's fine," Jeff repeated, a bit more force in his voice, "So, what you got planned to get rid of the dullness around here?"

"Working on finishing the Snack boxes in my spare time..." Fred gave "Are you sure that he's..."

"Drop it," Jeff growled.

"Why, what's..."

"Drop… _it_!" Jeff snapped before turning and grabbing Fred's tie, pulling him down so that their noses were practically touching, "If I have to hear about that whale-sized ego once more then I'm going to deep-fry the kidney of whoever brings him up and cram it down their throat,"

Fred felt like his heart had leapt back up into his throat, if the difficulty swallowing was to suggest, as his eyes met Jeff's bleached out silver that was pale enough he could see himself reflected in them.

Jeff sighed, letting go of Fred's tie and rubbed his eyes with calloused fingers.

"I… look, that clown has a way of getting under my skin and, lately, he's been going out of his way to piss me off," Jeff admitted.

If he was to be honest, actually honest, then he wouldn't have admitted that he deserved it…

Even if he did…

"Oh..." Fred's quiet voice barely registered to Jeff's ears, "I… I'm sorry, I didn't know that..."

Jeff waved his hand and cut him off.

"Drop it. It's not like the two of us get along all the time anyway,"

"Yeah… but still..."

"Buts are for ashtrays," Jeff cut in again, "Besides, it's a… thing between me and him that we need to come to term… well… it's our problem,"

Fred didn't quite know what to say to that.

On a whole, despite how far he'd come, he was still so new to the whole Creepypasta side of the world that he was about as qualified to give advice to them as a teenager was on a land dispute between heavily armed and psychotic neighbours.

However, he was a teenager and, while more mature than others his age, that still didn't change the fact he was about to.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" he offered, "I can send a few bugged letters his way when we send our stuff to him? Or put in a word with Isaac and get..."

"It's best if you stay out of it," Jeff shook his head, not looking at Fred, "With what it's about… it'll get worse if he finds out that I did this,"

"Why?" Fred was a bit taken aback, "What does you spending time with me have to do with any of it?

Are their some Proxy rules where you can't socialize with others?"

Much to Fred's surprise, Jeff laughed.

It wasn't cruel or mocking, actually, it was kind of endearing to listen to.

"Don't change," Fred was a little taken aback at that, "Honestly, things would be _way_ duller if you followed L.J around like a brown-nosed lapdog,"

"Well… it was nice seeing you again," Fred didn't know what else to really say, holding his hand out to him, "Should do something like this again?"

Fred didn't know why he was asking Jeff something like that, he was probably just here to do a subtle check up on Isaac for…

"We should," Jeff grasped his hand and, Fred wasn't sure as it was hard to tell, but he seemed to have a genuine smile trying to push through the rough gashes across his cheeks, "You're a good guy, Fred,"

"Well, you're not that bad yourself," Fred said, shoving his hands in his pocket as they seemed colder now they weren't occupied.

"Take that as a challenge," Jeff snorted, "See if the next person I run into shares your sentiment,"

"Probably not, they'll be too busy running for their life to appreciate the time you've taken for them,"

"I know, people are so rude nowadays,"

Ducking his head and smiling again, Fred withdrew a hand to wave at the retreating killer before making his way back towards the castle…

The letter now crushed and forgotten at the bottom of his bag...

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Endnotes.

*1 – Bourbon is a type of chocolate biscuit, he's offering her that and not the alcoholic drink.

If you know what the numbers mean, then you're a good person.

(1) – 123.

(2) – 963.

(3) – 682.

(4) – 012.

(5) – 3401.

(6) – 1025.

Well, Comic-con was fun.

I did go as Daniel Jackson, had fun and a made a few people happy since I was the first SG1 cosplayer they'd seen in years.

Won a couple of mystery boxes, got a few SG1 shirts, got some badges, and business as usual.

Also got a couple of pictures with a Jeff the Killer, Eyeless Jack, and Ticci Toby cosplayers.

Really need to make my Jason the Toymaker cosplay, gonna have fun with that one.

Anyway, I've got reviews to answer, so I'll get to those.

 **(X) Review (X)**

buterflypuss;

Thanks.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Matt the Hedgehog Android;

Yeah, autocorrect can be a pain sometimes.

 **(X) Review (X)**

acherongoddess;

Thanks, feeling a lot better.

 **(X) Review (X)**

MyraZinshu;

You're kinda right, I've mentioned these ones before.

Yeah, pretty much got them in order there.

My dad taught me the trick, it's fun to do with apples.

Ben can surf through everything electrical, wiring is easy-peasy in comparison.

I'm not going to go all that much into what I'm planning, but things will become clear in the future.

I imagine having your mother not recognise you would feel like getting stabbed.

Maybe… I hope that the area 51 raid gets turned into a festival, like a yearly convention for sci-fi fans.

Clockwork and Toby are the stereotypical pair at times that insult each other to say hello.

Not spoiling anything…

It's not as much of a contest to see who treats the fighters, but more to see who treats who.

I'm glad things are going better for your family, nice to know about the purse and boat.

Glad you liked it, hope you like this one too.

 **(X) Review (X)**

FANactic Writer;

Belated happy birthday!

The can't sleep club meets at any 24/7 place where you can get coffee.

I need to have him get called a walking fashion disaster now.

Liu as a lawyer, that'd be interesting… him and Brian start a firm together… well, that's an EXTRAS in the making.

Yes it was, considering the killer shares my name, it seemed appropriate.

Don't act like L.J doesn't know that, he's just struggling with some things himself lately…

Yeah, like getting stabbed.

If Isaac was there, there'd be a bonfire, marshmallows, movie marathon, and murder spree to cheer him up.

Trust me, I can distract anything with humour.

Thanks, glad you liked it, hope you like this one too.

 **(X) Review (X)**

RoachVit;

CH3;

Welcome!

No, no Lazari.

It's been nearly a year since I looked at anything 'I eat pasta' related and I'm not gonna be adding anyone else that I haven't already planned for at this stage.

 **(X) Review (X)**

demiangeldevil;

I did say I'd be giving more creep-centric chapters.

No, it's not.

I'll put in more DigitalMagic stuff in the future, I promise.

Once the story is done, I'll be accepting any prompts for fluff chapters in EXTRAS.

 **(X) Review (X)**

vampireharry the 2;

Welcome!

I'm glad you liked it, and I hope I do.

 **(X) Review (X)**

;

CH2;

WELCOME!

All hatchets are axes, but not all axes are hatchets.

It's like how all jacuzzis are hot tubs, but not all hot tubs are jacuzzis because Jacuzzi is a brand. Hatchets are smaller axes, easier to wield, but still axes.

Ch91;

Glad you're all caught up.

I'm glad that you like it, and I'm sticking with what I said above. But, if I were to expand on it...

Toby has had more time to practice and hone his skills. When you improve, you go for what can get you better results. Bigger axes will work on bigger opponents, but you still want something easier to handle and wield in a fight. Plus, they're easier to hide.

Got an uncle who forgot he had one in his coat, went to Tesco, nearly cut his thumb if it hadn't been for the leather guard on it.

 **(X) Review (X)**

lolo nade;

CH25;

Welcome!

My writing darts between one or the other.

Some will be more reliant on the canon book chapters, but other's will be more original.

 **(X) Review (X)**

YinYangWriter;

Yeah, the schedule is as sporadic as a mechanical crack head as of late.

Yeah, I love the idea of Slendy just whipping everyone to shreds as he stands there drinking tea.

Toby isn't a nutcase. There isn't anything on this Earth to comprehend how nutty Toby can get.

Duck and cover is the Health and Safety protocols for Toby antics.

The pink toad… oh, you have no idea how much I want her to suffer. It's just a case of writing something good enough to live up to the hype.

Don't give Dumbledore credit, he's a dick.

I love making them flat out state he isn't something when he is. It's just magical to me.

Jeff would have still tagged along just to annoy them, and make sure there weren't any suspicious stains on his seats…

Not… saying… anything…

Toby's luck goes from amazing to god awful like a metronome on speed.

I loved having them fight, and my phone put Believer on while I was doing it, so I consider that a sign it was meant to happen.

Trust me, I know my stomach.

I had tons of fun.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Hannah Atherton (Guest);

CH6;

Welcome!

Yes, yes it is.

CH14;

"But at least we don't have AR-15's,"

CH48;

Not unless you tell me what the link leads to.

CH66;

My favourite order.

Yes. Yes she did.

CH91;

Don't worry, I'm not in the business of abandoning stories.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Guest (Guest);

CH50;

What?

I am legitimately confused.

CH9;

I'm alright, I've just been having a bit of stomach trouble and writer's block.

I hope you enjoyed this one.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Anonymous (Guest);

Oh, I'll fix that in the future.

 **(X) Review (X)**

Randomperson (Guest);

CH89;

It's alright, I've got no place to criticize about being late.

I'm glad you loved it.

I've read that story, while ago, but I enjoyed it.

If you ever do decide to, then I thank you in advance.

CH90;

I enjoyed writing that part, and enjoyed reading that.

 **(X) Review (X)**

And that was the last review.

MCM was fun, went around and got a few pictures with some CreepPasta cosplayers, a Jeff, Eyeless Jack, and a Ticci Toby. It's nice to know I'm not the only one out there.

I did end up going as Daniel Jackson from SG1, got a few Stargate shirts from it that I've been wearing ever since, yes, they're getting washed, I've just gotten the pattern of when things get washed to a 'T'.

I got a couple of mystery boxes, nice things in them, a bunch of badges, and an SPN cartoon poster that's adorable.

Definitely going as Daniel Jackson again, lovely time, and I really like my jacket.

So, if you're in Scotland and see someone wearing an SG1 jacket, even outside of conventions, chances are that's me and you can feel free to say hi.

Another thing that I wanted to quickly do is apologize.

I haven't been in the best of moods lately and, that coupled with the fact my sleeping schedule has shifted a good several hours again, means that I'm having a bit of trouble writing lately.

I'm surprised that I managed to put together something for EXTRAS to celebrate 2 years of the story, and I have no idea when or how I'm going to get over this funk I'm in.

I want to keep writing, I really do, but I feel like I've lost the original spark I had when I'd open a new word document and get to work.

The long and short of it is that I'm going to stick to uploading on Fridays, but don't expect any regular uploads for a while.

The other thing is a bit more personal.

On the 9th, I was able to wake up that day, and not have an issue. That made it 1 year since I had self-harmed.

I know this is a very personal thing, some of the newer readers might not really understand why I'm telling you all this, but there are people here who have done their best to try and get me to take things with this story easier should know how much their comments mean to me.

I'm not leaving you there on that note though.

Something positive that I want to leave you with, however, was that to try and get back into a more positive writing mood I've got another EXTRAS chapter planned that's going to be done fairly soon.

This chapter is going to be one that changes on the fly whenever I add a new character to it or remember something else for it.

I think you're gonna like it.

I've also decided to change EXTRAS chapter 5 back to it's original. It feels pointless with having that there when the actual chapter of the story is the exact same, so I'm rolling it back to the original.

Toodles until noodles,

SteamGeek01.

Ticci Toby – Kastoway.

Masky / Hoodie / The Operator – Marble Hornets.

Eyeless Jack – Kiki H.

Laughing Jack – Snuffbomb.

Jeff the Killer – BanninK.

Ben Drowned – Jadusable.

Sally – Kiki H.

Slenderman – Victor Surge.

Smile dog – Mary E.

Puppeteer – BleedingHeartworks.

Bloody Painter – Delucat.

Kagekao & Room 42 (Zippers & Sir Pebbles The Third) – Jinbeizamezama.

Homicidal Liu – Vampirenote13.

Jason the ToyMaker – Krisantyl.

Jane the Killer – AngryDogDesigns.

Clockwork – soffbois - According to reader research.

Candy Pop and Candy Cane – XXDirtyNightClownsXX.

Pianist – jill0mccloud.

The Pianist – This story didn't have a credit if anyone knows then please tell me so I can fix this.

Pokemon Dead Channel – star-byte. (BRVR's story)

The Good Doctor Locklear – Madame Macabre - check out her youtube channel, really recommend the music!

Feel free to leave a suggestion for stories to read, I've enjoyed the ones that have been sent in already, and I'm dying for more!


End file.
